<div style="text-align: left;">[[C-1|See More C-1 photos]]</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">[[File:C-1 port porfile maybe.jpg|left|thumb|Photo in the private collection of Ric Hedman]][[C-1|See More C-1 photos]]</div>
The five C-class harbor defense submarines were built to an Electric Boat Company design at the Fore River Shipbuilding Company of Quincy, MA. The boats were all commissioned into the Navy with their "fish" names, but on November 17, 1911 the Navy changed its naming convention for submarines and these boats were renamed with the C-class names. Octopus (C-1) was built in 1906/1907 for a set of competitive trials with the Simon Lake submarine Lake (see this page). The Octopus was judged superior in every category and was selected for series production. Four more boats were later built by Fore River. This early trial accounts for the out of sequence hull number for Octopus.
