The U.S. Navy accepted delivery of the Submarine Force’s newest hunter-killer, the future USS Idaho (SSN 799), from Electric Boat on 15 December.
And with that, the Navy List is looking very 1944ish.
The future USS Idaho (SSN 799) on builders trials 251215-N-N2201-002
Idaho is the 26th Virginia-class submarine co-produced by EB and HII-Newport News Shipbuilding through a long-standing teaming arrangement. It is the 14th delivered by EB and is the eighth of 10 Block IV-configured attack submarines.
The future USS Idaho is the fifth Navy ship to be named for the state of Idaho. The first was a wooden-hulled storeship commissioned in 1866. The last was Battleship No. 42, which was commissioned in 1919 and received seven battle stars for service in World War II, then ignobly sold for scrap in 1947.
USS Idaho (BB-42) ship’s company posed on the after deck and after 14 gun turrets, circa 1938. Note Curtiss SOC-3 Seagull floatplanes, of Observation Squadron Three, atop the Turret # 3 catapult and on deck to port of the turrets. Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation. Collection of Vice Admiral Alexander Sharp, USN. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.Catalog #: NH 83900
She joins the fifth (completed) U.S. Navy vessel named for the Bay State, the future USS Massachusetts (SSN 798), which was delivered to the service from Newport News on 21 November.
Future USS Massachusetts (SSN 798) on builder’s acceptance trials. 251008-N-MQ094-002
The last and most famous to carry the name thus far (BB-59) was commissioned in 1942 as a South Dakota-class fast battleship, earning 11 battle stars for exceptional service in WWII from Casablanca to Okinawa before being decommissioned in 1947. She remained in the Reserve Fleet until stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in June 1962 and continues to serve as a floating museum.
USS Massachusetts underway somewhere in the Pacific (1943)
While Idaho and Massachusetts are set to be commissioned in 2026, the current USS Iowa (SSN 797) was commissioned in April.
Sailors attached to the fast-attack submarine USS Iowa man the newly commissioned sub during a ceremony in Groton, Conn., April 5, 2025. The Iowa operates under Submarine Squadron 4, which provides fast-attack submarines that are ready, prepared, and committed to meet the unique challenges of undersea combat and deployed operations in unforgiving environments across the globe. Navy Chief Petty Officer Joshua Karsten
The last Iowa, the famed class-leading fast battleship BB-61, which was christened on 27 August 1942, was only stricken from the NVR on 17 March 2006 and endures as a floating museum at Los Angeles, the only West Coast battlewagon.
USS Iowa (BB-61) off Pearl Harbor, en route to the U.S. at the end of her Korean War combat tour. The photograph is dated 28 October 1952. Note the ship’s hull number (61) and U.S. Flag painted atop her forward turrets. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command. Catalog #: NH 44536
How about this great piece of photo-realistic maritime art, depicting an event some 55 years ago today.
“Crew of Greenfish Shape-Up on Deck, December 16, 1970. As USS Halfbeak rests closest to the dock, the crew of USS Greenfish shape up on deck, in the lee and shadows of her black sail.”
Painting, Acrylic on Paper; by Dante H. Bertoni; 1971; Framed Dimensions 31H X 39W NHHC Accession #: 88-161-AQ
A 311-foot Balao-class fleet boat, USS Greenfish (SS-351), was completed too late for WWII– commissioned 21 December 1945.
Nonetheless, she had a chance to deep-six an enemy submarine, sinking U-234 off Cape Cod in 1947.
Former U-234 is torpedoed by USS Greenfish (SS-351), in a test, on 20 November 1947, 40 miles northeast of Cape Cod.
A GUPPY II conversion, Greenfish gave the Navy a solid 28 years of service before being transferred to Brazil as Amazonas (S-16) in 1973, only being decommissioned in 1992, one of the longest-lived WWII subs still in service.
U.S.S. Sub 351 Greenfish Oct. 29, 1964 Photograph by Walter E. Frost City of Vancouver Archives
I know that, going back to the 688 class of the 1970s, hunter killers have been named after cities in the good old “fish don’t vote” adage of Big Nuke Navy Boss ADM Rickover, but I do miss those old classic fish names for subs.
One is set to return with the future Block V Virginia-class attack submarine USS Barb (SSN 804), which had her keel authenticated at Newport News on Dec. 9.
Fluckey was commanding officer of the storied Barb (SS 220) in World War II. Under Fluckey’s watch, USS Barb became one of the most highly decorated submarines in U.S. naval history, most known for sinking a record number of enemy ships and for a particularly daring mission that destroyed enemy shipping lines. Fluckey received the Medal of Honor for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty.” The ship earned four Presidential Unit Citations, a Navy Unit Commendation, and eight Battle Stars for service in World War II and was decommissioned in 1954.
The second Barb, (SSN 596), a Permit-class boat, was active in the Cold War, including two tours off Vietnam, and helped vet sub-launched TLAMs.
The future and third Barb will be the 31st Virginia-class submarine when commissioned, and the third Block V boat.
Of note, when the 688 series USS Helena (SSN-725) was decommissioned in July, the Virginias became the most numerous active submarine class in the world, with 24 active and two (Massachusetts and Idaho) complete pending commissioning in early 2026. They will no doubt hold that title for the next 20+ years, at least for SSNs.
A total of 67 are planned, including a trio of boats (two Block IV second-hand, one new construction Block VII) for Australia.
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Warship Wednesday 26 November 2025: A Sad Affray
Above we see HM Submarine Affray (P421).
One of a class of 16 British A (Amphion/Acheron) class boats designed for use in the Pacific against the Empire of Japan in the latter stages of WWII, she commissioned 80 years ago this week and, while she did not get to fire a torpedo in anger against the Imperial Japanese Navy, Affray did go on to leave a tragic mark on naval history.
The A-class boats
By 1943, the writing was on the wall at the Admiralty that the naval war would soon shift to the Pacific and would be very different than that in the European theatre. Whereas small subs were ideal for work in the cramped English Channel, North Sea, and Mediterranean, larger hulls, more akin to American “fleet boats,” would be needed for far-ranging Pacific service.
The answer was the A-class boats, Britain’s only full-sized subs designed during WWII, which offered faster surface speeds, improved habitability under tropical conditions (they were the first RN boats to have air conditioning), and a double-hull structure. They used all-welded pressure hulls and welded fuel tanks inside, with ballast tanks adapted for extra diesel storage. With their 280-foot length, they were only a little shorter than the typical 311-footers seen in U.S. service while still being much larger than the Royal Navy’s preceding 204-foot “Long hull” V-class submarines of the 1941–42 Programme. Even the RN’s vaunted T-class only ran 276 feet oal.
By comparison, the A boats could make 18.5 knots on the surface (with a 10,500nm range at 11) as compared to the 15.5 knots (8,000nm @ 10) of the T-class, and downright pokey 11.25 knots (3,000nm @ 9) of the V-class. The operating diving depth of the A-class was 350 feet (max 600), versus 300 on the riveted V and T classes.
The As were also heavily armed with 10 21-inch tubes: six at the bow (two external) and four (two external) at the stern. Besides the 10 loaded tubes, they could cram another 10 Mark VIII fish inside the pressure hull for reloads, although typically just six were carried. Instead of torpedoes, 18 1,700-pound Mark II/Type G ground mines could be carried and deployed. Deck guns included a QF 4″/40 Mk XXII in the sail, a 20mm Oerlikon, and up to three .303 Vickers guns. Sensors included a Type 267W air warning radar, which could function at periscope depth, as well as Types 138 and 152 sonars.
The 1943 Programme called for the construction of 46 Type A boats built across six yards: Vickers-Armstrong, Barrow-in-Furness; Cammell Laird, Birkenhead; Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Greenock; Chatham Dockyard, Plymouth Dockyard, and Vickers-Armstrongs, Walker-on-Tyne.
Only two of the 46, the Barrow-built HMS Amphion (P439) and HMS Astute (P447), were commissioned before the end of hostilities, in March and June 1945, respectively. Even at that, they never arrived in the Far East in time to conduct a war patrol, spending their wartime career in workup and tests.
The 14 sister boats– Acheron, Aeneas, Alaric, Alcide, Alderney, Alliance, Ambush, Anchorite, Andrew, Artemis, Artful, Auriga, Aurochs, and our Affray— were completed between late 1945 and April 1948.
HMS Alliance on sea trials, August 1946, off Barrow. Ref: CRTY 2017/139/776/1.
British Amphion-class submarine HMS Alcide (P415). Note her sail-mounted 4″/40 gun and original WWII profile. The photo was taken in 1947 at Plymouth Sound
Two more, the would-be Ace (P414) and Achates (P433), were not fitted out but, launched and afloat, were in turn converted into target boats.
The order for the remaining 28 units (Adept, Andromache, Answer, Antagonist, Antaeus, ANZAC, Aphrodite, Admirable, Approach, Arcadian, Ardent, Argosy, Atlantis, Agile, Asperity, Austere, Aggressor, Agate, Abelard, Acasta, Alcestis, Aladdin, Aztec, Adversary, Asgard, Awake, Astarte, and Assurance) was cancelled.
A-class submarines, 1946 Janes
Meet Affray
Our subject was laid down at the Cammell Laird yard in Birkenhead on 16 January 1944, launched on 12 April of that year.
The future HM Submarine Affray after launching at the Cammel Laird ship yard, Birkenhead, 1944 LT CH Parnall, photographer. IWM A28195
Affray commissioned on 25 November 1945, and her first skipper was LCDR Ernest John Donaldson Turner DSO, DSC, RN, a submarine service steely regular who had commanded HMS Sibyl (P 217) for 17 war patrols in 1943-44 and had earned his DSO earlier in the war as XO of HMS L 23 (N 23).
Only two of Affray’s Cammell-built sisters, Aeneas and Alaric, would be completed.
Cold War service
Designed for the Pacific, Affray soon left to join the 4th Submarine Flotilla in Hong Kong, centered around the tender HMS Adamant (A164), and with her four sisters, HMS Amphion, Astute, Auriga, and Aurochs, replacing eight T-class boats that Adamant had been supporting since 1945.
By 1949, Affray and, along with the rest of her class, had received a 60-foot “Snort” device, based on captured late-war German snorkel designs, during regular overhauls back home.
HM Submarine Affray (P421), after her 1949 refit. Note the 4″/40 on her fairwater had been deleted, and she has a forward torpedo tube open.
The device overall proved successful. On 9 October 1947, Alliance dived off the Canary Islands to commence a 30-day “snort cruise,” covering 3,193 miles to Freetown, all while submerged. Andrew later made a 2,500nm run from Bermuda to the English Channel in 15 days.
Previously, British submarines could only spend a maximum of 48 hours submerged, and that was largely stationary.
.A class submarine HMS Aeneas off Gosport, circa late 1940s/early 1950s, sans 4″/40 and with her “Snort” fitted
However, Affray’s Snort reportedly leaked “like a sieve” during dives in the Med, and by January 195,1 the hard-used boat had been placed in reserve at Portsmouth, with the globe-trotter having logged more than 51,000nm in just her first five years of service.
It would be a multi-day operation including “a war patrol, dummy attacks on shipping, combining with mock hostile aircraft attacks, Marine Commandos to be landed by cockle-type canoes for a simulated sabotage and enemy observation exercise, then re-embark.”
Instead of her regular crew, she had to land all but 24 experienced members while the boat was crowded with 24 ratings drawn from a new submarine class, a team of four Royal Marine Commando canoeists, and 22 members of a junior officer Executive and Engineering training class.
In all, 75 souls crammed into a boat built for 60~ with only about a third of them being “old salts.”
Affray had dived 30 miles South of the Isle of Wight, some 60 odd miles southwest of St Catherine’s Light, at 2115 on 16 April, and was due to transit to a position 20 miles southeast of Start Point. However, she failed to report her position on 17 April, and a SUBMISS/SUBSMASH alert stated search operations that eventually numbered over 50 ships, including 24 NATO warships.
These efforts continued fruitlessly until 19 April, with only an oil slick observed over Hurd’s Deep, by which point she was considered lost.
During the search, 161 sustained sonar contacts and as many as 70 uncharted wrecks, including another submarine, the 1944-lost U-269, were discovered, each requiring fruitlessly sending down a diver to verify if it was the lost Affray.
On 14 June, after two months, the frigate HMS Loch Fyne (K429) made the first contact with the wreck of Affray on her ASDIC equipment and sent the signal to the Admiralty in Whitehall.
The submarine rescue ship HMS Reclaim arrived on scene soon after and dropped a diver with a Siebe Gorman oxy-helium helmet to a depth of over 200 feet, who reported what could be a submarine below.
To confirm, Reclaim sent down her new underwater television apparatus on 16 June.
The camera container and lights in their frame, on board HMS Reclaim. IWM A 31970
When it neared the bottom at 260 feet, the first grainy image of the wreck, including the word “Affray” on a conning tower, appeared topside on Reclaim’s TV screen.
There is no shortage of educatedtheories as to what happened to the submarine, the last British boat lost at sea. What is known is that her Snort mast was broken, and all hatches and hull seemed otherwise intact.
Hopefully, it was over quickly.
As noted by Submarinefamily.uk:
Her loss is still a matter of controversy, and the exact reason for her loss may never be known, as she is now protected as a grave for those who died in her. The most likely cause is that her snort mast broke off while she was at periscope depth and that the induction hull valve had failed to operate satisfactorily, resulting in water entering the submarine through a 10-inch hole. With her buoyancy destroyed, she would have sunk very quickly.
Epilogue
The 75 men lost on Affray have their names recorded in the Submariners’ Book of Remembrance in the chapel at HMS Dolphin, Gosport. Their names are also listed at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, the Submarine Museum Memorial wall at Gosport, and Braye Harbour, Alderney, among others.
Of note, one of the divers from Reclaim working on Affray was LCDR Lionel “Buster” Crabb, OBE, GM, who later became famous when, in 1956, he disappeared in Portsmouth harbor during the visit of a Soviet cruiser with Khrushchev aboard.
The rest of Affray’s class had a happier and much longer service.
At least 10 of her sisters served at one time or another between 1954 and 1967 with the Royal Navy’s 6th Submarine Squadron out of HMC Dockyard, Halifax (stone frigate HMS Ambrose) as “clockwork mice” for ASW training with Canadian and NATO surface ships– with active service deployed North-East of the Grand Banks to warn if Soviet submarines were active during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Although not in RCN service, they typically had several “Canucks” as part of their crews, which helped the RCN’s transition to the trio of new Canadian Oberon-class submarines, which began entering service in 1965. The Submarine Room at the Naval Museum of Halifax contains many of their relics, including at least one ship’s bell from HMS Aurochs.
Fourteen received a further modernization akin to the American GUPPY conversions, which removed the old sail and replaced it with a more modern fairwater, as well as a streamlined hull profile. Although their four external tubes and the deck guns were removed, they could still carry 18 more modern Mark 8 Mod 4 torpedoes or 26 1,930-pound Mark V/type Q magnetic/acoustic mines. They also received new sonars (Types 186 long-range passive, 187 medium-range search/attack, and 197 intercept). The big Type 187 attack sonar required a large bulbous dome on the bow, giving the updated Amphions a similar profile to the 1960s Oberon class boats.
When they finished their refit, the GUPPY-fied Amphions received updated S-series hull numbers in place of their old P-series numbers.
HMS Alliance (S67), almost unrecognizable after her modernization.
HMS Artful, Amphion-class submarine, S96
Ironically, despite the original deck guns being removed during modernization in the late 1950s, a very non-streamlined replacement 4″/33 Mark XXIII S gun was installed starting in 1960 on several A boats to counter blockade-running junks during the Indonesian Confrontation with the Singapore-based 7th Submarine Squadron.
Modernized Amphion-class submarine HMS Andrew (S63) leaving Singapore at the end of her service with 7th Submarine Squadron (7SM), in 1968. The crew lining the deck wearing broad terandak hats while a sign hanging from the side reads “Mama Sam’s”. Within two hours of departure, the crew rescued two Malaysian fishermen whose boat had sunk and returned them to Singapore. Andrew was one of the many submarines to leave Singapore in the late 1960s when the decision was made to repatriate all British military “East of Suez”. 7SM closed in 1971. IWM HU 129718
HMS Alliance, in camouflage pattern off Malaysia, 1965. IWM HU 129708
Aerial starboard-bow view of modernized Amphion-class submarine HMS Alliance (S67) seen in 1965 during her service with 7th Submarine Squadron, note her deck gun. She is wearing a camouflage paint scheme appropriate for operations in the shallow waters around Malaysia during the Indonesian Confrontation. IWM HU 129708
Jane’s page on the class, 1960.
The class made appearances in several films, with Andrew filling in for a U.S. nuclear submarine in the 1959 post-apocalyptic film On the Beach.
Sistership Artemis appeared in an RN training film entitled Voyage North, from which stock submarine footage was lifted and reused in movies and TV shows for decades.
Aeneas, however, one-upped her sisters by appearing in the classic Bond film You Only Live Twice in 1967. She later went on to become an SSG, carrying an experimental mast-mounted SAM launcher.
The last of the class in service, HMS Andrew, paid off in May 1977 and was also the final British sub to carry a deck gun.
HMS Alliance, although decommissioned in 1973, would continue to serve as a static training boat until 1979, and survives today.
Alliance has been preserved since 1981 as a museum boat at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport, Portsmouth.
HMS Alliance, Gosport
Among her relics is a replica wreath of daffodils, carnations, tulips, and lilies of the valley modeled after the one Alliance’s crew dropped over the resting place of Affray.
The Submarine HMS Alliance lays a wreath over the spot where submarine HMS Affray failed to surface during a training dive in 1951 (Manchester Mirror)
Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive
***
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30 November 1940, Scotland. Officers and NCOs of the Free French Navy submarine Minerve (P26), seen while the boat was refitting for further service. She was not alone.
At least the 13th warship with the name under the French flag, going back to 1757, Minerve was commissioned on 5 September 1936 under the pennant number Q185.
The leader of her class of 223-foot coastal submarines, she hit the scales at 870 tons submerged and could make 14 knots on the surface.
Her armament was varied, including a 3″/35 M1928 deck gun, two 13.2mm HMGs, six 21.7-inch internal torpedo tubes (four bow, two stern), each with a single reload. Outside of her pressure hull, she had three smaller yet trainable 15.7-inch tubes with no reloads.
Refitting in FFN service with a new pennant number on the sail. Note that her three external tubes are rotated out
In the early days of WWII, she carried out a surveillance of the Canary Islands for German blockade runners and then rode escort on seven convoys between Gibraltar and Liverpool. Towed out of Brest to avoid being captured by the Germans during the Fall of France in June 1940, she was seized by the British, then commissioned under the pennant number P26 in the Free French Navy with a new crew in January 1941 and soon took part in the chase of the German battleship Bismarck.
De Gaulle seen leaving the Free French submarine sisters, Junon and Minerve, in late 1940. Note Minerve’s win 13.2mm AAA mount. Photo by Harold William John Hamlin, IWM A 2173
Surviving the war, though heavily damaged in a blue-on-blue attack by British aircraft, she was wrecked in September 1945 while being towed back to France.
Of her six boat class, only two others survived the war.
A 14th Minerve (S647), a Daphné-class submarine, was lost in 1968 with a crew of 52 in the Gulf of Lion, one of four modern submarines mysteriously lost that year.
The fifth (completed) U.S. Navy vessel named for the Bay State, the future USS Massachusetts (SSN 798), was delivered to the service from Newport News on 21 November. She is the 25th Virginia/774-class submarine, the 12th delivered by the yard, and the seventh of 10 planned Block IV configured boats. Her commissioning is set for 2026.
Future USS Massachusetts (SSN 798) on builder’s acceptance trials. 251008-N-MQ094-002
Future USS Massachusetts (SSN 798) on builder’s acceptance trials. 251008-N-MQ094-001
Future USS Massachusetts (SSN 798) on builder’s acceptance trials. 251008-N-MQ094-003
The first USS Massachusettswas a 4-gun screw steamer built in 1845 and fought during the Mexican-American War.
The second, a 6-gunned screw steamer, fought in the Civil War– the bane of the Confederates on the Mississippi Coast and still has a fort named after her on Ship Island– while the third, an Indiana-class battleship (BB-2), fought in the Spanish-American War.
The last and most famous USS Massachusetts (BB-59) was commissioned in 1942 as a South Dakota-class fast battleship, earning 11 battle stars for exceptional service in WWII from Casablanca to Okinawa before being decommissioned in 1947. She remained in the Reserve Fleet until stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in June 1962 and continues to serve as a floating museum.
USS Massachusetts underway somewhere in the Pacific (1943)
Norwegian Oslo-class frigate Trondheim (F302), in 2004, back when she was having a much better day
Recently, during exercise Ægir 25 in September 2025, the Norwegian Ula (U-Boot-Klasse 210) class submarine KNM Uthaug (S304) fired one of its Atlas Elektronik DM2A3 Seehecht torpedoes at the decommissioned Oslo (Dealey) class frigate ex-KNM Trondheim (pennant number F302), intending to sink the battered target vessel off the coast of Andøy in Andfjorden.
The 2,100-ton Trondheim, decommissioned in 2007, had already been the target of Naval Strike Missiles launched by the frigates HMS Somerset and KNM Thor Heyerdahl as well as previous NSM tests in 2013.
As noted by NATO, “The purpose of the shot was to verify and demonstrate the striking power that the weapon and the submarine represent. A submarine has long endurance, operates covertly, and has a unique ability to dictate the battle.”
NATO Allied Joint Force Command released the video on 17 November 2025, and it really shows you why you don’t want to be on the receiving end of a 576-pound torpedo warhead.
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Warship Wednesday 5 November 2025: Celebrate the Ram!
IWM (FL 22661)
Above we see the modified former Brazilian J-class (RN Havant-class) escort destroyer HMS Harvester (H 19)underway during World War II in coastal waters, complete with Western Approaches style disruptive camouflage scheme. True to her name, she was a harvester of men in peril, saving nearly 2,300 men directly from the beaches of Northwestern France and another 244 adrift the sea.
She was also a harvester of steel sharks.
Over the course of no less than 51 North Atlantic convoy runs, she bagged at least two Axis submarines, one of them notably some 85 years ago this week.
The Brazilian Hs
The British Royal Navy would order some 27 assorted “G”, “H” and “I” Class destroyers between 1934 and 1936 as part of the rearmament to safeguard against the growing German, Italian, and Japanese fleets in the uneasy peace leading up to WWII. They were slight ships, of just 1,800 tons and 323 feet overall length with a narrow 33-foot beam, giving them a dagger-like 1:10 length-to-beam ratio. With a speed of 35 knots and a 5,000 nm range at half that, they could keep up with the fleet or operate independently and had long enough legs for North Atlantic convoy work, should such a thing ever be needed in the future.
The differences between the three classes were primarily in engineering fit, minor superstructure changes, and armament. They were typically fitted with a quartet of QF 4.7-inch (120 mm) Mk IX guns, a few AAA mounts, between 8 and 10 anti-ship torpedo tubes, and depth charges for ASW work.
HMS Grenade (H86), a G-class destroyer. Note her layout, which was like all her sisters. Grenade would be sunk in May 1940 off Dunkirk by German Stukas.
The 27th and last of the type delivered to the RN from the ships the Admiralty ordered was HMS Ivanhoe (D16) on 24 August 1937, completing the classes built out in just four years, which is not bad for peacetime production.
The G/H/Is would prove so successful of a design that the British exported it, accepting prewar orders for 19 ships for overseas allies: Argentina (seven Buenos Aires class ships delivered in 1938), Greece (two Georgios class delivered in 1939), Turkey (four desperately needed Inconstant class delivered in 1942, largely to keep Istanbul friendly at a crucial time in the war) and a half-dozen Jurua-class tin cans for the Brazilian Navy.
The Brazilian Navy in early 1938 ordered six modified H-class destroyers, spread across the Vickers, White, and Thornycroft yards. They would be named Jurua, Javary, Jutahy, Juruena, Jaguaribe, and Japura after rivers and towns in Brazil. Construction proceeded along nicely, and all were christened with their intended names by visiting dignitaries from the Latin American country and afloat in the summer of 1939.
Rather than a fit for four 4.7-inch guns, these six former Brazilian destroyers in British service would carry only three, with the extra deck space freed up to be used for more depth charges– capable of toting as many as 110 ash cans across three rails and eight throwers.
They would enter service between December 1939 and June 1940 as the Havant class (Havant, Handy/Harvester, Havelock, Hearty/Hesperus, Highlander, and Hurricane), keeping with the “H” class naming sequence.
Hesperus is underway at sea, resplendent in her war paint. IWM A 7101
Meet Harvester (aka Handy, aka Jurua)
Ordered from Vickers by the Brazilian government on 6 December 1937 as the future destroyer Jurua, our subject was laid down at the company’s Barrow yard on 3 June 1938 alongside her sister, the planned future Japura. Jurua and Japura were purchased by the British government on 5 September 1939 while still on the builder’s ways and were launched into the water of the Irish Sea 24 days later to complete fitting out for Royal Navy service.
Our Jurua would initially be referred to as the future HMS Handy, while Japura would become HMS Hurricane.
One thing led to another, and Jurua/Handy would be commissioned on 23 May 1940, at the height of the Battle for France, as HMS Harvester, while Hurricane would only break out the white duster and join the fleet on 21 June 1940, well into the Fall of France.
Harvester leaving Barrow, June 1940
Speaking of which…
Dunkirk, et al
Without even the benefit of a proper shakedown cruise, the brand new Harvester, under LCDR Mark Thornton, RN, who had previously commanded the older S-class destroyer HMS Scimitar (H 21) on convoy defense, was rushed to the English Channel to help pull the BEF and Allied soldiers from France.
Harvester took part not only in the famous Operation Dynamo, doing her part with so many others to evacuate 338,226 Allied troops from the beaches and surf line of Dunkirk, but also in the lesser-known Operations Cycle (evacuation of 3,400 Allied troops from Le Havre) and Aerial (191,870 from a range of French Atlantic ports in late June).
She did this in the face of fierce German air and submarine attack, with her sister HMS Havant crippled by Luftwaffe aircraft during the Dunkirk operation, and was scuttled to prevent capture.
One of the former Brazilian RN H-class destroyers at Dover during the Dunkirk evacuation, crowded with Tommies on her deck. This ship is either HMS Harvester or Havant, both of which were active in Dynamo, the latter lost in the process. IWM H1668
The details of Harvester’s evac runs:
29 May, Dunkirk (Op Dynamo), 272 men saved
31 May, Dunkirk (Op Dynamo), 1,341 men saved (two round trips)
9 June, Le Harve (Op Cycle), no troops found
11 June, Saint-Valery-en-Caux (Op Aerial), 78 men saved
She also escorted transports during Aerial, who were evacuating Saint-Nazaire and St. Jean de Luz further down the coastline, and rode shotgun with the cruiser HMS Cumberland on a mission to bombard German positions on the occupied French coast.
It was reported that Harvester suffered at least one strafing from German aircraft and successfully evaded at least two torpedoes. LCDR Thornton, who had cut his teeth as a mid in the 1920s on the Jutland veteran battlewagon HMS Emperor of India, was mentioned in dispatches for his efforts.
The U-boat war
Harvester’sfirst of many convoy runs was to sanitize the area south of Ireland to clear the way for Halifax-to-Liverpool-bound Convoy HX 054, along with the destroyers HMS Highlander (a sister) and Punjabi on 16 June.
Her next run began on 29 June 1940 at Liverpool, riding shotgun with the inaugural “Winston Special,” Convoy WS.1, which carried some 10,000 British troops aboard the fast liners turned troopships Queen Mary, Mauretania, and Aquitania, to the Middle East. She also made the follow-on WS.2 and WS. 3A.
Then came ASW clearing for outbound Liverpool to Halifax return Convoys OB 194 and OB 199 in August, Liverpool to Gibraltar Convoy OG.43, Liverpool to Suez Convoy AP.3/1, and Freetown to Liverpool SL/MKS.47 in September; escorting inbound Sydney to Liverpool SC.8 in October, and screening OB.252 in November. It was on the latter that Harvester and the Canadian destroyer HMCS Ottawa came across the Italian Marcello class submarine Comandante Faà di Bruno (FB, I.5) on the afternoon of 6 November and likely sank the same, with all hands.
LCDR Thornton received a DSO on 12 January 1941 for the destruction of the enemy submarine and would remain aboard until March 1942, when he shipped out for command of the destroyer HMS Petard. Thornton was replaced by CDR Harold Pitcairn Henderson, RN, and CDR Arthur Andre Tait, DSO, RN, in turn. Of note, Tait had earned his DSO in 1942 while skipper of HMS Hesperus for sinking German U-boat U-93.
As for Harvester, the convoy runs continued, including five further OB runs, another OG run, at least seven outbound Liverpool to NYC/Boston ON convoys, four more SCs, two additional SL/MKS convoys, four Halifax to Clyde TC convoys, and seven more HXs.
She even had a brush with history, escorting HMS Prince of Wales along with sisters Havelock and Hesperus in August 1941 during the battleship’s passage to Newfoundland with Winston Churchill aboard for the Atlantic Charter meeting.
Besides dropping ash cans on contacts, she also saved the lives of those cast to the mercy of the sea. This included 90 survivors from the lost armed merchant cruiser HMS Dunvegan Castle during SL-43, 19 survivors from the British freighter Silverpineon OB.252, and 131 survivors from the ocean boarding vessel HMS Crispin on OB-280.
It was hard, dirty, and unsung work.
The famed American photojournalist Robert Capa, while crossing the Atlantic to North Africa with an eastbound convoy in 1941, caught two striking Kodachrome images of Harvester zipping among her charges, a seagoing greyhound stalking Axis sharks.
On 11 March 1943, while escorting convoy HX-228 west of Ireland, Harvester with LCDR Taite in command and the Free French Flower-class corvette Aconit in support, came across the Type VIIC boat U-444 (Oblt. Albert Langfeld) of Wolfpack Westmark and gave the new boat a hard fight.
In the end, after forcing U-444 to the surface, Taite chose to ram the German at 27 knots and send her back down, leaving 41 dead and 4 survivors to be plucked from the water.
Tragically, with the now-damaged Harvester dead in the water with a snapped shaft, she was twice torpedoed and sunk by U-432 (Kptlt. Hermann Eckhardt), which was in turn brought to the surface by Aconit’s depth charges and finally destroyed by gunfire and ramming. The Admiralty later passed on an order to halt ramming as a tactic after this incident.
The damaged Aconit then picked up five survivors from U-444, 12 from U-432, 12 survivors from the lost American Liberty ship SS William C. Gorgas, and 60 men from Harvester. Among those claimed by the sea were all three skippers from the lost warships, Taite, Eckhardt, and Langfeld.
Three days later, Aconti sailed into Greenock and discharged her motley accumulation of waterlogged sailors from three countries.
“Fighting French corvette sinks two U-boats. 14 March 1943, Greenock, the Fighting French corvette Aconit sank two U-boats by gunfire and ramming while escorting an Atlantic convoy through a U-boat pack on 10 March 1943. The second submarine had just torpedoed the British destroyer HMS Harvester. The Aconit steamed to a British port with survivors from the Harvester and a merchantman, and prisoners from the two U-boats.” IWM (A 15075)
“Survivors of the British Destroyer HMS Harvester fraternizing with the crew of FFS Aconit after the French corvette had avenged them by sinking two U-boats. The survivors are wearing the Aconit’s badge, and the cat is one of the Aconit’s three mascots – two cats and a dog.” IWM (A 15084)
Epilogue
Little remains of Harvester. I cannot even find where her wreck has been located. She no doubt rests very near the shattered U-432 and U-444.
She is best remembered in scale models and box art.
As for her first skipper, Mark Thornton chalked up assists on two additional submarine kill assists while in command of Petard, picking up a DSC, and was on the Combined Operations staff for Overlord. He then returned to destroyer operations post-war and retired as a full commander in 1956. He passed in London in 1982, aged 75.
Only three of the Brazilian destroyers survived the war, sisters Havelock, Hesperus, and Highlander, and were scrapped by 1947.
While the British have not reused the name Harvester, three French warships have since been named Aconit, including the modern La Fayette-class stealth frigate Aconit (F 713). The fourth Aconitflies the Free French jack, and its crew wears twin fouragères as a salute to the old corvette.
Mardi 04 janvier 2022, le capitaine de vaisseau Guillaume Fontarensky, adjoint organique de l’amiral commandant la force d’action navale (ALFAN) de Toulon, fait reconnaître le capitaine de frégate Jean-Bertrand Guyon comme nouveau commandant de la frégate de type Lafayette (FLF) Aconit.
Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive
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Looking back over the huge photo dump from the recent UNITAS 2025 exercise– which has been trucking along annually since 1960– a somewhat composite view arises of the Marine’s new Maritime Reconnaissance Companies (MRC), and the drone supply boats it looks to use to supply its pair of expeditionary Marine Littoral Regiments in forward, likely isolated, islands in the Western Pacific.
I present to you the carbon-fiber hulled Whiskey Bravo boat in operation, utilizing a tire-clad, retired USCG 87-foot Marine Protector-class patrol boat as the target for a training VBSS team. In Marine use, the 40-foot Australian-built Whiskey Bravo is referred to as the more official Multi-Mission Reconnaissance Craft, or MMRC.
U.S. Marines with 4th Assault Amphibian Battalion, 4th Marine Division and marines with Batallón de Infantería de Marina, Armada de la República Dominicana, (marine Infantry Battalion within the Dominican navy) board a moving ship while on Multi Mission Reconnaissance Craft-A littoral craft, to conduct visit, board, search and seizure training during exercise UNITAS 2025 Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, Sept. 23, 2025.
U.S. Marines with 4th Assault Amphibian Battalion, 4th Marine Division, prepare to visit, board, search, and seize a vessel during exercise UNITAS 2025 at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, Sept. 24, 2025. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Michail Stankosky)
U.S. Marines with 4th Assault Amphibian Battalion, 4th Marine Division, prepare to visit, board, search, and seize a vessel during exercise UNITAS 2025 at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, Sept. 24, 2025. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Michail Stankosky)
The Whiskey Bravo accommodates up to six operators seated on shock-absorbing seats and two crew members at the forward control console.
It can carry twin 4-round Rafael (Lockheed) Spike NLOS canister launchers on the stern (17nm range and a Mini-Typhoon remote-controlled stabilized .50 cal up front.
Without the armament, it can carry as many as 17 combat-loaded troops for short stints. The boat can be rushed to a forward area via C-17 and is air-droppable. Further, the WB can be optionally manned, controlled instead via remote datalink.
A take on how it could be employed.
As described in a November 2024 Proceedings piece by Lt.Col Brian Lusczynski, three active and perhaps one reserve Maritime Reconnaissance Companies will be established, each with 18 Whiskey Bravo boats (MMRCs) and 12 unnamed USV types.
Within a Marine division, the MRC will fall under a parent O-5 command such as the future mobile reconnaissance battalions (which are replacing the light armored reconnaissance units). Each MRC will consist of a headquarters element and three maneuver platoons operating MMRCs and USVs. Each platoon will comprise a headquarters element and three maneuver sections, with each section consisting of two MMRCs and two USVs.
Next, we have the Autonomous Low-Profile Vessel, or ALPV, which takes the nearly awash “narco sub” concept long used to run all sorts of contraband and options it for remote use to carry supplies to calm little lagoons right under the eyes of the PLAN.
It has been tested out by the Logistics Battalions of the Marine Littoral Regiments, and is described as “a semi-submersible autonomous logistics delivery system that has the ability to deliver multiple variations of supplies and equipment through contested maritime terrain.”
An autonomous low-profile vessel assigned to 2nd Distribution Support Battalion, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, pulls out of Mile Hammock Bay during exercise UNITAS 2025 at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, Sept. 15, 2025. 2nd MLG is working with the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab to experiment with the ALPV for a more lethal, agile, and resilient capability while conducting expeditionary advanced base operations. (U.S. Marine Corps photo Lance Cpl. Franco Lewis)
U.S. Marines with Maritime Distribution Platoon, 2nd Distribution Support Battalion, Combat Logistics Regiment 2 open an autonomous low-profile vessel for refueling operations during exercise UNITAS 2025 at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, Sept. 18, 2025. 2nd Marine Logistics Group is working with the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab to experiment with the ALPV for a more lethal, agile, and resilient capability while conducting expeditionary advanced base operations. (U.S. Marine Corps photo Sgt. Rafael Brambila-Pelayo)
ALPV has also been seen recently underway in Okinawa.
The Marine Corps tested the Autonomous Low-Profile Vessel (ALPV) during exercise Resolute Dragon 2025 (RD25), in Okinawa, Japan, and surrounding outlying islands. The ALPV is an autonomous logistics delivery system that can be configured to deliver multiple variations of supplies and equipment throughout the littorals. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Connor Taggart)
And a recent view of the cargo capability of the 65-foot ALPV, which seems to have several pallet-sized cargo holds.
The concept of getting some diesel, a few pallets of MREs and water, plus extra batteries and an assortment of lickies and chewies, shipped quietly into a forward atoll, could be a realistic way to keep isolated garrisons fed and semi-happy.
U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Conor Bassham, left, a metal worker and Sgt. Daymion Noisewater, a small craft mechanic with Combat Logistics Battalion 8, Combat Logistics Regiment 2, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, guides cargo onto an Autonomous Low-Profile Vessel during a concept of operations test at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, April 23, 2025. The ALPV is an autonomous logistics delivery system that the Marine Corps is testing to resupply a dispersed lethal fighting force discreetly and allow those operating in the littorals to be more sustainable, resilient, and survivable, both in competition and in conflict. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Christian Salazar)
250923-N-N3764-1097. ATLANTIC OCEAN (Sep. 23, 2025) A U.S. Navy Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft (GARC) maneuvers in the Atlantic Ocean during UNITAS 2025, the 66th iteration of the world’s longest-running multinational maritime exercise. Unmanned and remotely operated vehicles and vessels extend the capability of interconnected manned platform sensors to enhance capacity across the multinational force. (Official U.S. Navy photo)
250923-N-N3764-1077 ATLANTIC OCEAN (Sep. 23, 2025) A U.S. Navy Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft (GARC) maneuvers in the Atlantic Ocean during UNITAS 2025, the 66th iteration of the world’s longest-running multinational maritime exercise. Unmanned and remotely operated vehicles and vessels extend the capability of interconnected manned platform sensors to enhance capacity across the multinational force. (Official U.S. Navy photo)
Via the archives of the U.S. Naval Submarine School at Groton comes this little nugget:
The ballistic missile submarine USS Theodore Roosevelt (SSBN-600) had a shuffleboard mounted on a torpedo rack so that the crew could play tournaments. If the sub was ever in a situation in which the rack was needed, the CO said he was prepared to fire the shuffleboard out of the tube.
A George Washington-class FBM rushed into service during the Cold War to curb the “missile gap,” using components initially assembled for the Skipjack-class nuclear attack submarine USS Scamp (SSN-588), SSGN-600 was laid down on 20 May 1958 by the Mare Island Naval Shipyard; named Theodore Roosevelt and redesignated SSBN-600 on 6 November 1958; launched on 3 October 1959; sponsored by Mrs. Alice Roosevelt Longworth– TR’s then 75-year-old daughter– and commissioned on 13 February 1961.
U.S. Navy Launches Third Polaris Submarine. U.S. Navy’s Third Fleet Ballistic Missile Submarine Theodore Roosevelt (SSBN 600) is shown during launching ceremonies at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California, on 3 October 1959. She is designed to fire Polaris missiles surfaced or submerged. The nuclear-powered vessel is 380 feet long and has a submerged displacement of 6,700 tons. Mrs. Alice Roosevelt, daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt, christened the boat named for her father. The photograph was released on 8 October 1959. (9/30/2014).
She was the first FBM to transit the Panama Canal and stood out of Charleston on her first deterrent patrol on 19 July, just five months after commissioning. After 46 patrols, on 1 December 1979, she became the first FBM to offload her A-3 Missiles at the newly built Explosives Handling Wharf at Bangor and was decommissioned on 28 February 1981. Her Final dismantling and recycling were completed in 1995.
