HMS Swordfish (61S)

Swordfish on the surface
History
United Kingdom
Name	Swordfish
Ordered	2 July 1930
Builder	Chatham Dockyard
Laid down	1 December 1930
Launched	10 November 1931
Commissioned	28 November 1932
Fate	Sunk by mine, 7 November 1940
Badge
General characteristics
Class and type	S-class submarine
Displacement	730 long tons (742 t) surfaced 927 long tons (942 t) submerged
Length	202 ft 6 in (61.7 m)
Beam	24 ft (7.3 m)
Draught	11 ft 11 in (3.6 m)
Installed power	1,550 bhp (1,160 kW) (diesel) 1,300 hp (970 kW) (electric)
Propulsion	2 × diesel engines 2 × electric motors
Speed	13.75 knots (25.47 km/h; 15.82 mph) surfaced 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) submerged
Range	3,700 nmi (6,900 km; 4,300 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) surface; 64 nmi (119 km; 74 mi) at 2 knots (3.7 km/h; 2.3 mph) submerged
Test depth	300 feet (91.4 m)
Complement	38
Armament	6 × bow 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes 1 × 3-inch (76 mm) deck gun

HMS Swordfish (61S) was a first-batch S-class submarine built for the Royal Navy during the 1930s. Commissioned in 1932, she was given the pennant number 61S and was assigned to the 2nd Submarine Flotilla.

At the start of World War II, Swordfish was missed with three torpedoes by her sister ship HMS Sturgeon after being mistaken for a German U-boat. On 20 April 1940, she attacked a German convoy, but her torpedoes failed to hit their targets. Two days later, she sighted another convoy, but did not attack it because of the ships' shallow draught. In the morning of 26 April, she dived to avoid drifting mines; one of them hit but did not explode. During her sixth war patrol, Swordfish was mistakenly bombed by a British aircraft, but sustained no damage. Swordfish disappeared during her twelfth patrol, after departing Portsmouth on 7 November. Although she was initially thought to have been sunk by German destroyers off Brest, she was determined to have been sunk by a mine when her wreck was discovered by diver Martin Woodward in June 1983 off the Isle of Wight. She had left Portsmouth Harbour only hours before, and it is assumed that she was carrying out a trim dive when she struck the German mine.