HMS Varangian (P61)

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HMS Varangian
Career RN Ensign
Name: HMS Varangian
Builder: Vickers Armstrong, Tyne
Laid down: 23 December 1941
Launched: 4 April 1943
Commissioned: 10 July 1943
Out of service: A
Fate: Scrapped, 1 June 1949, Gateshead
General characteristics
Displacement:

Surfaced - 540 tons standard, 630 tons full load


Submerged - 740 tons
Length: 60 m (196 ft 10 in)
Beam: 4.90 m (16 ft 1 in)
Draught: 4.62 m (15 ft 2 in)
Propulsion:

2 shaft diesel-electric
2 Paxman Ricardo diesel generators + electric motors

615 / 825 hp
Speed:

11.25 knots (21 km/h) max surfaced


9 knots (17 km/h) max submerged
Complement: 33
Armament:

4 bow internal, 2 bow external 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes: 8 - 10 torpedoes


1 × 3-inch (76 mm) gun
3 x AA machine guns

HMS Varangian was a British built U class submarine, a member of the third group of that class to be built. Her commander was Lt. Geoffrey J Gellie RAN. The submarine carried out patrols in the Norwegian Sea, covering Arctic Convoys [1] and seems also to have been used in a training role[2]. She was broken up at Gateshead in 1949. Her ship's bell (inscribed HMS Varangian 1943) is in the possession of the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport, UK[3]. It was believed that Varangian was the submarine featured in the 1943 film We Dive at Dawn, due to the boat carrying the P61 pennant number. However the submarine in the film was in fact portrayed by two boats: P614 and P615, with their final digit painted out to disguise the fact that there were two boats being filmed[4].

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