HMS Sportsman

Sportsman at Sheerness, 23 December 1942
History
United Kingdom
Name	Sportsman
Ordered	14 October 1940
Builder	Chatham Dockyard
Laid down	1 July 1941
Launched	17 April 1942
Commissioned	21 December 1942
Out of service	Lent to the French Navy, 8 July 1952
Badge
France
Name	Sibylle
Namesake	Sibyl
Acquired	8 July 1952
Renamed	8 July 1952
Fate	Sunk off Toulon, 24 September 1952
General characteristics
Class and type	S-class submarine
Displacement	865 long tons (879 t) (surfaced) 990 long tons (1,010 t) (submerged)
Length	217 ft (66.1 m)
Beam	23 ft 9 in (7.2 m)
Draught	14 ft 8 in (4.5 m)
Installed power	1,900 bhp (1,400 kW) (diesel) 1,300 hp (970 kW) (electric)
Propulsion	2 × diesel engines 2 × electric motors
Speed	15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph) (surfaced) 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph) (submerged)
Range	6,000 nmi (11,000 km; 6,900 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) (surfaced); 120 nmi (220 km; 140 mi) at 3 knots (5.6 km/h; 3.5 mph) (submerged)
Test depth	300 ft (91.4 m)
Complement	48
Sensors and processing systems	Type 129AR or 138 ASDIC Type 291 early-warning radar
Armament	7 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes (6 × bow, 1 × stern) 1 × 3 in (76 mm) deck gun 1 × 20 mm (0.8 in) AA gun

HMS Sportsman was a third-batch S-class submarine built for the Royal Navy during World War II. Completed in 1942, she spent most of the war serving in the Mediterranean Sea. After an initial patrol off Norway, she sank the heavy transport Général Bonaparte in the Mediterranean in 1943 and missed a French oil tanker. She was heavily damaged after a mistaken attack by an Allied bomber, and was sent east after repairs to participate in operations in the Black Sea. After the operation was cancelled, Sportsman patrolled the Aegean Sea, sending several Greek and German ships to the bottom. She sank the German transport SS Petrella in early 1944 despite it being clearly marked as a prisoner-of-war ship, killing 2,670 out of 3,173 Italians aboard. Sportsman sank several more ships, and suffered minor damage when she was detected and sighted while attempting to attack a convoy.

After a refit in the United States, she returned to the United Kingdom where she participated in additional training for operations in the Far East. The deployment was cancelled when the war in the Pacific ended in 1945, and Sportsman was placed in reserve at Harwich. She was transferred in July 1952 to the French Navy, which renamed her Sibylle. The boat was lost with all hands in a diving accident off Toulon on 24 September.