On February 13, 1857 the Anchor Line's Tempest sailed from New York never to be seen again, eighty-five years later another Tempest was lost, this time the sinking was an act of war. The submarine HMS Tempest N-86 was on patrol in the Gulf of Taranto when the tanker Lucania was sighted at about 13:00 hrs. on Feb. 12, 1942. The tanker was to have been given "safe passage" and therefore Lt. Cmdr. William A.K.N. Cavaye ordered the crew to stand down and the tanker was allowed to proceed unmolested. Nearby Lt. C. P. Norman and his HMS Una N-87 also sighted the Lucania, he however did not recognize her "safe passage" and he fired on her. On board the Tempest they heard the explosion and Cavaye looked through his periscope to see the tanker slipping beneath the waves. The men of the Tempest must have known what was coming next.

Anti-submarine vessels responded to the sinking tanker sweeping the area hoping to find the boat responsible, but neither Tempest or Una were found by the Italians that day. The Tempest was charging her batteries when the tanker was first sighted and that evening Cavaye decided to surface and continue to charge them before continuing on his patrol, this was a fatal error in judgment. Even though the Italians had not found a suitable target they did not stop looking and at around 03:00 on February 13, 1942 the torpedo boat Circe happened along and spotted the Tempest on the surface. Cavaye at first thought of using his above water tubes, but when the Circe made a hard turn at full speed he decided to dive the boat.

This crash dive almost sank the Tempest without the help of the Circe when the boat went to 350 feet before she could be brought under control, by then the damage had been done. The worst of the damage was to one of the propeller shafts, it shifted in its housing and was knocking loudly. In addition the hydroplanes were damaged beyond repair along with the ASDIC and hydrophone, the boat was blind and unmaneuverable, they could not avoid the inevitable depth charge attack which would soon begin. Circe battered the Tempest with pattern after pattern of depth charges in an attack which lasted until 10:30, seven and a half hours of hell for the men on Tempest.

The boat was shaken apart one piece at a time until salt water got into the batteries, the boat began to fill with chlorine gas and this was the final straw, Cavaye prepared his crew to abandon the boat. When the Tempest broke the surface men began to leave the boat, but one man decided to have a go at the Circe with the deck gun, what he did not know was that he had no ammo support. They were supposed to abandon the boat and nobody was on station to pass up any ammo, the Crew on the Circe didn't know either. When he aimed the gun toward the Circe they responded in kind, with guns that worked, the man was killed instantly, several others were also killed in the gunfire. Circe finally stopped shelling the Tempest and after some time began to pick up survivors. In the process she attempted to take the Tempest in tow, even putting two men onboard her, however she was low in the stern and soon began to sink rapidly, the two Italians had to jump for their lives.

The crew of the Circe picked up twenty-three men from the cold water, but sadly thirty-nine had perished. Those who had survived would spend the rest of the war as POW's, they were also the only British submariners who would survive an encounter with the Circe. For the Circe this was possibly the third British submarine she sent to the bottom, but not the last. The first was HMS Grampus, she was sunk on June 16, 1940 by Circe and two other torpedo boats, all fifty-five men onboard were lost. Number two is thought to have been HMS Union in July of 1941, Circe reported sinking a submarine that attacked a convoy, it is unknown for sure if this attack sank Union, but it is known that Union never returned from her patrol. Ten days after sinking the Tempest the HMS P-38 ran afoul of the veteran sub killer. HMS P-38 was located by Circe before she could attack the convoy she was protecting and was depth charged and sunk with all hands (it should be noted that some sources credit the loss of P-38 to the Italian destroyer Antoniotto Usodimare). Circe did not survive the war, but her loss was an accident, she was run down by the liner Citta di Tunis in the Gulf of Naples on Nov. 27, 1942.

© 2008 Michael W. Pocock
MaritimeQuest.com