HMS ''Churchill'' was the first of three nuclear fleet submarines that served with 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 ...

Construction

''Churchill'', the Royal Navy's fourth nuclear-powered

fleet submarine A fleet submarine is a submarine with the speed, range, and endurance to operate as part of a navy's battle fleet. Examples of fleet submarines are the British First World War era K class and the American World War II era ''Gato'' class. The t ...

was ordered on 21 October 1965, and was

laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one o ...

Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Limited Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering, Ltd (VSEL) was a shipbuilding company based at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria in northwest England that built warships, civilian ships, submarines and armaments. The company was historically the Naval Constructi ...

(VSEL)'s

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historic counties of 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 B ...

shipyard on 30 June 1967. The submarine was launched by

Mary Soames Mary Soames, Baroness Soames, (; 15 September 1922 31 May 2014) was an English author. The youngest of the five children of Winston Churchill and his wife, Clementine, she worked for public organisations including the Red Cross and the Women's ...

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

's youngest daughter, on 20 December 1968 and commissioned on 15 July 1970.Blackman 1971, p. 336.

Propulsion

''Churchill'' was chosen to trial the first full-size submarine

pump jet A pump-jet, hydrojet, or water jet is a marine system that produces a jet of water for propulsion. The mechanical arrangement may be a ducted propeller ( axial-flow pump), a centrifugal pump, or a mixed flow pump which is a combination of bot ...

propulsion. Trials of a high-speed unit were followed by further trials with a low-speed unit, and these were successful enough for the same propulsion to be fitted in the rest of the class. Later British submarine classes also featured the pump jet, although first-of-class vessels ''Swiftsure'' and ''Trafalgar'' were fitted with propellers at build.

References

External links

* http://www.hmschurchill.co.uk
Film of ''Churchill''s launch- Imperial War Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Churchill (S46) Churchill-class submarines 1968 ships