HMS J3
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HMS J3 (later HMAS J3) was a J-class submarine operated by the Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy.
Design and constructionEdit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} The J class was designed by the Royal Navy in response to reported German submarines with surface speeds over Template:Convert.<ref name=Bastock86>Bastock, Australia's Ships of War, p. 86</ref> They had a displacement of 1,210 tons surfaced, and 1,820 tons submerged.<ref name=Bastock86/> Each submarine was Template:Convert in length overall, with a beam of Template:Convert, and a draught of Template:Convert.<ref name=Bastock86/> The propulsion system was built around three propeller shafts; the J-class were the only triple-screwed submarines ever built by the British.<ref name=Bastock86/> Propulsion came from three 12-cylinder diesel motors when on the surface, and electric motors when submerged.<ref name=Bastock86/> Top speed was Template:Convert on the surface (the fastest submarines in the world at the time of construction), and Template:Convert underwater.<ref name=Bastock86/> Range was Template:Convert at Template:Convert.<ref name=Bastock86/>
Armament consisted of six 18 inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes (four forward, one on each beam), plus a 4-inch deck gun.<ref name=Bastock86/> Originally, the gun was mounted on a breastwork fitted forward of the conning tower, but the breastwork was later extended to the bow and merged into the hull for streamlining, and the gun was relocated to a platform fitted to the front of the conning tower.<ref name=Bastock86/> 44 personnel were aboard.<ref name=Bastock86/>
J3 was built for the Royal Navy by HM Dockyard at Pembroke Dock in Wales and launched on 4 December 1915.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Operational historyEdit
After the war, the British Admiralty decided that the best way to protect the Pacific region was with a force of submarines and cruisers.<ref name=Bastock86/> To this end, they offered the six surviving submarines of the J-class to the Royal Australian Navy as gifts.<ref name=Bastock86/> J1 and her sisters were commissioned into the RAN in April 1919, and sailed for Australia on 9 April, in the company of the cruisers Template:HMAS and Template:HMAS, and the tender Template:HMAS.<ref name=Bastock86/> The flotilla reached Thursday Island on 29 June, and Sydney on 10 July.<ref name=Bastock86/> Because of the submarines' condition after the long voyage, they were immediately taken out of service for refits.<ref name=Bastock86/>
Apart from local exercises and a 1921 visit to Tasmania, the submarines saw little use, and by June 1922, the cost of maintaining the boats and deteriorating economic conditions saw the six submarines decommissioned and marked for disposal.<ref name=Bastock86/>
FateEdit
The submarine was paid off on 12 July 1922. J3 was sold in April 1924 and scuttled off Swan Island in Port Phillip at Template:Coord in 1926.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>