HMS L26
HMS "L26" was a L-class submarine built for the Royal Navy during World War I. The boat was not completed before the end of the war and was one of three L-class boats to serve during World War II. She was sunk as a target in 1946. Design and description. "L9" and its successors were enlarged to accommodate 21-inch (53.3 cm) torpedoes and more fuel. The submarine had a length of overall, a beam of and a mean draft of . They displaced on the surface and submerged. The L-class submarines had a crew of  35 officers and ratings. They had a diving depth of . For surface running, the boats were powered by two 12-cylinder Vickers diesel engines, each driving one propeller shaft. When submerged each propeller was driven by a electric motor. They could reach on the surface and underwater. On the surface, the L class had a range of at . The boats were armed with four 21-inch torpedo tubes in the bow and two 18-inch (45 cm) in broadside mounts. They carried four reload torpedoes for the 21-inch tubes for a grand total of ten torpedoes of all sizes . They were also armed with a deck gun. Construction and career. HMS "L26" was built by Vickers at their Barrow-in-Furness shipyard, launched on 29 May 1919. She was transferred to HM Dockyard, Portsmouth and was completed there on 11 October 1926. The boat was damaged in the Mediterranean in March 1929, but was repaired in Gibraltar. On 7 October 1933, "L26" and sister submarine ran aground on manoeuvres off Kintyre but were quickly refloated. The next day, 8 October, "L26" suffered an explosion in the battery compartment on board in Campbeltown Harbour, Scotland, which killed two and injured  10 crew. "L26"s commanding officer, Lieutenant-Commander John Hugh Lewis, was Court-martialled over the incidents, and was found guilty of stranding the submarine and failing to check "L26"s batteries for damage after the grounding. He was severely reprimanded and dismissed from "L26" by the court, although a second hearing cleared him of blame for the explosion and re-instated him to command of "L26". At the onset of World War II, "L26" was a member of the 6th Submarine Flotilla. From 26–29 August 1939, the flotilla deployed to its war bases at Dundee and Blyth. From 20 September 1939  to 15 January 1940, the 6th Submarine Flotilla was deployed off Skagerrak, Jutland and Horns Reef. Beginning on 22 March 1941, the Royal Navy and Allies began deploying submarines off Brest, France to prevent the German battleships and from leaving port. "L26" was among the submarines assigned to the patrol. She was transferred to Canada in 1943 as an anti-submarine training ship. She was based at Digby, Nova Scotia at HMCS "Cornwallis" and at Bermuda, attached to . Purchased by the Canadian government in 1946, "L26" was sunk as a target for sonar testing off St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia  on 25 September 1946. The wreck was rediscovered during the search for wreckage from the Swissair Flight 111 crash.