HMS Meteorite Project Help Please

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Exciting news today. UK National Archives sent my order for original Royal Navy documents on basin and sea trials of HMS Meteorite (1948). It will be used for the upcoming article. Interesting read. New stuff!

The national archives are nice folks, efficient and complete. They sent to me via Email attachments all 26 pages. About $50 dollars to dig out and scan and send. I made enhanced copy's, sharpening image, eliminating saturation to remove originals 'yellowing' paper, and heightened contrast for easier reading. Here is the originals first page. There were in the UK Archives a dozen documents on HMS Meteorite. I picked the most promising one, the others were all detailed tech reports on the Walter plant. For cost reasons selected basin and sea trails. The rest I already had detailed original reports on the Walter plant already.

First page reaffirms what most old Torpedoman know: HTP/Navol/near pure Hydrogen peroxide is nasty stuff and demands careful, well thought out filling and de-tanking measures. Goof and that stuff would eat you alive!

[Albacore 569]

Yup. You can expect this HMS Meteorite story to be convoluted one with not much of a happy ending.

I think Meteorite would have eventually had an explosion had it been operational for much longer. The American X-1 and Russian Whale class sub exploded. Later we know it was Kursk's HTP torpedoes that did her in too. In hindsight I think HMS Explorer and Excalibur never should have been built. But hindsight is always 20/20.

The Meteorite story is how there was such a great effort to acquire advanced technology in the operation paperclip era, keeping it away from the Soviets in this Potsdam treaty after the war and how some new technologies eventually once really tested, didn't really panned out. But what a cool looking sub she still was...

[Albacore 569]

The HMS Meteorite article is done will be published in two parts with 30 photos in December (next issue) and Spring issue 2027 of the Subcommittee Report. It corrects some facts vs Wikipedia I hope, takes many other elements that no one seemed to connect before that are relevant to make a more comprehensive story. The surprise to me was learning how the Allies were unawares till fall of 1944 early 1945 how exotic technically the Type XVIIB's were having a lot of intel already on the Electro boats XXI and XXIII's. Much of the first half of the article is how quickly the British and Americans grabbed the technology and kept it (they thought) from the Russians.