Early career Soon after
Surcouf was launched, the
London Naval Treaty finally placed restrictions on submarine designs. Among other things, each signatory (France included) was permitted to possess no more than three large submarines, each not exceeding standard displacement, with guns not exceeding in caliber.
Surcouf, which would have exceeded these limits, was specially exempt from the rules at the insistence of Navy Minister
Georges Leygues, but other 'big-gun' submarines of this boat's class could no longer be built.
Second World War In 1940,
Surcouf was based in
Cherbourg, but in May, when the Germans invaded, she was being refitted in
Brest following a mission in the
Antilles and
Gulf of Guinea. Under the command of Frigate Captain Martin, unable to dive and with only one engine functioning and a jammed rudder, she limped across the
English Channel and sought refuge in
Plymouth. On 3 July, the British, concerned that the German
Kriegsmarine would take over the French Fleet at the French armistice, executed
Operation Catapult. The
Royal Navy blockaded the harbours where French warships were anchored, and delivered an ultimatum: rejoin the fight against Germany, be put out of reach of the Germans, or scuttle. Few accepted willingly; the North African fleet at
Mers-el-Kebir and the
ships based at Dakar (French West Africa) refused. The French battleships in North Africa were eventually attacked and all but one sunk at their moorings by the
Mediterranean Fleet. French ships lying at ports in Britain and Canada were also boarded by armed marines, sailors and soldiers, but the only serious incident took place at
Plymouth aboard
Surcouf on 3 July, when two Royal Navy submarine officers,
Commander Denis 'Lofty' Sprague, captain of , and
Lieutenant Patrick Griffiths of , and French warrant officer mechanic Yves Daniel were fatally wounded, and a British seaman, Albert Webb,
Free French Naval Forces By August 1940, the British completed
Surcoufs refit and turned her over to the
Free French Naval Forces (
Forces Navales Françaises Libres, FNFL) for convoy patrol. The only officer not repatriated from the original crew, Frigate Captain Georges Louis Blaison, became the new commanding officer. Because of Anglo-French tensions over the submarine, each side accused the other of spying for
Vichy France; the British also claimed that
Surcouf was attacking British ships. Later, a British officer and two sailors were put aboard for "liaison" purposes. One real drawback was that she required a crew of 110–130 men, which was equivalent to three crews of more conventional submarines. This led to the Royal Navy's reluctance to recommission her.
Surcouf then went to the Canadian base at
Halifax,
Nova Scotia and escorted trans-Atlantic convoys. In April 1941, she was damaged by a German plane at Devonport. The loss resulted in 130 deaths (including 4 Royal Navy personnel), under the command of Frigate Captain Georges Louis Nicolas Blaison. The loss of
Surcouf was announced by the Free French Headquarters in London on 18 April 1942, and was reported in
The New York Times the next day. It was not reported
Surcouf was sunk as the result of a collision with the
Thompson Lykes until January 1945. The investigation of the French commission concluded that the disappearance was the consequence of a misunderstanding. A
Consolidated PBY, patrolling the same waters on the night of 18/19 February, could have attacked
Surcouf believing her to be German or Japanese. Inquiries into the incident were haphazard and late, while a later French inquiry supported the idea that the sinking had been due to "friendly fire"; this conclusion was supported by Rear Admiral
Gabriel Auphan in his book
The French Navy in World War II. Charles de Gaulle stated in his memoirs that
Surcouf "had sunk with all hands".
Legacy As no one has officially dived or verified the wreck of
Surcouf, her location is unknown. If one assumes the
Thompson Lykes incident was indeed the event of ''Surcouf's'' sinking, then the wreck would lie deep at . The Free French Memorial also commemorates the loss on
Lyle Hill in Greenock, Scotland. As there is no conclusive evidence that
Thompson Lykes collided with
Surcouf and her wreck has yet to be discovered, there are alternative stories about her fate.
James Rusbridger examined some of these theories in his book
Who Sank Surcouf?, finding them all easily dismissible except one: the records of the
6th Heavy Bomber Group operating out of Panama show them sinking a large submarine the morning of 19 February. Since no German submarine was lost in the area on that date, she could have been
Surcouf. He suggested the collision had damaged
Surcoufs radio and the stricken boat limped towards Panama, hoping for the best. The captain of the Surcouf during its doomed voyage has a ship named after him, which is the
French aviso Commandant Blaison. A conspiracy theory, based on no significant evidence, held that the
Surcouf, during her stationing at New London in late 1941, had been caught treacherously supplying a German U-boat in Long Island Sound, pursued by the American training subs
Marlin and
Mackerel out of New London, and sunk. The rumor circulated into the early 21st century, but is false since the
Surcoufs later movements south are well documented.
In popular media The
Surcouf is the subject of an underwater search by the fictional organization
NUMA and international terrorists in the
Clive Cussler novel "The Corsican Shadow", published in 2023. The author Dirk Cussler, writes the
Surcoufs wreck was discovered "...some eighty miles off the Panama coast." The sinking is even attributed to
Surcoufs radio antenna being damaged in the collision with the
Thompson Lykes, and then finished off by the reported attack of an A-17 bomber the next morning.
Douglas Reeman wrote "Strike from the Sea", a novel published in 1978, about a French cruiser submarine named "Soufriere", modeled on the Surcouf. ==Honors==