F. S. Bell used. F. S. Bell Captain Frederick Secker Bell CB (17 August 1897 – 23 November 1973) of the Royal Navy was the commander of during the Battle of the River Plate in December 1939. He was educated at Matfield Grange, a prep school in Kent, and then at the Royal Naval Colleges of Osborne and Dartmouth. He served afloat in the battleship at the Battle of Jutland, as First Lieutenant of the destroyer in the Reserve Fleet at Devonport, 1923–25, and as executive officer of from 1935–38 and was promoted captain on 31 December 1938. He took command of in
HMS A4 in contact with the battery acid. The crew managed to blow the ballast tanks to surface the boat and evacuate onto the deck, but there was an explosion whilst she was being towed back to port and she slowly sank. The boat was salvaged and repaired. The captain of the submarine at the time, Lieutenant Martin Nasmith, was later awarded the Victoria Cross for his command of during the Dardanelles campaign in 1915. During the First World War she was used for training at Portsmouth, and was sold for scrap on 16 January 1920. HMS A4 HMS "A4" was an