Back to the drawing board: The K-class submarine

Design studies for what were to become the K-class submarines began in 1913 in response to a requirement for underwater vessels with the speed and endurance to operate with the Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet. There were doubts that contemporary diesel engines could give the necessary surface speed of 24 knots, so oil-fired steam turbines were proposed. Admiral Jacky Fisher all too accurately remarked that: ‘The most fatal error imaginable would be to put steam engines in submarines.’ A K-class submarine, probably K3, pictured during the First World War. For an underwater vessel, the class had ‘too many damned holes’, as one submariner observed. Image: Wikimedia Commons Despite such