SCEPTRE (P-215) HMS submarine

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Built as a submarine under yard No 591 by Scott’s Shipbuilding at Greenock, Scotland for the Royal Navy.
25 July 1940 laid down as P-65.
09 January 1943 launched as the HMS P-215, one of the S-class.
Displacement 872 tons surfaced, 990 ton submerged. Dim. 66.1 x 7.16 x 3.4m. (draught surfaced)
Powered by two diesel engines, 1960 hp, speed surfaced 14.7 knots, and two electro motors 1,300 hp, twin shafts, speed 8 knots submerged.
Endurance by a speed of 10 knots, 6,000 miles.
Armament: 1 – 3 inch, 1 – 20mm Oerlikon canon and 3 – 0.303 calibre MG, 6 – 21 inch bow tubes and 1 – 21 inch stern tube, carried 13 torpedoes.
Crew 48.
15 April 1943 commissioned as HMS SCEPTRE P-215.
HMS SCEPTRE (P215) was a 1940-programme S-class submarine of the Royal Navy. She was launched on January 9, 1943, in Greenock, although her keel had been laid down in July 1940.
Career
In World War II, SCEPTRE joined the 3rd Submarine Flotilla in April 1943 and was based at Holy Loch. She then detached to Scapa Flow to be used for the Submarine Commanding Officer's Qualifying Course, the Perisher. Whilst exercising to the west of the Orkney Islands, she was depth charged in error by the Royal Air Force and her hull was slightly buckled, which required docking for repairs.
After an uneventful first patrol, she was fitted with special towing gear and proceeded to Loch a' Chàirn Bhàin. Here she joined up with two T-class and three S-class submarines, together with the depot ships TITANIA and BONADVENTURE, the latter being the depot ship for the X-craft midget submarines. SCEPTRE left Loch Cairnbawn on September 12, 1943, with X-10 in tow. The aim was to attack the German battleship TIRPIZ at Kåfjord. This attack was intended to remove the threat of the German battleship to convoys on their way to Russia. Six X-craft were used to attack shipping in the fjords, with the attack on TIRPITZ putting her out of action for nearly a year.
07 March 1944 she torpedoeds and heavily damaged the German merchant ship LIPPE off the Foldafjord, Norway. The LIPPE is beached but breaks up the following day.
In April 1944, SCEPTRE left for another "special operation" with X-24 in tow. X-24 penetrated Bergen harbour and sank the merchant ship Bärenfels as well as damaging large sections of the floating dock in the harbour.
Sceptre earned the title of "Bring them back alive" as she was the only towing submarine which lost none of the X-craft in her care. Commanded by Lieutenant I. S. McIntosh, MBE, DSC, throughout her short but active service career.
20 May 1944 she torpedoes and sinks the German merchant ship HOCHHEIMER off Bilbao, northern Spain. In the same attack the torpedoes miss the Greman patrol vessel V-402 and V-405.
23 May 1944 she sinks by torpedoes the Norwegian merchant ship BALDUR off Castro-Urdiales, northern Spain.
20 September 1944 she torpedoes and sinks the Norwegian merchant ship VELA and the German minesweeper M 132 about 11 nautical miles west-south-west of Norway.
20 October 1944 she torpedoed and sinks the German auxiliary submarine chaser UJ 1111 off Lister, Norway.
SCEPTRE sank six ships — four merchant vessels of 14,393 gross register tons and two escorts of 1,444 displacement tons. This total and tonnage was unequalled by any other submarine in home waters during the period.
At the end of the war, SCEPTRE was disarmed, streamlined and given more powerful batteries to serve as a high speed target submarine. She was allocated to the Seventh Submarine Flotilla and used for training, based at Loch Alsh. She continued to run as a training unit based in Portland until February 1947. She was damaged by a battery explosion on 8 August 1949. She was finally sold to the British Iron and Steel Corporation for scrap in September 1949, and was broken up at Gateshead the same month.

Chad 2014 700f sg?, scott?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Sceptre_(P215) http://www.miramarshipindex.org.nz http://www.rnsubs.co.uk/Boats/BoatDB2/i ... BoatID=343