HMS Trafalgar Completes Final Voyage

The UK Royal Navy’s Trafalgar Class nuclear-powered submarine HMS Trafalgar, due to be decommissioned on 4 December 2009, has completed its final voyage to its Devon base.

HMS Trafalgar was the first British submarine to travel around the globe and is the fifth Royal Navy vessel to bear the name.

The Devonport-based Trafalgar is the lead ship of seven Trafalgar Class nuclear-powered hunter-killer submarines. It will become the ninth decommissioned submarine to be stored in Plymouth.

The 85.4m-long and 9.8m-wide submarine has a dived displacement of 5,200t and can accommodate a crew of up to 130. Trafalgar sails at a maximum submerged speed of 32kt.

The submarine was launched in July 1981 after being built at the Barrow-in-Furness yard of Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering.