NMS Dolphin
NMS Delfinul in June 1936
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| History | |
|---|---|
 Romania
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| Name: | NMS Delfinul |
| Builder: | Italian naval base and shipyard, Fiume |
| Completed: | 1931 |
| Commissioned: | 1936 |
| Out of service: | 1944 |
| Refit: | Galați shipyard, starting late 1942 |
| Reinstated: | 1951 |
| Fate: | Stricken 1957 |
 Soviet Union
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| Name: | TS-3 |
| Commissioned: | 1944 |
| Decommissioned: | 1945 |
| Fate: | Returned to Romania in 1951 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 68 m (223 ft) |
| Beam: | 5.9 m (19 ft) |
| Draught: | 3.6 m (12 ft) |
| Propulsion: | 2 Sulzer diesel engines, 2 electric motors, 2 shafts |
| Speed: |
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| Range: | 2,000 nautical miles (3,704 km; 2,302 mi) |
| Complement: | 55 |
| Armament: |
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NMS Delfinul (The Dolphin) was a Romanian submarine that served in the Black Sea during the Second World War. It was the first submarine of the Romanian Navy, built in Italy under Romanian supervision.
Delfinul was ordered in 1927 from the Italian naval base and shipyard at Fiume (today Rijeka, Croatia). It was completed in 1931, but was accepted by Romania as the country's first submarine only in 1936, after the many corrections required by the Romanians were completed. She had a surfaced displacement of 650 tons, which grew to 900 tons when submerged. The boat measured 68 meters (223 ft) in length, with a beam of 5.9 meters (19 ft) and a draught of 3.6 meters (12 ft). Her power plant consisted of two Sulzer diesel engines and two electric motors powering two shafts, giving her a top speed of 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) on the surface and 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph) submerged. Her crew amounted to 55. She was armed with eight 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes (4 bow and 4 stern), one 102 mm (4 in) deck gun and one twin 13 mm (0.51 in) machine gun.
Delfinul played an important role in the Black Sea war against the Soviet Union in World War II. Its home base was the Constanța Naval Base, from where the submarine completed nine war time patrols. When Romania entered the war (22 June 1941), the navy had only one submarine, but that presence meant that the Soviet Black Sea Fleet had to secure an anti-submarine service for its convoys and near its naval bases. As a fleet in being, Delfinul had only to exist rather than taking part in the battles. It was kept under shelter in Constanța and rarely got out to do a reconnaissance mission. That changed when two modern submarines were built at the Galați shipyard in Eastern Romania (Rechinul-The Shark and Marsuinul-The Porpoise).
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Wikipedia