HMS Sturgeon (73S)

HMS Sturgeon was a British S class submarine built by HM Dockyard, Chatham. She was laid down on 1 January 1931 and was commissioned on 15 December 1932. She was one of the four submarines that formed the First Group of the S class, and the only one of these to survive the war.

Career
Sturgeon spent most of her career in the North Sea, off the Scandinavian coast. On September 14, 1939, she attacked her sister ship HMS Swordfish (61S) with three torpedoes but they all missed. This took place off the coast of Norway. Because of this incident, the Admiralty increased the operating distance of British submarines off Norway from 4 miles to 16 miles. She also attacked the German submarine GS U-23 (1936), but failed to hit her. Sturgeon claimed her first success when she sank the German anti submarine trawler GERMAN PATROL BOAT V-209 (formerly Gauleiter Telshow) on 20 November 1939. The sinking of the V-209 was the first successful attack on an enemy ship by a British submarine during the Second World War.

She went on to sink the German troop transport Pionier, the Danish merchant SS Sigrun (1904), the Norwegian merchant SS Delfinus, and the German merchant SS Boltenhagen (1912). She also fired six torpedoes against the GS U-43 (1939), but they all missed their target.

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

HMS Sturgeon was then lent to the Royal Netherlands Navy from 11 October 1943 to 14 September 1945. During this time, she was renamed Zeehond.

HMS Sturgeon was returned to the Royal Navy after being lent to the Royal Netherlands Navy, and then broken up at Granton in January 1946.