HMS Taciturn

HMS Taciturn was a British submarine of the third group of the T class. built by Vickers Armstrong, Barrow and Belliss and Morcom Ltd., and launched on 7 June 1944. So far she has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name Taciturn.

HMS Taciturn
History
United Kingdom
Name: HMS Taciturn
Builder:
Laid down: 9 March 1943
Launched: 7 June 1944
Commissioned: 8 October 1944
Identification: Pennant number P334
Fate: Scrapped August 1971
Badge:
General characteristics
Class and type: British 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 (1.86 MW) each
  • Twin electric motors 1,450 hp (1.08 MW) each
Speed:
  • 15.5 knots (28.7 km/h) surfaced
  • 9 knots (20 km/h) submerged
Range: 4,500 nautical miles at 11 knots (8,330 km at 20 km/h) 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 (100 mm) deck gun
  • 3 anti aircraft machine guns

Service

Taciturn served in the Far East for much of her wartime career, where she sank a Japanese air warning picket hulk (this was the hulk of the salvaged former Dutch submarine K XVIII), the Japanese auxiliary submarine chaser Cha 105, and a Japanese sailing vessel. On 1 August 1945, Taciturn, in company with HMS Thorough, attacked Japanese shipping and shore targets off northern Bali. Taciturn sank two Japanese sailing vessels with gunfire.

She survived the war and continued in service with the Navy, becoming the first ship of the class to undergo the 'Super T' conversion.

On 9 January 1958, Taciturn ran aground in the Firth of Clyde.[1] She later was refloated with the aid of the boom defence vessel HMS Barcombe.[2]

Taciturn was sold to Thos W Ward and scrapped at Briton Ferry, Wales on 8 August 1971.[3]

References
  1. "Picture Gallery". The Times (54045). London. 10 January 1958. col C-D, p. 5.
  2. "Warship Found Badly Holed". The Times (54509). London. 15 January 1958. col G, p. 8.
  3. HMS Taciturn, Uboat.net

Publications


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