L-7

L-7 maneuvering up to a moor at the Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, CA., April 15, 1918. The small canvas and frame structure aft of the bridge on the starboard side is a chart table. The canvas hood was in place to help shield the paper charts from the wind and sea spray. The circular flood ports for the watertight superstructure are very evident here. There are no bow planes because the Lake design for the L-class had midships diving planes.

USN Photo 3905 courtesy of Darryl Baker via Navsource.org.

This photo was taken after the mooring process was complete, with L-7 now tied up at the Mare Island Navy Yard. This is a nice closeup of the conning tower fairwater and the permanent chariot style bridge fairwater. The Lake design L-boats were among the first to get permanent bridge structures to replace the removable canvas ones used on most other submarines. Another innovation on the Lake L-class boats were retractable, housing periscopes. They were among the first to receive them as built. The EB design for the L-class were built with non-housing fixed-height scopes, but had housing units retrofitted once the boats arrived in Ireland in 1918. Note the large periscope head and the round glass lens, both criticized for their size.

The rectangular deadlight glass windows that let light into the conning tower are visible just below the bridge.

National Archives photo courtesy of Historylink101.com.

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