text: hms tiptoe ( p332 ) hms tiptoe ( pennant number p332 ) was a british submarine of the third group of the t class . she was built by vickers armstrong , barrow , and launched on 25 february 1944 . she was one of two submarines named by winston churchill , and so far has been the only ship of the royal navy to be named tiptoe . in 1955 she was involved in a collision with a coastal steamer whilst in tromsø harbour . she was involved in escape trials off malta in 1962 , and the commanding officer was reprimanded in 1964 following an incident in the firth of clyde where she was run aground , and again in 1965 when she collided with hms yarmouth . although originally named for the ability to sneak up on someone undetected , she maintained several links with ballet , including the royal ballet and ballet dancer moira shearer . she was scrapped in portsmouth in 1975 , while her anchor is on display in blyth , northumberland . design and description hms tiptoe was one of the group three of t - class submarines . she was named by winston churchill , with the intention to imply that it could approach the enemy silently as if on tiptoe , although the royal navy naming committee was against the name , stating that " it was derogatory to one of his majesty 's ships " , but the prime minister had his way . the only other royal navy vessel to be named by churchill was hms varangian . she was part of the second batch of the third group to be ordered , in 1941 . she was one of a number of boats which had an all - welded hull which increased diving depth to 350 feet ( 110 m ) , an increase of 50 feet ( 15 m ) . the torpedo armament was the same as the earlier group two , although by the time group three was coming into service it was realised that external torpedo tubes had major problems and affected the streamlining of the boats ; the external tubes were abandoned in the following amphion - class submarines . because of expected use in tropical climates , boats of group three were equipped with blowers in order to deal with the increased temperatures . she was built by vickers armstrong and was laid down at their shipyard at barrow on 10 november 1942 whilst still known as p332 . following her launch on 25 february 1944 , she departed the builders yard on 10 june 1944 , arriving at holy loch on the following day , where she was commissioned on 12 june . service second world war after completing training on 10 september , she returned to barrow in order to correct some defects . between 5 october and 12 january 1945 , she was equipped with new radar equipment and other equipment to prepare her for deployment in the far east . she arrived in trincomalee , sri lanka on 1 march 1945 prior to her first war patrol . en route from britain , she had stopped at gibraltar , malta , port said and ismailia in egypt and aden , yemen . her first patrol centred around the west coast of burma and the andaman islands before heading onto fremantle , australia , and was uneventful . she departed australia for her second patrol on 6 may with orders to patrol the flores sea . on 15 may , she sank a japanese coaster of around 100 tons with gunfire near dompo bay , sumbawa . the following day she sank another japanese coaster with gunfire , this time around 200 tons , in harbour . on 1 june , she approached and sank the japanese merchant cargo ship tobi maru near , one of the laut kecil islands . tiptoe was damaged during the attack as the cargo ship was about to rendezvous with an escort . the escort launched thirteen depth charges , putting all of tiptoe 's torpedo tubes out of action and flooded her sonar equipment . she returned to fremantle on 17 june , and remained there undergoing repairs until 16 july when she left on her third patrol in the sunda strait along with her sister hms trump . on 31 july she attacked two small japanese vessels , but broke off the attack when an aircraft was sighted . on 2 august , tiptoe and trump together destroyed two small vessels totalling 600 tons with gunfire . on 3 august , she carried out a torpedo attack against the japanese army cargo vessel tencho maru whilst it was in a convoy defended by a patrol boat . the final action of tiptoe 's last war patrol was on 9 august , when together with trump , they destroyed an 800 ton coastal tanker in the northern part of the sunda strait . she returned to fremantle on 21 august 1945 . post war during the royal inspection of the home fleet in 1947 by george vi , tiptoe demonstrated diving and surfacing , along with the firing of her deck gun . in november of the same year , she was part of a group of seven submarines with destroyer hms to take part in anti – submarine training over the course of two weeks . tiptoe was one of several all - welded t - class submarines rebuilt for greater underwater performance . extra batteries were installed below the control room and additional electric motors were accommodated by cutting through the pressure hull and adding in a new 20 ft ( 6 . 1 m ) hull section inserted aft of the control room . the diesel engines were modified and supercharged with output increased by 300 bhp . the gun armaments and external torpedo tubes were removed , and the bow reshaped . the submarine was used in filming the 1950 film , morning departure , a naval film directed by roy ward baker . during the course of filming , the submarine depot ship hms maidstone was used as a mother ship for tiptoe . in 1952 a further cinematic link was made when ballet dancer moira shearer presented a pair of size 3 . 5 satin ballet shoes to tiptoe that she had worn in the 1948 film the red shoes . these are now at the royal navy submarine museum . whilst in tromsø harbour on 18 july 1955 tiptoe was damaged when a coastal steamer collided with her . the steamer , a 2 , 162 tonne vessel called nordlys , was entering the harbour when she collided with the british destroyer hms chevron . the steamer bounced off the destroyer and collided with tiptoe , snapping her moorings as she was pushed halfway under a wooden quay . she took part in escape trials in 1962 , which were a series of trials conducted off malta into escape from a submarine at extreme depths . tests were conducted with men escaping from tiptoe at depth of up to 71 metres ( 233 ft ) with ascent rates of up to 2 m / s . the trials included the use of buoyant ascent suits which involved a suit pulled over the sailor 's head which fed them air as they ascended to the surface . for their work in the escape trials , chief petty officer christopher crossman was awarded a commendation , and lieutenant – commander l. hamlyn was awarded an obe . following a refit in portsmouth , tiptoe went to the firth of clyde for working up , arriving on 10 january 1964 , when she was ordered not to enter gareloch due to dense fog . the boat was duly turned around and ran aground on a muddy bank . as the fog cleared it was realised the boat had run aground only 40 yards ( 37 m ) opposite that of the house of the royal navy 's captain in charge for the clyde area , captain g. d. pound . divers were sent out to assess damage , and after finding none , tiptoe was refloated on the evening tide and pulled off the shore by two tugboats . the commanding officer at the time was lieutenant – commander david brazier , who was in his first command . he was later ordered to be severely reprimanded for negligence at a court - martial where he pleaded guilty to the charge . his defence statement read , " the ship was not worked up and it was a very green company . unfortunately he ran into fog . he took all the precautions he considered necessary . although he had all the theoretical knowledge , he was short of that tangible instinct of which we are all aware . " tiptoe was also damaged in a collision with hms yarmouth on 13 july 1965 . tiptoe was at periscope depth 10 miles ( 16 km ) se of portland bill . following the collision , the commanding officer , lieutenant – commander charles henry pope was ordered to be severely reprimanded after being found guilty of four out of five counts of negligence . when she left for her final commission on 24 february 1967 , six ballet dancers from the royal ballet attended the departure ceremony . at the time she was already the oldest submarine in service with the royal navy . she attended portsmouth navy days later in 1967 . by the time she was decommissioned in 1969 , tiptoe was the last active t - class submarine in the royal navy . as she arrived at spithead for decommissioning on 29 august 1969 , a 13 - year - old ballet dancer named judy wright danced on her upper deck . she was sold in 1971 and scrapped at portsmouth in 1975 . her anchor was saved , and was mounted on stone in 1979 in blyth , northumberland . the town was used as a training base for submarines during both world wars . commanding officers