HMS Andrew (P423)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Career

Ordered:	Very late in World War II
Builder:	Vickers Armstrong, Barrow-in-Furness
Laid down:	13 August 1945
Launched:	6 April 1946
Commissioned:	16 March 1948
Status:	Sold to be broken up for scrap on 5 May 1977. Scrapped at Plymouth later in 1977.
General Characteristics
Displacement:	1,360/1,590 tons (surface/submerged)
Length:	293 ft 6 in
Beam:	22 ft 4 in
Draught:	18 ft 1 in
Propulsion:	2 × 2,150 hp Admiralty ML 8-cylinder diesel engine, 2 × 625 hp electric motors for submergence driving two shafts
Speed:	18.5/8 knots (surface/submerged)
Range:	10,500 miles at 11 knots surfaced 16 miles at 8 knots or 90 miles at 3 knots submerged
Test depth:	350 ft
Complement:	5 officers 55 enlisted
Armament:	6 × 21" (2 external)bow torpedo tube, 4 × 21" (2 external) stern torpedo tube, containing a total of 20 torpedoes Mines: 26 1 × 4" main deck gun, 3 × 0.303 machine gun, 1 × 20 mm AA Oerlikon 20 mm gun

HMS Andrew (P423), was an Amphion-class submarine of the Royal Navy, built by Vickers Armstrong and launched on 6 April 1946.

HMS Andrew made several claims to submarine history:

she was the oldest submarine of the Amphion class in service
she was the last UK submarine to carry a deck gun
she was the last submarine designed during the Second World War remaining in service
she was the first submarine to cross the Atlantic submerged using the "snort", in June 1953. The 2,500 nautical mile, 15 day trip from Bermuda to England set a new world record for continuous underwater operation.
she starred in a film - see below!

[edit] Film career

HMS Andrew was used in the 1959 film On the Beach, playing the part of the fictional USS Sawfish. The U.S. Navy did not cooperate in the production of the film, so Andrew was used to represent the nuclear-powered submarine.

Amphion-class submarine