HMS Cachalot (S06): A Postwar Pioneer at the Silver Jubilee Review

Constructed at Greenock

HMS Cachalot was built by Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company at Greenock, launched on 11 December 1957 and commissioned on 1 September 1959, one of the Porpoise-class submarines that were the first operational submarines built for the Royal Navy after the Second World War.

Their design deliberately incorporated lessons drawn from captured German Type XXI U-boats alongside Britain's own wartime experimental work, resulting in a particularly modern postwar submarine displacing 2,080 tons on the surface and armed with eight 21-inch torpedo tubes.

Taking Her Place at the Silver Jubilee

Cachalot took part in the 1977 Silver Jubilee Fleet Review off Spithead as part of the Submarine Flotilla, one of the great ceremonial gatherings of the Royal Navy and a proud moment for any vessel in the fleet, marking Queen Elizabeth II's twenty-fifth year on the throne.

The End of Her Service

HMS Cachalot came off the front line at Devonport in September 1977, shortly after her appearance at the Fleet Review, and spent two years laid up in reserve before being sold for scrap on 12 November 1979 and broken up at Blyth in Northumberland, bringing to a close the career of one of the boats that had helped rebuild Britain's submarine service in the years immediately following the Second World War.