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This website is brought to you in association with the Barrow-in-Furness Branch of the Submariners Association and is the premier UK internet resource for Submariners and anyone interested in Royal Navy Submarines.

Vickers and Barrow are names synonymous with the development of the submarine. Hundreds of submarines covering virtually every class have been built for the Royal Navy and foreign Navies. This site is dedicated to not only to those who have served on Her Majesty's Submarines but also to those employees past and present whose skills and efforts have given pride to the phrase 'Barrow built' and made the name Vickers known and respected throughout the world.

On This Day - August 12

1917	Panama Canal	Submarines HMCS CC 1 and CC 2, along with depot ship HMCS Shearwater become first ships flying the White Ensign to transit the Panama Canal
1918	R 9	Launched
1919	L 53	Launched
1922	C 16 (I 46)	The previously recovered and refitted submarine was sold for scrap to C A Beard of Upnor
1941	Torbay (N 79)	HMS Torbay attacks an Italian convoy 4 nautical miles west of Benghazi, Libya. The four torpedoes fired against the Italian merchants Bosforo and Iseo all miss their targets and Torbay is heavily depth charged following this attack.
1941	O 24 (Dutch)	Attacked the Italian auxiliary patrol vessel V 111 / Eraldo with gunfire about 20 nautical miles south-southwest of Cagliary Bay, Sardinia, Italy. The action had to be broken off when 24 ran out of ammunition for the deck gun.
1942	Unshaken (P 54)	HMS Unshaken sinks the German merchant Georg L.M. Russ off Norway
1942	Porpoise (N 14)	HMS Porpoise lays a minefield (46 mines) off Ras el Tin, Libya and torpedoes and sinks the Italian transport Ogaden 9 nautical miles from Ras el Tin, Libya.
1945	Thorough (P 324)	HMS Thorough sinks the Malaysian sailing vessel Palange with gunfire off Bali.
2000	Kursk	The Russian nuclear submarine Kursk and its 118-man crew were lost during naval exercises in the Barents Sea

Lastest Comments

06/08/2026 on page Finwhale (S 05)
Jones wrote:
	Just to confirm, the submarine was sunk off the Western Approaches. I was the Nav Officer on board the Admiralty tug RMAS Rollicker, and we towed the submarine from Loch Ewe out into the NW Approaches for a 'sinkex'; however, we hit Storm Force 11, which forced us to cancel the sinkex. A few months ...

23/07/2026 on page Token (P 328)
Legs D. wrote:
	Token was my very first boat from 1963 to 1965. During that period, for about 6 months, we were refitted with a 4inch gun. For some reason I was chosen to be a sight setter (I was a baby AB RP3). This became a 'Boy's Own' adventure for me. The 'sight setter' happened to be fourth in the queue to get ...

13/05/2026 on page H 49
kevin walker wrote:
	believe was also attacked on 1-10-1940 near Texel by Sperrbrecher 3/H3 (ex M/S Belgrad) with pattern of 4 depth charges

16/04/2026 on page Thorough (P 324)
navy42 wrote:
	Lord Kitchener was lost in the sinking of HMS Hampshire, denoted by the black field. As Secretary of State, he initiated the recruiting scheme which raised the new army. The first complete New Army formation (as opposed to divisions) as a result of this scheme was the 4th Army under the command of G ...

12/04/2026 on page Cecil Broad 1905 - 1978
navy42 wrote:
	I believe that he also designed the Badge for HMS Thorough. It's a great pity that his notes do not appear to have survived

RN Subs

Featured Boat

Unison (P 43)
Class:	1936 - 1958: U Class
Built By:
Build Group:	U2
Fate: Scrapped in May 1950 at Stockton.

Television drama starring David Jason. 40 years after a British submarine goes missing at the end of the war, it re-appears, and the British government send the remaining crew member (Jason) with a new crew to trace the sub's last happenings. But the new crew start showing characteristics of the old crew.

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