#KClassSubmarine
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More in the 'I love a ship model, me' line, with a side order of 'I love the K-class. What could possibly go wrong?'

I genuinely do like a #KClassSubmarine. They are totally impractical and totally bonkers (that could be the clue as to why I like them).

#ShipModel
#MaritimeHistory
Model of a K-Class submarine. Stupidly long, and difficult to photograph because it was in a glass case in a dimly lit museum gallery. The boats themselves were so long that the bow could be at crush depth whilst the stern was still on the surface - a phenomenon more than one K-Class captain tested accidentally. Anyway, visually you have a very long, oval-section pressure hull with ballast tanks either side. There is a raised surpersturcture amidships, with a small, glazed conning tower at the forward end. Four forward torpedo tubes (a couple more in the raised superstructure, I think). They later added a bulbous bow for additional buoyancy, which had tow additional tubes in it. Three deck guns - one fore, one midships, one aft. The bulbous bow was added becasue it you weren't careful in a heavy sea, the boat could accidentally dive. See the alt text to the next photo for why that was a worse idea in a K-class than in most other British subs of the time. The superstructure of a model of a K-Class submarine, showing the glazed conning tower (sometimes referred to as the wheelhouse), a derrick (not so good for silent running), a deck gun mounted over two angled torpedo tubes (you can only see the doors here - there were also a rotating pair of tubes, that may have been mounted on the deck, forward of the gun. Not sure, but they were removed soon after the boats became operational as they were easily damaged by rough seas), then the two funnels and the boiler air intake. Yes, that's right. Funnels. This baby was STEAM POWERED. That's not as weird as it seems - most modern nuclear submarines are steam powered. But this had oil-fired boilers providing steam to the turbines. To dive, they had to damp the fires, lower the funnels into recesses in the superstructure (visible here) and the apertures closed top and bottom with large hatches. The outer hatches are visible here. This meant that diving took a really long time. Also, the small size of the funnels meant that the boat coudl ship water through them, putting the boiler fires out, which must have been an inconvenience. The boiler room air intake is flush with the deck and has a line of hatches to close it off. These weren't the first steam powered submarines - the RN had already tested Swordfish, and a lot of the innovations were incorporated into the K Class. The French had built a number of steam powered submainres, starting with Narval in 1900. The Pluvoise-class had been operating for about 10 years, followed by the Archimede class in 1908 and the Gustav Zedes and the Dupuy de Lomes in 1914-1916. They ran them into the mid-1930s, so they can't have been that unhappy with them (although some did swap their steam plants for diesels after 1919). In fairness to the French, the main source of diesel technology was Germany, and Frnace and Germany weren't really on speaking terms for a lot of the 1870-1945 period...
October 29, 2026 at 2:31 PM