HMS Triton was a submarine of the Royal Navy named for the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, the personification of the roaring waters. She was the lead ship of the T class (or Triton class) of diesel-electric submarines. Her keel was laid down on 28 August 1936 by Vickers-Armstrongs at Barrow-in-Furness. She was launched on 5 October 1937, and commissioned on 9 November 1938.
Career
At the onset of the Second World War, Triton was a member of the 2nd Submarine Flotilla. From 26–29 August 1939, the flotilla deployed to its war bases at Dundee and Blyth.
The sinking of HMS Oxley
When the Admiralty was notified that the United Kingdom would declare war on Germany, five submarines of the 2nd Submarine Flotilla, including HMS Triton and , were ordered to patrol on the Obrestad line off Norway on 24 August 1939.
Home waters and the Mediterranean
Triton continued her war patrols, first in Baltic waters. On 8 April, in the lead-up to the German invasion of Norway, she fired ten torpedoes at the German cruisers , Lützow and off Skagen. All torpedoes missed their targets. On 10 April 1940, she sank the German steamers , Wigbert, and the patrol vessel Rau 6 in the Kattegat.
Later, she was redeployed to the Mediterranean Sea, based in Alexandria. During her first patrol in the Gulf of Genoa, Lieutenant Watkins, now Tritons commanding officer, decided to enter the harbour of Savona. She found a supply ship at anchor in the harbour, at which she fired a single torpedo and claimed an 8,000-ton kill, though the sinking could not be confirmed. No other ships were available to torpedo, so Watkins surfaced Triton. The submarine began shelling a large factory and a gas works on the shore, damaging both of them before departing. According to Italian sources, Tritons target was not a merchant ship; the submarine apparently mistook the chimney of the pump station for the funnel of a merchant ship, and fired the torpedoes against the shore. The Cieli Electric Station sustained slight damage from the gunfire.
Sinking
On 28 November 1940, Triton left Malta for a patrol in the southern Adriatic Sea. On 6 December, the Italian merchant Olimpia was torpedoed by a British submarine in the area. Her distress message was picked up by the Royal Navy, which assumed that the attack had been carried out by Triton. The submarine was never heard from again, and was declared lost with all hands on 18 December. Olimpia was successfully towed to port by Italian escort units. The Italian Navy claimed that Triton was sunk by torpedo boats, probably Confienza, possibly by Clio, but the date cited was several days after contact was lost. British sources claimed that Triton was sunk by naval mines in the Strait of Otranto.