HMS Untamed was a Royal Navy U-class submarine built by Vickers-Armstrongs at High Walker, Newcastle upon Tyne. She was laid down on 9 October 1941, launched on 8 December 1942, and commissioned on 14 April 1943. She was the only Royal Navy vessel to bear the name Untamed.
Specifications
- Class: U-class (Third Group) submarine
- Pennant: P58
- Length: about 191-192 ft (58 m)
- Displacement: approximately 540 tons surfaced, 730 tons submerged
- Armament: four 21-inch bow torpedo tubes and a 3-inch deck gun
Loss in the Clyde
On 30 May 1943, only weeks after commissioning, Untamed was taking part in anti-submarine training exercises in the Firth of Clyde, near Sanda Island off Kintyre. During a submerged exercise, an error while handling the Ottway log allowed seawater to flood into the submarine. The flooding spread, and despite attempts to surface, the submarine sank with the loss of all 35 crew members.
The accident became one of the Royal Navy's most tragic wartime submarine training disasters. Investigation showed that flooding from the auxiliary machinery compartment set off a chain of failures that the crew could not overcome.
Salvage and Renaming
Untamed was raised from the seabed in July 1943, repaired, and recommissioned under a new name, HMS Vitality. She returned to service in 1944 and remained in use until the end of the war.
