| It was originally
intended that the last conventional submarines to serve in
the Royal Navy would be the Oberon Class. After all, nuclear
submarines were bigger and faster with a far greater
endurance. However conventional submarines still had a role
in the post war era: being smaller and quieter they were
more suited to work in coastal or shallow waters as required
for 'cloak and dagger' operations. During the Falklands
conflict HMS Onyx demonstrated this role, landing SBS
(Special Boat Service) personnel ashore. Furthermore,
British nuclear fleet submarines (SSNs) were produced slowly
and at great cost and therefore in small numbers: by the
1980s Vickers at Barrow was the only yard with sufficient
nuclear construction expertise but with the Vanguard Class
Trident submarines taking top priority there could be a gap
of 18 years in Fleet Submarine production. So the navy
reevaluated its decision and design work on a new class of
conventional submarine began in the late 1970s. As
replacements for the Oberon and Porpoise Classes, they would
supplement nuclear submarines by patrolling the
Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom gap against Soviet
Submarines from the Northern Fleet, releasing nuclear
submarines for more pressing tasks.
Barrow based shipbuilders Vickers
had privately designed a conventional submarine - dubbed
Type 2400 (as they had a submerged displacement of 2,400
tonnes) - in the hope of selling it to foreign navies. This
design was used as the basis for the Upholder Class. The
1981 Defence Review stated "We will proceed as fast as
possible with a new and more effective class to replace our
aging diesel-powered submarines". The lead yard,
Vickers, was awarded the contract for the nameship- Upholder-
on 2nd November 1983. Orders for the second, third and
fourth units were placed in January 1986 with Birkenhead
based shipbuilders Cammal Laird. It was originally envisaged
that with a building rate of one per year the Upholder Class
could consist of as many as 19 boats, with later vessels
forming an improved second and third batch. It was suggested
that from the fifth boat onwards they would displace 3,000
tonnes, have more powerful engines and a greater endurance.
It was also hoped like the Oberon Class, the Type 2400 could
be successfully marketed overseas. However only the first
four - Upholder, Unseen, Ursula and Unicorn- were ordered
and constructed
When designing the Upholder Class
Vickers included many innovations and improvements taken
from the Trafalgar Class SSNs as well as the Oberon Class.
The Upholder Class were the first conventionally powered
submarines to be built with a 'teardrop' hull. Previous
diesel submarines had resembled the German Type XXI design
but the Upholders shared a greater resemblance to the
streamlined, hydrodynamic hull first modeled by the USS
Albacore. Further resemblances to nuclear submarines
included anechoic (noise reducing) tiles on the hull which
muffle internal noise and reduce sonar returns, while the
fin was constructed from glass fibre in order to be as
lightweight as possible. So sophisticated was the design of
these boats that they have often been described as being the
equivalent to a nuclear submarine, only without the reactor.
Displacing 2,400 tons when submerged and 2168 tons when
surfaced the Upholders measured 70.25 metres in length, 7.6
metres in draught with a beam of five metres. The large
battery capacity of the diesel electric drive gave a speed
of 20 knots dived and 12 knots surfaced and they were
capable of diving to depths of 200 metres. Two decks thick,
they were larger in size than the Oberon Class but had a
smaller complement - 46 (including seven officers) - with
far superior living conditions. The six bow torpedo tubes
were capable of firing Sub Harpoon missiles, Tigerfish and
Spearfish torpedoes, or if necessary launching mines.
Upon entering service it was learnt
that there were serious defects with the Weapons Handling
and Discharge System (WHDS) - in short they couldn't fire
torpedoes. When Upholder docked at Devonport in 1992 and
Ursula and Unseen the following year £9 million was spent
on repairs necessary to rectify the problem . Unicorn was
still under construction so was completed with the
modifications in place. During their short service in the
Royal Navy, the Upholder Class became the last submarines to
be based at HMS Dolphin Gosport as part of the 1st Submarine
Squadron. They were to be based there permanently but it was
deemed uneconomical to keep the base operating for just four
submarines, so they were transferred to Devonport.
The collapse of the Soviet Union
and end of the Cold War had far reaching consequences for
the Royal Navy. There was no longer the need for the
existing level of anti-submarine operations in the North
Atlantic or the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom gap. As
part of the defence cuts in 1993 the Navy faced a choice of
either retaining the four Upholder Class Patrol submarines
and loosing two attack submarines or axing the Upholders and
saving the nuclear submarines. The latter option was chosen
and all four submarines- Upholder, Ursula, Unseen and
Unicorn- were decommissioned at Devonport and later
mothballed at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria.
The British government was
understandably keen to sell these submarines, most likely
customer being either South Africa or Canada although
representatives from Portugal and Greece also visited the
submarines. Various sources suggested that the government
wished to sell to South Africa in order encourage them to
award an order for four corvette patrol craft to Yarrow
Shipbuilders of Southampton, instead of the Barzan Shipyard
in Spain. But in 1997 they were still unsold and some
experts believed the New Labour Government would eventually
be forced to recommission them or even scrap them.
However on April 6th 1998 the
Canadian government’s defence minister, Art Eggleton,
announced the lease of the four Upholders in order to
replace Canada's three British Built Oberon submarines (Ojibwa,
Onondaga, Okanagan). Canada justified the deal saying she
had coastline of three oceans to patrol as well as NATO
commitments, fishery protection and anti drugs operations.
As part of the £226 million ($750 Canadian) deal the four
boats would be refitted at VSEL, Barrow and the Canadian
crew would be trained at HMS Collingwood, Sultan and the
former HMS Dolphin. In return the British armed forces would
be able to use Canada’s army and air force training
facilities free of charge. It soon became clear that the
boats would not retain their British names and various
rumours suggested they would be given traditional Canadian
tribal names such as Cayuga and Nootka or names once used by
Canada’s aircraft carriers- Bonaventure, Magnificent,
Warrior and Puncher, or even names that continued the
‘U’ theme of the Upholders such as Uganda and Ugava.
Eventually it was decided the Upholder class would become
the Victoria class with each boat bearing the name of a
Canadian port- Chicoutimic, Victoria, Cornerbrook and
Windsor.
In 1999 the Ministry of Defence (MoD)
placed a contract with Marconi Marine (the then owners of
Vickers Shipbuilding & Engineering) for the reactivation
of the four boats. HMS Unseen was the first submarine to be
brought out of mothballs. She was taken out of the water and
moved into the massive Devonshire Dock Hall for six months
of reactivation work. This included replacing some hydraulic
system components and installing new batteries. Early
reports suggested reactivation has not been as straight
forward as originally envisaged, and the initial cost of the
programme had consequently escalated. Nevertheless, on
October 6th 2000 Unseen was handed over to Canada and
renamed Victoria in a ceremony conducted at Barrow by .Mrs.
Jill Garnett, wife of Vice-Admiral Gary Garnett, Vice-Chief
of the Canadian Defence Staff. Lt. Ken Marr, Victoria's
chief executive officer, said "It is a new chapter in
the life of the submarine service...We spent so many decades
operating the Oberon class submarines – which was a
fantastic submarine, but its time had come and gone".
Unseen will be followed by Unicorn, Ursula and finally
Upholder at six monthly intervals.
Since loosing the Upholders, the
Royal Navy now operates an entirely nuclear powered
submarine force. As a consequence Dutch, German and Spanish
conventional submarines have been hired to participate in
surface ship training exercises for Flag Officer Sea
Training (FOST) |
