Tragic loss of K 13 : the sinking of the Fairfield built submarine in 1917.
At he entrance of Elder Park, on govan road there stands a modest but poignant memorial to those who perished aboard H.M.S. K 13 erected by the men who built the ill fated submarine at the Fairfield shipyard on the banks of the river Clyde in Glasgow. This years Fair procession will pass the monument on Friday evening 5th June.
In 1915 the British Admiralty commissioned a series of 17 submersible destroyers, as they were called, for the royal Navy in response to alarming reports that Germany was building U boats. These ‘K’ class vessels were to be the largest and quickest submarines ever built. Steam driven with a surface speed of 23 knots and a crew of 53 officers and sailors. The image below is of K 12 similar in design and appearance to her sister ship K 13.
While on sea trials in Gareloch, Argyll on 29th January 1917 just after signalling she was about to dive and level off at 20 feet, K 13 submerged but failed to stop descending until she settled on the seabed at over 50 ft. There were 80 people on board ( 53 crew, 14 employees of the shipbuilders, five sub-contractors, five Admiralty officials, a river Clyde pilot, and the captain and engineering officer of K 14 ) all of whom were trapped on-board underwater for 57 hours awaiting rescue.
As with all new and developing technologies the K class – referred to by some at the time unkindly perhaps as calamity class – had its far share of issues. K13 foundered because four of the 37 inch diameter ventilators had been left open during the dive, the indicator lights in the control room had actually showed them as open. The engine room hatch was also found to be open. Was this human error or lack of experience on the part of the crew in operating procedures that must be remembered were brand new. K 5 was lost with all hands in January 1921, also due to problems with the air intakes that ventilate the boiler rooms. During night exercises on the firth of forth in 1918 a series of collisions led to the loss of two K boats, serious damage to three others (including K22) and the deaths of a further 105 submariners. In total over 330 men lost their lives in K class submarines between 1917 and 1932 all described as accidents. No wonder then that navy submariners were given what became known as danger pay.
Tragically 32 men died. The sub was later recovered from the bottom refitted and recommissioned as K 22. No royal navy submarine would ever be named with the number 13 again. The inscription on the memorial ( granite drinking fountain ) reads “Sacred to the memory of those named who lost their lives in HM Submarine K13 in the Gareloch 29th January 1917”. A plaque at the bottom of the statue, added in later years, reads: “In memory of all Allied submariners W W ll. Still on ‘patrol’ by families and friends.” The fountain is topped by a crown and has an anchor carved into the granite.
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Govan Remembers WW1 