Submarine tender

[1] Submarines are small compared to most oceangoing vessels, and generally cannot carry large amounts of food, fuel, torpedoes, and other supplies, or a full array of maintenance equipment and personnel.

In some navies, the tenders were equipped with workshops for maintenance, and as floating dormitories with relief crews.

With the increased size and automation of modern submarines, plus in some navies the introduction of nuclear power, tenders are no longer as necessary for fuel as they once were.

The term used in the Chilean Navy is "submarine mother ship", as for example the BMS (buque madre de submarinos) Almirante Merino.

Unable to operate a significant number of conventional surface tenders during World War II, Germany's Kriegsmarine used Type XIV submarines (nicknamed milk cows) for replenishment at sea.

USS Frank Cable (back of picture), one of two submarine tenders maintained by the United States Navy . The attack submarine USS Salt Lake City (SSN-716) is in the foreground.
Transfer of a Polaris submarine-launched ballistic missile between the submarine tender USS Proteus (AS-19) and the ballistic missile submarine USS Patrick Henry (SSBN-599) at Holy Loch , Dunoon , Scotland , in 1961.