HMS ''D5'' was one of eight D-class submarines built for the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

during the first decade of the 20th century.

Description

The D-class submarines were designed as improved and enlarged versions of the preceding C class, with

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-ca ...

s replacing the dangerous

petrol engine A petrol engine (gasoline engine in American English) is an internal combustion engine designed to run on petrol (gasoline). Petrol engines can often be adapted to also run on fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas and ethanol blends (such as ' ...

s used earlier. ''D3'' and subsequent boats were slightly larger than the earlier boats. They had a length of

overall Overalls, also called bib-and-brace overalls or dungarees, are a type of garment usually used as protective clothing when working. The garments are commonly referred to as a "pair of overalls" by analogy with "pair of trousers". Overalls were ...

, a beam of and a mean draught of . They displaced on the surface and submerged. The D-class submarines had a crew of 25 officers and ratings and were the first to adopt saddle tanks. For surface running, the boats were powered by two diesels, each driving one

propeller shaft A drive shaft, driveshaft, driving shaft, tailshaft (Australian English), propeller shaft (prop shaft), or Cardan shaft (after Girolamo Cardano) is a component for transmitting mechanical power and torque and rotation, usually used to connect ...

. When submerged each propeller was driven by a

electric motor An electric motor is an electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a wire winding to generate for ...

. They could reach on the surface and underwater. On the surface, the D class had a range of at . The boats were armed with three 18-inch (45 cm)

torpedo tube A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...

s, two in the bow and one in the stern. They carried one reload for each tube, a total of six torpedoes.

Construction and career

''D5'' was one of six D-class submarines ordered from

Vickers Armstrong Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927. The majority of the company was nationalised in the 1960s and 1970s, wi ...

under the 1909–1910 Naval Estimates and was

laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one o ...

at Vickers'

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of B ...

shipyard on 23 February 1910. She was launched on 28 August 1911 and completed on 19 January 1912. On the outbreak of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, ''D5'', along with the rest of her class, was assigned to the 8th Submarine Flotilla. The Flotilla, including ''D5'' was assigned to patrol in the east end of the English Channel during the passage of the British Expeditionary Force to France in early August. On 21 August 1914, ''D5'' was on patrol west of

Heligoland Heligoland (; german: Helgoland, ; Heligolandic Frisian: , , Mooring Frisian: , da, Helgoland) is a small archipelago in the North Sea. A part of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein since 1890, the islands were historically possessions ...

when she spotted a force of German warships that were carrying out a sortie into the North Sea against British fishing vessels. ''D5'' fired two torpedoes at the German light cruiser , both of which missed. ''D5'' met her fate south of South Cross Buoy off Great Yarmouth in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...

. She was sunk by a German

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...

laid by on 3 November 1914 after responding to a German attack on Yarmouth by cruisers. There were only five survivors, including her commanding officer,

Lieutenant Commander Lieutenant commander (also hyphenated lieutenant-commander and abbreviated Lt Cdr, LtCdr. or LCDR) is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander. The corresponding ran ...

Godfrey Herbert Captain Godfrey Herbert, DSO and bar, (28 February 1884 – 8 August 1961) was an officer of the Royal Navy who was sometimes referred to as 'Baralong Herbert', in reference to the Baralong incidents, war crimes that took place during Wor ...

Wreck

In 2016

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked w ...

commissioned an investigation of the wreck site by

Wessex Archaeology Wessex Archaeology is a British company that provides archaeological and heritage services, as well as being an educational charity. Apart from advice and consultancy, it also does fieldwork and publishes research on the sites it surveys. The comp ...

as part of ''Archaeological Services in Relation to Marine Protection, a'' two-year project to assess a selection of underwater sites around the English coast. The investigation involved a geophysical survey over the location of the wreck site followed by a diver survey, which found that whilst the wreck of ''D5'' meets the criteria for designation, it is sufficiently buried as to not be at risk. The decision was ultimately made not to designate the wreck at that time.

Notes

References

* * * Croce, Paulo (January 2016)
HMS D5 off Lowestoft, Suffolk: Archaeological Services in Relation to Marine Protection, Undesignated Site Assessment, Wessex Archaeology.
* * * *

External links

'Submarine losses 1904 to present day' - Royal Navy Submarine Museum

Historic England project to research First World War Submarine wrecks
{{DEFAULTSORT:D05 British D-class submarines Royal Navy ship names Ships built in Barrow-in-Furness World War I shipwrecks in the North Sea British submarine accidents Maritime incidents in November 1914 1911 ships Ships sunk by mines Lost submarines of the United Kingdom Protected Wrecks of the United Kingdom