HMS Unrivalled (P45)

HMS "Unrivalled" (P45) was a Royal Navy U-class submarine built by Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness. So far she has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name "Unrivalled".

Career

Apart from a work-up patrol in the Norwegian Sea, she was to spend most of the war in the Mediterranean. While on her work-up patrol, "Unrivalled" fired a torpedo at what was thought to be a submerged enemy submarine. Only the periscope was sighted and the torpedo was fired in the direction of the hydrophone effect. There was however no German submarine in the area so the attack was most likely against a non-submarine target (perhaps a whale). Whilst in service in the Mediterranean, she sank the Italian auxiliary submarine chaser O 97 / "Margherita", the Italian merchants "Maddalena", "Mostaganem" and "Pasubio", the Italian tugs "Genova" and "Iseo", the Italian sailing vessels "Triglav", "Albina", "Margherita", "Sparviero" and "Ardito", the German auxiliary submarine chasers UJ 2201/"Bois Rose" and UJ 2204/"Boréal", the Italian tanker "Bivona", the small Italian merchant "Santa Mariana Salina", the Italian auxiliary minesweeper R 172 / "Impero" and the small Italian vessel "San Francisco di Paola A.".

"Unrivalled" also damaged the Italian torpedo boat "Antonio Mosto" and the Italian sailing vessel "Cesira Curreri". On the 20 January, 1943, "Unrivalled" intercepted a small Italian naval auxiliary towing a schooner. She sank the naval auxiliary with gunfire, this was most likely the former French auxiliary minesweeper AD 283/"Grondin" that had been seized in Bizerta. The schooner apparently beached herself on the Tunisian coast.

"Unrivalled" survived the war and was scrapped at Briton Ferry, Wales from 22 January 1946.

References

*cite web | url= http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3545.html | title= HMS "Unrivalled" (P 45) | work= uboat.net
*cite web | url= http://home.cogeco.ca/~gchalcraft/sm/page28.html | title= Universal to Untamed | work= British submarines of World War II
*Colledge
*Submarines, War Beneath The Waves, From 1776 To The Present Day, by Robert Hutchinson