HMS Thule (P325)

History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Thule
Builder	Devonport Dockyard
Laid down	20 September 1941
Launched	22 October 1942
Commissioned	13 May 1944
Identification	Pennant number P325
Fate	Scrapped in September 1962
Badge
General characteristics
Class and type	T-class submarine
Displacement	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	12 ft 9 in (3.89 m) forward 14 ft 7 in (4.45 m) aft
Propulsion	Two shafts Twin diesel engines 2,500 hp (1,900 kW) each Twin electric motors 1,450 hp (1,080 kW) each
Speed	15.5 knots (28.7 km/h; 17.8 mph) surfaced 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph) submerged
Range	4,500 nmi (8,300 km; 5,200 mi) at 11 kn (20 km/h; 13 mph) surfaced
Test depth	300 ft (91 m) max
Complement	61
Armament	6 internal forward-facing 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 2 external forward-facing torpedo tubes 2 external amidships rear-facing torpedo tubes 1 external rear-facing torpedo tubes 6 reload torpedoes QF 4-inch deck gun 3 anti aircraft machine guns

HMS Thule was a British submarine of the third group of the T class. She was built as P325 at Devonport Dockyard, and launched on 22 October 1942. So far she has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name Thule, after Thule, the mythological name for a northern island.

Service

Thule served in the Far East for much of her wartime career, where she sank thirteen junks, two lighters and five sampans with gunfire in the Strait of Malacca in a twelve-day period between 17 December 1944 to 29 December 1944. She also attacked a submarine, probably the Ro-113 and believed she had sunk it, but Thule's torpedoes exploded prematurely and the submarine escaped unharmed. She went on to sink a further five sailing vessels and three coasters, as well as laying a number of mines.

She survived the war and continued in service with the Navy. In May 1951, Thule was sent to Canada to train with the Royal Canadian Navy.

On 18 November 1960, Thule, a member of the 5th Submarine Squadron, was taking part in an anti-submarine exercise off Portland Bill, when she was accidentally rammed by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary tanker Black Ranger when at periscope depth. Thule's snort was broken, one of her periscopes was bent and her casing was damaged. The submarine was scrapped at Thos. W. Ward, Inverkeithing on 14 September 1962.

Her first commander, Alastair Mars, wrote HMS Thule Intercepts, about her operations from commissioning in Scotland to the end of the war in Australia.

References

Sources

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
• Critchley, Mike (1981). British Warships Since 1945: Part 2. Liskeard, UK: Maritime Books. ISBN 0-9506323-6-8.
• Hutchinson, Robert (2001). Jane's Submarines: War Beneath the Waves from 1776 to the Present Day. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-710558-8. OCLC 53783010.