Built as a nuclear submarine by Vickers Armstrong, Barrow-in-Furness for the Royal Navy.
15 May 1968 laid down.
07 March 1970 launched under the name HMS COURAGEOUS (S50), one of the Churchill class of which three were built. She was the sixth nuclear submarine in the Royal Navy.
Displacement 3.500 ton surface, 4.500 ton submerged, dim. 285 x 33.6ft., draught about 27 ft.
Powered by a nuclear installation, speed in excess of 25 knots surfaced, 30 knots submerged.
Armament 6 – 21 inch bow tubes, fitted out with the old but fairly reliable MK 8 mod 4 torpedo of World War II. The torpedoes could only be used against surface targets.
Diving depth in excess of 1000 feet.
Complement 120 and only 97 bunks were fitted; some temporary bunks were erected in the reload torpedo room when not carrying a full weapon load. Otherwise “hot bunking” was used.
16 October 1971 commissioned.
After her commission joined the Third Submarine Squadron at Faslane on the River Clyde.
After her work up period she took part in many ‘cold war’ patrols mostly in the North Atlantic and Norwegian Sea, with an occasional voyage to the Mediterranean.
September 1976 she had her first refit at Chatham Dockyard.
August 1978 re-entered service with a much more modern armament, fitted out with the Tigerfish torpedoes, but she still carried also the old MK 8 torpedoes.
After a workup period she joined again the Third Squadron at Faslane and carried out her ‘Cold War’ patrols.
1979 Deployed in a task force group to the Mediterranean and via the Suez Canal to the Far East, during this voyage she visited Corfu and Haifa.
Then deployed in the Atlantic, she visited Charleston in the USA for maintenance and showing the flag. After a conversion in Chatham Dockyard used as trial ship for the Harpoon missiles.
June 1981 she sailed to San Diego via the Panama Canal, and during the voyage she made calls at Bermuda and Willemstad, Curacao.
From San Diego naval base she operated for 9 months, firing a total of 81rounds of missiles, of which 15 were live firing, against old American warships. The firing was successful and the weapon system accepted by the Royal navy.
After these trials she sailed from San Diego on 15 February 1982 and via the Panama Canal, making calls at Charleston and Bermuda before she headed home.
02 April 1982 she arrived at Faslane.
The same time the Argentine forces invaded the Falklands, and after a quick docking, taken on board fresh provision she sailed on 12 May under command of Rupert Best, destination South Atlantic.
After arrival off the Argentinean coast used as an early air attack-warning vessel of the Task Force. She sighted an Argentinean hospital ship but let her go.
After the surrender of the Argentinean forces on 15 June she stayed in the waters of the Falklands.
13 August 1982 she arrived in the U.K.
Thereafter she made an other three South Atlantic patrols before she got a refit at Devonport.
11 October 1986 again ready for service, and sailed from Devonport early January 1987.
After a workup program she joined again the Third Submarine Squadron in Scotland.
Made three deployments to the East Coast of America, making calls at Bermuda, Port Canaveral and Fort Lauderdale, conducting trials with the new Spearfish torpedoes.
08 April 1992 arrived at Plymouth, decommissioned at Devonport 10 April.
Her reactor plant was de-fuelled, and stripped of much of her equipment, then laid up.
After a lay-up of 10 years she was made ready for public display, shifted into No 3 dock in the South Yard of HM Naval Base Devonport.
During Navy Day 2002 opened for the public.
2005 Still there open for the public.
St Helena 2002 50p sg?, scott?
Source: Marine News. Ships of the Royal Navy by J.J.Colledge. Sea Breezes Dec. 2005.
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