Calling all British WW1 Submarine fans

[Filipe Ramires]

Hello,

For your build I would recommend Royal Navy Submarines - 1901 to the Present - Maurice Cocker (very good photos and decent plans). Howver I would suggest for you to take a look on the BR3043 Submarine Report and check the chapter 3. Other then very good technical information you will find some plans also of the real stuff.

http://www.rnsubs.co.uk/Boats/BR3043/contents.php

Hope it helps.

Filipe

[PICKETBOAT]

Filipe

Many thanks for your suggestions regarding books, and the most informative link to the Barrow Submarine site. I have not built a submarine before but have decided that the size and vintage of these vessels lend themselves perfectly to what I have in mind. At 1/48th scale a C class sub will be a reasonably transportable size but large enough to have room to accommodate all the necessary internal equipment required to make the model work (what my friend and sub enthusiast refers to as "the dark arts"). The spindle hulled C class with it's single prop is probably not the most manoeuvrable vessel but its simple hull design will be fine for my first attempt.

Off to trawl the web for a second hand copy of the recommended book.

Thanks again.

[PICKETBOAT]

Thanks to the contributors to this thread. Your help and research has finally helped me start my scratch build of HM submarine C1 which is here:- viewtopic.php?f=13&t=158444

Good modelling

[dafi]

Hope that the thread also holds pre war subs

Always loved that picture as it links my favorite wooden walls with a revolutionary new (those days) new weapon carrier.

Does anybody know the type and perhaps even year? Are there other shot of this happening exist?

Cheers and thanks, Daniel

[dafi]

Some other shots from my collection.

XXXDAn

[PICKETBOAT]

dafi

I like the pictures. I'm not sure which sub this is alongside HMS Victory. It might be one of the second batch of C class boats. That sets the picture around 1910 to 1914. It gives some useful references for detail on the deck and around the "bridge" area which are not often seen on other pictures.

Also of interest is what appears to be the muzzle of a 3 pound QF signalling cannon sticking out of the side of HMS Victory.

I have seen several pictures of different pre WW1 subs moored alongside HMS Victory. I think they were employed as floating generators, supplying power to the old "wooden walled" vessel for special occasions. I think they festooned her with lights sometimes.

Also a nice image of a B boat running on the surface at Portsmouth. I love these early subs which were amazingly small. To think that 16 men were packed inside!!!!!

[dafi]

Thank you Picketboat! That was a good hint

Wikipedia shows a picture of C38 showing the number 68 on the tower.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_C-class_submarine

Also c37 has the marking 67
Perhaps it is C34 as the marking shows 64?
"HMS C34 was a C-class submarine built by HM Dockyard, Chatham for the Royal Navy. She was laid down on 29 March 1909 and was commissioned on 17 September 1910. C34 was sunk by the German submarine U-52 off Fair Isle in Shetland while on the surface on 24 July 1917. The only survivor was picked up by U-52."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_C34

Further pictures indicate, that the number of the sup +30 could be the number on the tower
http://www.worldnavalships.com/c_class1.htm

This picture of C34 is of wikipedia and shows the marking C34, date unknown

This picture of about 1910 shows already the 64

This picture of 1912 indicates by other subs of this class, that by then the 64 could have been used. C2 and C3 appeared already in 1909 with the numbers 32/33.


Cheers, Daniel

[PICKETBOAT]

Daniel

You are correct it is C34. Well done "Sherlock".

Here is the confirmation.

http://www.rnsubs.co.uk/Boats/BoatDB2/i ... ?BoatID=63

Just taken delivery of the 60mm acrylic tube which will eventually make up the watertight compartment within my C class model and hopefully keep the RC and electronics dry. Time will tell.

[dafi]

I was googling around, is it really that this C-class is a blind spot in modelers world?

Are there any kits existing?

Thank you, Daniel

[PICKETBOAT]

Daniel

I know of no other kits of C class vessels. I think you (and most contributors to this site) are interested in what I call small scale models (1/350th and the like). I may release a kit of my C class at some point, but it is not ready for other modellers as yet. Also it is probably too large a scale for most modellers here being 1/48th scale.

Good modelling

[dafi]

Thank you picketboat.

Actually I even would have liked a 1/100 waterline one

Looks like scratch to me, but any other scale would have helped to get it right.

Cheers, Daniel

[dafi]

Finally I can confirm that the old vessel really is the Victory. All details have finally been positively identified. The photographer must have been standing in the aft end of the channels, see the pink figure.

First I thought that the big guns shown were the two upper gundecks, but now I understand, that it is the upper and lower gundeck. The ports of the middle gun deck have been also identified by their shadows or rigols. Also the signal guns mentioned can be found on the other picture in the middle gundeck, three pieces and fitting the position in the photo. Are there any pictures of this kind of signal gun available?

And of course as I am posting here - are their any where plans of the C3 available?

Cheers, DAniel

[PICKETBOAT]

Daniel

I will send a pm regarding plans.

It is interesting that in the photo, Victory is fitted with more than one signalling cannon. I think at this date she was used a lot at naval celebrations and the Navy liked to see her firing a broadside. The original cannon would have been too dangerous and dirty to use, hence the installation of the (Hotchkiss) signalling guns. Victory was permanently dry docked in about 1922 as the fabric of the ship was becoming fragile and the very heavy original cannon had almost certainly long since been removed and replaced with wooden replicas.

If you build a C class model please post a build log on the forum.

[dafi]

Hello Picketboat,

thank you for the reply, very appreciated.

It is interesting that slowly all the different pictures of the time start to make sense. Once one know what to look for, the triple signaling guns are to be discovered on several pictures.

Cheers, Daniel

[Michael Potter]

Free download until 1 June 2021:

< https://brill.com/view/journals/ijmh/40 ... 87_187.xml >
Strategy on the Wintry Sea: The Russo-British Submarine Flotilla in the Baltic, 1914�1918
by Ian Ona Johnson.

This professional-quality article describes how RN E-class submarines penetrated the Baltic and sortied from Reval. Despite terrible torpedoes, among their accomplishments these submarines damaged SMS Moltke, sank SMS Prinz Adalbert and SMS Undine, disrupted iron ore shipments, and deterred a German naval advance against Riga, and indirectly affected the Battle of Jutland/the Skagerrak by drawing German coastal ASW craft to the Baltic.

[Vepr157]

Free download until 1 June 2021: Strategy on the Wintry Sea: The Russo-British Submarine Flotilla in the Baltic, 1914�1918 by Ian Ona Johnson.

This professional-quality article describes how RN E-class submarines penetrated the Baltic and sortied from Reval. Despite terrible torpedoes, among their accomplishments these submarines damaged SMS Moltke, sank SMS Prinz Adalbert and SMS Undine, disrupted iron ore shipments, and deterred a German naval advance against Riga, and indirectly affected the Battle of Jutland/the Skagerrak by drawing German coastal ASW craft to the Baltic.

I get "page not found."

[Timmy C]

I've fixed the link - there was an extra / at the end that broke it.

[Michael Potter]

Link works now.