HMS ''Andrew'' (P423/S23/S63), was an of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

, built by

Vickers Armstrong Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927. The majority of the company was nationalised in the 1960s and 1970s, wi ...

and launched on 6 April 1946. The submarine was fitted with a

deck gun A deck gun is a type of naval artillery mounted on the deck of a submarine. Most submarine deck guns were open, with or without a shield; however, a few larger submarines placed these guns in a turret. The main deck gun was a dual-purpose ...

in 1964 for service during the

Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation The Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation or Borneo confrontation (also known by its Indonesian / Malay name, ''Konfrontasi'') was an armed conflict from 1963 to 1966 that stemmed from Indonesia's opposition to the creation of the Federation of ...

to counter blockade-running

junks A junk (Chinese: 船, ''chuán'') is a type of Chinese sailing ship with fully battened sails. There are two types of junk in China: northern junk, which developed from Chinese river boats, and southern junk, which developed from Austronesian ...

. The gun was fired for the last time in December 1974. She was sold off in 1977 and was broken up. ''Andrew'' was briefly the oldest ''Amphion''-class submarine to remain in service, was the last British submarine with a deck gun, was the last British World War II-designed submarine in service, and was the first submarine to use a " snort" to cross the Atlantic (in May 1953). HMS andrew 4 inch deck gun

Design

Like all

Amphion-class submarine The ''Amphion'' class (also known as the "A" class and ''Acheron'' class) of British diesel-electric submarines were designed for use in the Pacific War. Only two were completed before the end of hostilities, but following modernisation in th ...

s, ''Andrew'' had a displacement of when at the surface and while submerged. It had a total length of , a beam of , and a draught of . The submarine was powered by two Admiralty ML eight-cylinder diesel engines generating a power of each. It also contained four electric motors each producing that drove two shafts. It could carry a maximum of of diesel, although it usually carried between . The submarine had a maximum surface speed of and a submerged speed of . When submerged, it could operate at for or at for . When surfaced, it was able to travel at or at . ''Andrew'' was fitted with ten

torpedo tube A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...

s, one

QF 4 inch naval gun Mk XXIII The QF 4-inch gun Mark XXIII was introduced in late 1945 as a deck gun for Royal Navy submarines. It was the last type of gun to be fitted to British submarines, finally being retired in 1974. Development and service Development of the Mark XXII ...

, one

Oerlikon 20 mm cannon The Oerlikon 20 mm cannon is a series of autocannons, based on an original German Becker Type M2 20 mm cannon design that appeared very early in World War I. It was widely produced by Oerlikon Contraves and others, with various models emplo ...

, and a

.303 British The .303 British (designated as the 303 British by the C.I.P. and SAAMI) or 7.7×56mmR, is a calibre rimmed rifle cartridge. The .303 inch bore diameter is measured between rifling lands as is the common practice in Europe which follows th ...

Vickers machine gun The Vickers machine gun or Vickers gun is a Water cooling, water-cooled .303 British (7.7 mm) machine gun produced by Vickers Limited, originally for the British Army. The gun was operated by a three-man crew but typically required more me ...

. Its torpedo tubes were fitted to the bow and stern, and it could carry twenty torpedoes. Its

complement A complement is something that completes something else. Complement may refer specifically to: The arts * Complement (music), an interval that, when added to another, spans an octave ** Aggregate complementation, the separation of pitch-class ...

was sixty-one crew members.

Service history

In September 1950 ''Andrew'' sailed to Canada for a three-month deployment training with the

Royal Canadian Navy The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN; french: Marine royale canadienne, ''MRC'') is the Navy, naval force of Canada. The RCN is one of three environmental commands within the Canadian Armed Forces. As of 2021, the RCN operates 12 frigates, four attack s ...

. In February 1953, ''Andrew'' deployed to Bermuda for training with the Royal Canadian Navy cruiser , destroyer and minesweeper . In June 1953, ''Andrew'' became the first submarine to cross the Atlantic submerged for the entire voyage, leaving Bermuda and arriving on 15 June in the English Channel. During the voyage a diesel engine was damaged and a periscope malfunctioned, however both were repaired while submerged. The submarine had been returning from its deployment with the Royal Canadian Navy. The submarine was used to portray the fictional

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

nuclear-powered submarine USS ''Sawfish'' in the 1959

Stanley Kramer Stanley Earl Kramer (September 29, 1913February 19, 2001) was an American film director and producer, responsible for making many of Hollywood's most famous "message picture, message films" (he would call his movies ''heavy dramas'') and a libera ...

film '' On the Beach.''RN Subs - HMS ''Andrew'' (P423): http://rnsubs.co.uk/boats/subs/amphion-class/andrew.html

References

Publications

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Andrew (P423) Amphion-class submarines Cold War submarines of the United Kingdom Ships built in Barrow-in-Furness 1946 ships