HMS ''Churchill'' was the first of three nuclear fleet submarines that served with the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

Construction

In 1965, following a decision by the Labour government not to build a fifth ballistic missile submarine, production of nuclear-powered

fleet submarine A fleet submarine is a submarine with the speed, range, and endurance to operate as part of a navy's battle fleet. Examples of fleet submarines are the British First World War era K class and the American World War II era ''Gato'' class. The ...

s, which had been postponed owing to the priority given to the

Polaris programme The United Kingdom's Polaris programme, officially named the British Naval Ballistic Missile System, provided its first submarine-based nuclear weapons system. Polaris was in service from 1968 to 1996. Polaris itself was an operational system ...

, could be restarted. ''Churchill'', the Royal Navy's fourth nuclear-powered

was ordered on 21 October 1965, 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 ...

at Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Limited (VSEL)'s

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town and civil parish (as just "Barrow") in the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the county of Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borou ...

shipyard on 30 June 1967. Following a collision between sister submarine and a Soviet

Echo II-class submarine The Echo class were nuclear cruise missile submarines of the Soviet Navy built during the 1960s. Their Soviet designation was Project 659 for the first five vessels, and Project 675 for the following twenty-nine. Their NATO reporting names were E ...

in the

Barents Sea The Barents Sea ( , also ; , ; ) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia and divided between Norwegian and Russian territorial waters.World Wildlife Fund, 2008. It was known earlier among Russi ...

on 9 October 1968, the

fin A fin is a thin component or appendage attached to a larger body or structure. Fins typically function as foils that produce lift or thrust, or provide the ability to steer or stabilize motion while traveling in water, air, or other fluids. F ...

of ''Churchill'', still under construction at Barrow, was used to replace ''Warspite''s fin, which had been badly damaged in the collision. ''Churchill'' was launched by

Mary Soames Mary Soames, Baroness Soames (; 15 September 1922 31 May 2014) was an English author. The youngest of the five children of Winston Churchill and his wife, Clementine, she worked for public organisations including the Red Cross and the Women's ...

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...

's youngest daughter, on 20 December 1968, and commissioned on 15 July 1970.

Propulsion

''Churchill'' was chosen to trial the first full-size submarine

pump jet A pump is a device that moves fluids (liquids or gases), or sometimes Slurry, slurries, by mechanical action, typically converted from electrical energy into hydraulic or pneumatic energy. Mechanical pumps serve in a wide range of application ...

propulsion. Trials of a high-speed unit were followed by further trials with a low-speed unit, and these were successful enough for the same propulsion to be fitted in the rest of the class. Later British submarine classes also featured the pump jet, although first-of-class vessels ''Swiftsure'' and ''Trafalgar'' were fitted with propellers at build.

Notes

Citations

References

* * * * *

External links

* http://www.hmschurchill.co.uk
Film of ''Churchill''s launch- Imperial War Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Churchill (S46) Churchill-class submarines 1968 ships