HMS Sirdar (P226)

HMS Sirdar
History
Class and type:	S-class submarine
Name:	HMS Sirdar
Builder:	Scotts, Greenock
Laid down:	24 April 1941
Launched:	March 26, 1943
Commissioned:	20 September 1943
Fate:	broken up 1965
General characteristics
Displacement:	814-872 tons surfaced 990 tons submerged
Length:	217 ft (66 m)
Beam:	23 ft 6 in (7.16 m)
Draught:	11 ft (3.4 m)
Speed:	14.75 knots surfaced 8 knots submerged
Complement:	48 officers and men
Armament:	6 × forward 21-inch torpedo tubes, one aft 13 torpedoes one three-inch gun (four-inch on later boats) one 20 mm cannon three .303-calibre machine gun

HMS Sirdar was an S-class submarine of the Royal Navy, and part of the Third Group built of that class. She was built by Scotts, of Greenock and launched on March 26, 1943.

Wartime career

Sirdar spent most of the war in the Pacific Far East, where she sank two Japanese coasters, two sailing vessels, two unidentified vessels, and the Japanese guardboat Kaiyo Maru No.5. She also damaged another coaster with gunfire.

Postwar career

She survived the Second World War, and continued in service. Along with her sisters, HMS Scorcher and Scythian, Sirdar took part in the search for the missing HMS Affray in 1951. They all flew large white flags to distinguish them from the missing Affray. Sirdar later sat on the bottom for six hours while the ASDIC boats familiarised themselves with the identification of a submarine sitting on the bottom.

On 1 February 1953, Sirdar was swamped by floods while in dry dock at the naval dockyard at Sheerness, Kent, and later sank. She was refloated and returned to service.^[1]

Sirdar was eventually sold, and arrived at the yards of McLellen on May 31, 1965 for breaking up.

References

1. HMS Sirdar, Uboat.net

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475.

Coordinates: 3°55′N 96°20′E / 3.917°N 96.333°E