A-class

Design, Construction, and Naming Notes

These Holland/EB design harbor defense boats were the first production class ordered by the USN. They were enlarged and improved versions of the USS Holland. Plunger was the first boat authorized, but her construction was delayed while the Navy worked to resolve the contractual issues of the earlier, unsuccessful, and never completed steam-powered Plunger of 1891. Thus, Adder was the first boat commissioned and the class was originally referred to as the Adder class. The new Plunger, along with Adder, Moccasin, Porpoise, and Shark were built at Lewis Nixon's Crescent Shipyard in Elizabethport, NJ. Grampus and Pike were built at Union Iron Works in San Francisco, the first submarines to be built on the west coast. This class originally carried the names of fish/marine and stinging creatures. On November 17, 1911 they were all renamed into the A-class. Additionally, on July 17, 1920 the boats remaining on the Navy List (either active or reserve) had their designations changed from the general submarine series into the SS series. Plunger had been stricken from the Navy List in 1913 and thus was never officially redesignated.

Plunger/A-1 (Submarine No. 2)

Page From 1906 edition of Navy Today in the Private Collection of Ric Hedman

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Adder/A-2 (Submarine No. 3, later SS-3)

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Grampus/A-3 (Submarine No. 4, later SS-4)

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Moccasin/A-4 (Submarine No. 5, later SS-5)

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Pike/A-5 (Submarine No. 6, later SS-6)

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Porpoise/A-6 (Submarine No. 7, later SS-7)

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Shark/A-7 (Submarine No. 8, later SS-8)

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