HMS ''E30'' was a

British E-class submarine The British E-class submarines started out as improved versions of the British D-class submarine. The E class served with the Royal Navy throughout World War I as the backbone of the submarine fleet. The last surviving E class submarines wer ...

built by

Armstrong Whitworth Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd was a major British manufacturing company of the early years of the 20th century. With headquarters in Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, Armstrong Whitworth built armaments, ships, locomotives, automobiles and a ...

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

. She 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 ...

on 29 June 1914 and was commissioned in November 1915. HMS ''E30'' was lost in the

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

, thought to have been mined off

Orfordness Orford Ness is a cuspate foreland shingle spit on the Suffolk coast in Great Britain, linked to the mainland at Aldeburgh and stretching along the coast to Orford and down to North Weir Point, opposite Shingle Street. It is divided from the m ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

on 22 November 1916, the minefield was not discovered until 25 November. There were no survivors.

Design

Like all post-''E8''

s, ''E30'' had a displacement of at the surface and while submerged. She had a total length of and a beam of . She was powered by two Vickers eight-cylinder two-stroke

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-call ...

s and two electric motors.Akerman, P. (1989). ''Encyclopaedia of British submarines 1901–1955''. 149–150. Maritime Books.

/ref> The submarine had a maximum surface speed of and a submerged speed of . British E-class submarines had fuel capacities of of diesel and ranges of when travelling at . ''E30'' was capable of operating submerged for five hours when travelling at . ''E30'' was armed with a QF 12-pounder 12 cwt naval gun, 12-pounder QF gun mounted forward of the conning tower. She had five 18-inch (450 mm)

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, one either side amidships, and one in the stern; a total of 10 torpedoes were carried. E-class submarines had wireless systems with power ratings; in some submarines, these were later upgraded to systems by removing a midship torpedo tube. Their maximum design depth was although in service some reached depths of below . Some submarines contained

Fessenden oscillator A Fessenden oscillator is an electro-acoustic transducer invented by Reginald Fessenden, with development starting in 1912 at the Submarine Signal Company of Boston. It was the first successful acoustical echo ranging device. Similar in operating ...

systems. Her

complement A complement is something that completes something else. Complement may refer specifically to: The arts * Complement (music), an interval that, when added to another, spans an octave ** Aggregate complementation, the separation of pitch-class ...

was three officers and 28 men.

Service

''E30'' joined the 11th Submarine Flotilla, based at

Blyth, Northumberland Blyth () is a town and civil parish in southeast Northumberland, England. It lies on the coast, to the south of the River Blyth and is approximately northeast of Newcastle upon Tyne. It has a population of about 37,000, as of 2011. The port o ...

on commissioning. From 23 to 28 February 1916 ''E30'' patrolled off Denmark and Norway with the intention of capturing ships carrying

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...

from Norway to Germany, and to attack any German submarines that were escorting the Iron ore ships. No ships at all were seen during the patrol. ''E30'' patrolled in the

Kattegat The Kattegat (; sv, Kattegatt ) is a sea area bounded by the Jutlandic peninsula in the west, the Danish Straits islands of Denmark and the Baltic Sea to the south and the provinces of Bohuslän, Västergötland, Halland and Skåne in Sweden ...

in March 1915, and was damaged by heavy seas on 16 March, while on 18 March she stopped the Norwegian steamer ''Kong Inge'', carrying a mixed cargo to Germany, off Anholt. She put a prize crew aboard ''Kong Inge'' and ordered the merchant ship to

Leith Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by '' Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world. The earliest ...

for examination. On 5 April ''E30'', together with the newly commissioned submarines and set out from Blyth with orders to patrol between Denmark and

Orkney Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...

in the hope of intercepted German submarines. ''E30''s patrol was cut short when she suffered a battery explosion on the morning of 7 April, killing four men and forcing her return to base. On 15 May 1916, ''E30'' set out for a patrol in the Kattegat, and on 18 June she encountered the German steamer , whose crew abandoned ship after ''E30'' fired a warning shot. ''E30'' fired two torpedoes, which missed, and then sank the steamer with gunfire. On 2 June ''E30'' was returning from a patrol off the coast of Norway when she spotted two British cruisers returning from the

Battle of Jutland The Battle of Jutland (german: Skagerrakschlacht, the Battle of the Skagerrak) was a naval battle fought between Britain's Royal Navy Grand Fleet, under Admiral John Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, Sir John Jellicoe, and the Imperial German Navy ...

, which she signalled, but one of them, , opened fire on ''E30'' in response. ''Minotaur'' claimed to have sunk a submarine, but ''E30'' returned home safely. On 3 July she encountered the Norwegian steamer ''Prunelle'' off

Lindesnes Lindesnes ( en, the Naze) is a municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sørlandet. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Mandal. Other villages in Lindesnes include Åvik, Høll ...

in southern Norway. ''E30'' fired two warning shots, but was driven away by the Norwegian torpedo boat . Norway raised a protest about the attempt to stop ''Prunelle'', claiming it took place in territorial waters.

References

Bibliography

* * *

External links

'Submarine losses 1904 to present day' - Royal Navy Submarine Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:E30 British E-class submarines of the Royal Navy Ships built on the River Tyne 1915 ships World War I submarines of the United Kingdom World War I shipwrecks in the North Sea Royal Navy ship names Maritime incidents in 1916 Ships sunk by mines Ships built by Armstrong Whitworth