She sank in a fatal accident during sea trials in early 1917 and was salvaged and recommissioned as HMS K22.

[2][5] The steam engines required large openings in the pressure hull, with two funnels and four air intakes, which had to be closed off and made watertight before the submarine submerged.

Once in service, the ships proved to be very wet on the surface, with the bow tending to dig down, and one of the 4-inch guns and the revolving torpedo-tube mount was removed.

[4] She was laid down at Fairfield's Govan shipyard in October 1915 as Yard number 522, and was launched on 11 November 1916.

[9][10] She had 80 people on board - 53 crew, 14 employees of the shipbuilders, five sub-contractors, five Admiralty officials, Joseph Duncan, a River Clyde pilot, and Commander Francis Goodhart and engineering officer Lieutenant Leslie Rideal, both from her sister ship K14, which was still under construction.

[11] As she dived, seawater was seen to be entering K13's engine room, and the submarine's commanding officer, Lieutenant-Commander Godfrey Herbert ordered watertight doors to be shut and ballast tanks to be blown to bring the submarine to the surface, and then the drop keels released.

[16][17] Herbert reached the surface alive, but Goodhart's body was later found trapped in the wheelhouse.

[15][19] 31 bodies were expected to be still on the submarine, but only 29 were found, and it was concluded that the maid had indeed seen two people escaping from the engine room.

[15] K13 was raised on 15 March 1917, and was subsequently refurbished and entered service under the name K22,[8][10] completing on 18 October 1917,[7] joining the 13th Submarine Flotilla.

The two disabled submarines were then overtaken by the heavier units of the fleet, and K22 was struck by the battlecruiser Inflexible, destroying the external ballast tanks on K22's starboard side.

On hearing distress signals from the two submarines, Commander E. Leir aboard Ithuriel decided to turn the Flotilla back to go to the assistance of K14 and K22.

[26] The war graves and a monument to those who lost their lives in the K13 sinking was erected by the ship's company, of the submarine depot at Fort Blockhouse, Gosport.

Set inside a pool of water surrounded by stone, it is composed of large (taller than a man) white letters saying "K13".