- HMS M1
His Majesty's Submarine "M1" was a
submarine of the BritishRoyal Navy , one of four vessels of the M class ordered towards the end ofWorld War I . She sank with the loss of her entire crew in1925 .The vessels were originally intended as coastal bombardment vessels but their purpose had been changed before detailed design began. "M1" was fitted with a 12 inch (305 mm) gun which was intended for use against surface ships in preference to torpedoes, the argument being that, "No case is known of a ship-of-war being torpedoed when under way at a range outside of 1000 yards".Verify source|date=May 2008 Although the gun had a 20 mile (32 km) range it was normally fired using a simple bead sight at periscope depth with only the barrel above the water. It was important for the submarine's gun to sink or disable the target with the first shot, because the gun could only be loaded on the surface.
She was 100 m long, displaced 1,950 tons submerged and operated out of
Portsmouth . She was launched on9 July 1917 , but was not involved in active service inWorld War I .She sank with all 69 hands on
12 November 1925 while on an exercise in theEnglish Channel . A Swedish ship, SS "Vidar", struck the submerged "M1" and sank her in 70 m of water. The collision tore the gun from the hull and water flooded the interior through the open loading hole. The crew members who survived the collision appear to have tried to escape by flooding the interior and opening the escape hatch but their bodies were never found.Her wreck was discovered by a diving team led by Innes McCartney in
1999 at a depth of 73 m. Later that year the wreck was visited again by Richard Larn and aBBC TV documentary crew, and the resulting film was broadcast in March2000 . The wreck is designated as a "protected place" under theProtection of Military Remains Act 1986 .References
* cite book
last=Brown
first=D.K.
date=2003
title=The Grand Fleet: Warship Design and Development 1906-1922
publisher=Caxton Editions
location=London
pages=p208
isbn=1-84067-531-4
* [http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2008/uksi_20080950_en_1 SI 2008/0950] Designation under the Protection of Military Remains Act
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