H-class

Design, Construction, and Naming Notes

The H-class of coastal defense submarines were, as usual, scaled up versions of Electric Boat's previous design, the F-class. Three were authorized in Fiscal Year 1910, to begin construction in the spring of 1911. Two were built by Union Iron Works in San Francisco, and one by the Moran Company in Seattle. They were originally named Seawolf, Nautilus, and Garfish, although those names were dropped only a few months after construction was started and before they were launched, in favor of the H-class names. They were mostly successful boats, although they suffered from the usual litany of engine unreliability. H-1 was lost to a grounding incident on the Mexican shore in March, 1920.

The H-class design was a very popular one for EB. They sold it in slightly modified form to the UK and to Russia. In fact, after the fall of the Tsar, a Russian order for six H-class boats was seized by the USN from their building yard in Vancouver, British Columbia. After the legalities were cleared up, the submarines, uncompleted in knockdown kit form, were transported to the nearby Puget Sound Navy Yard in Bremerton, WA., where they were completed. They were commissioned as the H-4 to H-9. These boats had only minor differences from their earlier siblings. Since their acquisition was delayed, other types had already been ordered by the USN, so these last six boats had hull numbers that fell into the middle of the S-class. This class was fairly successful, but became quickly obsolete after WWI and were discarded in the early 1920's.

H-1 (Submarine No. 28, later SS-28)

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H-2 (Submarine No. 29, later SS-29)

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H-3 (Submarine No. 30, later SS-30)

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H-4 (Submarine No. 147, later SS-147)

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H-5 (Submarine No. 148, later SS-148)

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H-6 (Submarine No. 149, later SS-149)

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H-7 (Submarine No. 150, later SS-150)

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H-8 (Submarine No. 151, later SS-151)

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H-9 (Submarine No. 152, later SS-152)

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