Welcome

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 16

1918	R 11	Launched
1918	L 12	Launched
1934	Sealion (N 72)	Launched
1942	Unbeaten (N 93)	HMS Unbeaten fires four torpedoes against the Italian merchant Vettor Pisani off Cape Buzzano, Calabria, Italy. All torpedoes miss.
1945	Torbay (N 79)	HMS Torbay damages a Japanese coaster with gunfire of the west coast of Siam.
1945	Thrasher (N 37)	HMS Thrasher sinks a Japanese sailing vessel with gunfire of the west coast of Burma.
1945	Scorcher (P 258)	Completed
1948	Andrew (P 423)	Completed
1955	Ambush (P 418)	Joined the newly formed 6th Submarine Flotilla based at Halifax, Nova Scotia.
1972	Superb (S 109)	Laid Down

Lastest Comments

10/03/2026 on page Seal (N 37)
Natalie Pearce wrote:
	My grandfather served on HMS Seal, and I have an old copy of \"Will Not We Fear\" which is at my father\'s house. I lost my father in 2021, but he does have 2 brothers who are still alive.
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

RN Subs

Featured Badge

King George VI (S 129)

Class:	Future: Dreadnought Class
Built By:	Vickers (Barrow)
Build Group:	SSBN3

An intense dramatisation of a long-suppressed Cold War anecdote, K-19: The Widowmaker is the first big Hollywood film to view the conflict through a Soviet periscope, casting Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson (with slight accents) as patriotic Russians.

In 1961, as NATO deploys long-range nuclear attack submarines, the Kremlin forces the Russian Navy to follow suit, whether they're ready or not. Ford takes over from popular skipper Neeson in command of the eponymous submarine, riding the men hard through a missile test, and then coping with an escalating series of crises as a jerry-built reactor threatens to melt down (and perhaps start World War III).

Though the political specifics are fresh, this has all the expected elements of a sub movie, citing everything from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Das Boot to Crimson Tide and The Caine Mutiny as sailors bristle mutinously under a marine martinet. This, along with inept engineering and ideological interference, prompts disaster.

Director Kathryn Bigelow, the most undervalued talent in Hollywood, is in her element with heroic men under pressure, and a terrific central stretch has comrades trying to fix the reactor even though they've been given the wrong protective gear and start coming down with radiation sickness as they work.

Buy from Amazon