H.M.S/M SUBMARINE TURBULENT

A SHORT HISTORY OF H.M.S/M TURBULENT

The name "Turbulent" dates from 1805. The first was a wooden ship, of which there are few details.

The second was a destroyer, sunk at Jutland in 1916. The third was also a destroyer, and was built in 1919 and sold in 1936. The fourth, of course, was a "T" class submarine. She had a relatively short life, but it was certainly eventful.

H.M.Submarine "Turbulent" was built by Vickers Armstrong at Barrow in Furness. Although Vickers was lead yard, many Submarines were built elsewhere during the Second World War. By the end of the "T" boat construction, dockyards, such as Chatham, Portsmouth and Devonport were used more and more. In fact they were building more boats than Barrow. At the beginning of the war, Barrow claimed to be able to build 16 "T" class boats a year, but by the end were only building 8.

In early 1941, Admiral, (Submarines) Sir Max Horton became seriously worried about the time taken to complete "Trusty" and "Turbulent", the two boats of the 1939 programme, allocated to Vickers at Barrow.

"Turbulent" was eventually commissioned in 1942 with the pennant number N98. She had a displacement of 1,090 tons surfaced and 1,571 dived. With a length of 273ft. 6ins.and a beam of 26ft. 6ins. Her surface speed was 15¼ knots and 8 knots dived. The armament was one 4¨ gun, 3.303's, eleven torpedo tubes. 8 forward, two amidships and one aft, and seventeen torpedoes. She had a ship's company of 61.

The loss of "Turbulent" was something of a mystery, and robbed the Submarine service of one of its more able commanding officers of WW2. a former 1st Lt. (Vice Admiral Sir Anthony Troop), remembered "Tubby" Linton as a very tough, stern chap outwardly, with high standards and a strong disciplinarian. Inwardly he thought that he was a very kind gentleman, but physically and mentally tough. He was very quick on his feet, he did most of his attacks in his head, regardless of what the instruments were saying. He had a good sense of humour, but I think we were all afraid of him! He was utterly trusted, because there was nothing he didn't know about Submarines or the Submarine world, or how to run a Submarine in war time.

During her short life "Turbulent" had been hunted 13 times, and had been the recipient of 250 depth charges. She was reported missing on May 3rd 1943, with all hands. It was believed that she had become the victim of a mine field.

During her 13 patrols, "Turbulent" had been responsible for sinking one Cruiser, one Destroyer, one Submarine, 28 supply ships. Some 100,000 tons in all. There were also 3 trains destroyed by gunfire. She was at sea for 254 days of the last year, half of them submerged.

Commander "Tubby" Linton's VC was gazetted on 25th May 1943, posthumously.

The Submarine service, however, had not finished with the Linton family. William Linton. who was a naval cadet when he collected his father's Victoria Cross from the King on 23rd February 1944, died while doing his Submarine training, when the "Affray" failed to surface in the English Channel 0n 17th April 1951.

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