M class - Guide 396

The M class submarines, monitors/minelayers/underwater aircraft carriers of the British Royal Navy, are today's subject.

Read more about the ship here:

[nooyouuu]

I'm just imagining a couple of British engineers drunk at a pub " Oi m8, what if we just mount a battleship gun on a submarine"

[michaelkarnerfors]

02:11 "Some people think they can outsmart me. Maybe. * sniff * Maybe. I have yet to meet one that can outsmart bullet." — The Heavy

[AdmRose]

It’s honestly terrifying that so many submarine’s stories end with the words “Something went wrong.”

[Hybris]

Honestly the point blank heavy artillery idea has merit in a time where underwater detection is still in its infancy. Imagine being particularly daring and surfacing off the bow of a battleship and putting a 12 inch shell right into the bridge as a opening shot.

[witsend]

Fun fact. I served in the RN from 1972 until 1994 and my early days were as a sonar operator. M2 was frequently used as a sonar target for training when at Portland by all ships doing workup. Echo sounder runs would show the distinct outline of the vessel. M1 was also used but less frequently as she was nearer to Start Point and to the West of the Portland exercise areas.

[CharlesStearman]

In 1923 the 12" gun on M1 had its muzzle blown off during firing trials near Gibraltar, due to water leaking into the barrel while submerged. The muzzle remained attached to the rest of the gun by the wire winding, which unwound as the muzzle sank to the seabed, leaving the submarine anchored by its own gun.

[timholgate]

So uhhh, putting this out there in case anybody wants to know about it, but I love talking about one of my favourite wrecks!

The M2 is probably one of the most famous shipwrecks on the English South Coast. Shes at a depth of about 30-35m to seabed, but shes not in her original resting place. This is due to the works of a man named Ernest Cox (of Cox and Danks). This man is both the greatest thing to ever happen to marine salvage (he raised roughly 30 of the High Seas fleet wrecks in Scapa Flow, pioneering methods that are now the forefront of modern salvage), and also the worst person to ever happen to recreational diving (see the previous statement.)

After a week of searching for the wreck, the royal navy tried unsuccessfully to raise her, and then called in the technical expertise of Cox to bring the wreck back to the surface. He went about it in his typical style - first welding big holes shut (IE all hatch covers etc). Where he thought he would get problems, he instructed divers to place specially designed tampions - some of which are still semi intact if you know where to look. Then he pumped enough air to make her buoyant and she would shoot to the surface... the hatches would blow open and she would sink again. This happened twice. I assume he felt he was running into another Hindenburg situation (she had breached and sank numerous times, and eventually lead him to quit scapa flow ops), he reverted to his old option; tidal lifting. Using two salvage barges, cables were lowered underneath the wreck, and then pulled taught at low tide. As the tide came up, so did the wreck, and then they would be able to winch in (the suction of the seabed being broken). Things were going well, and after several days of slow winching, she was resting just 6m from the surface in her cradles.

And then the local weather system that exists around Portland did its thing. A gale seemingly blew up from nowhere, and in the increasing swell, the decision was made to cut her loose, allowing her to sink for a 4th and final time. Settling into silt, she became effectively vacuumed into place, and on top of that Cox was running out of money - his divers had spent the best part of a year on site, with over 1500 dives onto the one wreck, and he needed to get other salvage operations underway to make some profit. And so she was left to rest quietly (other than visits from divers).

Nowadays, as I said, she is one of the most famous diving attractions on the South Coast. She is one of the most intact submarines out there - she's completely together, and whilst the deck is finally starting to fall apart, the only thing that has gone from the wreck since the salvage efforts is the gibbet for lifting the Parnall Peto seaplane back onto the deck - this fell off in the mid 2010s). I've always said that she looks as if she is still in service - just waiting quietly for her prey. The conning tower is magnificent - still there in full regalia. most of the instruments are still there, covered by nearly over 80 years of rust and biological growth, but still there. Her clipped stalks of her periscopes still stand tall. You can still enter the hangar and see where the seaplane once would have been stored, and follow the hydraulic catapult along the foredeck, all the way past her forward dive planes, anchors and to the 6 rather imposing 18in torpedo tubes (I never realised how big an 18in torpedo was until I looked at the closed hatches for them!). Going back, you go past the retracted 3in deck cannon (admittedly it takes a twisted mind to work out how it would come together), all the way back to the rear dive planes, the propeller stalks (the props were removed during salvage efforts), and to the skeletal remains of the rudder. She is one of the prettiest wrecks on the south coast, and because of her story, one of the most haunting in my opinion. Conditions often make it quite a spooky wreck - I've never been on it on a nice sunny, well lit day, only ever dark days, and it really feels like you are surrounded by the unfortunate 58 men who take their rest upon her. If anyones interested, I can talk for days about this wreck, with pictures in the discord or something :) (Might as well put the nearly two hundred hours I have on that wreck to good use!)

Sorry for the hijack, Drach!!

Also thanks for the bit about the WNT - it grinds gears when people say the M2 and M3 were repurposed because of them!

[rpick]

Great video Drach. It's depressing how many of the early subs you cover where you say something along the lines of 'Unfortunately, something went wrong with something, and she was lost with all hands.' Those men had amazing courage.

[simongroot]

I have dived on the M2, it is just deep enough to have not been smashed to bits by the sea and not too deep to give you a reasonable time on the wreck.

[davidcashin]

It is always fun to hear the aspirational mission profiles for ship classes and then the actual fate, usage, execution. So often it is really only the generic ships that succeed. Not sure I have read about any specialized mission ship classes that really excelled.

[maxkennedy]

Making the K class look sane by comparison

RN submarine designers were on something big time during WW1

[stuartaaron]

According to a book about submarines that we (my brothers and I) had back in the mid-1970's, what happened to M2 was that as the crew gained experience operating M2 they became better at opening the hanger doors just as the sub surfaced. One sad day they were too efficient at this, and opened the doors before the sub was fully surfaced. As a result of this the sub swallowed water like a thirsty whale and sank with all hands.

[tomdynia]

I see the M class as naval equivalents of the multi-turreted heavy tanks from the Twenties and Thirties. An intriguing idea that had to be tried out to expose why it was not a good idea.

[GuardianViolet]

There was a British seaman who actually witnessed M2 sink, but initially thought nothing of it and only reported it after he had returned to port and casually told an acquaintance that he had seen a submarine dive stern-first.

[geoffburrill]

Thanks for the vid Drachs, been looking forward for this one about the interesting m class.

[cartmann]

“Making the K class longer and wider”.
Sure, mate. I want my coffin to be larger to let my corpse breathe and stretch.

[alexzenz]

A "sub- optimal" idea; and a great video 👍🏻

[tombogan]

Am I the only one to have a "Crocodile Dundee" flash back ?
"That's not a deck gun,
THIS is a deck gun". LOL
Think about the recoil LOL.

[trailrunnah]

Amazing pics in this one, love the shot of it next to the Aquatania.

[Nickrioblanco]

It's amazing how many crazy ideas need to be viewed retrospectively to see them for what they are.