“Robert Surcouf was a French corsair and ‘Baron d’Empire’ who lived in the late eighteenth century. In the first quarter of the twentieth century, France launched a most remarkable submarine named after this ‘pirate’.

The SURCOUF was the epitome of the gun-armed cruiser (or ‘Fleet’) submarine, but she spent most of her unlucky career searching for a proper role. Designed under the 1926 naval program, the SURCOUF was, in her time, the largest submarine in the world with a length of 110m, beam of 9m and draught of 7.3m. Her enormous size was considered necessary to carry all the items for her role of world-wide commerce-raiding. She was armed with twin 8” guns housed in watertight turret forward of the bridge structure. These guns had an effective range of over 12 kilometers and 600 rounds of ammunition were carried. She was fitted with eight 533mm and four 400mm torpedo tubes; some fitted in two deck-mounted traversing mounts. She was capable of 18.5 knots surfaced and 10 knots submerged. Designed diving depth was 122m.

The submarine was also equipped with an aircraft hangar abaft the conning tower (for a Besson MB 411 float plane), with two anti-aircraft guns (Hotchkiss 13.2mm) mounted on its roof. The aircraft could be dismantled in 10 minutes, but the concept of using a submarine-launched aircraft was never tested in combat. A 4.9m motor cutter was also available to take the boarding party to their prizes. The sub had a crew of 118 with provisions for 40 prisoners.

She was launched on 18th October 1929, commissioned in 1935 and made several convoy escorts at the start of World War II. Forced to leave Brest to avoid capture by the Germans on 18th June 1940, she was seized by the British on 3rd July. Three Britons and one Frenchman were killed in this incident amongst the ‘Allies’.

Too slow and cumbersome for home waters, she was sent to Canada as a convoy escort. but reports began circulating that she had sunk some of the ships in a convoy she was supposed to be guarding. She thereafter served in the Caribbean as convoy escort and anti-surface raider patrols with a French (Breton) crew under British operational control. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, it was decided she should be sent to the Pacific to be employed in defense of the French Pacific islands.

While en route from Bermuda to the Panama Canal on 18th February 1942 she was sunk with all hands after a collision with a US merchant ship, the SS THOMPSON LYKES.

Her design was the last attempt to use guns as an alternative to torpedoes for major actions by submarines against surface ships. In 1994 St. Pierre and Miquelon issued a stamp showing this somewhat remarkable craft. the link with these islands is that in December 1941, SURCOUF had taken part in an unauthorized and embarrassing seizure of St. Pierre and Miquelon which were under the control of Vichey-France.”

DENNIS, many thanks for this article. We hope many other Members will take it upon themselves to write articles as well.

HARRY’S NOTE - There are some very interesting ‘oddities’ about this boat to be sure. As DENNIS pointed out, she was suspected of sinking some of the ships in the convoy she was supposed to be protecting. After SURCOUF went in and out of American ports after refit in Washington Navy Yard, further rumors came up that SURCOUF was supplying fuel to German U-Boats off the American coast. Another rumor was then built upon this one of refueling U-Boats which said that two American submarines, USS MARLIN and USS MACKEREL, went out and sank SURCOUF off the American coast. There is no proof to support any of these rumors, and we believe them to be just that - wartime rumors with no foundation in fact.

However, the reports of the accidental sinking of SURCOUF by the steamer THOMPSON LYKES seems highly flawed and a good many naval historians of the World War II era have trouble believing that. However SURCOUF met her end, it raised a huge propaganda opportunity for the Germans who started rumors that SURCOUF was deliberately hunted down and sunk by the US Navy because they thought she was assisting Vichey. Again, no proof of any kind. The widow of the Skipper of SURCOUF publicly stated that she believed the Americans had no part in the loss of the submarine. We ran all the pertinent files and letters some time ago when we profiled SURCOUF.

As an interesting aside, while SURCOUF was named after a French pirate; when U-123 was turned over to the French after she was taken at Lorient, U-123 was re-named BLAISSON by the French after the Skipper of SURCOUF.