According to my submarine book, E-class were the first British submarines to be subdivided into individual watertight compartments. Just 53-55 metres long and displacing something like 800 tonnes submerged. The most intriguing innovation in these First World War submarines though was their midships torpedo tubes. Thats right, they could launch torpedoes sideways through their ballast tanks! Its an innovation that didn't really take off???- gee maybe maybe something to do with the submarine having a beam of just 4 metres! A torpedo broadside is pretty damn sneaky if you aren't expecting it. Still, this was 1914. In those days, submarines were pretty much full of surprises, particularly for their crews. Both of Australia's British-built E-class submarines AE1 and AE2 participated in the seizure of German New Guinea in September 1914. Testiment to the risky nature of early submarining, AE1 vanished soon afterwards on patrol off New Britain - no trace of it has ever been found. Its twin AE2 was moved to the Mediterranean in 1915, where it joined the ill-fated Dardanelles Campaign. After some clashes with the Turkish Navy and a breathtakingly close grounding under a fort that simply couldn't depress its guns low enough, AE2 became the first Allied submarine to navigate the Dardanelles and enter the Sea of Marmara. But rather inelegantly after such a promising start, control problems saw it surfaced and set upon by a Turkish gunboat on April 30th. Damaged, AE2 was abandoned by its crew and scuttled. Turkey and Australia rediscovered the AE2's final resting place in 1998. Rendered in Vue 8 Espirit, wake retouched in Painter 8. AE1 modelling in Shade 10.5 using photos of the model in the Australian War Memorial as a reference.