HMS Swordfish (1916)
HMS Swordfish
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom (RN)
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| Name: | HMS Swordfish |
| Ordered: | 8 August 1913 |
| Builder: | Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Greenock |
| Laid down: | 28 February 1914 |
| Launched: | 18 March 1916 |
| Commissioned: | 28 April 1916 |
| Decommissioned: | 30 October 1918 |
| Renamed: |
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| Fate: |
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| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 231 ft 3.5 in (70.498 m) (overall) |
| Beam: | 22 ft 11 in (6.99 m) |
| Draught: | 14 ft 11 in (4.55 m) |
| Installed power: | |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: |
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| Range: | 3,000 nautical miles (5,600 km; 3,500 mi) at 8.5 knots (15.7 km/h; 9.8 mph) |
| Complement: | 18 |
| Armament: |
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HMS Swordfish was an experimental submarine built for the Royal Navy before the First World War to meet the Navy's goal of an "overseas" submarine capable of 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) on the surface. Diesel engines of the period were unreliable and not very powerful so steam turbines were proposed instead to meet the RN's requirement. Swordfish proved to be slower than designed and unstable while surfacing, and consequently she was modified as an anti-submarine patrol vessel in 1917. She was paid off before the end of the war and sold for scrapping in 1922.
HMS Swordfish was developed to meet a requirement of Royal Navy's Submarine Committee for a large submarine capable of operating with the fleet at a surfaced speed of 20 knots. Most of the earlier British submarines had been single-hulled vessels built by Vickers, and the Navy was interested in evaluating other designs. Captain Roger Keyes, Inspecting Captain of Submarines, had previously served as naval attaché in Italy and had kept abreast of Italian submarine developments, which notably included double-hulled submarines designed by Cesare Laurenti of Fiat-San Giorgio. Three boats of the S class were ordered first and Laurenti was invited to submit a design to meet the RN requirement.
Fiat-San Giorgio "was wary about using heavy oil Diesel engines and hesitated to guarantee the success of such engines of the power required. At the same time Laurenti prepared a design with geared steam turbines having a speed of 18 knots on a surface displacement of 856 tons." His design was modified by Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Greenock, to include guns. Swordfish kept the same main dimensions as Laurenti's original design, but had a greater displacement and less endurance.
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