HMS C16 was one of 38 C-class submarines built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. The boat survived the First World War and was sold for scrap in 1922.
Design and description
The C class was essentially a repeat of the preceding B class, albeit with better performance underwater. The submarine had a length of overall, a beam of and a mean draft of. They displaced on the surface and submerged. The C-class submarines had a crew of two officers and fourteen ratings. For surface running, the boats were powered by a single 16-cylinder Vickerspetrol 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 C class had a range of at. The boats were armed with two 18-inch 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
C16 was built by Vickers at their Barrow-in-Furness shipyard, laid down on 14 December 1906 and was commissioned on 5 June 1908. The boat collided with south of Cromer, Norfolk on 14 July 1909 when the steamer Eddystone drove through the flotilla - colliding with and sinking. C16 was undamaged and participated in the Lord Mayor's Pageant. C16 was sunk after being rammed at periscope depth by destroyer off Harwich on 16April 1917. The boat bottomed out at. A Mate – Samuel Anderson – was fired through a torpedo tube to try to escape, but unfortunately drowned. The captain – Lieutenant Harold Boase – tried to flood the boat in an effort to escape through the fore hatch, but the fender jammed the hatch, so the crew was trapped. The escape attempts were recorded by the commanding officer, and were found corked in a bottle found lying near him when the hull was salvaged. All the crew of C16 died. C16 was salvaged and recommissioned. C16 was finally sold on 12 August 1922.
