HMS Terrapin (P323): Brought Home by an American Submarine

The Build: Barrow

HMS Terrapin was built by Vickers-Armstrongs at Barrow, with components supplied by Bellis and Morcom, launched on 31 August 1943 and commissioned on 22 January 1944 under Lieutenant Desmond Samuel Royce Martin, a third-group T-class submarine that would go on to fight hard in two very different theatres.

From Norway to the Far East

Terrapin's first patrol, off southern Norway in March and April 1944, saw her torpedo and damage the German catapult ship Schwabenland and strike the tanker Wörth near Lista.

Redeployed to the Far East that summer, she bombarded the pier at Gunung Sitoli, destroyed coasters, and, working repeatedly alongside HMS Trenchant, sank the Japanese minesweeper W 5, the auxiliary minesweeper Reisui Maru, the submarine chaser Ch-8 and numerous sailing vessels and coasters across the Malacca Strait, one of the more effective operational partnerships of the Far East submarine campaign.

A Devastating Final Patrol

On her seventh patrol in the Java Sea, Terrapin was badly damaged on 19 May 1945 by depth charges from Japanese escort vessels while attacking a tanker under escort, sustaining severe pressure hull damage that forced her to abandon the patrol. She survived only with the assistance of the American submarine USS Cavalla, which escorted her back to Fremantle in Australia.

The End of Her Story

On inspection at Fremantle, HMS Terrapin was declared a constructive total loss, her pressure hull damage too severe to justify repair, and she was scrapped in June 1946, never sailing operationally again after that final, nearly fatal patrol.