| Career (German Empire) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | UC-55 |
| Ordered: | 12 January 1916[1] |
| Builder: | Kaiserliche Werft, Danzig[2] |
| Yard number: | 37[1] |
| Laid down: | 25 February 1916[1] |
| Launched: | 2 August 1916[1] |
| Commissioned: | 15 November 1916[1] |
| Fate: | sunk off Shetland Islands, 29 September 1917 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | German Type UC II submarine |
| Displacement: | 415 t (457 short tons), surfaced[2] 498 t (549 short tons), submerged |
| Length: | 165 ft 9 in (50.52 m)[2] |
| Beam: | 17 ft 4 in (5.28 m)[2] |
| Draft: | 12 ft 2 in (4 m)[3] |
| Propulsion: | 2 × propeller shafts 2 × 6-cylinder, 4-stroke diesel engines, 500 bhp (370 kW)[3] 2 × electric motors, 460 shp (340 kW)[3] |
| Speed: | 11.6 knots (21.5 km/h), surfaced[2] 7.3 knots (13.5 km/h), submerged |
| Endurance: | 8,660 nautical miles @ 7 knots, surfaced[3] (16,040 km @ 13 km/h) 52 nautical miles @ 4 knots, submerged[3] (96 km @ 7.4 km/h) |
| Test depth: | 50 m (160 ft)[3] |
| Complement: | 26[3] |
| Armament: | 6 × 100 cm (39.4 in) mine tubes[3] 18 × UC 200 mines 3 × 50 cm (19.7 in) torpedo tubes (2 bow/external; one stern) 7 × torpedoes 1 × 8.8 cm (3.46 in) KL/30 deck gun[2] |
| Notes: | 30-second diving time[2] |
SM UC-55 was a German Type UC II minelaying submarine or U-boat in the German Imperial Navy (German: Kaiserliche Marine) during World War I. The U-boat was ordered on 12 January 1916, laid down on 25 February 1916, and was launched on 2 August 1916. She was commissioned into the German Imperial Navy on 15 November 1916 as SM UC-55.[Note 1]
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In 6 patrols UC-55 was credited with sinking 9 ships, either by torpedo or by mines laid.
UC-55 sailed from Heligoland on 25 September 1917 to lay mines in the Lerwick Channel, the southern approach to the port of Lerwick in the Shetland Islands. On 29 September, just as she started dropping her mines, she suffered a loss of trim which resulted in her diving beyond her rated maximum dive depth. This in turn resulted in the forward compartment flooding, the batteries failing, and chlorine gas developing. She was forced to surface to ventilate the boat, but when she surfaced, the rudder refused to answer the helm due to the lack of battery power. Her captain then gave orders to destroy secret documents and codebooks and set scuttling charges in the mine room and engine room. While the charges were being placed she was sighted by the armed trawler Moravia and the destroyers HMS Tirade and HMS Sylvia.[4]
A 12-pdr shell from the Sylvia hit the submarine's conning tower, killing her commander, Horst Ruhle von Lilienstern, and a second shell hit the hull and she began to sink, after which two depth-charges were dropped right beside the UC-55, resulting in the U-boat blowing up. The Moravia then closed with the wreck, fired two more shots into her, and dropped a final depth-charge. Of the submarine's crew, 17 were taken prisoner, and 10 were killed.[5]
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