HMS Sturgeon (73S)

Sturgeon
History
United Kingdom
Name	Sturgeon
Ordered	2 July 1930
Builder	Chatham Dockyard
Laid down	3 January 1931
Launched	8 January 1932
Commissioned	27 February 1933
Recommissioned	17 November 1945
Renamed	to Dutch Navy as Zeehond, 11 October 1943
Identification	Pennant number 73S
Fate	Broken up January 1946
Badge
Netherlands
Name	HNLMS Zeehond
Commissioned	11 October 1943
Decommissioned	14 September 1945
Fate	Returned to Royal Navy, 17 November 1945
General characteristics
Class and type	S-class submarine
Displacement	640 tons surfaced 935 tons submerged
Length	202 ft 6 in (61.7 m)
Beam	24 ft 0 in (7.3 m)
Draught	10 ft 6 in (3.2 m)
Propulsion	Twin diesel/electric
Speed	13.75 knots (25.47 km/h; 15.82 mph) surfaced 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) submerged
Complement	36 officers and ratings
Armament	6 × forward 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes 12 torpedoes 1 × 3 in (76 mm) gun 1 × 20 mm cannon 1 × .303-calibre machine gun

HMS Sturgeon was an S-class submarine that entered service with the Royal Navy in 1932. Ordered in 1930, she was laid down at Chatham Dockyard in January 1931 and launched on 8 January 1932. Commissioned on 27 February 1933, Sturgeon was assigned to the 2nd Submarine Flotilla.

At the start of World War II, Sturgeon conducted patrols in the North Sea. On 6 September, she was mistakenly bombed by British aircraft. On her second patrol, she fired three torpedoes at an unidentified submarine, which was in fact her sister ship HMS Swordfish, but the torpedoes missed. On her third patrol, she missed the German U-boat U-23 and was damaged after hitting the bottom, requiring repairs. On 20 November, she sank the German armed trawler V-209 with torpedoes. The sinking was the first successful attack by a British submarine of the war, and was a morale boost for British submariners. During her next patrols in the North Sea, Sturgeon sighted and sank several ships, including the German troop transport Pionier and the Danish merchants SS Sigrun and SS Delfinus. Afterwards, Sturgeon patrolled in the Bay of Biscay, acted as a beacon during Operation Torch, then, after being again damaged by Allied aircraft, escorted the Arctic Convoys PQ 15 and PQ 17. Sturgeon was transferred to the 8th Submarine Flotilla, which operated on the Mediterranean Sea, in October 1942 to support the Allied landings in North Africa. In May 1943, she was loaned to the Royal Netherlands Navy as HNLMS Zeehond. Zeehond was returned to the Royal Navy following the war and was sold for scrap in 1946. She was one of the four submarines that formed the First Group of the S class, and the only one of these to survive the war.