HMS Vandal (P64)

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Royal Navy
HMS Vandal at sea
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 Vandal (P64) was a U-class submarine ofthe British Royal Navy that waslost a few days after being commissionedduring World War II .

The submarine was commissioned on July 15, 1941 , and the keel was laid on March 17, 1942 at Vickers Armstrong in Barrow-in-Furness , England . The launch took place on November 23 of this year, the commissioning on February 20, 1943 . Instead of the originally intended name HMS Unbridled , the boat was named Vandal after the Germanic tribe of Vandals . It was then assigned to the Royal Navy's 3rd Submarine Flotilla in Holy Loch , Scotland .

On February 22, the HMS Vandal, commanded by Lieutenant James S. Bridger, RN , cast off the depot ship HMS Forth for a three-day training program off the Clyde , which included a deep dive attempt on February 24. Lieutenant Bridger was instructed not to attempt this unless he experienced his crew sufficiently and considered the hull to be tight. On the night of February 23-24, the submarine was observed when it was anchored overnight at Lochranza, a small town in the north of the Isle of Arran . HMS Vandal left anchorage at 8:30 a.m. and has since disappeared with her 37-man crew. According to an unconfirmed report, she was seen to have been seen diving off Lochranza at 10:00. According to the regulations, the alarm should have been triggered if the boat was overdue for more than 2 hours. But this only happened on the morning of February 25th. The search at sea and in the air was unsuccessful, apart from the fact that a Royal Air Force aircraft discovered a small oil stain 2 nautical miles from Lochranza. It continued until February 27th without any evidence of the submarine's whereabouts being discovered. An investigation came to the conclusion that HMS Vandal probably sank during a deep dive attempt that was part of the exercise program. The only crew member who survived was Larry Gaines, who had remained ashore due to illness.

An expedition of the Royal Navy on board HMS Hurworth localized the submarine wreck with ROV - video cameras in June 1994 on the position of 55 ° 43 '41 "  N , 5 ° 20' 1"  W at 100 m depth, 1.5 Nautical miles northwest of Lochranza. The submarine is lying on a muddy heap at an inclination of 35 ° to port . A team of technical divers examined the wreck in 2003 on behalf of the British Ministry of Defense and was able to identify it clearly with the help of the ship's name in brass letters on the command tower. The front hatch of the boat is open.

A re-examination based on the findings on the wreck came to the conclusion that the boat was probably lost in an accident on the surface of the water. Nick Gilbert, director of the 2003 diving expedition, suggests this may have happened while trying to calibrate the log . The sea area in which the wreck is located is still used by submarines today. A nautical mile defined by two measuring points is driven and compared with the distance measured by the log. When trying to get the log attached to the outside inside the boat, a massive water ingress could have occurred. A similar incident resulted in the loss of the HMS Untamed submarine three months later . The usual reaction would have been to close the watertight hatch to the forward torpedo room, in which the device for retrieving the log was located, and to stop the ingress of water by introducing compressed air. The open front exit hatch that leads into the torpedo room gives an indication of what might have happened then. There were probably still crew members in the torpedo room who opened this hatch when attempting to escape. As a result, however, the compressed air escaped from the hatch without stopping the water, the torpedo compartment filled, the submarine sank and hit the seabed with the bow first at a depth of 100 m, which indicates damage in this area. When the boat "submerged" at 10:00, it could actually have been the sinking. It can be assumed that the crew members in the back of the boat survived for some time, but without outside help they had no chance of being rescued and died of carbon dioxide poisoning after they had exhausted their breathing air and the compressed air reserves . It is unknown whether the survivors attempted to escape, but the other two hatches in the command tower and engine room are still closed, which suggests that at least one did not succeed. An ascent with diving rescuers from this great depth would have been extremely risky and, given the water temperatures and the distance to the shore, without a rescuer on the surface would have been pointless anyway.

In 1997, a memorial to the 37 dead crew members of the submarine was inaugurated in Lochranza. Since 2006, HMS Vandal has been protected as a "Protected Place" by the " Protection of Military Remains Act " of 1986. The wreck can be viewed from the outside by divers, but entering, collecting souvenirs or performing salvage work is prohibited.

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