HMS ''R12'' was one of 10 R-class submarines built for the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

during the First World War. The boat was not completed before the end of the war and was sold for

scrap Scrap consists of recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap has monetary value, especially recovered m ...

in 1923.

Design and description

The R-class submarine was designed to meet an

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requirement for a specialised

hunter-killer submarine An attack submarine or hunter-killer submarine is a submarine specifically designed for the purpose of attacking and sinking other submarines, surface combatants and merchant vessels. In the Soviet and Russian navies they were and are called "mu ...

with an emphasis on submerged performance. The boats 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

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of and a mean

draft Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a ves ...

of . They

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on the surface and submerged. The R-class submarines had a crew of 2 officers and 20 ratings.Gardiner & Gray, p. 93 They had a diving depth of . For surface running, the boats were powered by a single eight-cylinder Harrison, Chapter 25

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 ...

that drove the single

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 it was driven by a

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. They could reach on the surface and underwater. On the surface, the R class had a range of at and at submerged.Harrison, Chapter 10 The boats were armed with six 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 abo ...

s in the bow. They carried six reload torpedoes for a grand total of a dozen torpedoes. They were equipped with an array of five

hydrophone A hydrophone ( grc, ὕδωρ + φωνή, , water + sound) is a microphone designed to be used underwater for recording or listening to underwater sound. Most hydrophones are based on a piezoelectric transducer that generates an electric potent ...

s in the bow to allow them to locate and engage targets while submerged.

Construction and career

HMS ''R12'' was laid down on 1 December 1917 by

Cammell Laird Cammell Laird is a British shipbuilding company. It was formed from the merger of Laird Brothers of Birkenhead and Johnson Cammell & Co of Sheffield at the turn of the twentieth century. The company also built railway rolling stock until 1929, ...

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, launched on 9 April 1918 and commissioned on 29 October 1919. She came too late to see any combat in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, like most of the other R class submarines. ''R12'' was paid off in December 1919, and sold on 21 February 1923 to J. Smith.

Notes

References

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:R12 British R-class submarines Royal Navy ship names 1918 ships