HMS B1

Career
Name: HMS B1
Builder: Vickers
Launched: 25 October 1904
Fate: Sold for scrap, May 1921
General characteristics
Displacement: 287 tons surfaced
316 tons submerged
Length: 135 ft (41 m)
Beam: 13 ft 6 in (4.11 m)
Speed: 12 kn (22 km/h) surfaced
7 kn (13 km/h) submerged
Range: 1,300 nmi (2,400 km) at 8 kn (15 km/h) surfaced
Complement: 15
Armament: 2 × 18 in (460 mm) bow torpedo tubes

HMS B1 was the lead boat of the Royal Navy's B class of submarines.

She was originally to have been called A14 but was renamed B1 on completion,[1] the B class merely being larger and faster versions of the A class, with greatly improved underwater range and fitted with Vickers rather than Wolseley petrol engines.

She was built at Vickers, Barrow-in-Furness and launched on 25 October 1904. She was too primitive to be of much use in World War I and was quickly relegated to training duties. She was sold for scrap in May 1921.

References

  1. ^ http://www.beta.submariners.co.uk/Boats/BoatDB2/index.php?BoatID=19|b1 on the Barrow-in-Furness branch of the Submariners Association