The Battle of the May Island

It is a sad fact that wartime tends to accelerate the research and development of devices which can kill more people and with greater efficiency than was possible beforehand. New generations of guns, tanks, ships, planes and missiles are generated to meet the strategic planning of participating governments determined to defend their homeland at all costs whilst attempting to inflict maximum damage on their foe. In pursuit of these objectives, radical solutions may be employed and occasionally, curious products of dubious value created. The K class submarine probably represents one of the most outstanding examples of this genre.

During the nineteenth century, the battleship was typically regarded as the ultimate expression of naval seapower and a major cog in the running of the British Empire. In fact, the shortest war in history was largely a naval operation involving three Royal Navy Cruisers and a few gunboats. The Anglo-Zanzibar War began at 9:02am on 27th August 1896 and concluded just thirty-eight minutes later! It's from events of this kind where the expression, 'gunboat diplomacy' was often associated with the British Empire.

Battleships were not invulnerable, however, and especially at risk when docked in foreign harbours and where high explosives could have been placed on the seabed beneath the berth and later triggered remotely from shore or by means of a timing device. Initially, it was thought that an explosive device of this kind had sunk the USS Maine on February 15th 1898 while docked in Havana Harbour. It immediately led to a state of war between the United States of America and Spain lasting over several months and involving several sea battles. Upon its conclusion and under terms of the Treaty of Paris, Spain relinquished control of many former colonies including the Philipines, Guam and Cuba. The bitter irony about this, with the benefit of four subsequent and very detailed enquires, is how the detonation may have been caused by detonation within an ammunition magazine and possibly caused by heat generated in a nearby coal bunker!

Battleships were also prone to severe damage if they hit floating mines or mines anchored just below the surface in areas where battleships were likely to follow this route. In every case, however, successful attack against a battleship either demanded some element of luck or else prior knowledge as concerns their movement and the means to place some kind of high explosive charge beneath the waterline of the hull.

During the American Wars of Independence, an American engineer named David Bushell believed he had the ideal solution and conspired with others to sink the British warship, HMS Eagle, while it lay anchored in New York harbour. He constructed what was probably the first military submarine ever, a one man craft which could be driven under the ship and, by means of drills and hooks, attach an explosive to the underside of a ship. Upon application, however, the plan failed. The drill was unable to penetrate the copper lining of the hull.

What was needed was another means to deliver high explosive towards or below the waterline of the target. Eventually, the solution arrived in the shape of the automotive torpedo, jointly developed by Scottish engineer Robert Whitehead and a former captain of the Austrian navy named Giovanni de Luppis. Their first prototypes were only capable of nine knots and the first one fired in anger, against pirates in the Pacific, failed to keep up with the target. In 1878, during the Russo-Turkish wars, an improved version which could run at eighteen knots sunk a Turkish warship at Batumi.

The early automotive torpedoes were erratic but had been greatly refined by 1890. They now had contra-rotating propellers and incorporated improved guidance and greater speed. They were able to deliver 300 lbs of high explosive to a target two miles away at a speed of 30 knots! As such, they instantly drew interest from many countries and navies seeking to offset the inbalance between those who could afford to deploy battleships and those who couldn't. From that moment onward, the long term future of battleships was in doubt yet far from obsolete. An aquatic missile with a range of just two miles meant getting close to the target before launching it and getting close meant devising a means of getting close without being seen and the submarine was recognised as being the best way to achieve this objective. The first submarine to incorporate torpedo launch tubes was built by Swedish inventor, Thorston Nordenfeldt, in 1885 albeit without resolving the crucial issue of how to power a submerged submarine. It was French engineers who largely resolved the problem by building an electrically powered submarine in 1893, just two years before an American engineer, named John Holland, reached the same conclusion.

By the turn of the century then, the automotive torpedo was a well proven device operated by several navies and was used aggressively at the Battle of Tsushima in 1905 where Japanese torpedo boats were allowed to attack Russian warships after the main battle had concluded in daylight and where the oncoming night allowed the small vessels to get in close and inflict great damage on the Russian fleet.

Germany was one country whose investment in torpedo technology ultimately led to U-Boat submarines and the highly successful 'E' Boat class powered by six diesal engines and whose activities during World War Two were either directly or indirectly responsible (minelaying near ports for example) for more ships being lost than those sunk by U Boats. In this respect lagged behind and continued to invest heavily in battleships and when 'crunch time' came, many former pleasure craft were converted for a role never envisaged in their design and retrofitted with arms yet still often powered by petrol engines. In a skirmish with 'E' boats, these makeshift vessels were often engulfed in flame as high velocity shells penetrated the fuel tanks. In a similar way, the first 'Sherman' tanks rushed off the production lines in America had the same problem during World War Two and British tanks were no better, earning the nickname, 'tommy cookers' among friends and foe alike. Overall, diesal became the preferred fuel for military vehicles and with good reason. In terms of submarines, it was the ideal choice for sailing on the surface and where excess capacity could be employed to power electric generators to recharge lead-acid batteries designed to power the vessel while submerged. The U-Boat design employed by Germany and others in World War Two followed this design concept despite great and already recognised limitations that became steadily apparent and increasingly obvious. In the case of the German U-Boat, fighting an increasingly desperate battle of the North Atlantic, the need to remain submerged became a pressing issue and where the introduction of a snorkel improvised and provided greater use of the diesel engines over extended time periods and ultimately making little difference to the eventual outcome. Even in World War Two, submarines could not ever be considered as a vessel worthy of fleet attachment alongside battleships and cruisers. They were simply too slow, too cumbersome and possibly dangerous in close proximity to other shipping during in less than ideal visual weather conditions. The notion that submarines of the period could serve as part of a fleet would seem absurd in current times and yet, that's precisely what the Royal Navy deemed necessary at the time and knowing that only steam power could deliver the kind of speed required for a submersible vessel to keep up with the battleships on the surface.

In many respects, the expert opinion at the time wasn't too far wide of the mark. Even modern nuclear submarines typically use atomic power to generate super-heated steam at great pressure to drive steam turbines that provide motive power. Atomic reactors also provide the capability to break down molecules and generate air which can be breathed and sustain life over prolonged periods of submersion. A nuclear powered submarine can traverse great distances and dive far deeper than ever conceived in previous generations – and yet they still rely on more sophisticated variants of steam power to accomplish their missions.

In the early years of the twentieth century, the formerly isolationist views of the Royal Navy gave way to greater pragmatism and a sense of reality. With no research or development program of their own, Britain purchased their first submarine in 1901 from the John Holland company based in the United States. Several more followed and where some were retrofitted by the Royal Navy with periscopes for the first time in history. In subsequent years, these submersible vessels were deemed as Class 'A' and separating them from other designs built closer to the homeland. Class 'B', 'C' and 'D' classes were completed before 1910 with the latter sporting external ballast tanks on either side and a conning tower akin to many designs that followed for the next fifty years. In terms of features, electric motors, powered by an array of batteries, propelled the boat while it was underwater and diesel engines were used on the surface to both propel the vessel and power generators to recharge the batteries. It was a model that remained essentially unchanged for the following fifty years and which failed to find acceptance with the British Admiralty of the period enveloped in a 'fleet mentality' frame of mind. In their opinion, they wanted a submarine capable of maintaining flank speeds with the fleet whenever needed or demanded and yet capable of diving whenever occasion demanded it – and that meant application of steam power at the least while the submarine was surfaced. To this end, the ill-fated 'K' class hybrid submarine was born and ultimately destined to kill more crew members than any enemy it was designed to face.

The 'K' class submarines were giants when compared with most contemporary designs of the period and had an overall length of three hundred and thirty feet. Each weighed approximately three times that of any previous designs and were heavier than almost every destroyer in the fleet at that time.

By inclusion of a steam engine meant that a complex, lengthy and potentially hazardous procedure was required before diving. In short order, the boiler furnaces had to be dowsed down before the two funnels were retracted and the remaining three foot diameter holes covered and sealed. In addition, four mushroom shaped air vents and a large number of other apertures had to be closed. The whole operation took five minutes at best and excluded any chance of a crash dive if the vessel was attacked while surfaced.

To combat this serious deficiency, the K-Boats were well armed with two four inch guns and a single three inch anti-aircraft gun. The K-Boats were also fitted with ten torpedo tubes of which, two, were mounted on the funnel superstructure and were designed for use while the vessel was surfaced.

According to technical detail, the submarines were capable of diving to a depth of one hundred and fifty feet and required a crew of over fifty men. Weight distribution was poor however, and K-class vessels had an alarming tendency to nose dive towards the seabed if not correctly trimmed. It took a little time before this serious flaw became apparent and after K13 to crash onto the seabed Gareloch during her sea trials. Thirty two lives were lost as a result.

Other vessels of the series also encountered misfortune. K2 caught fire on her first dive and K3 crashed onto the bottom of Stokes Bay during a test dive. One survivor of this latter incident was the future King George VI. K4 ran aground and K5 simply vanished during a training exercise and none of her fifty-seven man crew were ever seen again. K6 submerged and became jammed on the bottom of Devonport dockyard. K14 sprang a leak in Portsmouth harbour and where small leaks near electrical circuits caused leakage of cold sea water onto boiling tanks. The resulting explosion turned the engine room into a flooded sauna with scalded firemen nearby.

Despite these setbacks, the Royal Navy pressed ahead, and while increasingly realising how such craft might provide valiant service in times of conflict and emergency, on January 31st, 1918, the Royal Navy chose to undertake a naval fleet exercise in the Firth of Forth, an estuary of Eastern Scotland and where the widest part is about seventeen miles measured from Fife Ness to St Abb's Head. Close to the centre of this aperature lies the Isle of May and where one of the first lighthouses in the World was built and maintained on a regular basis.

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Model of a K Class Submarine

It was just after dark on the evening of that date when the exercise, codenamed ECI, started from Rosyth Naval Base located in southern Fife and where the plan involved sailing a number of battleships, cruisers and destroyers in two groups sailing out towards the North Sea. Nine K-Boats were included in the project and when the whole fleet was at sea, it would stretch out over twenty miles. U-Boat activity was suspected in the area so orders had been given to conceal external lights while maintaining radio silence.

As the first flotilla of K-boats approached the mouth of the estuary, near the May Island, they became aware of a group of minesweepers ahead of them. The captain of K11, sailing with this first group, spotted the small ships and ordered a reduction in speed and a turn to port. K17 did likewise but K14 only became aware of the danger when two of the minesweepers emerged from fog and were seen to be heading across his bow. Only then did the captain of the K14 realise that K17 had turned and in order to avoid a collision and ordered full right rudder. This action took the vessel clear of both minesweepers and the nearby K12 but, as luck would have it, the helm of K14 then jammed in the full right rudder condition. K14 was thus forced into the path of K22 which was still running ahead at 22 knots. Collision was unavoidable and K22 sliced into K14 just aft of the forward torpedo room.

Immediate disaster was averted by the rapid closure of watertight doors but both vessels were now locked together and stationary in the path of the following warships and which, although unseen, were now bearing down on them. Navigation lights were quickly switched on and flares fired. The radio silence order was ignored and requests for help sent out.

Three large battlecruisers sailed safely past, their near proximity creating a wash which rocked the stricken submarines violently. HMS Inflexible, however was sailing closely behind and rode over the stricken K22, her weight pushing the submarine under her hull. As Inflexible continued on her way and faded into the mist, K22 resurfaced with thirty feet of her already damaged bow now twisted at right angles to the remainder of the hull and one of her ballast tanks completely sheared off.

Cries for help were acted on by other ships of the first flotilla with several reversing course and heading back into the Firth of Forth. In doing so, their actions created a new hazard in that ships from the first flotilla were now heading westwards on a collision course with ships from the second flotilla sailing eastwards.

The leading ship of the second flotilla was HMS Fearless. She had passed clear of the May Island at 7.54pm and her captain, judging from initial radio reports, estimated the position of the crash as just one and a half miles from the island. He decided that he was passed the danger area and ordered an increase in speed to twenty-one knots. He remained ignorant and unaware that ships from the first group had reversed course and were headed directly towards the second group. Both fleets met head-on at a point some thirteen miles east of the May Island at 8.32pm and where HMS Fearless collided with K17, the bows neatly slicing into the submarine's hull just forward of the conning tower. K17 began to sink and the crew abandoned her. Eight minutes later, K17 submerged for the last time.

Under normal circumstances, the crew had every chance of being rescued since they were surrounded by many ships but things were far from normal. K4, which had been sailing closely behind HMS Fearless, now turned to port with a view to picking up survivors. K3, sailing just behind K4 attempted to emulate this manoeuvre, turned to port and stopped some distance further on.

K12 now entered the arena. She had been part of the first flotilla and which had reversed course and, at one point in time, had narrowly averted collision with the outbound cruiser Australia. In fact, the vessels had passed so closely that crewmen on the larger vessel had been able to look down into the submarine's funnels and see the fires glowing below! Her sudden appearance near to the collision zone immediately caused alarm on board K6 and which was still heading eastward as part of the second group. K6 swerved to avoid colliding with K12 but collided with K4 instead and almost sliced her in half.

K6 was impaled and stuck firm on the rapidly sinking wreck of K4 and it seemed that K6 would be dragged down by K4. Mercifully, the application of engines running full astern caused the vessels to separate just a few seconds before K4 rolled over and sank. Submarine K7 arrived at that moment and stopped nearby with her deck crew already stripped down and ready to engage in rescue efforts. Sadly, however, there were no survivors from K4.

While all this was happening, the destroyers and escorts of the second flotilla were still rushing past and maintaining speeds of twenty-one knots. Two of these vessels narrowly missed K3 but their wash spread outwards and swept across the deck casing of K7 where would-be rescuers were suddenly washed into the sea. Worse still, some ships were passing over the spot where K17 had sunk and where crewmen were struggling in the water. Many were pushed under and drowned while others chopped up by propellers. Only nine men from K17 were picked up and one of these, picked up by K7, died later.

Exercise ECI concluded with the loss of two K-Boats and left three more in a crippled condition. One light cruiser had been damaged. Over one hundred lives were lost. Despite this, the wartime navy strove to conceal the entire matter from public scrutiny and the truth emerged long after the war was over.

The death toll aboard K class submarines had now risen to two hundred and seventy men without a single shot ever being fired at the enemy. As a result, most K class vessels were decommissioned and consigned to scrap yards. K18, K19, K20 and K21 were withdrawn to Portsmouth where they received extensive modifications and were redesignated as 'M' class submarines. Despite this, they found little favour with their crews who dubbed them 'Mutton Boats'.

Despite this calamity, the Navy ordered a further six K-Boats in June 1918, but upon conclusion of the war, most contracts were cancelled on November 26th 1918 and only K26 was ever ever completed and to a very much improved specification in June 1923. On the surface, she was slightly slower than the other K boats on account of new hydroplanes and changes to the bow. The modified design now sported six 21 inch torpedo tubes in the bow in place of the four 18 inch ones in previous models and the four 18 inch beam toperpdo tubes were retained in this design. Older K class boats had often suffered problems when, during bad weather, sea water was apt to spill down the funnel and dowse the boiler flames but this problem had been largely overcome in the new K26 design. K26 was twelve feet longer than the older models but had an increased fuel capacity rising from the 197 tons of the older models to nearly 300 tons and greatly increasing her range as a consequence. Improved ballast tank controls and other features reduced the diving time to just over three minutes and her rated maximum depth of dive was improved to 250 feet.

In 1924, K26 sailed with much publicity on a long voyage via Gibraltar, Malta, Suez Canal, to Colombo and Singapore and back again without major incident and had a successful career. She was eventually withdrawn from in April 1931 because her displacement exceeded the limits for submarine displacement set out by London Naval Treaty of 1930, and broken up soon afterward.

While many existing K-Boats were scrapped soon after the war was over, some were still being built and were hastily modified to become the new M class submarine powered by diesel engines rather than steam. Even before the end of conflict, K18 became M1 and was fitted with a large twelve inch gun in the belief that if the unreliable torpedoes of the period failed then the engagement might be successfully concluded by means of a big gun. There remained serious doubt as regards whether such a plan was practical, however, and she was sent to the Mediterranean during the remainder of the war where she was less likely to encounter the enemy. She was last seen diving on the 12th November 1925 near Start Point but failed to re-surface. According to best available evidence, it seems likely she had been struck by the Swedish ship Vidar while submerged.

K19 and K20 became M2 and M3 with the latter becoming a minelayer while M2 underwent further modification in that the large gun was replaced by a seaplane hanger and possibly on account of French naval plans for the famous and ill-fated submarine named Surcouf. In this design, M2 was capable of storing a specially built aircraft in a watertight hanger and and able to launch it via a catapult within a few minutes of resurfacing whenever weather permitted it. The seaplane, equipped with floats could land on water and where a crane aboard M2 was able to retreive it. The new strategic thinking concerning such vessels was now centred on them being deployed ahead of the fleet and capable of providing considerable amounts of information about enemy deployment and much more. The ability to get close before launching an aircraft was deemed a significant advancement in terms of military intelligence.

M2 with Seaplane

On the 26th January 1932, off Portland, the M2 reported that she was preparing to dive then silence. Some time later, the captain of the coaster Tynesider, docking at Portland, reported seeing a submarine which had dived stern first. From his evidence, the wreck was soon located and the evidence seemed to suggest that doors had been opened too quickly upon their return to the surface. Sixty lives were lost.

From 9 May to 15 May 1926, the M3 was used to generate electricity for the docklands area of London during a general strike and was eventually scrapped in April, 1932 and less than a year after K26 had been scrapped.

K26 thus became the last steam-powered built anywhere in the World until the USS Nautilus, was launched in 1954 and where nuclear reactors replaced the coal bunkers and boilers of former designs and where, even today, the role of steam power has not been entirely superceded within the designs of modern submarines or high performance naval ships.

Overall, many harsh lessons were learned in the worst way possible from events that occurred near the May Island in January of 1918 and which served to sharpen minds and lead to improvements in the years that followed. Nevertheless, it remains a sad chapter in history and where so many died amid tragic circumstances.

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