Class and type S-class submarine Laid down 5 June 1940 Construction started 5 June 1940 Length 66 m Builder Cammell Laird | Name HMS Safari Commissioned 14 March 1942 Launched 18 November 1941 Draft 3.4 m | |
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Honours and
awards Sicily 1943, Mediterranean 1943 Fate Sold to be broken up for scrap; sunk on tow to shipbreakers 8 January 1946 | ||
HMS Safari, launched in November 1941, was one of the third group of British S-class submarines built by Cammell Laird & Co Limited, Birkenhead. So far she has been the only ship to bear the name Safari.
Safari was sponsored by the citizens of Dereham, Norfolk - the sum of £250,339 being raised during a "Warship Week".
Career
She spent most of World War II in the Mediterranean Sea where she was highly successful. She sank:
Safari also damaged the following:
Safari also launched unsuccessful attacks on the Italian merchant Cap Figalo and the German controlled French tanker Champagne. Safari also attacked the Italian submarine Bronzo.
On 19 October 1942 HMS Unbroken had torpedoed and damaged the Italian merchant Titania. The Titania was taken in tow by the Italian destroyer Ascari, but was sunk early the next day by Safari.
On 8 January 1946 she was being towed to the breaker's yard to be scrapped when she sank in heavy seas with no crew on board. Today she is a popular site for divers in the English Channel, she lies on a rock seabed at a depth of 44 m. Her conning tower has been removed, as has the nose cone, so the bow caps (outer doors of the torpedo tubes) are visible.
HMS Safari was commanded for much of her wartime career by Benjamin Bryant, who also commanded HMS Sealion during the war. Bryant later recounted his exploits aboard the two vessels in his book, One Man Band (later republished as Submarine Commander). Safari is also the subject of the book Crash Dive by Arthur Dickison, who served under Bryant.