HMS ''K6'' was a
British K class submarine built by
HM Dockyard, Devonport
His Majesty's Naval Base, Devonport (HMNB Devonport) is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy (the others being HMNB Clyde and HMNB Portsmouth) and is the sole nuclear repair and refuelling facility for the Roy ...
. She was laid down on 8 November 1915 and commissioned in May 1917. ''K6'' was the first of the K class to have its bows raised by converting it into a bulbous swan shape.
In 1917, ''K6'' did not surface during a trial in North Dockyard, Devonport. ''K6'' was involved in a serious exercise accident nicknamed the "
Battle of May Island
The Battle of May Island is the name given to the series of accidents that occurred during Operation E.C.1 in 1918.
Named after the Isle of May, a nearby island in the Firth of Forth, the "battle" consisted of a disastrous series of accidents ...
". She was responsible for ramming and slicing her in half. She was sold on 13 July 1926 to
John Cashmore Ltd
John Cashmore Ltd (also known as J Cashmore, or simply as Cashmore's or other derivations) was a company operating largely in Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales. It became best known for ship breaking and scrapping redundant British railway locomot ...
for scrapping at
Newport.
Design
''K6'' displaced 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 oil-fired
Yarrow Shipbuilders
Yarrow Shipbuilders Limited (YSL), often styled as simply Yarrows, was a major shipbuilding firm based in the Scotstoun district of Glasgow on the River Clyde. It is now part of BAE Systems Surface Ships, owned by BAE Systems, which has also o ...
boilers supplying one geared Brown-Curtis or Parsons steam turbine; this developed 10,500 ship horsepower (7,800 kW) to drive two screws. Submerged power came from four electric motors each producing .
It was also had an diesel engine to be used when steam was being raised, or instead of raising steam.
The submarine had a maximum surface speed of and a submerged speed of .
It could operate at depths of at for .
''K6'' was armed 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, two
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 ...
s, and a
anti-aircraft gun
Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...
.
Its torpedo tubes were fitted to the
bows, the midship section, and two were mounted on the deck.
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 fifty-nine crew members.
References
Bibliography
*
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:K06
British K-class submarines
Royal Navy ship names
1916 ships
Maritime incidents in 1918