HMS ''Sirdar'' was an S-class submarine built for 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 ...

during the Second World War, and part of the Third Group built of that class. She was built by

Scotts Scotts or Scott's may refer to: Businesses and brands *Scott's (restaurant), in London *Scott's Food & Pharmacy, an American supermarket chain *Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, an American multinational corporation *Scott's Porage Oats, a Scottish bre ...

, of

Greenock Greenock (; sco, Greenock; gd, Grianaig, ) is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council areas of Scotland, council area in Scotland, United Kingdom and a former burgh of barony, burgh within the Counties of Scotland, historic ...

and launched on 26 March 1943.

Design and description

British S-class submarine schematic drawing

The S-class submarines were designed to patrol the restricted waters of the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

and the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

. The third batch was slightly enlarged and improved over the preceding second batch of the S-class. The submarines had a length of

overall Overalls, also called bib-and-brace overalls or dungarees, are a type of garment usually used as protective clothing when working. The garments are commonly referred to as a "pair of overalls" by analogy with "pair of trousers". Overalls were ...

, a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

of and a draught of . They displaced on the surface and submerged. The S-class submarines had a crew of 48 officers and ratings. They had a diving depth of .McCartney, p. 7 For surface running, the boats were powered by two

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-call ...

s, each driving one

propeller shaft A drive shaft, driveshaft, driving shaft, tailshaft (Australian English), propeller shaft (prop shaft), or Cardan shaft (after Girolamo Cardano) is a component for transmitting mechanical power and torque and rotation, usually used to connect ...

. When submerged each propeller was driven by a

electric motor An electric motor is an Electric machine, electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a Electromagneti ...

. They could reach on the surface and underwater. On the surface, the third-batch boats had a range of at and at submerged. The boats were armed with seven 21-inch (533 mm)

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. A half-dozen of these were in the bow and there was one external tube in the stern. They carried six reload torpedoes for the bow tubes for a total of thirteen torpedoes. Twelve mines could be carried in lieu of the internally stowed torpedoes. They were also armed with a 3-inch (76 mm)

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 ...

. It is uncertain if ''Sirdar'' was completed with a Oerlikon light

AA 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, ...

or had one added later. The third-batch S-class boats were fitted with either a Type 129AR or 138

ASDIC Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect objects on or ...

system and a Type 291 or 291W

early-warning radar An early-warning radar is any radar system used primarily for the long-range detection of its targets, i.e., allowing defences to be alerted as ''early'' as possible before the intruder reaches its target, giving the air defences the maximum t ...

Wartime career

In 1943 ''Sirdar'' made an involuntary dive to a depth of over 380 feet when she became out of control on an exercise with Tony Spender in command. She hit the muddy bottom and became stuck for a while until finally surfacing attempts were successful. ''Sirdar'' spent most of the war in the Pacific Far East, where she sank two Japanese coasters, two sailing vessels, two unidentified vessels, and the Japanese guardboat ''Kaiyo Maru No.5''. She also damaged another coaster with gunfire.

Postwar career

She survived the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and continued in service. Along with her sisters, HMS ''Scorcher'' and ''Scythian'', ''Sirdar'' took part in the search for the missing HMS ''Affray'' in 1951. They all flew large white flags to distinguish them from the missing ''Affray''. ''Sirdar'' later sat on the bottom for six hours while the

boats familiarised themselves with the identification of a submarine sitting on the bottom. On the night of 31 January/1 February 1953, ''Sirdar'' was in

dry dock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

at the naval dockyard at Sheerness, Kent when Sheerness was struck by the

North Sea flood of 1953 The 1953 North Sea flood was a major flood caused by a heavy storm surge that struck the Netherlands, north-west Belgium, England and Scotland. Most sea defences facing the surge were overwhelmed, causing extensive flooding. The storm and flo ...

. Flood waters caused lock gates to fail, flooding the dry dock holding ''Sirdar'' and causing her to

capsize Capsizing or keeling over occurs when a boat or ship is rolled on its side or further by wave action, instability or wind force beyond the angle of positive static stability or it is upside down in the water. The act of recovering a vessel fro ...

. She was refloated and returned to service. ''Sirdar'' was eventually sold, and arrived at the yards of McLellen on 31 May 1965 for breaking up.

Notes

References

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sirdar (P226) British S-class submarines (1931) 1943 ships World War II submarines of the United Kingdom Maritime incidents in 1953