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Starboard bow view of H.M.S. FORTH entering Cardiff Docks. Tugs also in image.

The submarine depot ship HMS Forth was, at 8,900 tons, one of the largest vessels in the Royal Navy, aircraft carriers excepted. Built at Glasgow in 1938, she was moored on the Clyde for most of the Second World War, acting as a depot ship for submarines operating in the north Atlantic. For this purpose she carried a wide range of facilities such as a foundry, machine shops, torpedo repair shops and plant for charging submarines' batteries. She was sold in 1985 and broken up at Kingsnorth.

Source: Shipping at Cardiff: Photographs from the Hansen Collection 1920-1975 by David Jenkins, 1993.

Submarine Depot Ship Laid down 1937, launched 1938 by John Brown & Co., Clydebank, and commissioned as a Maidstone-class submarine depot ship in May 1939. She carried a crew of 1167 men. She was stationed at Malta during the 1950s, returning to UK in 1960. 1972 – Renamed HMS DEFIANCE (till 21 April 1978). She served as the depot ship for the Fleet Maintenance Base at HMNB Devonport. Decommissioned on 1st January 1979, she arrived for scrapping at Kingsnorth (on the Medway) on 25th July 1985. (wikipedia)