HMS Perseus

About

HMS Perseus was a British Parthian-class submarine built in 1929 and lost in 1941 during the Second World War. This class were the first to be fitted with Mark VIII torpedoes. At the start of the war she was operating under the command of Commander Peter Bartlett on the China Station as part of the 4th Submarine Flotilla, together with the other members of her class. This continued until August 1940 when they were reassigned to the Mediterranean, where part of their duties were the ferrying of supplies between Alexandria and the besieged island of Malta. Perseus underwent a refit at Malta from October until April 1941.

Attached to the 1st Submarine Flotilla based in Alexandria, and under the command of Lieutenant-Commander Edward Christian Frederick Nicolay DSO RN (see Nicolay (family)), she sank the 3,867-ton Italian tanker Maya 5 nautical miles (9 km) south of Tenedos on 5 September 1941, and on 2 October, the 2,086-ton merchant ship Castellon west of Benghazi. It was as a result of these actions that Commander Nicolay was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. Perseus sailed from Malta for Alexandria on 26 November 1941 with instructions to patrol waters to the east of Greece...