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HMS/M SealionIn Spring 1940, the Sealion (Lt.Cdr. Ben Bryant - see also Safari) had been hunted all day after a successful attack on a large supply ship. The boat was forced down that night as soon as she came to the surface to charge batteries and ventilate the boat. She also found herself a heavy layer of water on which she could lie without movement.When the Sealion surfaced, she was not alone. The hunting ships sighted her and once again she was heavily attacked. The depth charges damaged her hydrophone and it was nearly 2300 before it could be repaired and the men below could listen once again to the movements of the enemy. At midnight, the Sealion was able to come up in safety to ventilate and to charge her battery. By that time she had been dived for 45 hours. While the crew worked on repairs, Bryant took the boat closer to the Norwegian coast and there sighted a large ship - the German transport ship August Leonhardt - that had run ashore. Bryant finished her with a torpedo.Six days later, Sealion was again in action. She sighted a convoy of enemy ships and shadowed them as they put into one of the Norwegian fjords. But in doing so her periscope was sighted by an escorting trawler, which turned at full speed to ram. She hit the Sealion between her two periscopes, carrying away the after standard and making the foremost one useless. Bryant, as soon as he had righted the boat which had been rolled nearly over by the impact, decided to follow in the course of the convoy, although he had to proceed completely blind. By doing so, he avoided the counter-attack, for the depth charges went down on the scene of the ramming and the Sealion was already clear.An hour later, the submarine stopped and listened. All was quiet above and Bryant decided to surface and find out the extent of the damage. Just as she started to blow her tanks, the sound of propellers was heard. The hunting craft were there and for five hours they harried the Sealion, shaking her time and again with depth charges.It was midnight before it was safe to surface and survey the damage. It was more dangerous than had been thought, for the periscope standard was hanging loosely over the side and swinging heavily as the boat rolled in the seaway. It would have to be secured before starting for home, and the work would have to be done in darkness, for any light shown would be certain to bring down another attack. All through the hours of darkness the men worked, trying to get a wire round the swaying mass of steel and securing it to the foremost periscope standard. It was desperate work, and one false step on the slippery casing would mean almost certain death. Just before dawn, the job was completed, but as the tired men climbed back on to the bridge, they saw the securing wire part under the strain. All their work had been in vain. There was no time before the dawn to make a second attempt and the Sealion had to dive with the mass of loose steel still swinging freely across the hull.All that day she crept slowly along on the course for home. She surfaced again as darkness fell and the work was begun again. Again, it
seemed a hopeless task and in the end Bryant decided to cut the wreckage away. This was successful and the Sealion, relieved of her dangerous
burden, was easier to handle. At the same time Chief Petty Officer Clark, the CPO Telegraphist, managed to rig a 'jury' aerial to replace that
carried away in the collision. She was able to send a signal to report her condition.
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