HMS Repulse (S23): The Last of the Polaris Boats in Service

An Eventful Launch

HMS Repulse was built by Vickers-Armstrongs at Barrow-in-Furness, launched on 4 November 1967 by Lady Joan Zuckerman, wife of the government's Chief Scientific Advisor, in suitably dramatic fashion: the new submarine ran aground in the Walney Channel during her own launch, though she was undamaged and successfully floated free on the next high tide, a memorable if slightly embarrassing start to her career.

She commissioned on 28 September 1968, and construction delays elsewhere meant she actually overtook her sister Renown to be commissioned second of the Resolution class rather than third as originally planned.

A Rare Look Inside the Deterrent

In 1984, Repulse's crew and their families were the subject of a landmark BBC documentary deployment, broadcast in February 1985 as part of a six-film series, offering the British public a properly rare glimpse into the closed and secretive world of the nuclear deterrent submarine service and the toll long patrols took on the families left behind.

A Peaceful Protest Breach

On 10 October 1988, anti-nuclear protesters breached Repulse's control room while she was moored at HM Naval Base Clyde, before being arrested, a striking demonstration of the strength of feeling the Polaris deterrent continued to provoke even in its later years.

The Last of Her Class

HMS Repulse was decommissioned on 28 August 1996, and holds the distinction of being the very last of the four Resolution-class submarines to remain in Royal Navy service, bringing to a close nearly three decades during which Britain's continuous at-sea nuclear deterrent had rested on the shoulders of boats exactly like her.