HMS Vandal
{{short description|Submarine of the Royal Navy}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=April 2017}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=HMS Vandal.jpg |Ship caption=HMS Vandal }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=United Kingdom |Ship flag={{shipboxflag|United Kingdom|naval}} |Ship badge=File:VANDAL badge-1-.jpg |Ship name= |Ship ordered= 15 July 1941 |Ship awarded= |Ship builder=Vickers Armstrong, Barrow-in-Furness |Ship laid down= 17 March 1942 |Ship launched= 23 November 1942 |Ship christened= |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned= 20 February 1943 |Ship recommissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship reclassified= |Ship refit= |Ship captured= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship fate=Sunk in an accident on 24 February 1943, Firth of Clyde |Ship homeport= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship displacement=*Surfaced - 540 tons standard, 630 tons full load
|Ship length={{convert|58.22|m|ftin|abbr=on}} |Ship beam={{convert|4.90|m|ftin|abbr=on}} |Ship draught={{convert|4.62|m|ftin|abbr=on}} |Ship draft= |Ship propulsion=*2 shaft diesel-electric
|Ship speed=*{{convert|11.25|kn|abbr=on}} max surfaced
|Ship range= |Ship endurance= |Ship test depth= |Ship boats= |Ship capacity= |Ship complement=27-31 |Ship time to activate= |Ship sensors= |Ship EW= |Ship armament=*4 x bow internal 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes - 8 - 10 torpedoes
|Ship armour= |Ship armor= |Ship aircraft= |Ship notes= }} |
HMS Vandal (P64) was a Royal Navy U-class submarine built by Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness, yard number 838. The submarine had the shortest career of any Royal Navy submarine, being lost with all 37 onboard just four days after commissioning.{{cite web | url= http://www.submarineheritage.com/gallery_vandal.html | title= HMS/M Vandal | work= Submarine Heritage Centre | access-date= 2007-01-26 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070104192626/http://submarineheritage.com/gallery_vandal.html | archive-date= 4 January 2007 | url-status= dead }}
Loss
The submarine, under the command of Lieutenant James S. Bridger, was lost whilst carrying out a three-day-long working up exercise following commissioning. The submarine was last seen leaving her anchorage on 24 February 1943 at Lochranza, in the North of the Isle of Arran, Firth of Clyde, before her rediscovery in December 1994.{{cite web | url= http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3568.html | title= HMS Vandal (P64) | work = Uboat.net | access-date=2007-01-26}} She had only just joined the Third Submarine Flotilla in Holy Loch, a major submarine base during the Second World War used extensively for trials and exercises.
There were initially conflicting reports over the possible position of the lost submarine, one submarine reported seeing a smoke candle two and a half miles (5 km) north of Inchmarnock, and another reported hearing hull tapping in a similar area. However a spotter plane reported a large oil slick about 2 miles (4 km) north of Arran (15 kilometres from Inchmarnock). An inquiry at the time of her loss ignored the report from the spotter plane and concluded that the submarine had sunk during the deep dive she was scheduled to perform on that day, somewhere north of Inchmarnock.
At the time Prime Minister Winston Churchill demanded a full report on the loss of the Vandal and asked if the submarine had been recovered. The reply from Flag Officer Submarines repeated the mistaken assumption that the Vandal lay in deep waters off Inchmarnock, where salvage would be impossible.
In 1994 the Scottish Branch of the Submariners Association finally persuaded the Navy to search the area north of Arran where a number of trawlers had reported their nets being snagged by an underwater object. A Royal Navy expedition aboard HMS Hurworth finally located the wreck in June 1994,{{cite web | url = http://www.mcga.gov.uk/c4mca/mcga-environmental/mcga-dops_row_receiver_of_wreck/mcga-dops-row-protected-wrecks/mcga-dops-sar-row.htm | title = Protected wrecks in the UK | work = UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency | access-date = 2007-03-11 | archive-date = 16 May 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100516031259/http://www.mcga.gov.uk/c4mca/mcga-environmental/mcga-dops_row_receiver_of_wreck/mcga-dops-row-protected-wrecks/mcga-dops-sar-row.htm | url-status = dead }} 300 feet (100 m) below the surface 1.5 miles (3 km) northwest of Loch Ranza, roughly where the spotter plane had first reported the presence of an oil slick. The wreck lies in pitch darkness on a muddy slope 100 metres down with a 35 degree list to port. Her 12-pounder forward gun remains covered with a trawler's net, and the brass letters VANDAL are clearly visible.[http://www.arranbanner.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/274/War_dead_on_HMS_Vandal_remembered.html Arran Banner] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20070730012806/http://www.arranbanner.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/274/War_dead_on_HMS_Vandal_remembered.html |date=30 July 2007 }}
There was only one survivor of Vandal
The ship was originally named HMS Unbridled. Before taking command of what was to be his first and last boat, skipper James Bridger assembled his crew on the jetty at Barrow, to inform them that she would henceforth be officially known as Vandal. This went against a long-held maritime tradition that to change the name of a ship risks bringing bad luck upon it and the crew.{{Cite web |url=http://www.dunoon-observer.co.uk/archive/arcapr21.html |title=News archive of the Dunoon Observer |access-date=16 July 2007 |archive-date=5 August 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070805055015/http://www.dunoon-observer.co.uk/archive/arcapr21.html |url-status=dead }}
Tributes
A memorial to those lost aboard HMS Vandal was erected beside the Caledonian MacBrayne ferry terminal at Lochranza Pier, Isle of Arran, by HM Submarines Old Comrades Association in 1997.{{Cite web |url=http://www.irishseashipping.co.uk/irishseamemorials/Memorials/Scotland/hmsvandal/hmsvandal.htm |title=Maritime Memorials of the Irish and Celtic seas |access-date=16 July 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071022010451/http://www.irishseashipping.co.uk/irishseamemorials/Memorials/Scotland/hmsvandal/hmsvandal.htm |archive-date=22 October 2007 |url-status=dead }}
The wreck was one of those designated under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986, which prohibits interference with the site by divers.[http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2006/20062616.htm The Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 (The Designation of Vessels and Other Controlled Sites) Order 2006]
Citations
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References
- {{Cite Colledge2006}}
- {{cite book | last = Hutchinson | first = Robert | title = Jane's Submarines: War Beneath the Waves from 1776 to the Present Day | url = https://archive.org/details/janessubmarinesw0000hutc | url-access = registration | year = 2001 | location = London | publisher = HarperCollins | isbn = 978-0-00-710558-8 | oclc = 53783010 }}
{{British U class submarine}}
{{February 1943 shipwrecks}}
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Category:British U-class submarines
Category:Ships built in Barrow-in-Furness
Category:World War II submarines of the United Kingdom
Category:British submarine accidents
Category:Shipwrecks in the Firth of Clyde
Category:World War II shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean
Category:Protected wrecks of Scotland
Category:Maritime incidents in February 1943