What submarine is Thomas singing about?

[Mindfield]

What submarine, and in what event, is Thomas Dolby singing about in One Of Our Submarines? My grasp of world history is tenuous at best, so while I can enjoy it for being simply a good song, it nags at me that I don’t know what he’s on about.

[Larry_Mudd]

It’s family history – no idea what specific sub he’s on about, apart from that it’s the one his mother’s brother served on during WWII. He didn’t come home.

[welby]

Managed to find this link : http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/dolbyautograph2 .

Running a Google search with the song title and the word Uncle provided bunches of hits, all of which said the same thing.

[astro]

@Mindfield

What submarine, and in what event, is Thomas Dolby singing about in One Of Our Submarines? My grasp of world history is tenuous at best, so while I can enjoy it for being simply a good song, it nags at me that I don’t know what he’s on about.

One interpretation

“One of Our Submarines (Is Missing)” by Thomas Dolby
Envisions life one generation after a nuclear war, in which the focus of the singer takes on the character living in a submarine like his forefathers did after the bombs dropped and the land destroyed. Lyrics of note are the refrain: “Bye bye empire empire, bye bye.” As well the lyric" drinking heavy water from a stone (Stein in some versions)" which notes a nuclear powered vessel, as the source of fresh drinking water may only be what is not contaminated from the nuclear reactor but still converted as heavy water. and the sad lyric: " I can trace my history, down one generation to my home, in one of our submarines, one of our submarines, is missing tonight, seems she went aground on maneuvers." Check it out, even better, find his video called "Golden Age of Wireless, and watch the video. Some post WW2 sub fotage to be found there.

[Daylon]

Well, if it’s a US sub he’s talking about, he’s got quite a list to chose inspiration from…

Navy Enlisted Ratings and Job Descriptions in the Submarine Community

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