HMS Seal (N37) facts for kids
HMS Seal in 1939
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Quick facts for kids History |
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 United Kingdom |
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| Name | HMS Seal |
| Builder | Chatham Dockyard |
| Laid down | 9 December 1936 |
| Launched | 27 September 1938 |
| Commissioned | 28 January 1939 |
| Captured | by Nazi Germany on 5 May 1940 |
| Badge |
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| Service record as HMS Seal | |
| Commanders: |
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| Victories: | None |
 Nazi Germany |
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| Name | UB |
| Acquired | 5 May 1940 |
| Commissioned | 30 November 1940 |
| Decommissioned | 31 July 1941 |
| Fate | Scuttled on 3 May 1945 at 54°22′N 10°11′E / 54.367°N 10.183°E |
| Service record as UB | |
| Commanders: |
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| Operations: | None |
| Victories: | None |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Grampus-class submarine |
| Displacement |
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| Length | 293 ft (89.31 m) o/a |
| Beam | 25 ft 6 in (7.77 m) |
| Draught | 16 ft 10 in (5.13 m) |
| Propulsion |
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| Speed |
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| Range | 6,500 nmi (12,000 km; 7,500 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Test depth | 200 ft (61 m) |
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| Armament | |
HMS Seal was a special kind of submarine used by the Royal Navy during Second World War. She was one of six Grampus-class submarines designed to lay naval mines. What makes her story unique is that she was captured by the German navy, called the Kriegsmarine, and then used by them as UB. She was the only submarine captured by the Germans at sea during the entire war. Her capture was very important because it helped the Germans fix a big problem with their own torpedoes.
Seal was built at the Chatham Dockyard. Her construction started on 9 December 1936, and she was launched into the water on 27 September 1938. She officially joined the Royal Navy on 28 January 1939. Throughout her time with the British navy, her commander was Rupert Lonsdale.
Contents
Early Missions of HMS Seal
After joining the navy, Seal went through tests in Dartmouth and Torbay. On 1 June 1939, the day she completed her first successful deep dive, sad news arrived. Another submarine, HMS Thetis, had been lost during its own tests. This was a difficult time for Seal's crew, as many had friends on Thetis. Seal then moved to Gosport to finish her torpedo tests.
On 4 August, she was supposed to sail to China. However, when World War II began, she was stopped in Aden. She patrolled the area, watching for Italian ships, as there were fears Italy might be helping German submarines. She then returned home, even helping a damaged destroyer in the Mediterranean Sea. Back in the North Sea, she went on one patrol near the Dogger Bank and faced her first attack from German aircraft. Later, she helped escort a convoy of ships across the Atlantic Ocean to Halifax, Nova Scotia, a journey that took 14 days.
By April 1940, the Germans had invaded Norway. Seal was operating off the Norwegian coast. Her commander, Lonsdale, decided to enter Stavangerfjord, a risky move. They reached the port of Stavanger using their Asdic equipment, which uses sound to detect objects underwater. They found four merchant ships, but they were all from neutral countries. Lonsdale wanted to attack a German seaplane base and sabotage a railway, but his requests were denied. The German naval ships they saw were too shallow for Seal's torpedoes to hit. The crew returned to Rosyth, narrowly escaping a torpedo attack in the same area where another British submarine, HMS Thistle, was lost.
The Loss of HMS Seal in Kattegat
After being at sea for a year and having some minor damage, Seal was supposed to go into dry-dock for repairs. However, her sister ship, HMS Cachalot, had been badly damaged and needed the dry-dock more. So, Seal had some quick repairs and was given a new, very dangerous mission: to lay mines in the Kattegat, a sea area between Denmark and Sweden. This was called Operation DF 7. It was a huge challenge for a submarine as large as Seal.
On 29 April 1940, Seal left Immingham with 50 mines. On 4 May, while in the Skagerrak, a German Heinkel He 115 aircraft spotted her. Seal quickly dived to 90 feet (27 m) and was slightly damaged by a bomb. Later that morning, Lonsdale saw German anti-submarine trawlers searching for them. He had to change course to a different mine-laying area. Around 9:00 am, Seal began laying her mines and finished about 45 minutes later.
Seal then turned for home, with the German trawlers following. Lonsdale tried to escape by zig-zagging and stopping the submarine on the seabed at 6:00 pm. What the crew didn't know was that they had entered an uncharted minefield. Around 6:30 pm, one of the submarine's hydroplanes (fins used for diving) caught a mine's cable. The mine then floated onto the back of the submarine and exploded.
The explosion was huge and severely damaged Seal. Air pressure inside the submarine increased, and a lot of water rushed in. The submarine tilted sharply upwards at the front. The crew quickly sealed all watertight doors, and everyone was accounted for. Surprisingly, the German ships chasing them didn't notice the explosion and moved away. After some quick repairs, the crew had to wait until 10:30 pm for it to be dark enough to try to surface.
Struggles to Surface
At 10:30 pm, the crew tried to empty the ballast tanks (which control diving and surfacing) and start the main engines. But the back of the submarine was stuck on the seabed. The front of the submarine rose sharply, but the attempt failed. The air inside the submarine was getting very bad. They kept pumping and making emergency repairs. For a second try to surface, they released the 11-ton drop keel, a heavy weight that could be dropped to make the submarine lighter. This meant the submarine could not dive again. More compressed air was used, but it still didn't work. The crew was suffering from carbon dioxide poisoning, making them feel sick and weak. A third attempt was made, but it also failed.
At 1:10 am, Lonsdale, a very religious man, gathered his crew and led them in the Lord's Prayer. He then ordered them to move as far forward as possible to try and tip the submarine. Many fainted or were sick. The engineers found a way to open a special valve that could blow air into the rear system. A final attempt was made to raise the submarine. The motors caught fire, but the fire quickly went out because there wasn't enough oxygen. The batteries were almost dead, and the high-pressure air was gone. The engineer found one last bit of air pressure and managed to open the valve. Slowly, the submarine began to move upwards.
Surfacing and Capture
Seal surfaced at 1:30 am. When the pressure was released, the fresh air caused terrible headaches for the crew, who had been without enough oxygen. Lonsdale climbed to the bridge and saw land. He decided to try and reach Swedish waters, which were neutral. All secret papers were thrown into the sea, and the Asdic equipment was destroyed and thrown overboard. Lonsdale sent a message to the British Admiralty: "Am making for the Swedish coast." Because the code books were destroyed, Lonsdale didn't receive two replies from the Admiralty that would have helped him.
The rudder was damaged, making the submarine impossible to steer forward. However, they found it could go in reverse. They made some progress, but mud had gotten into the engine's oil system, and the one working engine stopped.
At 2:30 am, two German Arado Ar 196 planes and another Heinkel spotted Seal on the surface and attacked. Lonsdale, on the bridge, tried to fight them off with the Lewis guns, but both guns jammed. With Seal under attack from bombs and gunfire, unable to dive, and without power or defenses, Lonsdale had no choice but to surrender. A white messroom tablecloth was raised on the mast as a sign of surrender. A German seaplane landed nearby, and its pilot asked Lonsdale to swim over. On his 35th birthday, Lonsdale swam to the seaplane. Soon after, the chief petty officer swam to the other Arado plane. The rest of the crew waited on the submarine for the German anti-submarine trawler UJ-128, which arrived at 6:30 am. The Germans took the crew off, and although the submarine was damaged and sinking, they tried to scuttle her (sink her on purpose). Seal was then towed to Frederikshavn.
The mines laid by Seal before her capture sank one German cargo ship and three Swedish ships between 5 May and 5 June.
HMS Seal in German Service
Seal received temporary repairs in Frederikshavn to make her able to float, and then she was towed to Kiel. A German admiral, Rolf Carls, thought Seal was a very valuable prize and insisted she be made ready for use, even though it would cost as much as building three new German submarines. Her equipment was completely different from German ships, and getting spare parts would be impossible. Still, repairs were done, and in the spring of 1941, she officially joined the German navy as UB. She was commanded by Fregattenkapitän Bruno Mahn, who at 52, was the oldest German submarine commander in World War II.
UB was used for propaganda and as a training boat. It took until late 1942 for the company Krupp to build all the new mechanical parts needed. But even then, practice runs showed too many problems, and the costs were too high. By mid-1943, she was taken out of service, stripped of her parts, and left in a corner of Kiel dockyard. Later, she was hit and sunk during an Allied air raid that also sank the German cruiser Admiral Hipper. The only real benefit the Germans got from Seal was realizing that the British torpedo detonator (the part that makes the torpedo explode) was much better than theirs. They then used this design for their own torpedoes.
On 3 May 1945, UB was sunk on purpose in Heikendorf Bay. The wreck was later taken apart.
The Crew of HMS Seal
The crew of Seal were questioned by their German captors, but generally, they were treated with respect. The officers and other crew members were separated and held as prisoners of war in different camps until April 1945. The village of Seal in England had "adopted" the submarine when she was first built. During their time as prisoners, the crew received a lot of support from the villagers.
Two members of the crew managed to escape. Petty Officer Barnes, held at Stalag XX A in Poland, took part in a mass breakout. He and another soldier, Sergeant Major George Briggs, managed to contact the Polish underground resistance. They crossed into the Soviet Union, but Soviet border guards separated them. The guards told Barnes to run, then opened fire and shot him dead. Briggs survived and was taken to a prison in Moscow.
One of the engineers, Don "Tubby" Lister, made several escape attempts. He was eventually sent to Oflag IV-C at Colditz Castle, a very famous prison known for being almost impossible to escape from. Realizing this, he and another engineer, W. E. "Wally" Hammond, pretended they weren't officers and insisted on being moved. Their trick worked, and they were sent to a less secure camp. They escaped from there in late 1942 and traveled hundreds of miles to Switzerland and then home to Britain.
Lieutenant Trevor Beet, the officer left on board by Lonsdale, tried to escape three times but failed. He was also sent to Colditz Castle for the rest of the war.
Most of the officers and petty officers were held at Marlag (Marine-lager), a naval camp near Westertimke. For most of the war, their lives there were fairly quiet. By April 1945, the Allied forces were close by, and the prisoners were marched to Lübeck. During the journey, their column was attacked by Allied Spitfires. Soon after they arrived in Lübeck, the war ended, and they returned to Britain. Except for Barnes and Able Seaman Smith, who disappeared when the submarine surfaced, the entire crew survived.
Lieutenant Commander Lonsdale was the only British captain to surrender his ship to the enemy during the entire war. He and Lieutenant Trevor Beet faced a military trial in 1946, but they were honorably found not guilty.
See also
- HMS Graph – The German U-boat U-570, captured and taken into service by the Royal Navy.
- HMS X2 – the Italian, Archimede-class submarine, Galileo Galilei; captured and taken into service by the Royal Navy.
- HMS H6 – a World War I Royal Navy submarine interned by the Netherlands in 1916, and captured from them by the Germans in 1940.
