HMS Selene (P254)

HMS Selene
Career
Class and type: S-class submarine
Name: HMS Selene
Builder: Cammell Laird & Co Limited, Birkenhead
Laid down: 16 April 1943
Launched: 24 April 1944
Commissioned: 14 July 1944
Fate: sold for breaking up 1961
General characteristics
Displacement:814–872 tons surfaced
990 tons submerged
Length:217 ft (66 m)
Beam:23 ft 6 in (7.16 m)
Draught:11 ft (3.4 m)
Speed:14.75 knots surfaced
8 knots submerged
Complement:48 officers and men
Armament:6 x forward 21-inch torpedo tubes, one aft
13 torpedoes
one three-inch gun (four-inch on later boats)
one 20 mm cannon
three .303-calibre machine gun

HMS Selene was an S-class submarine of the Royal Navy, and part of the Third Group built of that class. It was built by Cammell Laird & Co Limited, Birkenhead and launched on 24 April 1944. So far it has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name Selene.

It spent most of the Second World War serving in the Far East, where it was used to sink five Japanese sailing vessels and three coasters, and damage another sailing vessel and coaster.[1] It survived the war and in the early 1950s was modified to become a fast unarmed underwater target to train anti-submarine personnel. Its torpedo tubes were covered to streamline its hull, and the three external tubes (two bow, one stern) were removed, as was the gun. Its bridge superstructure was reduced to little more than a blister with a small cockpit in it, and it had only a single periscope. It operated with the Second Submarine Squadron at Portland throughout the 1950s. It was sold, arriving at Gateshead on 6 June 1961 for breaking up.

References

  1. HMS Selene, Uboat.net