Submarines at Latchford Locks

Pictures Eddie Whitham
SOME of the iconic pictures of Warrington’s history captured by local photographer Eddie Whitham included the rare times submarines travelled up the Manchester Ship Canal, through Latchford Locks.

The photos at Latchford Locks are believed to be HMS Explorer; there were always two, as they had a support vessel with them.
They used to do fuel trials using Full High Test Peroxide’, which was one of the principle products made at Laporte Chemicals, Baronet Works, Lower Walton.
The submarines used to dock at Liverpool and when in port the crews were shown over Baronet Works. The crews reciprocated with tours round the sub for staff members.
The first phortographs were taken in May 1967, heading for Liverpool with the others heading to Manchester in March 1968.
Two submarines also passed through Latchford Locks along with a Navy Frigate on their way to Manchester as part of the Coronation celebrations in 1953.
Warrington had its own adopted Royal Navy submarine HMS Turbulent. The town had special links with the nuclear submarine since 1984 and its crew were made honorary citizens of the borough.
HMS Turbulent was a Trafalgar-class submarine and was originally intended to hunt down Soviet missile submarines. After the end of the Cold War she spent more time on intelligence gathering missions and landing commando units, as well as firing Tomahawk missiles during the 2003 Iraq war.She was decommissioned on 14 July 2012.
*Footnote: There were three ships in the USS named after Lewis Warrington, who was an officer in the Navy during the Barbary Wars and the War of 1812. He also temporarily served as the Secretary of the Navy.
USS Warrington (DD-30) was a modified Paulding-class destroyer launched in 1910, served in World War I and decommissioned in 1920.
USS Warrington (DD-383) was a Somers-class destroyer launched in 1937 and sunk in 1944 during the Great Atlantic Hurricane.
USS Warrington (DD-843) was a Gearing-class destroyer launched in 1945 and sold to Taiwan in 1973.