S-1 and S-18 through S-29

Design and Construction Notes

These thirteen boats were one of three contracts awarded to the Electric Boat Company of New York City (later Groton, CT.). Electric Boat did not have a construction yard yet at its NELSECO engine plant in Groton, so these boats were sub-contracted to the Fore River Shipbuilding Company of Quincy, MA. By the time of the start of construction, the yard had been sold to Bethlehem Steel, and was officially known as Bethlehem Quincy. These boats were all single hull submarines, with all ballast tanks inside the pressure hull.

S-1 was the first boat of the group completed, and while she was running trials she encountered severe torsional vibrations in her NELSECO 8-EB-15 diesel engines, bad enough that the engines were completely wrecked. A defect was found in the design of the crankshaft. The process of getting this problem fixed was a long and drawn-out affair, greatly delaying the introduction of these boats to the fleet. However, once fixed these boats provided great service to the fleet, with many of them serving through WWII.

For more information, please see the article at this link.

S-1 (SS-105)

USN photo from the Rick Larson Collection, now in the private collection of Ric Hedman.

S-1 sliding down the ways at the Bethlehem Quincy shipyard (formerly Fore River Shipbuilding), Quincy, MA. on October 26, 1918. The tube at the tip of the bow is a towing fairlead hawsepipe. The two port side torpedo tube shutter doors can be seen, and at the bottom underneath the retracted bow planes is the boat's mushroom anchor. Despite flying the U.S. flag on the aft flagstaff, the boat is not yet in commission, and would not be until June 5, 1920.

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S-18 (SS-123)

U.S. Navy photo.

S-18 moored to the Electric Boat owned engine repair barge Isaac L. Rice in the Thames River at Groton, CT., June 2, 1922. This was a frustrating time for the S-18. She had been launched on April 29, 1920 from the Bethlehem Quincy shipyard in Quincy, MA., and during the fitting out phase it was found that the NELSECO 8-EB-15 engines that had been installed had very serious problems that prevented them from being run at high speeds. The Navy refused to accept the boat until a fix had been made, so S-18 was sailed up to Groton by EB personnel and moored to the Isaac L. Rice where her engines were rebuilt. Finally, nearly four years after being launched, S-18 was commissioned into the U.S. Navy on April 3, 1924. All of the Electric Boat design S-boats were affected by the engine problems, greatly delaying their entry into USN service. See the article at this link for the details.

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S-19 (SS-124)

USN photo # 19-N-12152, from the National Archives and Records Administration

Starboard side view of S-19 sailing along the Thames River, CT., circa 1924. Note that the S-19 has rounded fairings around her bow plane pivots, a marked contrast to the other S-boats of the Quincy group, which all had angular slab sided fairings.

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S-20 (SS-125)

USN photo # NH 108000 via NHHC

S-20 on builder's trials off Provincetown, MA. October 7, 1920. This is her as-built configuration, with the vertical "chisel" bow with hawsepipe, slab-sided bow plane pivot fairings, narrow and flat forward deck, and original style aft superstructure skeg. She is running at 11.6 knots on the measured mile range, which is below her rated maximum of 13 knots. Engine troubles would keep her from being commissioned for nearly two more years.

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S-21 (SS-126)

Photo in the private collection of Ric Hedman.

S-21 underway, mid 1920's, location unknown. S-21 was a busy boat in those days, and her duties sent her across the U.S. east coast, Panama, and the Pacific. With the high land in the background this could possibly be Pearl Harbor.

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S-22 (SS-127)

From an original photo negative in the private collection of Ric Hedman.

S-22 at gunnery practice circa 1938 or 1939, location is likely the U.S. east coast. The submarine rescue vessel (ASR) to the right of the photo is towing four naval artillery targets that can be seen in the center of the photo just below the horizon line as four white dots. Just to the left of the targets is what could be the splash from the just fired round. Over the gun crew on deck and forward of the bridge the smoke from the just fired round can still be seen.

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S-23 (SS-128)

USN photo # 80-G-466175, from National Archives and Records Administration.

An aerial view of S-23 passing near Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, January 22, 1927. Her port side engine has been recently lit off, and the cold engine is smoking excessively. Once it is warmed up the smoke will greatly decrease.

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S-24 (SS-129)

Photo provided by John Marsh. His father, John Rodney Marsh collected the photo while on a reserve cruise in the early twenties.

S-24 underway in heavy seas, location unknown but likely in the Pacific, mid 1920's. This may have been a formation exercise as the photo was obviously taken from another boat. We have a similar picture of S-25 (see below), probably taken at the same time.

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S-25 (SS-130)

U.S. Navy photo

S-25 underway in heavy seas, location unknown but likely in the Pacific, mid 1920's. This photo is very similar to the S-24 photo above, leading to speculation that it was taken at the same time, possibly during a formation exercise. The Submarine Squadron 8 insignia is visible on the forward edge of the bridge.

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S-26 (SS-131)*

Photo in the private collection of Ric Hedman.

S-26 maneuvering up to a moor, likely to a tender, near Naval Station San Diego, approximately 1927-1928. In addition to having the maneuvering watch set, two crewmen are cleaning the 4"/50 caliber Mk 9 gun, details of which will be shown on the following page. On the forward deck stands a man with a coiled "heevy", a small line used to throw to a pier or ship so that the heavy mooring lines could be pulled over. There are other line handlers on the aft deck. On the sub's starboard quarter is a ship's gig running officers ashore for liberty. On the far right the top of the rudder can be seen just breaking the surface of the water.

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S-27 (SS-132)*

Photo in the private collection of Ric Hedman.

S-27 entering Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, circa 1936-1939. The black paint job, cut off aft superstructure skeg, and the "27" on her conning tower fairwater all indicate this time period.

The S-27 served the Navy well until 13 June 1942. On that date she was on patrol in the Aleutian Island chain off Alaska. In the black of night in poor visibility she ran aground on the rocks off the southern tip of the island of Amchitka. She was stuck fast and mounting seas started to batter the boat to pieces. Her entire crew escaped and spent the next 12 days marooned on the island until they were rescued by four PBY patrol planes. Unfortunately, the S-27 was a total loss. Her wreck was quickly broken up and destroyed by the sea action.

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S-28 (SS-133)*

S-28 entering port at an unknown location, early to mid 1920's. It is likely that this is a U.S. east coast port. The sterns of two more submarines are in the foreground.

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S-29 (SS-134)

U.S. Navy photo.

S-29 maneuvering up to moor, probably alongside a tender in the mid 1920's. Location is unknown but is probably San Diego. The photo was taken prior to the safety reforms brought on by the S-4 disaster in 1927, as the aft superstructure skeg near the rudder is still in place. By the time of this photo, the earlier Y-tube deck sonar array had been replaced by the trainable T-shaped SC array, shown here between the flagstaff and the open hatch to the torpedo room. The SC was the first sonar array that was capable of giving a reasonably accurate bearing to the target.

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