Chilean submarine Rucumilla

Career
Name:	H3 (1917–1924) Rucumilla (1924–1945)
Builder:	Fore River Yard, Quincy, Massachusetts
Launched:	26 July 1915
Acquired:	1917
Struck:	1945
General characteristics
Class and type:	H class submarine
Displacement:	363 long tons (369 t) surfaced 434 long tons (441 t) submerged
Length:	150 ft 3 in (45.80 m)
Beam:	15 ft 4 in (4.67 m)
Propulsion:	1 × 480 hp (358 kW) diesel engine 2 × 620 hp (462 kW) electric motors
Speed:	13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph) surfaced 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) submerged
Range:	1,600 nmi (3,000 km) at 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph) surfaced 130 nmi (240 km) at 2 kn (3.7 km/h; 2.3 mph) submerged
Complement:	22
Armament:	• 4 × 18 in (457 mm) bow torpedo tubes • 8 × 18 inch torpedoes

Rucumilla was an H class submarine of the Chilean Navy. The vessel was originally ordered by the United Kingdom's Royal Navy as HMS H17, but was handed over to Chile in 1917 as H3.

Career

H17 was a British H class submarine built by Fore River Yard of Quincy, Massachusetts. She was launched on 26 July 1915. Because the United States was neutral (having not yet entered World War I), H17 along with sister ships H11, H12, H13, H14, H15, H16, H18, H19, and H20 were all interned by the United States government. As a result, H17 was never commissioned into the Royal Navy. Instead, she and H13, H16, H18, H19, and H20 were transferred to the Chilean Navy as partial recompensation for the appropriation of two 28,000-ton dreadnoughts (Almirante Latorre and Almirante Cochrane). Originally named H3 when turned over to Chile in 1917, she was renamed Rucumilla in 1924. She served with the Chilean Navy until she was stricken in 1945.

References

• Hutchinson, Robert. Submarines, War Beneath The Waves, From 1776 To The Present Day.