Note

Date 17 December 2002

Event ID 610496

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Note

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/610496

Length: 338 ft (103m)

Beam: 26ft 8ins (8.13m)

Displacement: 1883/2565 tons

Propulsion: geared steam turbines; 2 screws; 10500/1400hp; 24-25/9 kts; battery-driven electric motors with (also) 1 x 800 hp diesel for boost when diving or surfacing

Armament: 8 x 18 ins (457mm) torpedo tubes (4 bow; 4 stern); 1 or 2 x 4ins (102mm) and 1 x 3in (76mm) AA guns

Complement: 50/60

The impressive but spectacularly misconceived K class of submarines were essentially an early attempt to build a vessel which was both submersible and also fast on the surface, qualities which were not combined until the advent of nuclear power, if then. Mechanically complex, they were inherently difficult to trim while the need to raise and retract the funnels made surfacing and diving slow in the extreme. The numerous large openings in the hull were always a potential danger. Designated 'fleet submarines' they were intended to cooperate closely with surface warships moving at high speed but their low freeboard and complex silhouette made them difficult to distinguish, particularly at night and in bad weather. Untoward incidents (typically involving uncontrolled sinking) were commonplace and five of the seventeen built either foundered or were sunk in collision, one being raised and returned to service. None remained in service for longer than a decade.

K4 was built under the Emergency War Programme at the Fairfield yard on the Clyde and completed in 1917. Both K4 and K17 (NO80NE 8002) were sunk in the 'Battle of May Island', a series of interrelated collisions involving both submarines and surface craft on the night of 31 January 1918.

This submarine is apparently the further NE of the close-set pair of wrecks that are charted (Wk) at a depth of 46m in a general depth of 51m about 12.5nm (23.km) ENE of the Isle of May. The surrounding seabed is apparently level and a mixture of sand, gravel and shell.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 17 December 2002.

H M Le Fleming 1961; [Jane] 2001.

HO chart no. 175 (1977, revised 1996).