R-1 in an unknown location, likely on the U.S. east coast, 1940-1945. R-1 had sat in reserve in Philadelphia, decommissioned between 1931 and 1940. As war loomed, the reserve O and R-class boats were reconditioned and put back into service. She served in a variety of unglamorous but vital roles, operating out of New London, Bermuda, Key West, and Casco Bay, Maine. She attacked and most likely damaged a German U-boat on April 16, 1942.
Photo provided by MMCM(SS) Rick Larson, USN (Ret.)
R-2 is shown here in an U.S. east coast port, 1935-1939. She has been painted black from the original haze gray and has received rescue/messenger buoys forward and aft. She has her name painted on the fairwater and superstructure as opposed to her hull number, so all this places the date in the time range given.
A nice aerial photo of the R-3 surfacing off the San Diego coast, 1921-1923. Water is sluicing off the fore deck and bow planes and the very point of the bow is already water free. Just behind the short mast the horizontal barrel of the deck gun can just be made out. The date on the photo back, when it was placed in the newspapers archive, is September 3, 1927 but that doesn't mean that is the date the photo was taken.
The newspaper caption says the submarine is diving but that is clearly wrong. She is moving forward and has an up angle. Right behind the submarine you can see the "pool" and feathered wake created when the conning tower first broke the surface.
The photo was taken from a biplane. The tips of both the upper and lower starboard wing can be seen on the left in the photo.
The newly commissioned R-4 greets an American crew bringing the surrendered German WW I submarine U-111, commanded by Lt. Commander Freeland A. Daubin, USN to the United States. The date is April 19, 1919. The R-4 had been commissioned less than a month before and still has not received her 3"/50 deck gun. Submarines of the Electric Boat design were still called "Holland Types", even though inventor John P. Holland had passed away in 1914. EB had absorbed the original Holland Torpedo Boat Company in 1899. There is an unusual pipe structure on the bow that was to protect the J-tube and SC sonar listening devices installed on the foredeck.
A fine photo of R-5 underway sometime in 1922. The location is likely off the coast of San Diego, CA. This photo is an excerpt from a 1923 photo calendar.
A classic, but posed, photo of R-7 approaching the finger piers at Submarine Base Pearl Harbor, 1925. The crew is lined up on deck in dress whites. There are a few buildings of the shipyard visible in the background. The rest of the land there has yet to be developed. Within 15 years all of the land in the background would be incorporated into the growing base. The shoreline would have a pier running along it and it would be a major mooring location for Pacific Fleet units.
R-8 in a nest of other R-boats alongside the USS Camden (AS-6) in San Diego in the early 1920's. The R-class were coastal patrol submarines, and thus their endurance was limited to about one week at sea. The presence of a tender like Camden or a base was a necessity of operations.
USN photo #80-G-466178 via Sean Hert from the National Archives.
This photo was taken in the summer of 1941, as the nation was gearing up for war. R-9 is shown moored to a buoy in Chatham Bay near Coco's Island, just off the Caribbean entrance to the Panama Canal. By this time all USN submarines were painted a flat black, and hull numbers had become the primary external identifier. This particular buoy was used to store fresh water, and the crew topside is busy at work rigging hoses to the buoy so that they can replenish their fresh water supply. Whether this was potable water or battery water is not known.
Photo provided by MMCM(SS) Rick Larson, USN (Ret.)
R-10 with a bone in her teeth returning to port. Mooring lines are up out of the deck lockers and the line handling crew is topside. Two crewmen are sitting on the aft deck maybe making plans for when they are on Liberty that evening. A chief petty officer is sitting in one of the pointer/trainer seats on the 3'/50 deck gun. Location is unknown, possibly Panama, circa 1921.
R-11 just off Battery Park, New York City, April 29, 1939 for the New York World's Fair. Jersey City is on the right in the background, and Ellis Island and Liberty Island are just out of view to the left. R-11 was one of the few R-boats that stayed in commission throughout the 1930's, based out of Groton, CT.
R-12 maneuvering into a mooring at Submarine Base Pearl Harbor, approximately 1921. On the side of her bridge is the Submarine Division 14 insignia. The large white X on the aft end of the fairwater is a visual identification scheme used in Hawaii during that time. The X indicated R-12. On these boats it was normal to have the gun pointed aft.
R-13 in the main channel at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, early 1920's. The R-class submarines were coastal defense boats, and nearly the entire class spent the decade of the 1920's fulfilling that role in Hawaii. The majority of the operations that they undertook during this period were one to two day patrols in the waters around the islands. It is likely that R-13 is headed out on one of these short training hops in this photo.
Courtesy of Life Magazine Archives, Carl Mydans photographer.
R-14 maneuvering into a berth, 1939. The location is either Groton, CT. or the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, ME. R-14 was assigned to the Submarine School in Connecticut as a training boat.
