HMS Sea Devil

HMS Sea Devil was a S-class submarine of the third batch built for the Royal Navy during World War II. She survived the war and was sold for scrap in 1966.

Design and description
The third batch was slightly enlarged and improved over the preceding second batch of the S-class. The submarines had a length of 217 ft overall, a beam of 23 ft and a draft of 14 ft. They displaced 814 LT on the surface and 990 LT submerged. The S-class submarines had a crew of 48 officers and ratings. Sea Devil had thicker hull plating, which increased her diving depth to 350 ft.

For surface running, the boats were powered by two 950 bhp diesel engines, each driving one propeller shaft. When submerged, each propeller was driven by a 650 hp electric motor. They could reach 15 kn on the surface and 10 kn underwater. Sea Devil could carry more fuel than most of the third batch boats and had a range of 7500 nmi on the surface at 10 kn and 120 nmi at 3 kn submerged.

Sea Devil was armed with six 21 in torpedo tubes in the bow. She carried six reload torpedoes for a total of a dozen torpedoes. Twelve mines could be carried in lieu of the internally stowed torpedoes. The boat was also equipped with a 4 in deck gun.

Construction and career
HMS Sea Devil was launched late in the Second World War, on 30 January 1945. Thus far she has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name Sea Devil. Her late commissioning meant that she was still on passage to the Far East when the war ended and therefore did not see any action. In 1953, she took part in the Fleet Review to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

In April 1954 Sea Devil deployed to the Mediterranean, and remained there for the rest of her active career. In 1955–1956 Sea Devil was used around Malta for tests of the Yellow Duckling infrared linescan system for detecting the wake of submerged submarines.

Sea Devil paid off for disposal at Portsmouth on 4 June 1962, the last of the S class in service with the Royal Navy, though other S-class boats remained in service with other navies. She was sold to the shipbreaker Metal Recoveries, and arrived at Newhaven on 15 December 1965.