P 46

Vessel name on Arrival: HMS Unruffled

Original Builder: Vickers-Armstrongs Limited, Barrow-in-Furness

Original Yard No: 800

Official Number:

Vessel Type: Submarine

GRT: 545

Year Built: 1941

Arrival Date: 22/01/1946

Breakup Started: 23/01/1946

Date First Beached: 21/02/1946

Date Breakup Completed: 03/09/1946

Draught For’d: 13' 03"

Draught Aft: 14' 06"

Name Changes:

1941 – Launched as P46

1943 – name changed to HMS Unruffled

Other Information:

25-02-1941  :  Keel laid down               19-12-1941  :  Launched                      09-04-1942  :  Commissioned

Complement  :  27-31 persons            11.25 knots on the surface                   10.00 knots submerged

Propulsion by twin-screw shafts driven by diesel-electic engines by Paxman Ricardo generators and motors

Four bow torpedo tubes for 21 inch torpedoes (8-10 carried)  +  1 x 3 inch Gun

U-Class HMS Unruffled spent most of her eventful wartime career in the Mediterranean where she sank the Vichy-French merchant Liberia (the former Greek Cape Corso), the Italian auxiliary minesweeper N 10 / Aquila, the Italian merchants Leonardo Palomba, Una, Sant'Antioco, Citta di Catania, and Città di Spezia, the Italian tankers Castelverde and Teodolinda, the Italian sailing vessel Amabile Carolina, the Italian naval auxiliary Z 90 / Redentore, the German merchants Lisboa, Pommern and Baalbeck and the French tanker Henri Desprez. Unruffled also torpedoed and sank the Italian merchant Loreto. She was carrying prisoners of war, 130 of whom were lost.

She also launched failed attacks on the Italian submarine Antonio Sciesa and the small German minesweeper R 212, but her most important target was the Italian light cruiser Attilio Regolo, which was torpedoed by HMS Unruffled on 7 November 1942.  60 feet of bow were blown off, but HMS Unruffled could not sink the cruiser, having by now run out of torpedoes. The damaged cruiser was towed to port by the tug Polifemo, escorted by the torpedo boats Cigno, Lince and Abba.  Another attack by HMS United failed, but the Attilio Regolo was out of action for the rest of the war.

In addition to these actions, HMS Unruffled took part in Operation Harpoon and Operation Vigorous.