HMS Sahib was an S class submarine

British S class submarine (1931)

The S-class submarines of the Royal Navy were originally designed and built during the modernisation of the submarine force in the early 1930s to meet the need for smaller boats to patrol the restricted waters of the North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea replacing the British H class submarines...

 of the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

, and part of the Third Group built of that class. She was built by Cammell Laird and launched on January 19, 1942. So far she has been the only ship to bear the name Sahib.

Career

She was assigned to the Mediterranean theatre, where she sank seven Italian sailing vessels, including the Ina S., Francesco Padre, Santa Maria Del Salvazione, San Vincenzo and Pier Della Vigne, the Italian merchants Honestas and Sidamo, the German (former French) transport San Antonio, the German merchant Qued Tiflet, and the small Italian merchant Tosca. Sahib also damaged the Italian tug Valente and a barge with gunfire. The tug was hit 45 times and the barge 25 times. The tug was set on fire and completely burnt out. On 21 January 1943 she sank the German submarine U-301. There was only one survivor from U-301.

On 14 November 1942 Sahib torpedoed and sank the Italian transport SS Scillin

SS Scillin

The SS Scillin was an Italian cargo ship of approximately 1,600 tons that was sunk in the Mediterranean Sea while transporting 814 Allied prisoners of war from North Africa to Italy. Nearly all of the POWs died...

. The Scillin was transporting Allied prisoners of war, of which 787 drowned.

Sinking

On April 16, 1943, she attacked and sank the merchant ship Galiolo, two miles off Capo di Milazzo

Capo di Milazzo

Capo di Milazzo is a thin peninsula on the north eastern part of the island of Sicily which extends into the Tyrrhenian Sea towards the Lipari Islands. The town of Milazzo is located on the centre of the peninsula....

. After firing, the Sahib almost broke the surface, which was noticed by an aircraft, which dropped a bomb but to no effect. The torpedo boat Climene began a heavy depth charge attack resulting in the submarine's pressure hull being holed at the aft ends. Unable to repair the damage, the ship was abandoned. She surfaced and was attacked by the aircraft. Sahib was scuttled

Scuttling

Scuttling is the act of deliberately sinking a ship by allowing water to flow into the hull.This can be achieved in several ways—valves or hatches can be opened to the sea, or holes may be ripped into the hull with brute force or with explosives...

to prevent her capture. One of the crew was wounded and died on 3 May 1943.