This post is a bit abnormal for this community as it is quite long, but bear with me. It is the history of a class of submarines.

Behold - the epitome of bad ideas in practice, the K class submarine.

Statistics

Displacement:

• 1,980 tons surfaced
• 2,566 tons submerged

Crew: 6 officers and 53 enlisted

Armament: 4 torpedo tubes, 2 Mk4 anti light ship guns, and a 3 inch gun.

Powerplants:

• 2 Yarrow oil powered Boilers (7,800 kW output each) powering one steam turbine each, which were hooked up to twin propellers.

• 4 electric motors for submersed propulsion (1,070 kW output each).

• One Vickers diesel generator (600 kW output) for charging the batteries + providing emergency propulsion if the boilers failed.

If the mention of boilers confused you, I can confirm you read that correctly - these submarines were powered by steam engines.

The initial design of these submarines was commissioned in 1913. When designed originally, they were powered by conventional diesel engines in a triple screw formation. However, it was found that it could not meet the minimal acceptable speed in that engine configuration (that being 21 knots, or 39 km/h).

Why was that speed important?

At that time, submarine warfare doctrine was not the same as it is today, or WW2, or any other conflict in which submarines participated. Unlike modern submarines, British submarine doctrine during the time of the first world war was leagues behind Germany, as was their designs. As such, submarine doctrine in the British navy called for submarines to be used as supports for their dreadnought centered flotillas. They served the role of being a flanking vessel. When they engaged the enemy, they submerged, flanked, and showed up behind the enemy fleet with torpedoes, light naval artillery, and the element of surprise. However, to support the main ships of the flotilla, it needs to be able to keep up with the Flotilla, a task for which the diesel engines were insufficient. They could make the submarine larger, but the submarine was already massive. So their solution was to simply make the submarine's engines different.

"Make them steam powered" they said.

So they did. The K class's steam engine system was born.

There was mixed feelings on the engine systems of the K class submarine among the British admiralty of the era. Roger Keys, who was the submarine inspector at the time, Sir John Jellicoe, who was the commander of the British Grand Fleet, and Sir David Beatty, commander of the Battlecruiser Squadrons, all thought it was a great idea. However, on the other hand, Admiral Jacky Fisher's thoughts on the matter can be summarized as "this shit is the worst idea I've ever seen."

The first K class submarine to roll off the production line was the K3. This ship was the first of the 17 that were constructed (though there were more ordered).

Problems became apparent immediately.

First off, diving times were the worst of any submarine in any country. 30 minutes at standard operations. Totally unacceptable for military operations, as the vessel's only real purpose was fighting underwater, and was quite weak in surface to surface engagements.

Secondly, the thing was fucking huge. At 103 meters long (339 feet), this ship was similar in size to the battleships. This was especially an issue because the submarine's maximum dive depth was only 200 feet. Further causing issues, the watertight bulkheads inside were only rated for 70 feet. So if the submarine as a hull breach at say, 150 feet, the bulkheads had a chance of simply failing and allowing the water to flood everything.

Third, the thing was terrible at maneuvering. Being long and having a low profile, the overwhelming majority of the ship was in the water, and it had a quite small rudder. This has a massive negative effect on steering, and made it generally extremely awkward to maneuver.

Fourth, the vessel had dangerous depth control issues. At this point telemotors (servos) weren't really a thing. Thanks to the extremely shallow maximum depth, this meant keeping it at a safe depth was extremely difficult.

And now that the stage is set with a true understanding of just how much of a piece of shit this thing was, we get to the section of this post which truly is history:

The part where like, a full third of them sink for no reason.

The first, and most well known, was the K13. The K13 sank in January 1917, during its' test dives before being accepted into the fleet. At the time of the submarine's final dive, rather than the standard compliment of 59 people, the vessel had 80 people aboard, including its' full crew, officials from the shipyards and engineering firm, and naval officers who were aboard as observers.

At 3:00 PM in the afternoon, the ship prepared to dive. As she dived, it was noticed she wouldn't level out at 20 feet and continued her descent. Water was noticed flooding the engine room. In a desperate attempt to save the ship, the watertight doors were ordered shut, and the captain ordered an emergency blow (forcibly empty the ballast tanks as fast as possible), as well as dropping the keel. However, they failed, and the stern of the sub hit the bottom 50 feet from the surface. 31 people had been trapped in the flooded stern when the watertight doors had shut, and had been killed. In addition, a fire had broken out on a control panel, which had consumed some oxygen before the crew had literally punched it out.

It was noticed more or less immediately that things had gone wrong. Obviously, the crew knew first, seeing as almost half of them had been killed. However, fortunately, the crew of the submarine E50 had noticed that the dive of the K13 had "didn't look right", and called for assistance almost immediately. However, it took 6 hours for rescue ships to arrive, and another several hours to make contact.

Aware that he was running out of time, the captain (Lieutenant Commander Herbert) and one of the guest officers (Goodhart) decided to try to go for help. They entered the bridge, over-pressurized it, then opened the top hatch. The resulting blast resulted in the captain making it to the surface, but Goodhart was slammed into the roof of the bridge and died.

When he was up there, Herbert gave his report on the conditions in the sub.

It was some pretty grim shit.

At this point, the crew had properly run out of air. The shitty watertight doors I talked about earlier were leaking. Every breath they took was poisoning them and making their situation worse. They were out of time.

First priority became supplying air to the bow of the ship. Not only would it buy them more time to save the crew, but it would also allow them to increase the air pressure on the failing bulkhead, reinforcing it.

It was 6PM the following evening before they were connected. But, there was an issue. When they turned on the air lines, nothing happened. One of the lines had been blocked by ice.

It had been a day since the air had started to become toxic due to CO2 buildup before they started to pump the air in and revive the half dead crew of the sub. At this point, the crew's luck had started to change. An additional tube was attached for food, and by 6:30 AM voice communication had been established.

Eventually, despite the constant arguing of the salvage specialists on the best way to proceed, a plan of action was established. A steel cable was sent down and attached to the K13's hull, and the ship was slowly lifted until its' bow was just above the surface. The initial plan for getting the crew was was to send them out through the torpedo tubes. However, before they had a chance, the bow shifted, and the torpedo tubes shifted below the waterline. Instead, they used a torch to cut a hole through the hull, which they then used to extract the 46 remaining survivors.

It had been 2 days and 9 hours since it had landed on the bottom. It had cost the lives of 34 people.

The salvage operation proceeded from this point. However, it ended up flooding thanks to the fuckoff-massive hole in its' side, and dropped back to the bottom of the ocean. But of course, this is the British navy. The most miserly organization on the planet. They refloated the K13 and renamed it the K22 to mitigate the bad press. The ship continued to suffer massive accidents throughout its' career.

The story of the K13 is important because it sets a trend. These submarines ended up costing the lives of hundreds of people within the span of 5 years. 6 of the 18 built were lost in accidents, and none were destroyed in combat.

The K4 ended up beaching itself by mistake and remained there for some time.

The K1 sank in a collision with the K4.

The K17 was hit by the HMS Fearless. The K4 was hit by both the K6 and K7, which nearly split it in half and sent it and her entire crew to the bottom. This event was part of the "battle" of may island, which was its' own disaster.

The K5 just disappeared. They found wreckage the day it went missing, but what actually happened is unknown. It is suspected that it dived below 200 feet, and broke up.

The K15 sank while it was moored. Hydraulic oil expanded in the heat, and caused the diving vents to open.

The K12 and K16 both crashed on the bottom at one point. They were, however, able to re-surface on their own, eventually.

I believe the K class is the best (and most obscure) example of what happens when you combine outdated, or lazy, thinking with brand new technologies. These ships were death traps thanks to the unimaginativeness of the flag staff, and had they been commissioned by people who were better strategists or by engineers, hundreds of people wouldn't have lost their lives.

Attached photo is of the K15 before its' sinking