HMS Astute (P447)

Template:Infobox ship imageTemplate:Infobox ship careerTemplate:Infobox ship characteristics

HMS Astute (P447) was an Template:Sclass. Her keel was laid down by Vickers at Barrow-in-Furness. She was launched in 1944 and commissioned in 1945.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 1953 she took part in the Fleet Review to celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.<ref>Souvenir Programme, Coronation Review of the Fleet, Spithead, 15th June 1953, HMSO, Gale and Polden</ref> Astute was scrapped on 1 October 1970 at Dunston on Tyne.

Design

Like all Template:Sclasss, Astute had a displacement of Template:Convert when at the surface and Template:Convert while submerged. She had a total length of Template:Convert, a beam of Template:Convert, and a draught of Template:Convert. The submarine was powered by two Admiralty ML eight-cylinder diesel engines generating a power of Template:Convert each. She also contained four electric motors each producing Template:Convert that drove two shafts.<ref name="Akermann2002">Template:Cite book</ref> She could carry a maximum of Template:Convert of diesel, although she usually carried between Template:Convert.<ref name="Akermann2002"/>

The submarine had a maximum surface speed of Template:Convert and a submerged speed of Template:Convert.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> When submerged, she could operate at Template:Convert for Template:Convert or at Template:Convert for Template:Convert. When surfaced, she was able to travel Template:Convert at Template:Convert or Template:Convert at Template:Convert.<ref name="Akermann2002"/> She was fitted with ten Template:Convert torpedo tubes, one QF 4 inch naval gun Mk XXIII, one Oerlikon 20 mm cannon, and a .303 British Vickers machine gun. Her torpedo tubes were fitted to the bow and stern, and she could carry twenty torpedoes. Her complement was sixty-one crew members.<ref name="Akermann2002"/>

Astute was laid down at Vickers-Armstrongs Barrow-in-Furness shipyard on 4 April 1944, was launched on 30 January 1945 and completed on 30 June 1945.<ref name="jfs62 p275">Blackman 1962, p. 275.</ref>

Service history

Astute arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia on 11 April 1950 for a six-week training period with the Royal Canadian Navy ending on 1 July.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Astute spent 21 months in 1955–56 based at Halifax as part of the Canadian submarine squadron, leaving Canada for the UK on 10 December 1956.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

As a response to the Cuban Missile Crisis, Astute and sister ship Template:HMS, both part of the Halifax-based 6th Submarine Squadron, were deployed to the North-East of the Grand Banks to warn if Soviet submarines were to be sent across the Atlantic to Cuba.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref>

Publications

• Template:Cite book
• {{#invoke:template wrapper|{{#if:|list|wrap}}|_template=cite book

|_exclude=case, year, _debug
| last1 = Colledge
| first1 = J. J. 
| author-link1= J. J. Colledge
| last2 = Warlow
| first2 = Ben
| date = 2006
| orig-date = 1969
| title = Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th Century to the Present
| edition = Rev.
| location = London
| publisher = Chatham Publishing
| isbn = 978-1-86176-281-8
| OCLC = 67375475

}}

• Template:Cite book

External links

• Pictures of Hms Astute at MaritimeQuest