Today we look at the origins and history of the infamous K class submarines, why they were built and the incredibly long list of things that went wrong with them.
Thanks to Dr Sam Willis for the 3d animation, visit the Mariners Mirror podcast here: https://snr.org.uk/the-mariners-mirror-podcast/ and https://www.youtube.com/@marinersmirrorpodcast
Sources:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/K-Boats-amazing-Britains-submarines/dp/0450009890/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fighting-Great-War-Sea-Technology/dp/1526765497/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/British-Submarines-Two-World-Wars/dp/1526738163/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Boat-Catastrophe-Eight-Collisions-Battle/dp/1844159841/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/British-Submarines-Great-Edwyn-Gray/dp/0850527767/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/British-Submarines-Two-World-Wars/dp/1526738163/
Naval History books, use code ‘DRACH’ for 25% off – https://www.usni.org/press/books?f%5B0%5D=subject%3A1966
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Pinned post for Q&A 🙂
Holy sheep shite, talk about a cursed design. Great story though, well told…..thanks for the vid.
ahahahahah!!!!!!!!! .. Ah, yes .. English Engineering and English Naval Officers at their absolute finest ..
Admiral Horatio Nelson was clearly an American forced against his will to fly English Colors ..
Poor freaking submariners, almost every time something goes wrong it results in fatalities for submarine crew members
“Katastrophe Class”
Damn. What a deathtrap.
Aww where's the original open?
Beatty strikes again !
You could argue that with nuclear power the role of the "fleet" Submarine has been successfully fulfilled with an attack submarine being part of a typical modern US Carrier Battle Group formation, the Submarine now having the speed to deploy with such a force.
Read about these in the 1970s in a book called 'The K. Boats: The amazing story of Britain's steam submarines' by Don Everitt. Fascinating book.
Oh. My. GOD.
Total nightmare fuel
Windows…… on a submarine….????
I think I might have a theory as to why they kept sinking…. 🤔
The guy that was reassigned to k-13 after it was salvaged deserves an effing V.C.
Good new music with nautical feel.
What a tomfoolery. 😂
Battle of May island sounds like a Carry On film
An interesting fact is that the latest US nuclear submarines use steam, generated by the nuclear reactor, for propulsion.
Should have been the CC-class, as in "catastrophically chaotic".
In German, those two words incidentally start with a "K".
😉
Just wanted to comment to say that the audio on this one is far better than I'd come to expect from you (over you fairly long history, to be fair).
You'd think the Royal Navy, being the worlds leading navy for over a century, would have learned to excel in communication a sea.
And you'd be wrong about that, it appears time after time…
i wish i had a white pet rat that lived in my pocket
The K13 disaster would make a great movie. A real thriller.
You can't possibly make this stuff up
I think that being a kamikaze pilot would be a lot safer than serving on one of these.
Sometimes I wonder if I should have gone into submarines. Videos like this make me remember why I didn't.
A fantastic video as ever. One small note (for future videos) Gareloch is pronounced Gare (rhymes with hair) Loch.
Thank you that has to be one of the most hilarious video's I've seen in years, proving that stupidity knows no bounds
My great grandfather survived the K13 disaster, 32 didn't, the Navy holds two services for them every year. K13 was salavged and served again as K22
A memorial to K13 is just down the road from where I live in Carlingford, NSW. It was donated and erected by Charles Albert Harry Freestone, a survivor of K13, who had moved to Australia and developed a successful local business. It serves as a memorial not just to K13, but to all HM submarines lost on service.
Sir Stephen King-Hall related on BBC television (1960s) a story of talking to his brother on a K class, My ends going down, what's your end doing?
Ouch!….Gareloch..Gare sounds like Fair….
Listening to K13's problems in Gareloch, I could not help but recall all I had learned about HMS Thetis in Liverpool Bay.
This all reminds me of an incident, only ONE incident thank goodness, Which happened on the SSBN658 after being reballasted to compensate for the installation of the then new Trident 1 missiles. We had a very talented crew and the Song with a line which went "Down 500 feet ass first, we always dive with class!" was born.
I hope that one day Drach will do a series about our old American Boomers. The 41 for Freedom! The interior was an odd mix of WWII, Nuclear power, formica and linoleum!
Extremely interesting episode. I remember having read about the K-Class while in High School. I remember the submerged rescue, but not the Battle of May Island. Thank you very much.
48 minutes sounds like a Nascar accident 1 mistake leads to the hole group getting damaged but a few
Me when I was a teen when I first heard of the K-class in a pc game I used play: "WOW! A steam powered submarine. They look so cool! They must have been fast and deadly!"
Me after learning the truth: "My disappointment is immeasurable, and my day is ruined."
The naval architecture of this era was absolutely unhinged
this must have been a terrifying time to be a british submariner. i wonder how many survivors of this class swallowed the anchor after touching land. 😂😂😂
They were more of a danger to their OWN Navy than the enemy!
Getting friendly fire on your own test trial is "off to a great start"
How the fuck did they find anyone willing to serve on these deathtraps?!
Also the "battle" was worthy of a russian admirals binoculars.
That is one of the British stories I've ever heard
Has anyone compiled a complete casualty list for all K-class incidents? I'd say the Admiralty has a lot of blood on its hands, none of it German.
Roger Keyes's rank prior to WW 1 was Captain, also holding a Commodore appointment. He did not become an admiral until later in the war. While he was 'Inspecting Captain of Submarines' before the war, I doubt that he alone should be credited with the start of the K class. Jackie Fisher did not resume being an admiral on his post-retirement reappointment, as he never ceased to be an admiral. I assume when you refer to a loch that sounds like 'garrer loch', that you mean 'Gareloch', where the 'gare' rhymes with 'spare' and 'hair'.