HMS Conqueror (S48): The First Nuclear Submarine to Sink a Warship in Combat

Built at Birkenhead

HMS Conqueror was built by Cammell Laird at Birkenhead, laid down on 5 December 1967 and launched on 28 August 1969, though construction was delayed by workforce disputes and even sabotage of the ship's gearbox. She was commissioned on 9 November 1971, the last nuclear submarine ever built at Cammell Laird, a Churchill-class fleet submarine designed from the outset to counter the Soviet Navy, armed with six torpedo tubes capable of firing Mark 8 and Tigerfish torpedoes alongside Sub Harpoon missiles.

The Sinking of the General Belgrano

On 2 May 1982, during the Falklands War, Conqueror, under the command of Commander Christopher Wreford-Brown, fired three older Mark 8 torpedoes at the Argentine cruiser ARA General Belgrano from roughly 1.5 kilometres away, deliberately choosing the older weapons over more modern guided torpedoes because they were judged more effective against the cruiser's armoured hull. Two of the three torpedoes struck home, and the Belgrano began sinking rapidly within twenty minutes. The attack killed 323 Argentine sailors, while 793 of her crew were rescued, a devastating loss of life that remains, to this day, the single deadliest incident of the entire Falklands conflict and deserves to be remembered with the full seriousness it warrants.

A Lasting Controversy

The sinking has remained a point of genuine and long-running controversy, principally because the Belgrano was outside Britain's declared Total Exclusion Zone and, according to critics, was sailing away from the Falkland Islands at the time she was struck. The British government's position rested on a message sent to Argentina on 23 April, warning that any Argentine vessel judged a threat to British forces could be engaged regardless of the exclusion zone's boundaries, a warning some senior Argentine officers later acknowledged they had understood to mean the whole South Atlantic had effectively become an operational area for both sides. The decision to change the rules of engagement specifically to permit the attack has continued to generate debate ever since about the military and political judgement behind it, a debate this history does not attempt to settle but which deserves to be acknowledged honestly. Conqueror herself holds the distinction of being the first nuclear-powered submarine ever to sink an enemy surface ship with torpedoes in wartime, a record that stood alone for 44 years until March 2026, when a US submarine torpedoed the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena, a singular and sobering entry in naval history.

Decommissioning

HMS Conqueror was decommissioned in 1990, and as of 2019 remained one of more than twenty former Royal Navy nuclear submarines held in storage by the Ministry of Defence awaiting final disposal, while items from the boat are preserved at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport.