HMSTerrapin
History
United Kingdom
Builder	Vickers-Armstrongs,Barrow
Laid down	19 October 1942
Launched	31 August 1943
Commissioned	22 January 1944
Fate	Damaged by depth charges, scrapped June 1946
Badge
General characteristics
Class & type	British T class submarine
Displacement	1,290tons 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-facing21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 2 external forward-facing torpedo tubes 2 external amidships rear-facing torpedo tubes 1 external rear-facing torpedo tubes 6 reload torpedoes QF 4 inch (100 mm) deck gun 3 anti aircraft machine guns

HMSTerrapin was a Britishsubmarine of the third group of theT class. She was built asP323 byVickers-Armstrongs,Barrow and launched on 31 August 1943. So far she has been the only ship of theRoyal Navy to bear the nameTerrapin, after theanimal of that name. Apart from a brief period in home waters off the Scandinavian coast,Terrapin served in the Far East for much of her wartime career.

Though only commissioned on 22 January 1944, she had a comparatively active career. In March 1944 she attacked a German convoy offFlekkefjord, Norway, torpedoing and damaging the German catapult shipSchwabenland, and the German tankerWörth (the former DutchOmala). TheSchwabenland was grounded at Sildeneset in Abelnes harbour to prevent her from sinking and theWörth was towed to port.

Terrapin was then assigned to the Pacific Far East in mid 1944. She opened her career by bombarding Japanese installations at Gunung Sitoli (Nias Island), western Sumatra. She also sank a Japanese coaster with gunfire and damaged another. She went on to sink the Japanese auxiliary netlayerKumano Maru, the Japanese minesweeperW 5, and ten Japanese sailing vessels, damaging another.

Terrapin often operated withHMSTrenchant, and together they sank the Japanese tankerYaei Maru No.6, the Japanese auxiliary minesweeperReisui Maru, the Japanese submarine chaserCh 8, a fishing vessel and seven coasters.Terrapin herself sank another small craft with gunfire.

Terrapin was damaged on 19 May 1945 by depth charges from Japanese escort vessels while attacking an escorted tanker. With the assistance of the American submarineUSSCavalla, she was escorted and returned toFremantle, Australia. After inspectionTerrapin was declared a constructive total loss on return to harbour and was later scrapped in June 1946.^[1]

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969].Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th Century to the Present (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.

• British T-class submarines of the Royal Navy
• Ships built in Barrow-in-Furness
• 1943 ships
• World War II submarines of the United Kingdom
• Lost submarines of the United Kingdom
• Cold War submarines of the United Kingdom
• Maritime incidents in May 1945
• Ships built by Vickers-Armstrongs at Barrow in Furness

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from March 2017
• Use British English from March 2017
• All Wikipedia articles written in British English