HMS Tradewind (P329)

	HMS Tradewind P329
History
UK
Name	HMS Tradewind
Builder	Chatham Dockyard
Laid down	11 February 1942
Launched	11 December 1942
Commissioned	18 October 1943
Fate	scrapped 14 December 1955
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General characteristics
Class and type	British T class submarine
Displacement	list error: <br /> list (help); 1,290 tons surfaced; 1,560 tons submerged
Length	276 ft 6 in (84.28 m)
Beam	25 ft 6 in (7.77 m)
Draught	list error: <br /> list (help); 12 ft 9 in (3.89 m) forward; 14 ft 7 in (4.45 m) aft
Propulsion	list error: <br /> list (help); Two shafts; Twin diesel engines 2,500 hp (1.86 MW) each; Twin electric motors 1,450 hp (1.08 MW) each
Speed	list error: <br /> list (help); 15.5 knots (28.7 km/h) surfaced; 9 knots (20 km/h) submerged
Range	4,500 nautical miles at 11 knots (8,330 km at 20 km/h) surfaced
Test depth	300 ft (91 m) max
Complement	61
Armament	list error: <br /> list (help); 6 internal forward-facing torpedo tubes; 2 external forward-facing torpedo tubes; 2 external amidships rear-facing torpedo tubes; 1 external rear-facing torpedo tubes; 6 reload torpedoes; 4 inch (100 mm) deck gun; 3 anti aircraft machine guns

HMS Tradewind was a British submarine of the third group of the T class. She was built as P329 at Chatham, and launched on 11 December 1942. So far she has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to be named Tradewind, after the Trade winds.

Service

She spent most of her wartime career operating against the Japanese in the Far East, attacking enemy shipping and laying mines. She sank nine Japanese sailing vessels, and two small unidentified Japanese vessels, a Japanese tug and the Japanese merchant tanker Takasago Maru. The Japanese merchant cargo vessel Kyokko Maru was sunk after hitting a mine laid by Tradewind.

Her most infamous sinking was of the Japanese army cargo ship Junyō Maru which was headed for Sumatra, on 18 September 1944. Unbeknown to the Commanding Officer of Tradewind, Lt.Cdr. Stephen Lynch Conway Maydonof, the Japanese ship was carrying 4,200 Javanese slave labourers and 2,300 Allied prisoners of war from Batavia to Padang. 5,620 lives were lost in the sinking.^[1]

She survived the war and was modified in July 1945-September 1946 to become an acoustic trials submarine and used for tests. The modifications included the removal of external torpedo tubes and guns, the bridge was faired, the hull streamlined and some internal torpedo tubes blanked over. Measurements made using Tradewind were used to overhaul several of the T class boats to increase their ability to act stealthily against Soviet submarines and surface ships.

Tradewind was eventually scrapped at Charlestown on 14 December 1955.