HMS Sterlet (2S)

HMS Sterlet (2S)
HMS Sterlet
Career
Name:	HMS Sterlet
Builder:	Chatham Dockyard
Laid down:	14 July 1936
Launched:	22 September 1937
Commissioned:	6 April 1938
Fate:	Sunk 18 April 1940
General characteristics
Displacement:	670 tons surfaced 960 tons submerged
Length:	208 ft 9 in (63.63 m)
Beam:	24 ft (7.3 m)
Draught:	10 ft 6 in (3.20 m)
Propulsion:	Twin diesel/electric
Speed:	13.75 knots surfaced 10 knots submerged
Complement:	39 officers and men
Armament:	6 x forward 21-inch torpedo tubes 12 torpedoes one three-inch gun one .303-calibre machine gun

File:STERLET badge-1-.jpg

HMS Sterlet was a Royal Navy S-class submarine which was launched 22 September 1937 and fought in the Second World War. Sterlet is one of 12 boats named in the song Twelve Little S-Boats. So far she has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to be named Sterlet.

On 8 April 1940 Sterlet left for a patrol in the Skagerrak, Norway under the command of Lt. Gerard Henry Stacpoole Haward, aged just 30, and the husband to Diana Auriol Haward. Four days later she unsuccessfully attacked a convoy of three merchant ships and a destroyer. The following day she was assigned a new patrol area and on 14 April torpedoed the German gunnery training ship Brummer, leading to it sinking the following day.

She was possibly sunk by the German anti submarine trawlers UJ-125, UJ-126 and UJ-128 on 18 April. Alternatively, she may have struck a mine whilst returning to port.

References

• 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.