HMS Unswerving

HMS Unswerving (P63) was a Royal Navy U-class submarine built by Vickers-Armstrongs, High Walker. So far, she has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name Unswerving.

HMS Unswerving, circa 1944
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Unswerving
Builder	Vickers-Armstrongs, High Walker
Laid down	17 February 1942
Launched	19 July 1943
Commissioned	3 October 1943
Fate	Sold for scrap, July 1949
Badge
General characteristics
Class and type	U-class submarine
Displacement	Surfaced - 540 tons standard, 630 tons full load Submerged - 730 tons
Length	58.22 m (191 feet)
Beam	4.90 m (16 ft 1 in)
Draught	4.62 m (15 ft 2 in)
Propulsion	2 shaft diesel-electric 2 Paxman Ricardo diesel generators + electric motors 615 / 825 hp
Speed	11.25 knots max surfaced 10 knots max submerged
Complement	27-31
Armament	4 bow internal 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes - 8 - 10 torpedoes 1 - 3-inch (76 mm) gun

Career

Unswerving carried out work-ups at end of 1943, then joined the 1st Flotilla in the Mediterranean, where she carried out patrols in the Aegean Sea. She eventually spent most of her wartime career in the Mediterranean, where she sank the German guard boats GN 61 and GN 62, the German tanker Bertha (the former French Bacchus) and six sailing vessels, and claimed to have damaged a seventh. She was however unlucky on numerous occasions, unsuccessfully attacking the small German merchant Toni (the former Greek Thalia), the German auxiliary minelayer Zeus, the German transport Pelikan and her escort, the German torpedo boat TA19, and the German merchant Gertrud on two separate occasions.

Under the command of Lieutenant M. D. "Mick" Tattershall, Unswerving was the first British submarine where all the officers were members of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve rather than any of them being officers of the regular navy.

Unswerving survived the war and arrived at John Cashmore Ltd, Newport on 10 July 1949 for scrapping.

References

• "HMS Unswerving (P 63)". uboat.net.
• "Universal to Untamed". British submarines of World War II. Archived from the original on 11 July 2007.
• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
• Hutchinson, Robert (2001). Jane's Submarines: War Beneath the Waves from 1776 to the Present Day. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-710558-8. OCLC 53783010.
• Lennox Kerr, J; Granville, Wilfred (1957). The R.N.V.R. A Record of Achievement. George G Harrap.