The first HMS Upholder was a U class submarine, pennant number P37. She was laid down at Barrow-in-Furness on October 30 1939, launched on July 8 1940 by Mrs. Doris Thompson, wife of a director of the builders, Vickers-Armstrong. The submarine was commissioned on October 31 1940. She was one of four U class submarines which had two external torpedo tubes at the bows in addition to the 4 internal ones fitted to all boats. They were excluded from the other boats because they interfered with depth-keeping at periscope depth.
She was commanded for her entire career by lieutenant-commander Malcolm David Wanklyn, and became the most successful British submarine of the Second World War. After a working up period, she left for Malta on December 10 1940 and was attached to the 10th Submarine Flotilla based there. She completed 24 patrols, sinking around 120 000 tons of enemy shipping including a destroyer, a cruiser, 3 U-boats, 3 troop transports, 10 cargo ships, 2 tankers and a trawler. Wanklyn was awarded the Victoria Cross for a patrol in her in 1941 when he attacked a particularly well defended convoy and sank the 18000 ton Italian liner Conte Rosso.
Upholder was sunk with all hands on April 14 1942 during her 25th patrol whilst North East of Tripoli by depth charges dropped by the Italian destroyer MTB Pegaso.
The second HMS Upholder, pennant S-40, was the lead ship of the Upholder (2400) class of submarines, named after the original Upholder. She was built by [[VSEL|Vickers
Shipbuilding and Engineering Limited (VSEL)]], launched on December 2 1986 and commissioned on June 2, 1990. Her commissioning was delayed because of problems with the torpedo tubes leaking.
Along with the other three vessels in the class, she was decommissioned in April 1994 amidst some controversy as a financial measure. She and her sisters were sold in 1998 to the Canadian Navy and she was recommissioned as HMCS Chicoutimi.General Characteristics