HMS E20

HMS E20 was a British E class submarine built by Vickers, Barrow-in-Furness. She was laid down on 25 November 1914 and was commissioned on 30 August 1915.

Service history
While the German Submarine UB-14 had been in port on 30 November, Turkish forces had captured the FRENCH SUBMARINE Turquoise before the submarine or any of the confidential papers on board could be destroyed. When Turquoise was caught, her commander had not signaled her predicament to anyone, so a scheduled rendezvous with the British submarine HMS E20—as far as anyone other than Turquoise or the Germans and Turks knew—was still on. UB-14 had been sent to keep the rendezvous, reportedly going so far as to radio messages in the latest British code. Upon arriving at the designated location, UB-14 surfaced and fired a torpedo at E20 from a distance of 500 m. Only when E20's crew saw the torpedo did they realize something was amiss, but it was too late to avoid the weapon. The torpedo hit E20's conning tower and sank the submarine with the loss of 21 men. UB-14 rescued nine men, including E20's captain who, reportedly, had been brushing his teeth at the time of the attack.