Rainbow class submarine

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The Rainbow class submarine or R class was a class of four submarines built for the Royal Navy in the early 1930s. They were designed as long range patrol submarines for the Far East and were essentially repeats of the preceding Parthian class submarines with minor modifications. Six ships were planned but two boats, HMS Royalist and HMS Rupert were cancelled for economic reasons.

[edit] General characteristics

From Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships

  • Displacement
    • Surfaced - 1,763 tons
    • Submerged - 2,030 tons
  • Length: 87.53 m / 287 ft 2 in
  • Beam: 9.12 m / 29 ft 11 in
  • Draught: 4.90 m / 16 ft 1 in
  • Machinery - 2 shaft diesel electric
    • Admiralty diesels - 4,640 hp
    • Electric motors - 1,635 hp
  • Speed
    • Surfaced - 17.5 knots
    • Submerged - 8.6 knots
  • Armament
    • Eight 21-inch torpedo tubes (6 bow, 2 stern 14 torpedoes)
    • 1 - 4.7 in deck gun, 2 x 20 mm fitted after 1942
    • After 1942, surviving submarines were fitted to be able to jettison mines through the torpedo tubes.
  • Crew: 53

[edit] Ships

Name Builder Launched Fate
HMS Rainbow Chatham Dockyard 14 May 1930 Sunk in an accidental collision with the Italian Merchant ship Antonietta Costa 10 October 1940
HMS Regent Vickers, Barrow in Furness 11 June 1930 Sunk 18 April 1943 by mines near Barletta, Puglia, Italy
HMS Regulus Vickers, Barrow in Furness 11 June 1930 Sunk by mines 6 December 1940 near Taranto
HMS Rover Vickers, Barrow in Furness 11 June 1930 Scrapped 1946

It is often stated that HMS Rainbow was sunk by the Italian submarine Enrico Toti but the submarine sunk by the Enrico Toti was HMS Triad - [-Ref]

[edit] References