HMS Alderney (P416)

HMS Alderney (P416/S66), was an Amphion-class submarine of the Royal Navy, built by Vickers-Armstrongs at Barrow and launched 25 June 1945 by Mrs Molly Wallis, wife of Sir Barnes Wallis. She was the 12th of the class and was scrapped in 1972.

Design
Like all Amphion-class submarines, Alderney had a displacement of 1360 t when at the surface and 1590 t while submerged. It had a total length of 293 ft, a beam of 22 ft, and a draught of 18 ft. The submarine was powered by two Admiralty ML eight-cylinder diesel engines generating a power of 2150 hp each. It also contained four electric motors each producing 625 hp that drove two shafts. It could carry a maximum of 219 t of diesel, although it usually carried between 159 and 165 t.

The submarine had a maximum surface speed of 18.5 kn and a submerged speed of 8 kn. When submerged, it could operate at 3 kn for 90 nmi or at 8 kn for 16 nmi. When surfaced, it was able to travel 15200 nmi at 10 kn or 10500 nmi at 11 kn. Alderney was fitted with ten 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes, one QF 4 inch naval gun Mk XXIII, one Oerlikon 20 mm cannon, and a .303 British Vickers machine gun. Its torpedo tubes were fitted to the bow and stern, and it could carry twenty torpedoes. Its complement was sixty-one crew members.

Operational service
Alderney completed three commissions between 1954 and 1963 with the 6th Submarine Squadron at Halifax, Nova Scotia, carrying out exercises with the Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Canadian Air Force. In September 1952 HMS Artemis (P449) replaced the damaged Alderney, which had developed issues while training with vessels of the Royal Canadian Navy off Bermuda. She was modernised during a long refit in Portsmouth Dockyard between 1956 and 1958. In 1965 she recommissioned for the eighth time and was allocated to the 1st Submarine Squadron at HMS Dolphin (shore establishment). In 1965 and 1966 she was present at Portsmouth Navy Days. She was decommissioned in 1966 and was broken up at Troon, Scotland on 1 February 1970.