Twelve Little S-Boats

DESCRIPTION: "Twelve little S-boats 'go to it' like Bevin, 'Starfish' goes a bit too far, Then there were eleven." And so on, though eight more boats, until "Four fearless S-boat, too far out to sea, 'Sunfish' bombed and scrap-heaped, We are only three."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 ("One Of Our Submarines," according to Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: technology navy death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, pp. 113-114, "Twelve Little 'S'-Boats" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Starfish Song" (subject: The S-boat Starfish)
NOTES [607 words]: According to Bagnasco, p. 110, the first four units of the "S" class of submarines were built at Chatham in 1930-1933. "In 1930, the Royal Navy, in accordance with the plan to modernize the submarine force, decided to build a new type of boat, suitable for employment in the North Sea and restricted waters such as the Mediterranean."
They were small for submarines of the 1930s: the first group (Seahorse, Starfish, Sturgeon, Swordfish) had a displacement of just 737 toms surfaced; their dimensions 202.5"x24"x10.5". They were slow, too, on the surface: 13.75 knots (although they could manage an impressive 10 knots submerged), and as built had a range of just 3800 miles at ten knots. They had six torpedo tubes, all in the nose, carried a 3" gun, and had crews of three dozen.
Despite their limited abilities, the British liked them and ended up building more than sixty of them (Bagnasco, p. 111).. The next group of eight (Sealion, Salmon, Spearfish, Shark, Snapper, Sunfish, Sterlet, Seawolf), built starting in 1933, were six feet longer, and had a surface displacement of 768 tons, which serve primarily to incease their range to 6000 miles at ten knots. The British built 51 more S-boats later, but these were the ones available at the start of the war.
They really didn't have the range to sail outside of European waters, but the Royal Navy found a way: "To achieve greater range for the boats bound for the Far East, several sections of the ballast tanks were adapted for use as fuel tanks.... Stores, especially food and ammunition were increased and were stored in any available space; a small ammunition locker was placed under the table in the officers' quarters" (Bagnasco, p. 112). It sounds like the song's complaint about them is dead on; when on Pacific duty, they must have been almost uninhabitable. Especially the early ones, which had stability problems (Worth, p. 117).
Despite those limitations, Bagnasco, p. 112, concludes, "The combination of their qualities -- none of which, in itself was above average -- together with the reliability of their equipment and the great ease of operation and maintenance made them very effective and safe." But he never had to serve on one!
If I read p. 115 of Bagnasco correctly, a total of 21 S-boats were lost during the war,including seven in 1940 alone -- those seven obviously all being from the dozen that were at sea by then. If we take them in the order Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy lists them:
Starfish - lost Jan. 9, 1940, to surface ships; Young, p. 147 ; see the notes to "The Starfish Song"
Seahorse - lost Jan.7, 1940, to surface ships; Young, p. 141 (thus Tawney has the losses out of order)
Sterlet - lost April 18, 1940, to surface ships; Young, p. 148
Shark - lost July 6, 1940, to surface ship and air attack; Young, p. 142
Salmon - lost July 9, 1940, to a mine off Norway; Young, p. 138
Spearfish - lost August 2, 1940, to an attack by another submarine (U-34); Young, p. 146
Swordfish - failed to report, November 1940; last known location in the Bay of Biscay; cause of loss unknown; Young, p. 150 (thus matching the song's description of her disappearance)
Snapper - failed to report, February 1941; last known location in the Bay of Biscay; cause of loss unknown; Young, p. 145
Sunfish - transferred to Russia 1944; sunk by mistake by British planes July 27, 1944; Young, p. 149
Given that seven of the nine losses came in 1940, and the eighth in early 1941, one strongly suspects this was originally written in 1940/1941 and supplemented when Sunfish was lost -- especially since many other S-boats from later groups had been lost by 1944. - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 5.1
File: Tawn084

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