HMS Templar (P316)

HMS Templar (P316)
HMS Templar
Career (UK)
Builder:	Vickers Armstrong, Barrow
Laid down:	28 December 1941
Launched:	26 October 1942
Commissioned:	15 February 1943
Fate:	sunk as target 1954, scrapped July 1959
Badge:	File:TEMPLAR badge-1-.jpg
General characteristics
Class & type:	British T class submarine
Displacement:	1,290 long tons surfaced 1,560 tons submerged
Length:	276 ft 6 in (84.28 m)
Beam:	25 ft 6 in (7.77 m)
Draught:	12 ft 9 in (3.89 m) forward 14 ft 7 in (4.45 m) aft
Propulsion:	Two shafts Twin diesel engines 2,500 hp (1.86 MW) each Twin electric motors 1,450 hp (1.08 MW) each
Speed:	15.5 knots (28.7 km/h) surfaced 9 knots (20 km/h) submerged
Range:	4,500 nautical miles at 11 knots (8,330 km at 20 km/h) surfaced
Test depth:	300 ft (91 m) max
Complement:	61
Armament:	6 internal forward-facing torpedo tubes 2 external forward-facing torpedo tubes 2 external amidships rear-facing torpedo tubes 1 external rear-facing torpedo tubes 6 reload torpedoes 4 inch (100 mm) deck gun 3 anti aircraft machine guns

HMS Templar was a British submarine of the third group of the T class. She was built as P316 by Vickers Armstrong, Barrow, and launched on 26 October 1942. So far she has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name Templar, probably after the crusading order, the Knights Templar.

Service

Templar served in the Far East for much of her wartime career, where she sank the Japanese merchant cargo ship Tyokai Maru and laid mines. She torpedoed and damaged the Japanese light cruiser Kitakami, and attacked the German submarine U-1062 but missed her with torpedoes.

She survived the war and continued in service with the Navy, finally being used as a target and sunk in Loch Striven, Scotland in 1954. She was salvaged on 4 December 1958 and arrived at Troon, Scotland on 19 July 1959 to be scrapped.

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. 
• Hutchinson, Robert (2001). Jane's Submarines: War Beneath the Waves from 1776 to the Present Day. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-710558-8. OCLC 53783010.