HMS E5

HMS E5 was a British E-class submarine built by Vickers Barrow-in-Furness. She was laid down on 9 June 1911 and was commissioned on 28 June 1913. She cost £106,700.

Service history

E5 had a very short career before and after her commissioning. She had an engine room explosion on 8 June 1913, 20 days before commissioning. 13 were killed.

Only three men were killed when there was an oil blow back into the starboard engine off St Ann's Head. The submarine depot ship HMS Adamant and HMS Alligator carried the medical team out to meet E5 on her way into Pembroke Dock. Those killed were Engineer Commander Walter Lancelot Moore, who lost both legs and an arm and suffered third degree burns, dying in hospital Pembroke Dock and returned for burial in Hampshire, believed Winchester. The first to die at the time and scene of the explosion was CERA James Alexander Greenall son of Henry & Alice Greenall of Preston Lancs. the last to succumb was Leading Stoker Lewis Alfred Clarke of Esher in Surrey, dying in Pembroke Dock Naval Hospital. The last two are buried at Pembroke Dock Military Cemetery in plots R244 (Greenall) and R246 (Clarke). Ten other men were seriously injured, although all civilian staff from Barrow were safe and unharmed.