The Royal Navy submarine service is over a century old, it was 1901 that the Holland I was launched as a pilot submarine for what was to be the world’s foremost submarine service. There were another four Holland class submarines made before along came the A-boats, B-boats and…..well you get the gist.
But Holland I was only around for 12 years, by the time the newer boats were in commission the Holland’s were now out of date and so they were sent off for scrap, but on the way to the scrapyard, Holland I sank under tow off Plymouth. It was 70 years later that she was located on the seabed, raised and restored, placed in the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport in her own building. I can see that a lot of hard work has gone into this small boat, when I first saw Holland I in 2001 she was still in the stages of restoration, but incredibly I was able to chat to the guy who was leading the team and we had a conversation about the plans to create the museum exhibit that we see today. All preserved and painted, she looks magnificent, the inner workings and the mechanics cleaned up for all to see, the fresh decking and a visitors entrance allowing people to walk in (but mind your head!) and actually see how cramped it must have been to go on this boat over a century ago. Outside the main hull is a number of plaques and awards, well deserved in my opinion.
Outside and into the main entrance hall is the primary exhibits, telling the story of how the Royal Navy developed their own boats while other countries seemed to be leading the way – with the sinking of the USS Housatonic by the Confederate submarine H.L.Hunley in 1964 being among those stories highlighted, tiny models showing how these craft developed, starting with the Turtle in 1776, although for this one there is a full-scale model cut away for you to see just how little room the pilot would have had. There are some interesting and tragic artefacts here, distress messages from several lost subs, their names now infamous in the history of the service – K-13, M1, Thetis – each one a tragic loss that hit the headlines in the time when Britain could do with a bit of luck when faced with both war and financial turmoil.
A fast-forward to the nuclear age and there is a mock-up of a junior ratings messdeck on board a modern submarine, the beds laid out with personal items that a sailor would carry with him, trophies on the wall and board games for when the monotony of weeks underwater would be passed by. A video screen interviews some of the sailors telling us of life on board, not of which seems appealing! Then onto the story of the sinking of the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano by HMS Conqueror in 1982, the only time a nuclear boat has fired and sunk in anger, although using torpedoes from World War 2-era.
In the main hall not far from the gift shop there is a midget submarine sliced up for you to see inside. She is the X-24, one of the last surviving breed of a boat class that attacked both Tirpitz and Takao in several daring missions during World War 2. The VC’s earned by some of these heroes of the wartime exploits are on display within the museum with the story of their bravery.
Back outside and the star of the show is right in front of you – HMS Alliance. She was built at the end of the war and spent many years patrolling the seas during the Cold War, eventually saved and preserved here as a monument to those times. On board are veterans of the submarine service who are more than happy to chat about their time in the Royal Navy, the missions they were on and the hardships they faced. Only walking around the inside of this boat do you get a true feel for how bad it must have been for 50-70 people to live here together!
The Royal Navy Submarine Museum can be visited any time of the year, a ticket can be purchased that allows access to here as well as in the nearby Explosion museum as well as the Historic Dockyard in Portsmouth. There are toilet facilities (very clean!) a café and gift shop as well as numerous exhibits outside if you wanted to take your coffee on a walk. If you are lucky, the resident fox might come and say hello before scurrying off back into his home.
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Richard M. Jones is an author and historian specialising in disasters and shipwrecks along with two World Wars. Spending his time between Hampshire and Yorkshire, he has put up 12 memorials to victims of forgotten tragedies and published 19 books along the way.