HMS A13

HMS A13 was an A-class submarine (1903) submarine built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. She was the first British submarine not to use a petrol engine. After surviving World War I, she was sold for scrap in 1920.

Design and description
A13 was a member of the first British class of submarines, although slightly larger, faster and more heavily armed than the lead ship, HMS A1. The submarine had a length of 105 ft overall, a beam of 12 ft and a mean draft of 10 ft. They displaced 190 LT on the surface and 206 LT submerged. The A-class submarines had a crew of 2 officers and 9 ratings.

For surface running, A13 was powered by a single vertical, six-cylinder 500 bhp Hornsby-Akroyd oil engine that drove one propeller shaft. When submerged the propeller was driven by a 150 hp electric motor. They could reach 11 kn on the surface and 6 kn underwater. The heavy oil engine was 3 LT heavier than the petrol engines used by the other boats in the class and an equal amount of fuel had to be removed, which reduced their range despite the heavy oil engine's more economical consumption. On the surface, the boat had a range of about 400 nmi at 10 kn; submerged the boat had a range of 30 nmi at 5 kn.

The boats were armed with two 18-inch (45 cm) torpedo tubes in the bow. They could carry a pair of reload torpedoes, but generally did not as doing so that they had to compensate for their weight by an equivalent weight of fuel.

Construction and career
A13 was ordered as part of the 1903–04 Naval Programme from at Vickers. She was laid down at the shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness in 1903, launched on 8 February 1905 and completed on 8 May 1905. The boat was broken up in 1920.