HMS B5

HMS B5 was one of 11 B-class submarines built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. She survived World War I and was sold for scrap in 1921.

Design and description

The B class was an enlarged and improved version of the preceding A class. The submarines had a length of overall, a beam of and a mean draft of . They displaced on the surface and submerged. The B-class submarines had a crew of two officers and thirteen ratings.

For surface running, the boats were powered by a single 16-cylinder Vickers petrol engine that drove one propeller shaft. When submerged the propeller was driven by a electric motor. They could reach on the surface and underwater. On the surface, the B class had a range of at .

The boats were armed with two 18-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes in the bow. They could carry a pair of reload torpedoes, but generally did not as they would have to remove an equal weight of fuel in compensation.

Construction and career

B5 was built by Vickers at their Barrow-in-Furness shipyard, launched 14 November 1905 and completed 25 February 1906. When the war began in 1914, the boat was assigned to defend the Straits of Dover. B5 was sold on 25 August 1921 to AJ Anderson, then sold again on 1 March 1922 to J Smith, Poole.