R-class

Design and Construction Notes

The 27 R-class submarines were built to two distinctly different designs at three shipyards. Both designs had similar operational and military characteristics, but had vastly different internal arrangements, equipment installations, and external appearances. The two designs were developed by the Electric Boat Company (EB) of New York City (later Groton, CT.) and the Lake Torpedo Boat Company of Bridgeport, CT. R-1 through R-14 were of the EB design and were built at Bethlehem Quincy near Boston (formerly Fore River Shipbuilding Company). R-15 through R-20 were of the EB design and built at Bethlehem San Francisco (formerly Union Iron Works). R-21 through R-27 were built by Lake at his Bridgeport yard.

The class is broken down by groups below.

R-1 through R-14 (EB design built at Bethlehem Quincy)

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R-15 through R-20 (EB design built at Bethlehem San Francisco)

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R-21 through R-27 (Lake design built at Lake Torpedo Boat Company)

Drawing by Jim Christley courtesy of Navsource.org

An excellent line drawing of the Lake design for the R-class. Simon Lake finally abandoned the concept of level keel diving with midships diving planes in this class, at the Navy's insistence. The flat horizontal stern and the ventrally mounted rudder, stern planes, and propeller shafts are quite apparent. The Lake R-class boats were the last to be built for the U.S. Navy with 18-inch torpedo tubes. The EB R-boats and all subsequent submarines standardized on the 21-inch diameter torpedo.

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