HMS L55
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| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS L55, later Л-55 Bezbozhnik |
| Builder: | Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Govan |
| Launched: | 29 September 1918 |
| Recommissioned: | 7 August 1931 |
| Renamed: | 7 August 1931 |
| Fate: | Sunk 9 June 1919, raised and repaired by the Soviets, scrapped 1960? |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | Surfaced - 960 tons standard, Submerged - 1150 tons |
| Length: | 71.6 m (235 feet) |
| Beam: | 7.2 m (23 ft 5 in) |
| Draught: | 4.0 m (13 ft 1 in) |
| Propulsion: |
2 shaft diesel-electric |
| Speed: |
17 knots max surfaced 10.5 knots max submerged |
| Range: | 4500 nm at 8 knots |
| Complement: | 44 |
| Armament: | 6 bow internal 21 inch torpedo tubes (12 torpedoes), 2 - 4 inch guns |
HMS L55 was a British L class submarine built by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Govan, Clyde. She was laid down on 21 September 1917 and was commissioned on 19 December 1918.
Contents |
[edit] British Service
HMS L55 was sunk in the Baltic in 1919. She was based at Tallinn, Estonia as part of the Baltic Battle Squadron. L55 attacked two 1260 ton Bolshevik minelaying destroyers - the Gavril and Azard. HMS L55 missed her targets and was forced into a British-laid minefield. Soviet sources stated that she was sunk by the gunfire of the destroyers, but triggering a mine is a more likely explanation. This happened on 9 June 1919 in Caporsky Bay in the Gulf of Finland. If she was sunk by gunfire, L55 would be the only British submarine to be sunk by hostile Soviet vessels. [1]
[edit] Salvage
The wreck was found by Soviet Minesweepers in 1927. The Soviets raised her on 11 August 1928. The remains of 34 crew members were returned on the British merchantman Truro before transfer to HMS Champion because the Russians refused to allow any British warship into their waters. [2] The crew was buried in a communal grave at Haslar Royal Naval Cemetery in Portsmouth on 7 September 1928.[3].
[edit] Soviet Service
The boat was rebuilt by Baltic Works Leningrad, the reconstruction cost of 1 million roubles being financed by a public fund 'an answer to Chamberlain'. She was recommissioned as a Soviet submarine with the same number (Л-55) on 7 August 1931. She was later named Bezbozhnik (Atheist) and was used as the basis of design for the Soviet L class submarine. L55 was used for training until the beginning of World War II, when she was damaged in an accident in early 1941. She was scrapped in about 1953 or 1960.
[edit] References
- Submarines, War Beneath The Waves, From 1776 To The Present Day, by Robert Hutchinson.
- ^ The Salvage of HM S/M L55 by the Soviet Navy: The Reason Why. Przemysław Budzbon and Boris Lemachko. Warship. Number 45 January 1988, p. 4.
- ^ A.S. Evans Beneath The Waves: a history of HM submarine losses 1904 - 1971
- ^ Remembrance - Service Casualty Branches
