July 30th - On This Date - RN Submarine Service

1932	Porpoise	Submarine HMS Porpoise launched
1941	Trusty	Submarine HMS Trusty completed
1941	Unseen	Submarine HMS Unseen laid down
1944	Varne	Submarine HMS Varne completed
1943	Vengeful	Submarine HMS Vengeful laid down
1941	Cachalot	Scuttled off Benghazi On 9th July 1941 Cachalot departed from Alexandria loaded with stores bound for Malta and arrived on the 16th. She left again on the 26th with personnel bound for Alexandria and instructions to look out for an escorted tanker heading for Benghazi. At 2 o'clock on the morning of 30th July a destroyer was spotted heading towards Cachalot, forcing the submarine to dive. On returning to the surface the submarine was spotted and attacked by the Italian destroyer which steamed in firing it's guns. Cachalot's diving drill was sorely hampered when the upper hatch jammed, thereby preventing a crash dive, and the Italian destroyer rammed into her, although not at great speed as the Italian Captain had realised that the order to abandon the submarine had already been given. As the crew went into the water the main vents were opened and Cachalot sank in very deep water. All the crew, apart from a Maltese steward, were picked up by the destroyer and transported to Benghazi from where they were taken to a POW camp near Naples, until repatriation in 1943.
1942	USS Indianapolis	The USS Indianapolis is torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in shark infested waters. Out of a crew of 1,196 only 316 survived. The Captain (Charles Butler McVay III) was court-martialed and convicted for failing to evade the sub which sank his ship. Since then however, the Navy has exonerated him.
1942	HMS Traveller	While operating in the Adriatic HMS Traveller fires 6 torpedoes at the Italian light cruiser Cattaro off Pola. The torpedoes missed.
1944	HMS Virtue	HMS Virtue fires a torpedo against the small German merchant Dresden of Ananes Island, Greece. The torpedo misses.
1951	Admiral Sir Max Horton	Admiral Sir Max Horton dies. First sub commander to sink an enemy warship.
2000	HMCS Onondaga	HMCS Onondaga paid off at Halifax

SAB