HMS AENEAS AT BRISTOL

Although the "Silent Service" doubtlessly hoped that Dad would bring them a new generation of submariners, my main memories of the trip was being brought back a plaque of the ship's badge ( scanned above ) that has been on my wall ever since and a rather alarming anecdote. Apparently HM submarines were at the time prepared for such open days by having the propellers of their torpedoes chained to the racks they lay on. This was to stop visitors idly turning the propellers which were designed, after a set number of revolutions, to detonate the torpedo's warhead!

More recently though, I have chanced upon a picture of HMS Aeneas and some more solid information about her and her classmates.

In Greek mythology Aeneas was the son of Anchises and Aphrodite, portrayed in Homer's "Iliad" as a leader of the Trojans and as the hero of Virgil's "Aeneid". After the fall of Troy, Aeneas fled carring his father and household goods on his back and holding his son Ascanius by the hand. Having lost his wife he became the lover of Dido, Queen of Cathage, for several years before sailing from North Africa to the mouth of the Tiber in Italy. Here Aeneas was welcomed by Latinus, King of Latinum, whose daughter Lavinia he married before founding the City of Lavinium.

Like all A-Class submarines in service during the Indonesian insurgency of the early 1960s, HMS Aeneas was armed with deck artillery, including 20mm weapons, and machine guns. Later on in the decade, HMS Aeneas was also loaned to Vickers Shipbuilding Group for the for the development of the company's Submarine Launched Airflight Missile system (SLAM). Not to be confused with the American Supersonic Low Altitude Missile system , the SLAM tested on HMS Aeneas comprised four "blowpipe" missiles clustered around a TV camera on a telescopic mast, designed to shoot down anti-submarine helicopters. Although the SLAM system worked well, the range of the missiles involved was too limited to be worthwhile and the system was not put into production.

HMS Aeneas was paid off in 1972 and scrapped in 1974 by Clayton & Davie Ltd at Dunston-on-Tyne. However, her 4" Mk XXIII deck gun is preserved at the Royal Navy Armament Museum at Priddy's Head, Gosport, near HMS Dolphin.

Meanwhile, sister submarine HMS Andrew was the last Royal Navy submarine to to retain a deck gun and fire it - in December 1974. Her commanding officer signalled the Admiralty: "The reek of cordite has passed from the Royal Navy's submarine service. Last gun action conducted at 03 1330 Zulu. Time to first round: 36 seconds. May the art of submarine gunnery rest in peace, but never be forgotten."

HMS Alliance remained in service until March 1973 when she was paid off and and went to HMS Dolphin to replace T-Class submarine HMS Tabard as a static display and floating classroom. She remained there until August 1979 when it was decided to preserve her as a submarine memorial.

She was towed to Vosper Ship repairers Ltd at Southampton to have her keel reinforced before being lifted out of the water and placed on permanent display in her active service condition in 1981. HMS Alliance is thus a memorial to the 4 334 RN submariners lost in both World Wars and the 739 officers and men lost in peacetime accidents.

Sadly HMS Tabard, similar to HMS Taciturn, below, was not preserved.