HMS E8 was a British E-class submarine built at Chatham Dockyard. She was laid down on 30 March 1912 and was commissioned on 18 June 1914. She cost £105,700. During World War I, she was part of the British submarine flotilla in the Baltic.

Design

The early British E-class submarines, from E1 to E8, had a displacement of 652 LT at the surface and 795 LT while submerged. They had a length overall of 180 ft and a beam of 22 ft, and were powered by two 800 hp Vickers eight-cylinder two-stroke diesel engines and two 420 hp electric motors. The class had a maximum surface speed of 16 kn and a submerged speed of 10 kn, with a fuel capacity of 50 LT of diesel affording a range of 3225 mi when travelling at 10 kn, while submerged they had a range of 85 mi at 5 kn. The 'Group 1' E class boats were armed with four 18 inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes, one in the bow, one either side amidships, and one in the stern; a total of eight torpedoes were carried. Group 1 boats were not fitted with a deck gun during construction, but those involved in the Dardanelles campaign had guns mounted forward of the conning tower while at Malta Dockyard. E-Class submarines had wireless systems with 1 kW power ratings; in some submarines, these were later upgraded to 3 kW systems by removing a midship torpedo tube. Their maximum design depth was 100 ft although in service some reached depths of below 200 ft.

Crew

E8′s complement was three officers and 28 men.

Service history

When war was declared with Germany on 5 August 1914, E8 was based at Harwich, in the 8th Submarine Flotilla of the Home Fleets. On that morning the destroyers HMS Ariel (1911) and HMS Amethyst (1903) towed E8 and HMS E6, respectively to Terschelling. E8 and E6 then made the first Heligoland Bight patrol of World War I. On 23 October 1915, E8 sank the 9,050-ton, three-funnel German armoured cruiser SMS Prinz Adalbert (1901) in the Baltic Sea 20 nmi west of Libau. As the result of this action the submarine's commander, Commander Francis Goodhart, received the Cross of St. George from Tsar Nicholas II. During her time in the Baltic, Aksel Berg, who later became a key figure in Soviet cybernetics, was her liaison officer.

Fate

E8 met her fate on 4 April 1918 outside Helsingfors (now Helsinki) 1.5 nmi off Harmaja Light in the Gulf of Finland. She was scuttled by her crew, along with HMS E1, HMS E9, HMS E19, HMS C26, HMS C27, and HMS C35 to avoid seizure by advancing German forces who had landed nearby. E8 was salvaged in August 1953 for breaking up in Finland.

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