The O 9-class submarine consisted of three submarines, built for the Royal Netherlands Navy. Used for patrols in the Dutch home waters. The class comprised O 9, O 10, and O 11. Its diving depth was 60 metres (200 ft).
Class overview | |
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Name | O 9 class |
Builders |
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Operators | Royal Netherlands Navy |
Preceded by | HNLMS O 8 |
Succeeded by | O 12 class |
Built | 1923–1926 |
In commission | 1926–1944 |
Completed | 3 |
Lost | 1 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Submarine |
Displacement |
|
Length | 54.66 m (179 ft 4 in) |
Beam | 5.7 m (18 ft 8 in) |
Draught | 3.53 m (11 ft 7 in) |
Propulsion |
|
Speed |
|
Range | |
Complement | 29 |
Armament |
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The O 9-class submarines were designed by J.J. van der Struyff, at the time chief engineer of the Royal Netherlands Navy (RNN).[1] Together with the submarines of the K XI class they were the first submarines designed fully in-house by the RNN, which resulted in the first indigenous Dutch submarine design.[2][3] The submarines of the O 9-class were the first Dutch submarines built with two propellers and a double hull.[4] Previous classes only had a single hull and one propeller. As a result the submarines of the O 9-class had a different external shape in comparison to previous Dutch submarine classes as they were no longer cigar shaped.[1] The submarines had a length of 54.66 meters, a beam of 5.70 meters and a draught of 3.53 meters.[5] Furthermore, each submarine had a displacement of 526 ton while surfaced and 656 ton underwater.[6] The diving depth of the O 9 class was 60 meters.[7]
The primary armament of the O 9-class submarines consisted of five torpedo tubes; two 53.3 cm torpedo tubes and three 45 cm torpedo tubes.[8][9] The 45 cm torpedo tubes were unusual since most contemporary submarines in service with foreign navies at the time did not use 45 cm torpedo tubes anymore.[10] In addition to the torpedo tubes, each submarine had a single 8.8 cm cannon and a machine gun, which could be used against planes.[6] There was also enough room in the submarine to store 10 torpedoes.[8]
The O 9-class submarines were equipped with two 6 cylinder two-stroke diesel engines made by the company Sulzer in Winterthur.[11][5] Besides the diesel engines, it also had two electric motors and 120 cells.[4] This gave a capacity of 4350 Ah and allowed the submarine to operate solely on electric power for 3 hours.[8] The engines allowed the submarines to reach 900 hp when surfaced and 500 hp underwater, which resulted in a maximum speed while surfaced of 12 kn and underwater 8 knots.[12][4]
In the morning of 6 March 1940 the submarines of the O 9-class were planning to do exercises near Texel that would be filmed for propaganda purposes.[13] However, while leaving the harbor of Den Helder the O 11 got rammed by the surveillance vessel BV 3 and as a result of severe damage sunk.[14]
At the time of the German invasion O 11 was under repair in Den Helder.[7] On 14 May 1940 she was scuttled there to prevent her being captured by German forces. However the Germans raised the ship and ordered it repaired. In September 1944 O 11 was sunk in Den Helder to block the entrance of the harbour.[15]
The ships were built by three different shipyards. O 9 was built by the Koninklijke Maatschappij De Schelde in Flushing, O 10 in Amsterdam at the Nederlandsche Scheepsbouw Maatschappij and O 11 in Rotterdam at Fijenoord shipyard.[9][16]
Name | Laid down | Launched | Commissioned | Decommissioned |
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O 9 | 23 September 1922 | 7 April 1925 | 18 January 1926 | 1 December 1944 |
O 10 | 24 December 1923 | 30 July 1925 | 1 September 1926 | 11 October 1944 |
O 11 | 24 December 1922 | 19 March 1925 | 18 January 1926 | Dutch Navy: 14 May 1940 (scuttled) German navy: September 1944 (sunk) |