HMS C7


HMS C7 was one of 38 C-class submarines built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. The boat survived the First World War and was sold for scrap in 1920.

Design and description

The C class was essentially a repeat of the preceding B class, albeit with better performance underwater. The submarine had a length of overall, a beam of and a mean draft of. They displaced on the surface and submerged. The C-class submarines had a crew of two officers and fourteen ratings.
For surface running, the boats were powered by a single 16-cylinder Vickers petrol engine that drove one propeller shaft. When submerged the propeller was driven by a electric motor. They could reach on the surface and underwater. On the surface, the C class had a range of at.
The boats were armed with two 18-inch torpedo tubes in the bow. They could carry a pair of reload torpedoes, but generally did not as they would have to remove an equal weight of fuel in compensation.

Construction and career

C7 was built by Vickers at their Barrow-in-Furness shipyard, laid down on 9 December 1905 and was commissioned on 23 May 1907. The boat is often mistakenly credited with sinking on 5 April 1917 off the coast of The Netherlands. However, this attack was made against, which survived. C7 was sold on 20 December 1919.