HMS Untamed

HMS Untamed was a Royal Navy submarine built during the Second World War. She was launched by Vickers-Armstrongs on the River Tyne and served only briefly under her first name. The submarine sank in the Firth of Clyde during a training exercise with the 8th Escort Group. All thirty-five crew members were lost when she flooded through an open sluice valve. The wreck was later raised and renamed HMS Vitality. After repairs she returned to service in July 1944, though her second career lasted less than two years. In February 1946 she was broken up at Troon on the Ayrshire coast. A local war memorial at Sandbank near Hunters Quay remembers the crew who were buried in Dunoon Cemetery. Visitors to the area can see the Sandbank War Memorial which lists the names of the thirty-five men. The memorial stands beside the road that runs along the shore of the Clyde. Nearby Hunters Quay offers views across the water to the hills of the Cowal peninsula. The quiet shoreline still carries echoes of the submarine’s short life and sudden loss.