HMS Untamed (P58)
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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 Untamed (P58) was a U-class submarine ofthe British Royal Navy thatsank in an accident shortly after its commissioning during World War II .
The keel of the submarine with the hull number "P58" took place on October 9, 1941 at Vickers Armstrong in Newcastle-upon-Tyne , England . The launch took place on December 8, 1942 , the commissioning on April 14, 1943 .
Thereafter, under the command of Lieutenant Gordon Maurice Noll, RN , the submarine was assigned to the 3rd Submarine Flotilla in Holy Loch ( Scotland ) to complete the training of the crew. On May 30, 1943, the Untamed took part in a anti-submarine exercise with ships of the 8th Escort Group. After the end of the third exercise at 2:50 p.m., the submarine did not appear, despite requests from the Shemara yacht, which was used for exercise purposes, via a knock signal . This then sent an emergency call. At 5:16 p.m. on board the Shemara and on the HMS Thrasher , which arrived shortly afterwards, a series of noises could be heard, which indicated that an attempt was made to blow out the tanks and start the engines on board the submarine. At 17:45 all signs of life ended; there was no reaction to attempts from the water surface to contact the crew by means of knocking signals. Because of the deteriorating weather, an attempt could not be made to reach the submarine until July 1st. There was no longer any reaction to the signs of divers knocking on the outside of the hull, nor was there any recognizable damage to the hull. When the submarine was lost, all 40 (according to other sources: 36) men died on board.
After the submarine was salvaged on July 5, 1943, it was possible to reconstruct the cause of the accident. Apparently an attempt to bring the log attached to the outside inside the boat in order to recalibrate it resulted in a massive water ingress in the torpedo room. The reason for this was an incorrectly installed valve that was open while the display indicated it was closed. A similar incident probably caused the loss of the identical HMS Vandal , which had disappeared without a trace three months earlier during a training trip nearby (however, indications of the cause of the accident did not emerge until the wreck was discovered in 1994 ). The crew appears to have tried for about four hours to pump the water out instead of leaving the submarine. It was assumed that the increasing proportion of carbon dioxide in the breath led to impaired judgment. Finally the men went into the engine room to leave the boat with the help of diving rescuers through the aft hatch. For this it was necessary to flood the engine room, as otherwise the hatch would not have been able to open against the water pressure. Due to another incorrectly installed valve, the flooding was delayed so long that the crew members passed out from lack of oxygen and died before they could leave the wreck. After their rescue the dead were the Untamed in the cemetery of Dunoon buried.
The submarine was repaired after its salvage, renamed HMS Vitality and put back into service in July 1944. Almost two years later, on February 13, 1946, the Vitality was sold for scrapping and scrapped.