Grampus class submarine

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The Grampus class submarines were a group of minelaying submarines built for the British Royal Navy in the late 1930s. These boats are sometimes referred to as the Porpoise class. A single prototype, HMS Porpoise was built in 1932 and five modified follow-on ships were built between 1936 and 1938. The mines were stored in a special "gallery" with a conveyor belt built into the outer casing as pioneered by the converted submarine HMS M3. These boats were of a saddle tank type. They were used extensively in the Mediterranean, particularly to supply the besieged island of Malta in a service nicknamed the "magic carpet".

[edit] General characteristics

From Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922-1946:

Displacement
- Surface - 1,768 tons (Porpoise), 1,810 tons (others)
- Submerged - 2,035 tons (Porpoise), 2,157 tons (others)
Length - 88 m (289 ft) (Porpoise), 89.30 m (293 ft) (others)
Beam - 9.09 m (29 ft 10 in) (Porpoise), 7.77 m (25 ft 6 in) (others)
Draught - 4.84 m (15 ft 10 in) (Porpoise), 5.13 m (16 ft 10 in) (others)
Machinery - 2 shaft, Diesel (3300 hp) plus electric (1630 hp),
Speed
- 15.5 knots surfaced
- 8.75 knots submerged
Armament
- 6 - 21 inch torpedo tubes (bow 12 torpedoes carried)
- 1 - 4 in deck gun
- 50 mines
Crew: 59

[edit] Ships

Ship	Builder	Launched	Fate
HMS Porpoise	Vickers, Barrow	30 August 1932	Sunk by Japanese aircraft in the Malacca straits, 16 January 1945
HMS Grampus	Chatham Dockyard	25 February 1936	Sunk by Italian torpedo boat Circe 16 June 1940
HMS Narwal	Vickers, Barrow	29 August 1935	Sunk 30 July 1940 by German aircraft near Norway
HMS Rorqual	Vickers, Barrow	21 July 1936	BU 1946
HMS Cachalot	Scotts	2 December 1937	Sunk by Italian torpedo boats 30 July 1941
HMS Seal	Chatham Dockyard	27 September 1938	Captured by the Germans, 4 May 1940 after sustaining mine damage, commissioned as the UB, Scuttled 1945.