HMS Upstart (P65): The Only Boat to Bear Her Name

Laid Down at Barrow

HMS Upstart was built by Vickers Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness, launched on 24 November 1942 and commissioned on 3 April 1943 under Lieutenant Paul Charles Chapman, a U-class submarine that went on to complete twelve war patrols, one in the Norwegian Sea and ten more in the Mediterranean, operating largely off the south coast of France.

Successes Along the French Coast

Upstart's confirmed sinkings included the French fishing vessels Grotte de Bethlehem and Torpille in September 1943, the German auxiliary minelayer Niedersachsen, formerly the French vessel Guyane, in February 1944, and the German merchant ships Saumur and Tolentino that May, alongside numerous other torpedo and gun attacks on convoys, R-boats and shore installations, several of which ended in misses or premature torpedo detonations.

One of the most dramatic came on 18 February 1944 off Cap Cepet, when Upstart sighted a U-boat, believed to be U-455, and fired four torpedoes from 3,000 yards, all of which missed ahead before she was hunted by enemy anti-submarine vessels through the rest of the afternoon, the kind of frustrating near-misses that were an unavoidable part of submarine warfare.

Seven Years Under the Greek Flag

HMS Upstart was decommissioned at Piraeus on 9 August 1945 and transferred to the Greek Navy under the name Amfitriti, serving there for seven years before returning to British control in 1952. She was finally expended as an anti-submarine target off the Isle of Wight on 29 July 1959, and remains, to this day, the only ship of the Royal Navy ever to have carried the name Upstart.