Picture of a submarine
SM U-1 at sea
History
German Empire
NameU-1[1]
Ordered3 December 1904[2]
BuilderGermaniawerft, Kiel
Cost1,905,000 Goldmark
Yard number119[2]
Laid downOctober 1905[2]
Launched4 August 1906[2]
Commissioned14 December 1906[2]
Decommissioned19 February 1919[1]
StatusOn display in the Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany[1]
General characteristics [1]
Class and typeGerman Type U 1 submarine
Displacement
  • 238 t (234 long tons) surfaced
  • 283 t (279 long tons) submerged[1]
Length
Beam3.75 m (12 ft 4 in)
Draught3.17 m (10 ft 5 in)
Installed power
Propulsion
  • 2 shafts
  • 2 × 1.30 m (4 ft 3 in) propellers
Speed
  • 10.8 knots (20.0 km/h; 12.4 mph) surfaced
  • 8.7 knots (16.1 km/h; 10.0 mph) submerged
Range
  • 1,500 nmi (2,800 km; 1,700 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) surfaced
  • 50 nmi (93 km; 58 mi) at 5 knots (9.3 km/h; 5.8 mph)
Test depth30 m (98 ft)
Complement2 officers, 10 men (later 3/19)
Armament1 × 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tube with 3 C/03 torpedoes
Service record
Part of:
  • Training Flotilla
  • 1 August 1914 - 11 November 1918
Operations: none
Victories: No ships sunk or damaged

SM U-1, also known in English as the German Type U 1 submarine, was the first U-boat class of the U-boat series of submarines produced for the German Empire's Imperial German Navy. Only one was built. The U-1 was constructed by Germaniawerft in Kiel and was commissioned on 14 December 1906.[3] When World War I began in 1914, the U-1 was deemed obsolete and was used only for training until 19 February 1919, when it was struck by another vessel while on an exercise.

Design

The SM U-1 was a redesigned Karp class submarine by Austrian born engineer Raimundo Lorenzo de Equevilley Montjustín[4] working for the German shipbuilding company Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft. The main improvements over the export Karp class included trim tanks instead of a moveable weight, a redesigned forecastle to improve seagoing ability, a 10 cm (3.9 in) larger diameter and strengthened pressure hull which prevented oil leakage from the external tanks, a rearrangement of the internal equipment and a heavier ballast keel.

Center controls of U-1

The Imperial German Navy avoided the use of gasoline due to the perceived risk of fires and explosions that had caused many accidents in early submarines, and instead of the gasoline engines that had powered the Karp boats, U-1 was given much safer Körting kerosene engines. While normally kerosene engines were started using gasoline, the U-1's engines avoided even this and instead used electrically-heated air.

The Körting engines could not be reversed and also had to run at full speed, since their rpm could not be varied to any useful extent, and as a consequence U-1 was fitted with adjustable-pitch propellers to allow her speed to be controlled. These propellers were abandoned in later designs due to their poor efficiency, kerosene-electric propulsion being used instead before diesel propulsion was finally installed in the U-19 class in 1912-1913.

History

Construction on U-1 began in the autumn of 1904. The boat began its trials in August 1906, a year later than originally planned. The total cost amounted to 1,905,000 Mark (equivalent to €11,620,000 in 2016).[5][1] After suffering damage from a collision while on a training exercise in 1919, U-1 was sold to the Germaniawerft foundation at the Deutsches Museum in Munich where it was restored and can be viewed on display. A large portion of the starboard hull has been removed to allow visitors to see the submarine's interior.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Gröner 1991, p. 3.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Rössler 1985, p. 26.
  3. ↑ Showell, p. 30
  4. ↑ "SM U-1". www.routeyou.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 August 2020.
  5. ↑ "Kaufkraftäquivalente historischer Beträge in deutschen Währungen" [Purchasing Power Equivalence of Historic Sums in German Currencies] (PDF). German Federal Bank. October 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 May 2016. Retrieved 14 January 2017.

Bibliography

  • Gröner, Erich; Jung, Dieter; Maass, Martin (1991). German Warships 1815–1945, U-boats and Mine Warfare Vessels. Vol. 2. Translated by Thomas, Keith; Magowan, Rachel. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-593-4.
  • Jameson, William (1965). The Most Formidable Thing: The Story of the Submarine from Its Earliest Days to the End of World War I. Rupert Hart-Davis. ISBN 0-7603-1345-8.
  • Miller, David (2003). The Illustrated Directory of Submarines. MBI Pub. Co. ISBN 0-7603-1345-8.
  • Rössler, Eberhard (1981). The U-boat : the evolution and technical history of German submarines. London: Cassell. ISBN 0304361208.
  • Rössler, Eberhard (1985). U-Bootbau bis Ende des 1. Weltkriegs, Konstruktionen für das Ausland und die Jahre 1935-1945 (in German). Vol. I. Koblenz: Bernard & Graefe. ISBN 3-7637-5213-7. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  • Showell, Jak (2006). The U-Boat Century, German Submarine Warfare 1906-2006. Great Britain: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 1-86176-241-0.
  • Stern, Robert C. (2002). Battle Beneath the Waves: U-boats at War. Cassell Military Paperbacks. ISBN 0-304-36228-X.

48°7′N 11°35′E / 48.117°N 11.583°E / 48.117; 11.583

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