HMS Umpire (N82)
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| Technical specifications | |
| Ship type : | Submarine |
| Displacement : | 540 ts standard 630 ts maximum 730 ts submerged |
| Length: | 58.22 m |
| Width: | 4.90 m |
| Draft : | 4.62 m |
| Drive : | 2 Paxman Ricardo diesel generators electric motors 615/825 HP 2 propellers |
| Fuel supply: | 284 t of heating oil |
| Speed : | 11.25 kn (20.83 km / h ) surfaced 10 kn (18.52 km / h) surfaced |
| Range : | |
| Crew : | 27–31 men |
| Armament: | 4 × 21- inch - torpedo tubes in the bow 8-10 torpedoes 1 x 3-inch gun |
HMS Umpire (N82) was a U-class submarine of the British Royal Navy that sank in an accident shortly after its commissioning during World War II .
The keel laying of the submarine with the hull number "N82" took place on January 1, 1940 in the naval shipyard in Chatham , England . The launch took place on December 30th of this year, the commissioning on July 10th 1941.
After that, the submarine was under the command of Lieutenant Mervyn Wingfield, RN , of the 3rd submarine flotilla in Holy Loch ( Scotland allocated). From there it was supposed to complete a training voyage in the North Sea before being relocated to the Mediterranean . On the way to Scotland, the submarine joined a convoy heading north at Sheerness . On the night of November 19, the convoy passed another escort on the port side off the Norfolk coast , which was heading south. Because of the danger posed by German speedboats , none of the ships had a position light . In this situation, HMS Umpire suffered damage to one of the machines or the controller. As a result, the submarine sheared into the course of the oncoming convoy, was rammed on the starboard bow by the armed trawler Peter Hendriks , who was part of its escort, and sank after less than a minute. Of the four men (according to other information: three men) on the command tower, only the commandant, Lieutenant Wingfield, survived. The wreck came to rest at a depth of 18 m with an incline of 30 degrees to starboard. Four men managed to get out of the submarine's headquarters without a diving rescuer and to reach the surface of the water, but two of them died of a tear in their lungs because they held their breath during the ascent. Another 20 men - 17 of them with diving rescuers - survived the sinking in the engine room . First of all, six men from this group left the boat through the forward hatch, with three men with a rescuer attempting to pull three men without a rescuer up by their legs. However, only one reached the surface of the water, the other two lost their footing on the way and drowned. A seaman named Killan then dived out to see if there were any dangerous obstacles in the hatch area, returned to the boat and sent the rest of the men up one by one. Killan was the last to leave the wreck and received the British Empire Medal after being rescued . When the boat sank, a total of 14 (according to other sources 22) crew members died.
The wreck lies at 53 ° 9 ′ 54 ″ N , 1 ° 6 ′ 3 ″ E at a depth of 18 m on the starboard side . The deck and hull have partially collapsed, and the bow in particular has been badly damaged. The command tower has broken off and lies next to the wreck on the sea floor. The damage is mainly due to the fact that the submarine was sold as scrap after 1945 and extensive commercial salvage activities with explosions took place. Since 2006, HMS Umpire has been protected as a Protected Place by the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 . The wreck can be viewed from the outside by divers, but entering, collecting souvenirs or carrying out other salvage work is prohibited. The submarine is thus also an example of the change in dealing with sunken warships. If it was released for commercial exploitation after 1945 regardless of the fact that it was a war grave , it has now been placed under protection by the Ministry of Defense despite the destruction that had occurred . The decision aroused skepticism in diving circles, since a wreck destroyed by rescue operations could hardly be called a "war grave".