HMS Sealion (72S)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Sealion.

HMS Sealion
History
Name:	HMS Sealion
Builder:	Cammell Laird & Co Limited, Birkenhead
Launched:	16 March 1934
Fate:	Scuttled as ASDIC target 13 March 1945
General characteristics
Displacement:	670 tons surfaced 960 tons submerged
Length:	208 ft 9 in (63.63 m)
Beam:	24 ft (7.3 m)
Draught:	10 ft 6 in (3.20 m)
Propulsion:	Twin diesel/electric
Speed:	13.75 knots (25.5 km/h) surfaced 10 knots (19 km/h) submerged
Complement:	39 officers and men
Armament:	6 × forward 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 12 torpedoes one three-inch (76 mm) gun one .303-calibre machine gun
Notes:	100px

HMS Sealion was a Royal Navy S-class submarine that was launched on 16 March 1934 and fought in the Second World War.

Ship's badge in the National Maritime Museum

She had an eventful career after the outbreak of war. Under the command of LCdr (later Rear Admiral) Benjamin Bryant, she attacked U-21 off the Dogger Bank in November 1939, but failed to sink her. Her first success was the German merchant August Leonhardt, sunk in April 1940 off the Danish island of Anholt. She later attacked the German merchant Moltkefels, but failed to hit her. She fired upon the beached Palime, and unsuccessfully attacked U-62 in July 1940. She finished her patrol by sinking the Norwegian merchant Toran and attacking but failing to sink the German merchant Cläre Hugo Stinnes in August.

On 5 February 1941 she shelled and sank the Norwegian Hurtigruten cargo-passenger ship Ryfylke. In May of that year Sealion unsuccessfully attacked U-74. In July she attacked French shipping, sinking the French fishing vessels Gustav Eugene and Gustav Jeanne, and on succeeding days, Christus Regnat and St Pierre d'Alcantara.

She was one of a number of submarines ordered to track the German battleship Bismarck before her eventual sinking.

Towards the end of 1941 she sank the Norwegian tanker Vesco and the Norwegian merchant Island.

She was scuttled as an ASDIC target off the Isle of Arran on 13 March 1945.