CHAPTER 10
An Unlucky Fall
After the exposure and excitement of Navy Week, not much happened in the life of X.1 until October 1930, when she conducted basin trials and then went to sea for engine trials. Annoyingly, both main engines developed minor faults which caused her return to Sheerness on the starboard main engine. In November the familiar sequence of events was repeated: basin trials followed by putting to sea for main engine trials. This time one of the old German auxiliary engines overheated, followed inevitably by overheating of the camshaft drive on the starboard main engine.
More dockyard work was followed by more basin and sea trials. Then on 3 February 1931 X.1 suffered a major breakdown. During main engine trials off Sheerness the No 3 piston in the port main engine temporarily seized and caused serious damage to the cylinder. The ship’s log notes an ‘explosion’ in the crankcase, but it is more likely that the con rod and possibly the piston broke through the casing. In any case there were some injuries among the engine room staff, though luckily no fatalities. X.1 returned to Chatham in disgrace on her remaining main engine and the port main motor, for another round of repairs, and an enquiry into the accident took place three days later.
A steady stream of crew members began transferring to other duties, until only a third of the original crew remained. It was during this period that a fire broke out on board. It started in the port main engine room and took nearly 25 minutes to extinguish. More dockyard repairs and basin trials followed, and on 30 March 1931 X.1 sailed for Portsmouth and her date with destiny.
On 9 April Lt Commander Besant took over from Commander Baraclough, and the veteran vessel settled into a comfortable round of inaction, which dramatically ended on 26 June. At 11.00 on that fateful day X.1 was moved into No 15 Dry Dock in Portsmouth. It appears that the dockyard mateys used insufficient shoring to prop up the giant submarine. The pumps were started to empty the basin when the lunch break siren sounded and the workmen all decamped to the canteen, and then the inevitable happened. At around 13.30 X.1 fell over on her port side, assuming a 40-degree list.1 Acid spilt from the batteries was the cause of a fire in the auxiliary engine room, which took 45 minutes to extinguish.
Securing X.1 before reflooding the dock to try to right her.
The damage looked worse than it was. When refloated she retained a slight list to port, but the main hull was watertight. The outer plating of the port compensating and fuel tanks was buckled in several places, and this would have been the ideal opportunity to replace the riveted fuel tanks with welded ones. But the damage was the last straw for an exasperated Admiralty. The ‘old’ ship, aged beyond her years, had been a drain on scant resources for too long, and this was the straw that finally broke the camel’s back.
X.1 from astern, after refloating but before righting. A ‘County’ class heavy cruiser is in the next dock.
Decline into Oblivion
The giant submarine was once more an embarrassment. She was not repaired, and in December 1933 she was laid up in Fareham Creek, Portsmouth. The ‘living death’ of the Care and Maintenance Routine followed. The sad details are evident from her final Log entries.
On 15 November 1935 a revised Scrapping and Replacement Programme was published. It proposed that X.1 be scrapped immediately should the international tonnage limitation on submarines be removed.
On 8 April 1936, with X.1 already in dockyard control, an official request to scrap her was made.
In October 1936 X.1 was struck from the active list.
In December 1936, without any publicity, she was towed quietly to Thos Ward’s yard at Milford Haven and was broken up. No recognisable part of her has ever come to light, and no photos of her demise exist.