HMS Thorough (P324): The First Submarine to Circle the Globe

The Build: Barrow

HMS Thorough was built by Vickers-Armstrongs at Barrow-in-Furness, laid down on 26 October 1942, launched on 30 October 1943 and commissioned on 1 March 1944 under Lieutenant Commander Jack Gethin Hopkins, a third-group T-class submarine that would go on to serve extensively in the Far East.

Eight Patrols Against Japanese Shipping

Across eight war patrols in the Andaman Sea, the Malacca Strait, off Siam, Sumatra, Java and the South China Sea, Thorough built up a formidable tally, sinking twenty-seven Japanese sailing vessels, seven coasters, a small vessel, a barge, a small gunboat, a trawler and the Malaysian sailing vessel Palange, along with laying mines during several of her patrols.

In August 1945 she operated jointly with HMS Taciturn off northern Bali, sinking a further coaster and sailing vessel by gunfire.

A Genuine World First

Thorough's most historically remarkable achievement came well after the war. On 16 December 1957, she returned to HMS Dolphin in Portsmouth having completed the first ever circumnavigation of the globe by a submarine, a pioneering voyage.

Along the way, on 2 August 1956, her crew rescued a survivor from the sunken vessel Birchgrove Park in Australian waters, a fitting act of seamanship during an already historic journey.

The End of Her Service

HMS Thorough was finally scrapped at Dunston on Tyne on 29 June 1962, closing out the career of a submarine that had gone from sinking Japanese coasters to writing herself into the record books as the first submarine to sail all the way around the world.