HMS Sturdy (P248)

HMS Sturdy was a S-class submarine of the third batch built for the Royal Navy during World War II. She survived the war and was scrapped in 1958.

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 842 LT on the surface and 990 LT submerged. The S-class submarines had a crew of 48 officers and ratings. They had a diving depth of 300 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. On the surface, the third batch boats had a range of 7500 nmi at 10 kn and 120 nmi at 3 kn submerged.

The boats were armed with seven 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes. A half-dozen of these were in the bow and there was one external tube in the stern. They carried six reload torpedoes for the bow tubes for a grand total of thirteen torpedoes. Twelve mines could be carried in lieu of the internally stowed torpedoes. They were also armed with a 3-inch (76 mm) deck gun.

Construction and career
HMS Sturdy was built by Cammell Laird and launched on 30 September 1943. She survived the Second World War, spending most of it in the Pacific Far East, where she sank eleven Japanese sailing vessels, two Japanese tugboats and three barges, three Japanese fishing vessels, five small unidentified Japanese vessels, a coaster, two small Japanese landing craft, the Japanese communication vessels No.142 and No.128 and the Japanese ships Kosei Maru (99 BRT) and Hansei Maru. She visited Rønne on the Baltic island of Bornholm, Denmark, on 4 July 1956. Sturdy was sold in July 1957. She arrived at the yards of Clayton and Davie on 9 May 1958 for breaking up.