| Career (UK) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Poseidon |
| Builder: | Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering, Barrow-in-Furness |
| Laid down: | 5 September 1928 |
| Launched: | 22 August 1929 |
| Commissioned: | 5 May 1930 |
| Fate: | Sunk on June 1931 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Parthian-class submarine |
| Displacement: | 1,475 long tons (1,499 t) surfaced 2,040 long tons (2,070 t) submerged |
| Length: | 260 ft (79 m) |
| Beam: | 28 ft (8.5 m) |
| Draught: | 13 ft 8 in (4.17 m) |
| Propulsion: | Diesel-electric 2 Admiralty diesel engines, 4,400 hp (3,300 kW) 2 Electric motors, 1,530 hp (1,140 kW) 2 shafts |
| Speed: | 17.5 knots (20.1 mph; 32.4 km/h) surfaced 9 kn (10 mph; 17 km/h) submerged |
| Range: | 8,500 nmi (15,700 km) at 10 kn (12 mph; 19 km/h) |
| Complement: | 59 |
| Armament: | • 8 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes (6 bow, 2 stern) • 1 × 4 in (102 mm) deck gun • 2 × machine guns |
HMS Poseidon (P99) was a Parthian-class submarine designed and built by Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering in Barrow-in-Furness for the United Kingdom Royal Navy, launched on 22 August 1929.
She spent most of her short career assigned to the Yellow Sea region.
At about 12:45 on 9 June 1931, whilst exercising on the surface with the submarine tender Marazion 20 mi (32 km) north of the vessels' base at Weihai, China and despite excellent visibility Poseidon collided with the Chinese merchant steamer SS Yuta.[1]
Thirty-one of the submarine's crew managed to scramble into the water before the submarine sank to the seabed 130 ft (40 m) below within a few minutes.[2] Aircraft carrier HMS Hermes, heavy cruiser HMS Berwick and sister submarine HMS Perseus led the rescue operations.[3] Poseidon was equipped with Davis Submerged Escape Apparatus which had come into service two years earlier. This was a closed circuit underwater breathing system which provided the wearer with a supply of pure oxygen and a canvas drogue to slow the rate of ascent. Despite the submarine not being equipped with specialised escape compartments or flooding valves, eight of the crew managed to leave the forward end of the boat, although two failed to reach the surface and one died later. Twenty-two crew died in total.
A consequence of the successful escape of part of the crew was to change Admiralty policy from advising crews to wait for the arrival of assistance to attempting to escape from the submarine as soon as possible. This policy was announced in the House of Commons in March 1934.[4]
The secret salvaging of the submarine in 1971 by China's then newly formed underwater recovery units was discovered by a reference to it in a 2005 issue of a Chinese magazine titled "Modern Ships".[5]
The Ministry of Defence has not received an answer to what became of the remains of the crew.[6]
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