HMS Salmon (N65)
HMS "Salmon" was a second-batch S-class submarine built during the 1930s for the Royal Navy. Completed in 1935, the boat fought in the Second World War. "Salmon" is one of twelve boats named in the song "Twelve Little S-Boats". On 4 December 1939, "Salmon" became the first boat to sink a U-boat during the Second World War when it torpedoed and sank the German in the North Sea south-west of Kristiansand, Norway. Design and description. The second batch of S-class submarines were designed as slightly improved and enlarged versions of the  earlier boats of the class and were intended to operate in the North and Baltic Seas. The submarines had a length of overall, a beam of and a mean draught of . They displaced on the surface and submerged. The S-class submarines had a crew of 40 officers and ratings. They had a diving depth of . For surface running, the boats were powered by two 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 second-batch boats had a range  of at and at submerged. The S-class boats were armed with six 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes in the bow. They carried six reload torpedoes for a total of a dozen torpedoes. They were also armed with a 3-inch (76 mm) deck gun. Construction and career. Ordered on 20 January 1933, "Salmon" was laid down on 15 June 1933 in Cammell Laird's shipyard in Birkenhead and was launched on 30 April 1934. The boat was completed on 8 March 1935 and received the pennant number 98S. On 4 December 1939, while on patrol in the North  Sea, "Salmon" torpedoed and sank . On 12 December 1939, "Salmon" sighted the German liner . While challenging "Bremen", an escorting Dornier Do 18 seaplane forced "Salmon" to dive. After diving, "Salmon"s commander, Lieutenant Commander E. O. Bickford, decided not to torpedo the liner because he believed she was not a legal target. Bickford's decision not to fire on "Bremen" likely delayed the start of unrestricted submarine warfare in the war. On 13 December 1939, "Salmon" sighted a fleet of German warships. She fired a spread of torpedoes which damaged two German cruisers (one was , the other, her younger sister ship , ). "Salmon" evaded the fleet's destroyers, which hunted her for two hours. She was lost, probably sunk by a mine, on 9 July 1940. There is a report from 2008 that the same survey ship that found the wreck of the sister submarine also found the wreck of HMS "Salmon" nearby in waters off Norway.