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United States O-class submarine

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other ships with the same name, see O-class submarine.
USS O-1 (SS-62) in dry dock at Portsmouth Navy Yard, Sept 1918.
USS O-1, lead ship of her class in dry dock at Portsmouth Navy Yard in September 1918
Class overview
NameO class
Operators United States Navy
Preceded byN class
Succeeded byR class
Built1916-1918
In commission1918-1931, 1941-1946
Completed16
Lost2
Retired14
General characteristics
TypeSubmarine
Displacement
  • EB design:
  • 520 long tons (528 t) surfaced
  • 629 long tons (639 t) submerged
  • Lake design:
  • 485 long tons (493 t) surfaced
  • 566 long tons (575 t) submerged
Length
  • EB design: 172 ft 4 in (52.53 m)
  • Lake design: 175 ft (53 m)
Beam
  • EB design: 18 ft (5.5 m)
  • Lake design: 16 ft 7 in (5.05 m)
Propulsion
Speed
  • EB design:
  • 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) surfaced
  • 10.5 knots (19.4 km/h; 12.1 mph) submerged
  • Lake design:
  • 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) surfaced
  • 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph) submerged
Range
  • 5,500 nmi (10,200 km) at 11.5 kn (21.3 km/h; 13.2 mph) surfaced
  • 250 nmi (460 km) at 5 kn (9.3 km/h; 5.8 mph) submerged
Test depth200 ft (61 m)
Complement29
Armament

The United States Navy's sixteen O-class coastal patrol submarines were built during World War I and served the USN from 1918 through the end of World War II.

Description[edit]

Following the design trend of the day, these boats were scaled up versions of the preceding L-class, reversing the fiscally created shrinkage in size of the N-class.[2] The O-class were about 80 tons larger than the L-class, with greater power and endurance for wider ranging patrols. Due to the American entry into World War I the O-class were built much more rapidly than previous classes, and were all commissioned in 1918. O-1 through O-10 were designed by Electric Boat (EB), O-11 through O-16 were designed by the Lake Torpedo Boat Company and differed considerably from the EB design. All had the same military characteristics and performance and thus were considered by the Navy to be the same class. The EB design boats had a spindle shaped hull with an axially mounted rudder and twin lateral mounted propeller shafts. The bow diving planes controlled depth with the stern diving planes (mounted laterally behind the propellers) controlling the boat's angle while submerged. The Lake design also had a spindle shaped hull, but the rudder was ventrally mounted under the flat shovel-shaped stern with the propeller shafts also exiting the hull ventrally.[3]

The EB design retained the semi-hemispherical rotating bow cap that covered the four 18-inch diameter torpedo tubes. Although a common features on the EB design, this would prove to be the last of the EB designs with the cap.[4] The Lake design used individual muzzle doors with hydro-dynamic shutters to seal the tubes, a feature that would become standard on all later USN submarines.[5] These boats were big enough to have a semi-retractable 3-inch/23-caliber gun on the deck forward of the conning tower fairwater. This gun partially retracted into a vertical watertight cylinder that penetrated the pressure hull into the forward battery compartment (EB design), or the control room (Lake design). When retracted the circular gun shield formed the top of the cylinder with only the barrel of the gun protruding above deck.[6]

The Lake design retained Simon Lake's trademark amidships diving planes, theoretically used to enable zero-angle (a.k.a. even-keel) diving. This was a marked contrast to the angled-diving technique used by the EB design boats. Zero-angle diving proved to be unworkable and Lake used it here for the last time. His design for the follow-on R-class boats would abandon the method in favor of the EB angle-diving arrangement.[7]

Unusually, the Navy obtained a legal license to build two of the EB design boats at government owned Navy Yards: O-1 by Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, and O-2 by Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington. O-3 through O-10 of the EB design were built by Fore River Shipyard, Quincy, Massachusetts. O-11 through O-13 were Lake design built by the Lake Torpedo Boat Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Once again desirous of having submarines built at a west coast yard, the Navy got Lake to build the O-14 through O-16 at a sub-contractor named California Shipbuilding (formerly Craig Shipbuilding), Long Beach, California.[8][9] CALSHIP suffered from numerous management and production issues and all three boats assigned to them had to be towed up the coast to the Mare Island Navy Yard north of San Francisco in Vallejo, California for completion.[10]

Service[edit]

The class originally operated in the anti-submarine role off the United States's East Coast. Two of the boats, O-4 and O-6, mistakenly came under fire from a British merchantman in the Atlantic on 24 July 1918. The steamer scored six hits on O-4's conning tower fairwater and pressure hull before her identity was discovered. O-4 suffered minor damage caused by shell splinters. The O-3 to O-10 formed part of the twenty-strong submarine force that left Newport, Rhode Island on 2 November 1918 for the Azores, but the task force was recalled after the Armistice was signed nine days later.

Nine O type submarines from Submarine Division 8 at Boston, 1921

The Lake design boats (O-11 through O-16), built by the Lake Torpedo Boat Company and Craig Shipbuilding, suffered from electrical, structural, and mechanical problems. O-11 was immediately sent to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for a five-month overhaul. In October 1918, O-13 sank the patrol boat Mary Alice in a collision while she (O-13) was submerged.[11] O-15 also underwent a refit but was sent into reserve soon after before she went into service at Coco Solo in the Panama Canal Zone. This also involved another overhaul. O-16 also underwent a refit soon after commissioning and later suffered a fire in her conning tower in December 1919. All six of the Lake design boats were decommissioned in July 1924, with five being scrapped in July 1930 under the terms of the London Naval Treaty. However, the decommissioned O-12 was leased back to Simon Lake for use in an Arctic expedition by Sir Hubert Wilkins. Disarmed, she was rebuilt with specialized Arctic exploration equipment and renamed Nautilus. After the conclusion of the expedition she was scuttled in a Norwegian fjord in November 1931 to keep within the provisions of the lease agreement, as the Navy no longer wanted her but didn't want the boat to fall into foreign hands.[12]

The EB design boats served well although O-5 was rammed by a cargo ship and sunk near the Panama Canal on 28 October 1923 with the loss of three crew members. All nine of the surviving EB design boats were decommissioned into reserve status in 1931. The harsh economics of the Great Depression prevented proper pre-layup maintenance, and very little if any work was done on the boats during the nine years they laid in reserve at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Eight of the boats (O-1 had been scrapped in 1938) were refitted and recommissioned in 1941 to serve as training boats based at the Naval Submarine Base New London, Connecticut. The looming war emergency forced the work to be rushed, and many of the eight O-class still needed thorough maintenance after being recommissioned. O-9 sank during deep submergence trials in June 1941, likely due to her poor material condition. Thirty-three of her crew were lost.[13]

In 1929-1930 the EB design O-class boats were modified for improved safety in the event of sinking. This was work prompted by the loss of the S-4 in 1927. Two marker buoys were added fore and aft. In the event the submarine was stranded on the bottom the buoys could be released to show the submarine's position. A motor room escape hatch was also added, the motor room being the after most compartment. The tapered after dorsal skeg became a step as a result of these modifications.[14]

The 18-inch torpedo tubes of this class forced the Navy to retain the old Mk 7 torpedo, solely for the use by these boats. All other 18-inch torpedoes prior to the 21-inch Mk 8 were discarded before WWII as a cost saving measure.

During World War II, the seven remaining O boats were stationed at the New London Submarine Base and served as training platforms for the Submarine School. The last O-boat, USS O-4, was decommissioned in September 1945. O-4 had served for 27 years and was, at that time, the longest serving submarine in the history of the US Navy.

At least one O-class submarine can be seen briefly in the 1943 movie Crash Dive, filmed at the New London submarine base.

O-3 underway, 1918

Ships in class[edit]

The 16 submarines of the O-class were:

Electric Boat (EB) design

Ship name and Hull no. Builder Laid Down Launched Commissioned Decommissioned Fate
USS O-1 (SS-62) Portsmouth Navy Yard 26 March 1917 9 October 1918 5 November 1918 11 June 1931 Scrapped 1938
USS O-2 (SS-63) Puget Sound Navy Yard 27 July 1917 24 May 1918 19 October 1918 26 July 1945 Scrapped 1945
USS O-3 (SS-64) Fore River Shipbuilding 2 December 1916 27 September 1917 13 June 1918 11 September 1945 Scrapped 1946
USS O-4 (SS-65) Fore River Shipbuilding 4 December 1916 20 October 1917 29 May 1918 20 September 1945 Scrapped 1946
USS O-5 (SS-66) Fore River Shipbuilding 8 December 1916 11 November 1917 8 June 1918 — Lost in a collision 28 October 1923; raised and scrapped 1924
USS O-6 (SS-67) Fore River Shipbuilding 6 December 1916 25 November 1917 12 June 1918 11 September 1945 Scrapped 1946
USS O-7 (SS-68) Fore River Shipbuilding 14 February 1917 16 December 1917 4 July 1918 2 July 1945 Scrapped 1946
USS O-8 (SS-69) Fore River Shipbuilding 27 February 1917 31 December 1917 11 July 1918 11 September 1945 Scrapped 1946
USS O-9 (SS-70) Fore River Shipbuilding 15 February 1917 27 January 1918 27 July 1918 — Lost on a test dive 20 June 1941; wreckage located in 1997
USS O-10 (SS-71) Fore River Shipbuilding 27 February 1917 21 February 1918 17 August 1918 10 September 1945 Scrapped 1946

Lake Torpedo Boat Company design

Ship name and Hull no. Builder Laid Down Launched Commissioned Decommissioned Fate
USS O-11 (SS-72) Lake Torpedo Boat Company 6 March 1916 29 October 1917 19 October 1918 21 June 1924 Scrapped 1930
USS O-12 (SS-73) Lake Torpedo Boat Company 6 March 1916 29 September 1917 18 October 1918 17 June 1924 Civilian Arctic expedition vessel; scuttled 1931
USS O-13 (SS-74) Lake Torpedo Boat Company 6 March 1916 27 December 1917 27 November 1918 11 June 1924 Scrapped 1930
USS O-14 (SS-75) California Shpbldg, Long Beach, CA 6 July 1916 6 May 1918 1 October 1918 17 June 1924 Scrapped 1930
USS O-15 (SS-76) California Shpbldg, Long Beach, CA 21 September 1916 12 February 1918 27 August 1918 11 June 1924 Scrapped 1930
USS O-16 (SS-77) California Shpbldg, Long Beach, CA 7 October 1916 9 February 1918 1 August 1918 21 June 1924 Scrapped 1930

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ PigBoats.COM Submarine Specifications page
  2. ^ PigBoats.COM O-class page
  3. ^ PigBoats.COM O-class page
  4. ^ Friedman, pp. 121
  5. ^ Friedman, pp. 93
  6. ^ Christley, pp. 33-34
  7. ^ PigBoats.COM O-class page
  8. ^ PigBoats.COM O-class page
  9. ^ "ShipbuildingHistory.com Craig Shipbuilding page". Archived from the original on 2015-05-02. Retrieved 2015-06-10.
  10. ^ PigBoats.COM O-class page
  11. ^ USS O-13, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
  12. ^ PigBoats.COM Wilkins Expedition page
  13. ^ PigBoats.COM Notable Submarine Accidents page
  14. ^ PigBoats.COM O-class pages

Sources[edit]

External links[edit]

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