HMS Narwhal (S03)

HMS Narwhal (S03) was a Porpoise-class submarine of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 25 October 1957.

Design and construction
The Porpoise class was the first class of operational submarines built for the Royal Navy after the end of the Second World War, and were designed to take advantage of experience gained by studying German Type XXI U-boats and British wartime experiments with the submarine HMS Seraph (P219), which was modified by streamlining and fitting a bigger battery.

The Porpoise-class submarines were 290 ft long overall and 241 ft between perpendiculars, with a beam of 26 ft and a draught of 18 ft. Displacement was 1565 LT standard and 1975 LT full load surfaced and 2303 LT submerged. Propulsion machinery consisted of two Admiralty Standard Range diesel generators rated at a total of 3680 bhp, which could charge the submarine's batteries or directly drive the electric motors. These were rated at 6000 shp, and drove two shafts, giving a speed of 12 kn on the surface and 16 kn submerged. Eight 21 in torpedo tubes were fitted; six in the bow, and two in the stern. Up to 30 torpedoes could be carried, with the initial outfit consisting of the unguided Mark 8 and the homing Mark 20 torpedoes.

Narwhal was laid down at Vickers-Armstrongs' Barrow-in-Furness shipyard on 15 March 1956, was launched on 25 October 1957 and completed on 4 May 1959.

Service
Narwhal ran aground at the entrance to Campbeltown Loch, Scotland, on 4 April 1960. She was refloated the next day.

'Narwhal' briefly appears, unnamed, in the 1961 film of The Day Of The Triffids

In 1970 she was present at Portsmouth Navy Days. In October 1976, Narwhal, together with the nuclear attack submarine HMS Sovereign (S108), took part in Operation Brisk, to gain experience in under-ice operations, with Sovereign going on to surface at the North Pole.

Narwhal was decommissioned for the last time on 10 February 1977. On 2 June 1980 Narwhal was sunk off Portland, but was raised in a salvage exercise on 26 June 1980 by the Swedish heavy-lift ship Hebe III. She was scuttled as a target on 3 August 1985 and lies in the English Channel.