HMS Seal (N37)

HMS "Seal" (M37/N37) was one of six ships of the "Grampus" class mine-laying submarines of the Royal Navy. She served in World War II and was captured by the Kriegsmarine and taken into German service as "U-B". She was the only submarine the Germans captured at sea during World War II.

She was laid down at the Chatham Dockyard on 9 December 1936, launched on 27 September 1938 and commissioned into the Royal Navy on 24 May 1939. During her entire British career, her commander was Rupert Lonsdale, for whom it was his second command.

Career

On 4 August she sailed to China and within a month was at war, returning to home waters. She was detained at Aden on the way and made two ad hoc patrols watching the Italians. Back in the North Sea she carried out one patrol before augmenting a convoy escort to Halifax, Nova Scotia - a 14-day crossing. She was back in time for Christmas leave and was based at Elfin, a temporary establishment at Blyth, Northumberland. She settled to a North Sea patrol routine as part of the Norwegian campaign. Late in April 1940, the "Seal" left Immingham for "Operation DF 7", a mine-laying mission in the Kattegat between Denmark and Sweden. This was a particularly daunting task, particularly for a submarine the size of "Seal". Lonsdale failed to persuade Admiral Horton to reconsider his orders and on 29 April "Seal" sailed. She found German trawlers sweeping her target area and had to lay low.

On 4 May at about 02:30 am she was attacked by a German Heinkel He 115 and damaged slightly. At about 09:00 am she started to lay down 50 mines and completed that mission some 45 minutes later. Due to a German Sea Patrol, the ship dived and later struck a German mine at about 06:30 pm, damaging the ship severely. She went down and lay on the bottom at about 30 metres until night. She made several unsuccessful attempts to rise again, including dropping the 11-ton drop keel. This meant that she would have been unable to submerge again. Lonsdale decided not to abandon ship by using the Davies escape gear, but to try and make for Swedish waters. The "Seal" eventually made it to the surface but German aircraft and patrol craft kept the boat under attack. At 02:30 she was spotted on the surface and attacked by two German Arado Ar 196s and another Heinkel. With "Seal" unable to dive, some men wounded and the Lewis gun jammed, the Commander had no alternative than to surrender. On his 35th birthday, Lonsdale swam to the seaplane of Leutnant Schmidt, who was waiting for the anti-submarine naval trawler "UJ-128", to arrive at 06:30. An attempt to scuttle the boat failed but the crew were able to destroy the Asdic. "Seal" was towed to Kiel where she was repaired and in November she was commissioned into the Kriegsmarine as "U B" under the command of Fregattenkapitän Bruno Mahn. Mahn, at 52 years old, was the oldest German submarine commander on duty in World War II.

As her equipment was not designed to be compatible with German equipment [ [http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3417.html HMS Seal] , Uboat.net] she had little military value, but was useful for propaganda purposes, and a study of the British torpedoes led to a better design of detonator. She was used as a training boat, but decommissioned in 1941 and scuttled at Kiel in 1945.

Captain Lonsdale had the unhappy distinction of being the only British commander to surrender his ship to the enemy in the entire war. However he was honourably acquitted at the inevitable court-martial after spending five years as a prisoner of war.

The mine belt laid by the "Seal" sunk one German freighter ("Vogesen", 4241 BRT) and three Swedish ships between May 5, and June 5.

ee also

*HMS "Graph" - The German U-Boat U-570, captured and taken into service by the Royal Navy.
*HM Submarine X2 - Italian Submarine captured and taken into service by the Royal Navy.

References

* C.E.T.Warren and James Benson "We will not fear" Panther, 1964
*Colledge

External links

* [http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3417.html HMS "Seal"] and [http://uboat.net/boats/ub.htm "UB"] from [http://uboat.net/ uboat.net]
* [http://www.cavillconnections.co.uk/seal.htm - account of HMS Seal and consequences of capture]
* [http://www.submariners.co.uk/Dits/Articles/lonsdale.htm - article from submariners.co.uk]