He joined the Royal Navy on 15 September 1898 at HMS BRITANNIA where he was under training until 14 January 1900. and was appointed to the cruiser HMS ENDYMION and then to the cruiser HMS AMPHITRITE in 1902 where he served until 1903. After his Lieutenant's Courses he served in destroyers HMS HEARTY, HMS FAIRY and HMS VIXEN before being appointed to the battleship HMS RUSSELL in 1904.

Thomas Besant was first appointed to the Submarine Depot Ship HMS THAMES at Portsmouth ‘for Training in Submarines’ in 1905. He was promoted to Lieutenant and re-appointed ‘for Command of Submarines’ in 1906. In 1907 he took command of HMS C12. In 1910 he returned to the Surface Fleet for his ‘Big Ship’ time with an appointment to the battleship HMS KING EDWARD VII and, in 1911, to the battleship HMS HERCULES.

His next submarine appointment came in 1912, in command of HMS C30. In 1913 he was ‘loaned to the Royal Australian Navy for Submarine Service’ to take up his new appointment to the Submarine Depot Ship HMAS PENGUIN ‘for Submarine AE1 in Command’.

Thomas Besant was promoted to Lieutenant Commander in December 1913 and, after a ‘Commissioning Ceremony’ at Portsmouth, HMAS AE1 made the passage to Australia, arriving in Sydney in May 1914. After refitting at Sydney HMAS AE1 joined the Australian Forces at the Bismarck Archipelago but disappeared with the loss of all hands off the Island of New Britain in the Pacific on 14 September 1914.

HMAS AE2

25 April 1915

HMA Submarine AE2 was Australia’s second submarine. Launched in June 1913, it had a crew of both Royal Navy and Royal Australian Navy officers and sailors under Lieutenant Commander Henry Hugh Gordon Dacre Stoker RN.

Following service elsewhere at the start of the war, AE2 met with the second convoy of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) in Albany. It then sailed for Suez, via Colombo, on 31 December 1914. The following February, AE2 joined a Royal Navy squadron based on the island of Tenedos in the Aegean Sea. From there, it supported the unfolding Dardanelles campaign.

Prior to 25 April, AE2’s role had been minor. That was until Vice-Admiral John de Robeck, Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern Mediterranean Fleet, approved plans by AE2’s commander, Stoker, to force entry through the Dardanelles Strait into the Sea of Marmora. If AE2 could achieve this, it would stop enemy shipping from transiting between the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. It would then stop the reinforcement and resupply of Turkish troops on the Gallipoli Peninsula.

All previous attempts by Allied submarines to pass through the strait had failed. This was due to an effective sea denial operation mounted by the enemy. Several factors contributed to making the Dardanelles seemingly impenetrable:
minefields
fixed and mobile gun batteries
searchlight surveillance
patrolling Turkish warships
natural navigational hazards.
AE2’s first effort, on 24 April, was abandoned when the submarine’s forward hydroplanes failed and had to be repaired.

On 25 April 1915, just hours before ANZAC troops landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula, Stoker braved the gun batteries and mines and attempted to penetrate the Dardanelles. Though pursued by surface ships and at times under fire from the shore, AE2 passed through the ‘Narrows’ late in evening. Stoker surfaced to communicate this success to his superiors aboard HMS Queen Elizabeth.

The commanders, who had been at that moment discussing a general evacuation of the Gallipoli Peninsula, were convinced to keep Allied forces on the peninsula. They used the news to boost morale and convince troops ashore at ANZAC Cove to dig in.

AE2 entered the Sea of Marmora on 26 April and, over the following few days, patrolled for ships and transports to sink, but was unsuccessful on several occasions. Nevertheless, Stoker proved the value of submarines. AE2’s presence tied up numerous Turkish assets.

On 30 April, AE2 was hit by a Turkish torpedo boat and sunk, and the crew was captured. Four sailors died in captivity; the rest of the crew were released in 1918.

Images of AE1 and 2 in Australia and O/S

AE_Links

So far she has been the only ship of the Royal Navy (RN) to bear the name Trump. She spent the majority of her life attached to the 4th Submarine Squadron based in Australia. She was kept in service following the war and was refitted for greater underwater performance, and was the final RN submarine to be posted in Australia, departing in January 1969. She was sold off and broken up for scrap in August 1971.

Design and description

HMS Trump was one of the group three of T-class submarines. 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 (107 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. Due to expected use in tropical climates, boats of group three were equipped with freon blowers in order to deal with the increased temperatures.

Service World War II

Trump was commissioned in July 1944. After trials and a work-up in the North Sea in mid-October she was sent to Perth in Western Australia. On arrival, she joined the 4th Submarine Squadron, supported by the depot ship HMS Adamant. From Perth, Trump carried out four patrols before the end of the war.

During her Far East service, Trump sank the Japanese guard boat No. 15 Shosei Maru on 13 May; a Japanese sailing vessel on 24 May; and two coasters, one on 29 May and the other on 1 June. She sank a tanker on 5 June and together with her sister boat HMS Tiptoe, she sank a Japanese cargo vessel on 9 August.

Also with Tiptoe, Trump carried out an attack on a convoy on 3 August. Although it was escorted by a Japanese patrol boat, they successfully sank Tencho Maru, an army cargo ship, with the sinking credited to Tiptoe.

Post war

Trump survived the war and continued in service with the Royal Navy. Trump was one of several all-welded T-class submarines rebuilt for greater underwater performance. This "Slippery T" or "Super T" conversion involved the removal of the deck gun and the replacement of the conning tower with a streamlined "fin". 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 brake horsepower (220 kW). The gun armaments and external torpedo tubes were removed, and the bow reshaped. Trump was one of two submarines, the other being HMS Tabard, which had the bridge incorporated into the added fin section; and was the last to undergo this conversion.

In 1960, Trump, along with Taciturn and Tabard, rejoined the 4th Submarine Flotilla at Sydney, Australia. There, they operated with units of the Far East Fleet, the Royal Australian Navy, and the Royal New Zealand Navy. In June 1964, she participated in the "NEWS EX" anti-submarine exercise in the Hauraki Gulf off the coast of New Zealand.

Trump underwent refits at Cockatoo Dockyard, between January 1962 and April 1963, and again between August 1965 and October 1966. She was the final Royal Navy submarine to be on station in Australia, departing on 10 January 1969 when the 1st Australian Submarine squadron was formed from the RN 4th Submarine Squadron. She was temporarily assigned to the Royal Australian Navy while boats of the Oberon class were under construction, but remained a Royal Navy submarine. Trump was scrapped at Newport from 1 August 1971.

During his state visit to the United States in April 2026, King Charles III gifted the original bell from the submarine to the United States president, Donald Trump, and added, "Should you ever need to get hold of us, well, just give us a ring!"