HMS K13 was a steam-propelled First World War K class

British K class submarine

The K class submarines were a class of steam-propelled submarines of the Royal Navy designed in 1913. Intended as large, fast vessels which had the endurance and speed to operate with the battle fleet, they gained notoriety, and the nickname of Kalamity class, for being involved in many accidents....

 submarine

Submarine

A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...

 of the British

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

. She sank in a fatal accident during sea trials in early 1917 and was salvage

Marine salvage

Marine salvage is the process of rescuing a ship, its cargo, or other property from peril. Salvage encompasses rescue towing, refloating a sunken or grounded vessel, or patching or repairing a ship...

d and recommissioned as HMS K22.

She had previously suffered another accident when heavy seas had damaged one of the funnels and water had nearly flooded her engine room

Engine room

On a ship, the engine room, or ER, commonly refers to the machinery spaces of a vessel. To increase the safety and damage survivability of a vessel, the machinery necessary for operations may be segregated into various spaces, the engine room is one of these spaces, and is generally the largest...

. The damage had been repaired but the next one was far more serious.

Accident

She sank in Gareloch on 29 January 1917 just after noon, having signalled to HMS E50

HMS E50

HMS E50 was a British E class submarine built by John Brown, Clydebank. She was laid down on 14 November 1916 and was commissioned on 23 January 1917....

 that she was about to dive. She had 80 people on board - 53 crew, 14 employees of the shipbuilders, five sub-contractors, five Admiralty officials, a River Clyde

River Clyde

The River Clyde is a major river in Scotland. It is the ninth longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third longest in Scotland. Flowing through the major city of Glasgow, it was an important river for shipbuilding and trade in the British Empire....

 pilot, and the captain and engineering officer from the still-completing K14

HMS K14

HMS K14 was a K class submarine built by Fairfields in Govan, Scotland. She was laid down in November 1915, and commissioned on 22 May 1917....

.

As she dived, seawater entered her engine room through openings which failed to close properly and flooded it along with the after torpedo room. As the submarine sank, a 10-ton ballast weight was dropped, but this did not arrest the descent. Two men were seen on the surface by a maid in a hotel a mile or so away, but her report was ignored. The crew of E50 became concerned when the submarine did not surface again, and found traces of oil on the surface.

The first rescue vessel, Gossamer, arrived at around 22:00 and divers

Underwater diving

Underwater diving is the practice of going underwater, either with breathing apparatus or by breath-holding .Recreational diving is a popular activity...

 were sent down at daybreak. The divers were delayed, since Gossamer had a diver but no suit, and the first diver to attempt to contact the submarine had a damaged suit which nearly flooded.

Morse code

Morse code

Morse code is a method of transmitting textual information as a series of on-off tones, lights, or clicks that can be directly understood by a skilled listener or observer without special equipment...

 signals were exchanged between them and the trapped crew of the submarine. Despite the lack of proper escape apparatus, the captain, Lieutenant-Commander Godfrey Herbert, and the captain of K14, Captain Goodhart, attempted an escape to the surface by using the space between the inner and outer hatches of the conning tower

Conning tower

A conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine, often armored, from which an officer can con the vessel; i.e., give directions to the helmsman. It is usually located as high on the ship as practical, to give the conning team good visibility....

 as an airlock

Airlock

An airlock is a device which permits the passage of people and objects between a pressure vessel and its surroundings while minimizing the change of pressure in the vessel and loss of air from it...

. Herbert reached the surface alive, but Goodhart's body was later found trapped in the superstructure.

Later that afternoon an airline was connected, which allowed the ballast tank

Ballast tank

A ballast tank is a compartment within a boat, ship or other floating structure that holds water.-History:The basic concept behind the ballast tank can be seen in many forms of aquatic life, such as the blowfish or argonaut octopus, and the concept has been invented and reinvented many times by...

s to be blown and with the aid of a hawser, and by midday on 21 January the bows had been brought to just above the surface and supported by a barge

Barge

A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Some barges are not self-propelled and need to be towed by tugboats or pushed by towboats...

 on each side. A hole was cut through her pressure hull, and at 22:00 the final survivor was rescued from the submarine, 57 hours after the accident. 32 crew died in the accident and 48 were rescued. 31 were expected to be still on the submarine, but only 29 were found, and it was concluded that the maid had indeed seen two people escaping from the engine room. One of their bodies was recovered from the Clyde two months later.

At 6 p.m. the following day, K13 tore the bollards out of the barges and sank again, flooding through the hole. The submarine was finally salvaged on 15 March, repaired and recommissioned as HMS K22.

The court of enquiry found that four of the 37 inch (940 mm) diameter ventilators had been left open during the dive, and that indicator lights in the control room had actually showed them as open. The engine room hatch was also found to be open.

HMS K5

HMS K5

HMS K5 was one of the K-class submarines that served in the Royal Navy from 1917-1921. She was lost with all hands when she sank en route to a mock battle in the Bay of Biscay.-War service:...

 was lost with all hands in January 1921, also due to problems with the air intakes that ventilate the boiler rooms.

The war graves and a monument to those who lost their lives in the K13 sinking was erected by the Ships Company, of HMS Submarine Depot Fort Block House, Gosport, England. It is to be found at the entrance to Faslane Cemetery, at the head of the Gare Loch.
A memorial to the disaster was erected in Carlingford, New South Wales

Carlingford, New South Wales

Carlingford is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Carlingford is located 22 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district in the local government areas of the The Hills Shire, Hornsby Shire and the City of Parramatta...

, Australia, paid for by the widow of Charles Freestone, a leading telegraphist on K13 who survived the accident to later emigrate and prosper in Australia. The memorial was unveiled on 10 September 1961 and has the inscription "This memorial has been created in memory of those officers and men of the Commonwealth who gave their lives in submarines while serving the cause of freedom." Set inside a pool of water surrounded by stone, it is composed of large (taller than a man) white letters saying "K13". It is called the "K13" memorial in particular memory of those lost in HM Submarine K13.

HMS K22

A year after the accident, as part of the 13th Submarine Flotilla, K13, now renamed K22 was involved in the "Battle" of May Island

Battle of May Island

The Battle of May Island is the name given to the series of accidents that occurred during Operation E.C.1 in 1918.Named after the Isle of May, an island in the Firth of Forth, close by, it was a disastrous series of accidents amongst Royal Navy ships on their way from Rosyth in Scotland to fleet...

 on 31 January 1918. This was during a night exercise in the Firth of Forth

Firth of Forth

The Firth of Forth is the estuary or firth of Scotland's River Forth, where it flows into the North Sea, between Fife to the north, and West Lothian, the City of Edinburgh and East Lothian to the south...

 involving the flotilla, 8 capital ship

Capital ship

The capital ships of a navy are its most important warships; they generally possess the heaviest firepower and armor and are traditionally much larger than other naval vessels...

s and numerous cruiser

Cruiser

A cruiser is a type of warship. The term has been in use for several hundreds of years, and has had different meanings throughout this period...

s and destroyer

Destroyer

In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...

s, and was a series of collisions which led to the loss of two K boats, serious damage to three others (including K22) and the deaths of a further 105 submariners.