HMS G9
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|
| Career (UK) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS G9 |
| Builder: | Vickers |
| Laid down: | 8 December 1914 |
| Launched: | 15 June 1916 |
| Commissioned: | 22 August 1916 |
| Fate: | Sunk 16 September 1917 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | Surfaced / Submerged: 703 tons / 837 tons |
| Length: | 57.5 m |
| Beam: | 6.92 m |
| Draught: | 4.15 m |
| Propulsion: |
Twin-shaft, 2 x 800 bhp Vickers diesel, 2 x 840 shp electric motors |
| Speed: | Surfaced / Submerged: 14.5 knots (27 km/h) / 10.0 knots |
| Range: | 44.14 tons of fuel oil giving 3,160 nm surfaced at 10 knots (19 km/h). 95 nm submerged, at 3 knots (6 km/h). |
| Complement: | 31 |
| Armament: | Torpedoes: 2 x 18" bow tubes, 2 x 18" beam tubes, 1 x 21" stern tube. 10 torpedoes in total. Guns: 1 x 3" 10 cwt. Mk.1 Elswick Quick Fire High Angle {QFHA}, forward. 1 x 12 pdr. 8 cwt. Mk. 1 gun HA mounting, aft. |
HMS G9 was a British G class submarine, one of eight British submarines lost to friendly fire in World War I. One of six of her class built by Vickers at Barrow-in-Furness,[1] she was launched on 15 June 1916, and commissioned on 22 August that year. She saw scarcely a year's service before she was lost.
Commanded by Lieutenant Commander The Hon. Byron Plantagenet Cary, Bt.,[2] G9 was sunk by the destroyer HMS Pasley[3] after mistaking Pasley for a U-boat in foul weather on the night of 16 September 1917 and firing two torpedoes at her. The first struck Pasley on her starboard quarter, but too acutely to detonate; the second passed astern. On seeing the submarine’s wash Pasley’s officer of the watch, Midshipman Frank Wallis, put his boat hard to starboard and rammed G9 just aft of amidships all but cutting her in two, and she sank scarcely two minutes later with the loss of all but one of her crew, Stoker William Drake.
G9 had sailed Scapa Flow on 9 September to patrol an area between the Shetlands and Norway. On 15 September, she was ordered north to between latitudes 60.30 N and 61.30 N to keep her clear of the fleet on exercises en route from Rosyth to Scapa. Meanwhile, Pasley was attempting to locate merchantmen detached from the convoy she was escorting in appalling weather from Aspö Fjord [1] in Norway to Lerwick, and had resorted to displaying a white light halfway up the mast by night.
Weathering the heavy seas and blinding rain squalls, Cary sighted Pasley’s light. Forewarned a U-boat was in the area, he gave the order to attack. Presumably realizing the error soon afterwards, Cary ordered the connection of the cruiser arc lamp to signal the destroyer. The signal was recognized aboard Pasley; Commander Ramsey ordered 'Full Astern', but too late to prevent his ship ramming the submarine. After the collision, the crew on G9 were ordered to assemble beneath the conning tower. Stoker William Drake saw one man climb the ladder above him, and followed. Although caught in the stomach by the lower conning tower door, which had probably been ordered shut in the hope of keeping the boat buoyant, Drake managed to struggle free and reach the bridge, only to be swept off as the boat sank beneath him. Of the five men in the water, Drake was the only one to reach Pasley, which had stopped to pick up survivors.
Weakened by the effort and numbed by the cold water, Drake was unable to pull himself up on the lifeline lowered, and was only rescued after Able Seaman Henry Old clambered over the side of the destroyer to secure a running bowline around him; he was then hauled aboard and taken below. Still unconvinced of his attacker's identity, Commander Ramsey went to question the survivor. Finding Drake laid on his stomach to help rid his lungs of seawater, Ramsey kicked the soles of his feet and demanded to know his nationality.
At the Court of Inquiry held four days later aboard HMS Indomitable at Scapa, it was decided no blame could be attached to Pasley, concluding "that the process of reasoning which led the captain of HM Submarine G9 to mistake HMS Pasley for a U-boat is, and must remain, unexplained".
The findings were forwarded to the Commander in Chief, Grand Fleet, Admiral David Beatty, who remarked that the incident was "...one of those that are inseparable from war", but deplored the delay in introducing improved signalling facilities on submarines, particularly the substitution of the slow, unreliable and cumbersome cruiser arc lamp[4] with Aldis lamps.
Drake remained in the submarine service until the 1930s, and served aboard HMS Swale in World War II; he died in 1974 aged 80. Commander Charles Gordon Ramsey rose to the rank of Admiral, was knighted, and served as aide-de-camp to King George VI; he died in 1966 aged 84. Ramsey's portrait, by Bassano, hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Evans, A. S. (1986). Beneath the Waves - A history of British submarine losses. Kimber, London. ISBN 0-7183-0601-5
- Colledge, J. J. and Warlow, Ben (2006). Ships of the Royal Navy: the complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy, Rev. ed., London: Chatham. ISBN 9781861762818. OCLC 67375475.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Barrow Submariners Association
- ^ Information on Cary, Byron Plantagenet, Lieut.-Cmdr
- ^ HMS Petard is often named in error as the destroyer involved; Petard was nowhere near the scene of the incident.
- ^ Grand Fleet Signalling Procedure, 1916
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