Author Topic: HM Submarine G1 (1915 - 1920)  (Read 1610 times)

Offline stuartwaters

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HM Submarine G1 (1915 - 1920)
« Reply #1 on: December 01, 2019, 08:45:46 PM »

HMS G1 was the lead boat of the G Class of overseas patrol submarines built for the Royal Navy during the First World War. G1 was the first of five submarines of the class to be built at Chatham.


The G Class were based on the highly successful E Class and were an attempt to improve on those boats. Their main feature was that they were based on a double hull design, rather than the saddle-tank based design of the E Class. This meant that the main ballast tanks were in a gap between an inner pressure hull and an outer hull. This provided for a more streamlined hull with more internal space. The downside of the double-hull design is that they are more complex, more time-consuming to build, which makes them more expensive.


Another new feature of the G Class was the provision for 21" torpedo tubes rather than the 18" tubes fitted to previous designs. Originally designed for one tube at each end of the boat, experience had shown that two bow tubes gave a better chance of success when making attacks with torpedoes. Unfortunately, when fitted with two bow 21" torpedo tubes the design became too bow-heavy, so they were fitted with a pair of 18" tubes in the bow. The were also fitted with an 18" tube firing out of either beam and a 21" torpedo tube in the stern.


Other improvements featured in the G Class were the provision of an electric oven in the galley and the fitting of Fessenden Underwater Telegraphy. This was a form of sonar, enabling submerged submarines to communicate with each other.


Plans of the G Class submarine





HMS G1 was laid down on No 7 slip on 1st October 1914. She was launched from there into the River Medway on 15th August 1915 by  Mrs Goode. After  fitting out at Chatham she commissioned on 7th December 1915. As completed, she was 186 ft long and 22ft 8" wide across the beam. She displaced 693 tons surfaced and 873 tons dived. As well as the torpedo tubes described above, she was armed with a 3" deck gun forward of the conning tower and a 2pdr (40mm) gun aft. She was manned by a crew of 3 officers and 28 ratings.


Photo of HMS G3 running on the surface. G1 would have been identical.





Photo of HMS G1 alongside the clearly much larger U-117 (Type UE minelaying submarine) at Harwich after the Germans boat's surrender at the end of WW1.





HMS G1 spent her career patrolling in the North Sea and had a quiet time of WW1 and didn't see any action during that war.


At the end of the First World War, as submarine technology had moved so far and so fast, HMS G1 was obsolete despite having been in service for only a few years. She was decommissioned at the end of the First World War and was sold to Fryers of Sunderland for scrapping on 14th February 1920.
"I did not say the French would not come, I said they will not come by sea" - Admiral Sir John Jervis, 1st Earl St Vincent.