V-class group and unknown photos

This launching photo is one of two possible V-class submarines, either the V-1 or the V-3. The V-1 was launched on July 17, 1924, and the V-3 went down the ways on May 22, 1926. The V-2 was a December, 1925 launch and this is not a December day. The boat is seen sliding into the Piscataqua River at the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, ME. Crowds are lining the opposite bank. A submarine launching always drew a large, interested crowd.

Photo from the private collection of Ric Hedman.

V-2, V-1 & V-3 moored to the starboard side of the USS Argonne (AS-10), most likely San Diego, CA circa 1927. This is a nice photo shot from a small boat and gives a good view of the shark-like bow and stem anchor. These boats had a very distinctive look. Some might say a look that only a mother could love!

Photo from the private collection of Ric Hedman.

A nifty little photograph taken at the Mare Island Navy Yard between September 22 and September 28, 1928 showing the submarine tender USS Holland (AS-3) and two V-1 class submarines. Note the large flag flying from Holland [Sunday and Holiday Colors] which suggest photo was taken on Sunday September 23, 1928. We notice a total lack of people visible in the image, likely due to weekend liberty.

In this 1928 photo the V-2 and the V-3 are moored to the starboard side of the two-year-old submarine tender Holland. (This is reflected in the Navy Yard records.) USS V-1 was in the yard's dry dock # 1 at the time of this photo. All three of the subs were under repair at Mare Island.

Of interest in this photo is the box shaped device on the Holland's stern just to the right of the stern anchor. It looks to be the trash chute. It is a large funnel into which garbage and trash was dumped and directed overboard while at sea.

The photo location is at Mare Island Navy Yard, and is looking north up the Napa River and taken from quay wall south of the entrance to the dry dock #2 between 9th and 10th streets. The dock gate is seen at the lower left. The dock angles to the northwest.

The large crane in the background just beyond Holland is the YD-33 floating crane built in 1918 and was in use at the yard until 1973. It had the capacity to lift 150 tons. The yard's dry dock #1 is to the left of YD-33.

To the left and just north of dry dock #1 and of the YD-33 is the cantilever crane and two hammerhead cranes of the yard's building ways. Heavy cruiser USS Chicago (CA-29) and cruiser submarine V-6 (SC-2) are under construction at this point. (References Mare Island Public Works photos 5032-1-25 & 6529-10-28.)

Just to left of center in the photo is a car. Make and model is unknown but possibly a coupé type.

Photo from the private collection of Ric Hedman. Photo interpretation and detail explanation by Darryl Baker.

V-3 maneuvering up to moor in a nest that includes sisters V-1 and V-2. The nest is likely moored to the tender Argonne (AS-10) and the location is likely San Diego, December 10, 1928. The photo is taken from the fore-deck of the Argonne.

There is a lot of action on the deck of the V-1. To the left a sailor is obviously leaning back in effort to haul a heevie attached to a mooring line across from the V-3. In the center, under supervision of a senior petty officer, a crew of three sailors are pulling the heevie attached to the bow line of the V-3 through a fairlead like the one seen on the starboard side behind the men.

On the deck of the V-3 sailors can be seen feeding a mooring line to be pulled across from line that has been faked out on the deck. This is to ensure it doesn't become tangled or 'fouled' in Navy jargon. The same with the line to the left. An officer and a chief stand at the bow looking aft supervising.

It is interesting in that the first mooring line has not yet been placed on the V-1. We know this since the Union Jack, which will be raised on the jackstaff on the bow, is still in the hands of the Officer's Steward at the far right on the bow, whose job it is to raise it when the boat is officially "moored". The heevies have gone over but no mooring line is yet attached. When the first line is attached the ship's whistle is sounded and the colors are "shifted" to in port from "at sea". The photo is probably 5 to 10 seconds from this happening.

In the foreground on the V-2 there seems to be what looks like a hydraulic or lubricating oil leak in the mechanism that raises the forward radio mast. A large dark streak is running down her hull from the mast housing. The mooring line from the V-1 looks to pass around the base of the mast housing and then been looped around the V-2 capstan, deck shadows support this. The large round object near the topside anchor shank bulge is the vent for the bow buoyancy tank.

Photo from the private collection of Ric Hedman.

V-2, V-1 & V-3 moored to the port side to the USS Argonne (AS-10), San Diego, CA., December 10, 1928. This photo was likely taken shortly after the one above. The oil leak from the radio mast seen in the photo above on the V-2 starboard bow is also visible on the boat's port side.

U.S. Navy photo

V-2, V-1, and V-3 moored to the port side of the USS Argonne (AS-10), at Balboa, Panama Canal Zone during Fleet Problem X circa February 1929. The submarines and tender were at Balboa from January 29, 1929 to March 11, 1929.

Fleet Problem X was conducted with all available units of the Battle Fleet and Train Squadron Two, opposed by the Scouting Fleet and the Control Force and the defense forces of the 15th Naval District and Army units. The tender and submarines arrived back at San Diego on March 22.

It is interesting that the tender is undergoing painting by the crew. There is a man hanging from a Bosun's Chair at the bow. He is painting the area where the bow flares. This area was known for centuries by sailors as "being between the devil and the deep blue sea" because overhanging areas like this were so hard to word on. The underside of the stern was another area like this. The sailor no doubt has a line attached to him from one of the portholes and is being pulled in close to the hull to work. Another man is hanging from a Bosun's Chair right at the bow of the V-2.

Photo from the private collection of Ric Hedman.

V-3, V-2, V-1, V-5, and V-4 moored to the starboard side of the USS Holland (AS-3), most likely in the Panama Canal Zone circa 1931. The destroyer USS Southard (DD-207) is anchored at far right. Southard survived WW II and two kamikaze attacks only to be lost on the Japanese shore after war ended. Her interesting story can be found at this link.

Photo from the private collection of Ric Hedman.

V-3, V-1, V-2, and V-4 moored to the port side of the USS Holland (AS-3), at San Diego, CA circa 1930. Point Loma can be seen in the background. The Clemson-class four stack destroyer USS Alden (DD-211) is anchored closer to the point. Her story is at this link.

Photo from the private collection of Ric Hedman.

A close up of the photo above showing the after sections of V-1 and V-2 with the permanently mounted cranes used for hoisting items aboard and lowering them into the aft hatch. These did not retract into the hull or superstructure and must have caused a lot of drag when submerged. Also visible is the large rounded after escape hatch, a structure that was added in response in an effort to improve submarine escape and rescue in the event of an accident.

Photo from the private collection of Ric Hedman.

This photo was taken at nearly the same time as the photos above, but from a slightly different angle. In the intervening minutes between photos, Holland and her nest of submarines has swung around on her anchor. More of Naval Air Station North Island can be seen in the background, and the aircraft carrier USS Langley (CV-1) is visible just off Holland's bow, moored at North Island.

Photo from the private collection of Ric Hedman.

This excellent photo shows three of the V-class submarines alongside the submarine tender USS Holland (AS-3), moored at an anchorage off Naval Station San Diego, March 30, 1930. From left to right are Holland, V-2 (SF-5), V-4 (SM-1), and V-1 (SF-4). The radically different hull design of the earlier V-class boats is evident in this photo when compared to V-4. One of V-2's launches is in the water between her and V-4, and one of V-1's boats is underway in the harbor on the far right. At this time there was only the destroyer piers at the 32nd Street base, so submarines and their tender routinely moored to a buoy just off the base. The Ballast Point facility would not be established until after 1959. The launches were used the shuttle the crews of the submarines back and forth to shore for liberty.

Photo in the private collection of Ric Hedman

Nautilus (SS-168), Argonaut (SM-1), and what is most likely Narwhal (SS-167) moored together in the early 1930's. They appear to be moored to the Navy docks in Honolulu Harbor, Pier 5 to the left and pier 5A to the right. The boats still occasionally moored in Honolulu, mostly for public relations events.

U.S. Navy photo

A very interesting photo of Submarine Base Pearl Harbor, taken in late August, 1933. Left to right are the Bass (SS-164), Narwhal (SS-167), Argonaut (SM-1), Bonita (SS-165), and Barracuda (SS-163). In the lower left of the photo is the submarine tender USS Bushnell (AS-2). They are moored together in a nest at berth Sierra 12. The submerged grave of the USS F-4 (Submarine No. 23) is directly in front of the subs. The F-4's hulk had been dropped there after salvage operations brought her back to the surface after a fatal accident just off Honolulu in 1915. The space between the causeways joining Kuahua Island (at the left) to the main island is yet to be filled in. Pearl City is in the background at the right edge. The Sierra pier had been recently finished after a major expansion from the main part of the submarine base, out of view on the left. The non-graded fill dirt can still be seen on the right as work continue to expand the burgeoning base.

None of these submarines had air-conditioning in this period so awnings were rigged over decks and hatches in an effort to keep the interiors somewhat less stifling.

Photo from the private collection of Ric Hedman.

This is a fine, large, 1933 rotogravure photo of the USS Holland (AS-3) at an anchorage in the Panama Canal Zone (possibly Balboa) with her brood of five V-class submarines (See below photo for submarine IDs). The original picture is very dark and a purplely brown in color. We had to lighten it up a great deal to get this detail. Also visible are the many ripples as the paper has stretched over the 83 years this image has been in existence.

Many vessels are seen in the background. They are presumed to be assembled in the Canal Zone, ready to participate in a big war game, the 1933 Fleet Problem XIV. This war game was to take place in the Eastern Pacific waters that stretched from the West Coast and California shores to the Hawaiian Islands and from south at Magdalena Bay, Baja Mexico north to Puget Sound, Washington State. A vast body of water for this massive war game. The games stressed a lot of independent thought and initiative on the part of commanding officers in the type of tactics used to solve the problems and attain a victory.

Newspaper photo in the private collection of Ric Hedman.

This close up of the five submarines moored to Holland are, in order out from the tender (right to left); Bass (SS-164), Dolphin (SS-169), Nautilus (SS-168), Barracuda (SS-163), and Narwhal (SS-167).

Newspaper photo in the private collection of Ric Hedman.

A fine photo of Nautilus (SS-168), Dolphin (SS-169), and S-20 (SS-125) at a west coast port, possibly San Diego, approximately 1934. Nautilus has one of her two small boats hauled out of its enclosure below the main deck, likely for maintenance, as it could not be launched with Dolphin alongside. Note: Just above the name on Nautilus' bow is the Navy's Battle Efficiency "E" (for "Excellence") that she had been awarded for that year's training exercises.

Original photo in the private collection of Ric Hedman.

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Narwhal (SS-167), Nautilus (SS-168), and Bass (SS-164) moored together at San Pedro (Los Angeles), California, approximately 1931-1935. Narwhal is moored to the pier and has a sun awning erected amidships. There is a large number of people milling about, indicating that this is some sort of public relations event. In the third photo, look under the aft gun deck on Narwhal and Nautilus. Two of the topside stowage tubes for reload torpedoes can be seen.

The vast differences in design between the earlier Bass and the big cruiser submarines is quite evident in this photo. The unusual curving hull form of Bass and her sisters largely turned out to be unsuccessful, and for the big cruiser boats a much more conventional hull form was used.

Photos courtesy of the UCLA Library Digital Collections

A photo of USS Holland (AS-3) with a group of submarines and ships moored to her. Location is probably San Diego and the date is the approximately 1933-1935. From left to right is the USS Eagle No. 58 (PE-58), Robin (AM-3), Holland, Narwhal (SS-167), Nautilus (SS-168), Barracuda (SS-163), and S-20 (SS-125). Of note here is the Narwhal's black paint. The submarine force began the transition to an overall flat black paint scheme for all submarines in 1935. Narwhal may have been one of the first to receive it.

Photo from the private collection of Ric Hedman.

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