HMS Astute (P447)

HMS Astute (P447) was an Amphion-class submarine. Her keel was laid down by Vickers at Barrow-in-Furness. She was launched in 1944 and commissioned in 1945.

In 1953 she took part in the Fleet Review to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Astute was scrapped on 1 October 1970 at Dunston on Tyne.

Design
Like all Amphion-class submarines, Astute 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 length of 22 ft, and a draught length 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 fuel, 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. Astute was fitted with ten 21 in 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.

Astute was laid down at Vickers-Armstrongs Barrow-in-Furness shipyard on 4 April 1944, was launched on 30 January 1945 and completed on 30 June 1945.

Service history
Astute arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia on 11 April 1950 for a six-week training period with the Royal Canadian Navy ending on 1 July. Astute spent 21 months in 1955–56 based at Halifax as part of the Canadian submarine squadron, leaving Canada for the UK on 10 December 1956.

As a response to the Cuban Missile Crisis, Astute and sister ship HMS Alderney (P416), both part of the Halifax-based 6th Submarine Squadron, were deployed to the North-East of the Grand Banks to warn if Soviet submarines were to be sent across the Atlantic to Cuba.