The Royal Navy's E-class submarine

The first of the E-class submarines was launched in 1913 and the class was to prove to be the backbone of the Royal Navy’s submarine fleet. Unlike their predecessors, these submarines were capable of operating out of sight of land for several weeks and equipped with diesel engines (the petrol engines tended to catch fire!). The boats (as submariners called them in self-deprecation) served in the North Sea, Baltic and Dardanelles. The Royal Australian operated two of the submarines with mixed Australian and British ship’s companies. The last of the class, E56, was launched in June 1916 and their successors were the L-class.

The submarines served with distinction in the Baltic in support of the Russian Navy and again in the Dardanelles against the Turks. I have fictionalised their stories in my best-selling novels, Where the Baltic Ice is Thin and The Custom of the Trade. In the latter campaign four submarine commanding officers were to be awarded the Victoria Cross and the flotilla came within a week of knocking Turkey out of the war. I have described this campaign in previous posts as well as my novel. Conditions were harsh. No bunks were fitted for the sailors and there were no washing facilities. As in submarines today, every single member had to have a good mechanical knowledge of the submarine and compared with their surface ship counterparts, officers were very hands-on with the maintenance and operation of the engines and batteries. In the absence of any other protection from the wind and waves on the open bridge other than a canvas screen, officers on watch tended to wear long leather coats. It was for this reason that their fellow officers on surface ships referred to them disparagingly as ‘unwashed chauffeurs’. Even a former First Sea Lord had suggested that submariners be treated as pirates in wartime and hanged. In September 1913, Lieutenant Commander Max Horton, commanding officer of E9, sank SMS Hela, the first German ship to be sunk by a British submarine in WW1 and on his return to harbour flew the Jolly Roger in defiant protest at Admiral Sir Arthur Wilson’s comments. I describe the action in one of my books.