The Type 205 was a class of German diesel-electric submarines. They were single-hull vessels optimized for the use in the shallow Baltic Sea. The Type 205 is a direct evolution of the Type 201 class with lengthened hull, new machinery and sensors. The biggest difference though is that ST-52 steel is used for the pressure hull since the Type 201's non-magnetic steel proved to be problematic. Type 206, the follow-on class, finally succeeded with non-magnetic steel hulls.

The Type 205 was in service with the Royal Danish Navy until 2004, in which it was known as Narhvalen class. The Danish boats differed slightly from the German ones to meet special Danish demands. Responsible for the design and construction was the Ingenieurkontor Lübeck (IKL) headed by Ulrich Gabler.

List of boats Submarines built for the Bundesmarine:PennantnumberNameCallsignLaunchedCom-missionedDecom-missionedFateS180 17 February 196726 June 196729 November 1991scrappedS181 15 July 196711 October 196619 March 1993scrappedS183 25 August 196219 November 19621 August 1974scrappedS184 20 November 19624 July 196317 May 1974scrappedS185 30 January 196324 July 196322 August 1974scrappedS186 10 April 1963 16 March 196412 July 1974scrappedS187 19 June 1963 22 July 19649 October 1974scrappedS188 20 October 196611 April 19673 June 1993Museum ship, Technikmuseum SpeyerS189 5 June 196728 November 196716 February 1993Museum ship, WilhelmshavenS190 9 February 1968 21 June 196830 October 2003Museum ship, Burgstaaken, FehmarnS191 10 September 1968 14 January 196921 June 2005scrappedSubmarines built for the Royal Danish Navy:S320 10 September 196827 February 197016 October 2003scrappedS321 18 December 196922 December 19702 February 2004scrapped These last two boats were built by the Howaldtswerke, in Denmark at The Naval Dockyard, Copenhagen.

Notes: U-1 was given back to Nordseewerke and was used to test an experimental closed-cycle diesel air-independent propulsion system before being scrapped U-11 was transformed to a Type 205A double-hulled boat (the outer hull filled with polystyrene foam to make it unsinkable) and used as torpedo target U-12 was used for sonar trials as Type 205B

References

Further reading

See also Equivalent submarines of the same era Hajen class

External links Submarines of the Narhvalen class - Danish Naval History