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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 - March 9

1903	A 3	Launched
1941	Utmost (N 19)	HMS Utmost torpedoes and sinks the Italian merchant Capo Vita about 30 nautical miles north-east of Sousse, Tunisia.
1942	P 512	USS R-17 was transferred to the Royal Navy at New London.
1942	P 514	USS R-19 was transferred to the Royal Navy at New London.
1942	P 512	Completed
1942	P 514	Completed
1943	Safari (P 211)	HMS Safari sinks the Italian sailing vessel Stefano M. with gunfire off Cape San Vito.
1943	Taciturn (P 334)	Laid Down
1944	Visigoth (P 76)	Completed
1945	Trenchant (P 331)	HMS Trenchant sinks a Japanese tug and a barge with gunfire in the Strait of Malacca.
1946	Sidon (P 259)	Repairs to armaments completed after being taken in hand at Portsmouth on 28th January 1946
2015	Astute (S 119)	Following on from her first operational deployment HMS Astute left the Clyde for her next deployment to the familiar waters of the Mediterranean. This deployment would see the further development and enhancement of the Astute Class operating procedures and operational techniques. The first stop after the Clyde was the NATO base at Souda Bay, a common stopping off point for Royal Navy vessels in the Mediterranean.

Lastest Comments

15/02/2026 on page Taurus (P 339)
Dillon Pringle wrote:
	My great grandfather served aboard this vessel during the war. My grandfather recalls him telling stories about how terrible it was. However, a duty must be done.
31/12/2025 on page Unruly (P 49)
Prue Hames wrote:
	My Father served on HMS Unruly - Able Seaman John Smith DSM
05/12/2025 on page The History Of British Submarine Sonars
Alan Moore wrote:
	The interim sonar prior to 2046 was 2061 not 2062. I worked on 2031z and 2061 between 1985 & 1987 at ARE Portland North. If I looked up from my desk I had a great view of a portion of Portland Harbour and lots of Weymouth Bay.
30/11/2025 on page Affray (P 421)
richard lacey wrote:
	Not sure that a raised periscope and radar indicate a dived situation, as on my sub, they were always raised on the surface; otherwise, they could not be used
17/11/2025 on page P 222
Grace Absolom wrote:
	Richard William Absolom is my grandfather. He was my dad\'s father. My dad was 3 years old when the P222 disappeared. We often talk about what might have happened.

RN Subs

Featured Badge

Unswerving (P 63)

Class:	1936 - 1958: U Class
Built By:	Vickers (Tyne)
Build Group:	U2
Fate:
Scrapped in July 1949 at Newport.

When it was first published in 1953, opinions were sharply divided between those who deplored the apparent extolling of a vicious form of warfare, and this who found in Heinz Schaeffer s account a revealing picture of the German Navys training and methods.

U-Boat 977 was the German submarine that escaped to Argentina at the end of World War Two. This epic journey started from Bergen in Norway, where in April 1945 it was temporarily based, and took three and a half months to complete. Because of the continuing Allied naval activity the commander decided to make the first part of the journey underwater.

Before surfacing near the west coast of Africa U-977 had spent a remarkable sixty-six days submerged. Heinz Schaeffer, the commander of U-977 wrote a full account of his career that culminated in this last command. It depicts the gruelling aspects of a submariner s life aboard a vessel that was subjected to harsh conditions of the sea and oceans.

As an experienced commander Schaeffer took part in many of the decisive U-boat operations in the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean. In the final months of the war, and in common with most surviving U-boat commanders, Schaeffer and his crew came under constant attacks from Allied aircraft and surface ships. The final part of U-Boat 977 is Schaeffer s account of the journey to Argentina and lays to rest some of the more fanciful sorties that followed its arrival.

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