page_title: Godfrey Herbert
section_title: K13 sinking
hierarchical_section_title: Godfrey Herbert / K13 sinking
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of a British K-boat submarine being launched circa 1919.
context_page_description: Captain Godfrey Herbert, DSO and bar, was an officer of the Royal Navy who was sometimes referred to as 'Baralong Herbert', in reference to the Baralong incidents, alleged British war crimes that took place during World War I. In a naval career stretching from 1898 to 1919, and with a return to duty between 1939 and 1943 in World War II, Herbert had several close encounters with death.
context_section_description: Herbert returned to submarine warfare briefly, taking command of HMS E22, and was then assigned to Carrigan Head, which was configured as a Q-ship. Subsequently, he requested a return to submarines and, in October 1916, was put in command of HMS K13. This vessel, which was still under construction at the time, was of the steam-powered K-class. Although Herbert's prior commands had been with both petrol- and diesel-powered submarines, he had sampled the problems of steam power in December 1914 when acting as British Liaison Officer on board the French submarine, Archimède. On that occasion, while patrolling off Heligoland, high seas proved too much for the submarine to proceed on the surface and her funnel was damaged when she manoeuvred in an attempt to return to port. The damage made it impossible to fully retract and seal off the funnel, and thus impossible to dive. Her crew had to endure considerable hardship in atrocious weather, baling out incoming water with a bucket brigade on the voyage to safety. Herbert won the hearts of the crew by assisting with the baling and by his encouraging comments.
  The French had tended to persist with their steam-powered designs despite some glaring problems, and the British Admiralty went ahead with both HMS Swordfish and the K Class of steam submarines even though aware of those problems. Neither design was a success. K13 sank in Gareloch, Argyll, Scotland, on 29 January 1917, having signalled that she was about to dive. There were 80 people on board, including some civilians. As she dived, seawater entered her engine room and flooded it along with the aft torpedo room. Two men were seen on the surface by a maid in a hotel a mile or so away, but her report was ignored and the alarm was raised when crew of HMS E50 became concerned when the submarine did not surface again and they found traces of oil on the surface. Despite the lack of proper escape apparatus, Herbert and the captain of HMS K14, Goodhart, who was also on board, attempted an escape to the surface by using the space between the inner and outer hatches of the conning tower as an airlock. Herbert reached the surface alive, but Goodhart's body was later found trapped in the superstructure. Eventually, the bows were brought to just above the surface and the final survivor emerged 57 hours after the accident. Including Goodhart, 32 people died in the accident and 48 were rescued. 31 were expected to be still on the submarine, but only 29 were found, and it was concluded that the maid had indeed seen two people escaping from the engine room. One of their bodies was recovered from the Clyde two months later. A later enquiry determined that K13 had dived with various ventilators and the engine room hatch still open, despite warning lights to that effect.
caption: HMS K4, one of the British K Class steam-powered submarines, aground on Walney Island
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