HMS Swordfish: Britain's first steam driven submarine

摘要

HMS Swordfish was laid down on 28 February 1914 and in many ways was one of the Royal Navy's most unique submarines. Not only was she the Royal Navy's first steam driven submarine, her design also included a number of unique features that were to become standard fittings in the submarine designs that were to follow. The contract to build Swordfish was awarded to Scotts of Greenock in August 1913.The Admiralty requirement was for an ocean going submarine of a double hull design with a high surface speed.The design chosen was the Italian 'Laurenti' type. Scotts were at the time already constructing three smaller 'Laurenti' S-class submarines, the S1-S3 which were the first submarines to be constructed in Scotland. The original design for Swordfish included Fiat diesel engines but these had proved to be incapable of producing the power required and were also unreliable in service and so it was that the Admiralty took the bold and to many, surprising decision to use steam turbines to power the submarine on the surface.