HMS "Sahib" was a third-group S-class submarine and was ordered by the Admiralty on 23 January 1940. She was laid down in the Cammell Laird Shipyard in Birkenhead on 5 July 1940, and launched on 19 January 1942. On 10 May 1942, "Sahib", under the command of Lieutenant J.H. Bromage, sailed from the shipbuilding yards to Holy Loch, where she was commissioned into the Royal Navy three days later. "Sahib" is a term used in colonial British India to address Europeans with official of social statuses.