HMS J6
{{short description|J class submarine}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
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{{Infobox ship image | Ship image = Hms_j6_submarine.jpg | Ship caption = RN submarine HMS J6 }} {{Infobox ship career | Ship country = United Kingdom | Ship flag = {{shipboxflag|United Kingdom|naval}} | Ship name = HMS J6 | Ship ordered = | Ship builder = HM Dockyard, Devonport | Ship yard number = | Ship laid down = 26 April 1915 | Ship launched = 9 September 1915 | Ship acquired = | Ship commissioned = 25 January 1916 | Ship decommissioned = | Ship fate = Sunk 15 October 1918 }} {{Infobox ship characteristics | Hide header = | Header caption = | Ship class = {{sclass2|J|submarine}} | Ship displacement = | Ship length = | Ship beam = | Ship draught = | Ship draft = | Ship propulsion = | Ship speed = | Ship range = | Ship endurance = | Ship test depth = | Ship complement = | Ship sensors = | Ship EW = | Ship armament = | Ship notes = }} |
HMS J6 was a First World War J-class submarine built for the Royal Navy by HM Dockyard at Devonport in Plymouth.{{Cite Colledge2010|page=200}} Commissioned in 1916, she was sunk in a friendly fire incident by the Q-ship Cymric in October 1918.
Career
Under her first commanding officer, Max Horton, J6 was launched on 9 September 1915 and commissioned on 25 January 1916. She and the other Js were members of the 11th Submarine Flotilla. She served in the North Sea chiefly in operations against German destroyers and U-boats. The closest she got to sinking the enemy was firing a torpedo at U-61, but it missed its target.
On 1 December 1917 Horton was replaced as commanding officer of J6 by Lieutenant Commander Geoffrey Warburton. In April 1918, Warburton spotted the German High Seas Fleet, which had put to sea in an attempt to hunt down an Allied convoy. Warburton did not identify the fleet as German and did not report his sighting to the Admiralty; had he done so, it is possible that another full scale naval battle may have occurred.{{cite web|url=http://www.navyhistory.org.au/the-j-class-submarines/ |title=The J Class Submarines |publisher=Naval Historical Society of Australia |author=G Staff |date= June 1983 |work=Naval Historical Review |accessdate= 26 December 2011}}
Loss
File:StateLibQld 1 150259 Cymric (ship).jpg
On 15 October 1918 J6 was on patrol off the Northumberland coast when she was spotted by the Q-ship Cymric. The captain of the Cymric, Lieutenant F Peterson RNR, mistook the identity lettering on the conning tower of J6 for U6. Assuming U6 to indicate a German U-boat, Peterson raised the White ensign and opened fire on J6.{{cite report |title=Court of Enquiry into sinking of HM Submarine J.6 by HM Special Service Vessel CYMRIC. Lieut F.H. Peterson D.S.O., D.S.C., R.N. HMS CYMRIC. |publisher=The Admiralty |year=1918 |docket=The National Archives ADM 156/131}} J6 tried to signal, but the signalman was killed. J6 fled into a fog bank, but Cymric located J6 again and sank her.{{harvnb|Akermann |1989|p=162}} After a number of direct hits, J6 sank. It was only after the survivors were seen in the water that Peterson and the crew of Cymric realised their mistake and recovered the survivors. Of the crew of J6, 15 were lost;Akermann reports 14 lost. {{harvnb|Akermann |1989|p=162}} a subsequent court of enquiry found that no action would be taken against Peterson.{{cite report |title=Court of Enquiry into sinking of HM Submarine J.6 by HM Special Service Vessel CYMRIC. Conduct of Lieut F.H. Petersen D.S.O., D.S.C., R.N. HMS CYMRIC |publisher=The Admiralty |year=1919|docket=The National Archives ADM 156/147}} An order under the Official Secrets Act prohibited mention of this incident until 1969.{{cite book|last=Richie|first=Carson|title=Q-ships|year=1985|isbn=0-86138-011-8|page=xi|publisher=Terence Dalton }}
Late in 2011 it was announced that divers had discovered her wreck off Seahouses.{{cite news |first=Richard |last=Fletcher |title=Divers find WWI submarine wreck off Seahouses coast |url=http://www.sundaysun.co.uk/news/north-east-news/2011/12/04/divers-find-wwi-submarine-wreck-off-seahouses-coast-79310-29890134/ |work=Sunday Sun|location=Newcastle|date= 4 December 2011|accessdate=10 January 2012}} In the summer of 2013, the Polish Navy salvage ship ORP Lech, searching for the wreck of the Polish submarine ORP Orzeł, surveyed and officially confirmed the identity of J6.{{cite news |first=Łukasz|last=Zalesiński |title=Polacy odkryli brytyjski okręt [The Poles discovered a British ship]|url=http://www.polska-zbrojna.pl/home/articleshow/10005?t=Polacy-odkryli-brytyjski-okret |work=Polska Zbrojna|date= 18 October 2013|accessdate=5 February 2014|language=pl}}
References
{{reflist}}
Bibliography
- {{Cite book|last=Akermann |first=Paul|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=boO7WGL21EQC|title=Encyclopedia of British Submarines 1901-1955|date=1989|publisher=Periscope Publishing Ltd.|isbn=978-1-904381-05-1|language=en}}
{{J-class submarine}}
{{October 1918 shipwrecks}}
{{coord missing|North Sea}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:J6}}
Category:British J-class submarines
Category:Ships built in Plymouth, Devon
Category:World War I submarines of the United Kingdom
Category:Friendly fire incidents of World War I
Category:Maritime incidents in 1918
Category:World War I shipwrecks in the North Sea
Category:Royal Navy ship names
Category:Submarines sunk by British warships
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