HMS ''A3'' was an

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

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 Fr ...

in the first decade of the 20th century. She sank in 1912. The wreck is a Protected Wreck managed by

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked w ...

Design and description

''A3'' was a member of the first British class of submarines, although slightly larger, faster and more heavily armed than the

lead ship The lead ship, name ship, or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable to naval ships and large civilian vessels. Large ships are very complex and may ...

, . The submarine had a length of overall, a beam of and a mean draft of . They displaced on the surface and submerged. The A-class submarines had a crew of 2 officers and 9 ratings. For surface running, the boats were powered by a single 16-cylinder Wolseley

petrol engine A petrol engine (gasoline engine in American English) is an internal combustion engine designed to run on petrol (gasoline). Petrol engines can often be adapted to also run on fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas and ethanol blends (such as ' ...

that drove 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 the propeller was driven by a

electric motor An electric motor is an 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 wire winding to generate f ...

. They could reach on the surface and underwater. On the surface, ''A3'' had a range of at ; the boat had a range of at submerged. The boats were armed with two 18-inch (45 cm)

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 in the bow. They could carry a pair of reload torpedoes, but generally did not as doing so that they had to compensate for their weight by an equivalent weight of fuel.

Construction and career

''A3'' was laid down by Vickers, Sons & Maxim as Yard No.295 at

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness. In 2023 t ...

on 6 November 1902 and was launched on 9 May 1903. She was commissioned on 13 July 1904. She primarily served as a coastal defense and training submarine in her over seven years of service. On 2 February 1912, ''A3'', along with several other submarines dispatched from the port of

Gosport Gosport ( ) is a town and non-metropolitan borough on the south coast of Hampshire, South East England. At the 2011 Census, its population was 82,662. Gosport is situated on a peninsula on the western side of Portsmouth Harbour, opposite ...

, conducted training exercises on

target ship A target ship is a vessel — typically an obsolete or captured warship — used as a seaborne target for naval gunnery practice or for weapons testing. Targets may be used with the intention of testing effectiveness of specific types of ammunit ...

s in the

Solent The Solent ( ) is a strait between the Isle of Wight and Great Britain. It is about long and varies in width between , although the Hurst Spit which projects into the Solent narrows the sea crossing between Hurst Castle and Colwell Bay t ...

. Whilst attacking the depot ship , the semi-submerged ''A3'' accidentally collided with its target two miles south-west of the East Princessa Buoy in the eastern Solent. Its rudder and propeller were both disabled, and the holed submarine sank immediately with all 14 hands lost. The

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, queen, which title is also given to the queen consort, consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contempora ...

sent his immediate condolences to the families of the lost seamen. The submarine was raised from the bottom on 11 March and was brought into the south

lock Lock(s) may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainment * ''Lock ...

of Portsmouth dockyard the following day, slung below a salvage

lighter A lighter is a portable device which creates a flame, and can be used to ignite a variety of items, such as cigarettes, gas lighter, fireworks, candles or campfires. It consists of a metal or plastic container filled with a flammable liquid or ...

; the lock was pumped dry so that the 14 bodies could be recovered and the damages surveyed. After being towed from Portsmouth to Portland Naval Dockyard, the wreck was towed offshore into West Bay and, after some technical experiments on the hull, it was sunk as a gunnery target by shells from on 17 May 1912. In July 2016 the wreck of ''A3'' was officially designated as a protected site.

Notes

References

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External links

MaritimeQuest HMS ''A3'' Pages

'Submarine losses 1904 to present day' - Royal Navy Submarine Museum

"HMS A3" National Heritage List for England
{{DEFAULTSORT:A03 A-class submarines (1903) British submarine accidents Ships built in Barrow-in-Furness 1903 ships Royal Navy ship names Maritime incidents in 1912 Ships sunk in collisions Ships lost with all hands Ships sunk as targets Lost submarines of the United Kingdom Shipwrecks in the English Channel Wreck diving sites in the United Kingdom