Wreck Tour 55: HMS Umpire

Behind this WW2 British submarine wreck off Norfolk lies a tale of heroism, and though it has been salvaged there is still plenty for divers to appreciate, says JOHN LIDDIARD. Illustration by MAX ELLIS

Looking back at the list of Wreck Tours, I realise that it’s been ages since we featured a submarine, the last one being the UC70 off Whitby (Wreck Tour 10, December 1999). So for all those submarine fanatics who have been so sadly neglected, this month’s tour is of HMS Umpire, a World War Two wreck in only 18m, located 15 miles off the north Norfolk coast.

When I dived HMS Umpire the shot had caught just aft of amidships (1). The submarine lies on its starboard side, so the upper surface here is the port side. Looking forward, the keel is to the left and the deck to the right.

This shallow, there is plenty of natural light, which serves to enhance visibility. The hull is coated in a dense carpet of hydroids, with clumps of big plumose anemones on exposed ribs.

Heading forward, the hull is soon broken and collapsed where the main control-room would have been, beneath the conning tower (2). The wreck then gains more structure, with the lower part of the hull pretty solid, though the upper part is broken clear (3).

Stacks of batteries can be seen through gaps in the internal deck, where rectangular plates have fallen clear.

Fourteen of the 31 crew were lost when HMS Umpire was accidentally rammed by the Admiralty trawler Peter Hendriks, so this submarine should be treated as a war grave, with a look-but-do-not-disturb approach to diving.

Having said that, what does and does not constitute venturing inside a wreck that has been blown open by commercial salvage can be a little ambiguous.

To the forward end of the control-room, an intact bulkhead separates it from the torpedo-room (4). The hatch that was closed so heroically when the torpedo-room flooded now lies open.

Staying outside the hull, a section of bent pipe lies propped against the deck from the seabed, with cables draped over it. All are covered in anemones. The first feature of the bow deck is the torpedo-loading hatch (5), a sloped tube angled forward into the deck, through which torpedoes would be slid into the torpedo-room.

The hatch-cover is open and hanging below, hinged to the starboard side of the wreck. Looking in, a green glow from the break further forward can be seen through the torpedo-room.

Next along the deck comes the forward escape hatch (6), again open. The Peter Hendriks struck HMS Umpire near the bow, flooding the forward torpedo-room. While others escaped through the aft escape hatch, no one survived from the forward part of the wreck, so this hatch was most likely opened during subsequent salvage.

The last item on this intact section of bow deck is a small anchor-winch (7). This would normally have been enclosed by the outer hull, but the bow forward of here is just debris. Forward of the anchor-winch, the wreck is cleanly broken pretty much completely across.

Looking back inside the torpedo-room, what looks like a re-load torpedo rests on the lower side of the wreck.

Further forward, the wreck is flat to the seabed, just a few curved plates rising above the sand, some with flanges and valves projecting (8). It’s hard to tell just how much of this damage was done by the original collision and how much by subsequent salvage to recover the four torpedo-tubes for their non-ferrous metal.

A fair amount of wreckage has fallen away from the deck, so on the swim aft it’s worth looping out a little, keeping the main body of the wreck in sight. One of the bow hydroplanes stands upright in the sand (9), just about level with the anchor-winch.

In addition to torpedo-tubes, HMS Umpire was armed with a 12-pounder gun, a 3in gun and three 0.303in machine-guns.

Just out from amidships, the mount for the forward 12-pounder gun lies on one side (10) with a section of hull-plate resting over the top of it. The gun itself is missing, presumably salvaged, or perhaps it is buried somewhere nearby. There are certainly no signs of it under the plate.

Close to the base of the gun-mount, but still detached from the main body of wreckage, a curved section of metal partly buried in sand and gravel is the remains of the conning tower (11).

The 3in gun can be found further aft, lying on one side half-submerged in the seabed, and again separated from the main body of the wreck (12).

From here our tour cuts in to the stern (13), where the rudder is an open framework angled slightly to port (up) and the diving plane angled slightly down. The port propeller-shaft projects on the upper side of the wreck (14), the prop itself being another item that would have been salvaged. The starboard shaft is buried.

The tail section is broken from the rest of the wreck where the engine-room has been broken open (15). I think the main objective of the salvors here would have been to obtain the copper from the electric motors, and the remains of what looks like the armature of an electric motor lies cleaned of its windings among the debris. It is from the engine-room escape-hatch that the surviving crew swam to the surface.

The commercial salvage team certainly knew what they were doing. The wreck has been opened out completely, right where the main objects of salvage could be found: the electric motors, the control-room instruments and periscopes, and the torpedo-tubes at the bow.

The drive-train of a submarine is linked in this sequence: diesel engine, electric motor / generator, gearbox, shaft, propeller. Looking back inside the tail-section, the gearboxes are still attached to the propeller-shafts although, as I have noted, they have been separated from the electric motors.

Continuing forward, the wreck regains some structure (16). Beneath the internal deck are more batteries; submarines carry an enormous quantity of batteries for use when submerged, and these would be fitted the whole length of the hull beneath the internal deck, also serving as stabilising ballast.

One of the diesel engines has fallen out of the wreck and is sheltered by a section of hull (17). The other lies partly obscured by debris within the main part of the hull. Ascending onto the port side of the hull brings our tour back to its starting point. With an 18m dive unlikely to end in decompression, the simplest ascent is back up the shotline.

Thanks to James Holt, Stephen Holt, John Martin and Dave King.

Appeared in Diver, September 2003