R-16

Exterior and Crew Photos

R-16 under construction at the Bethlehem San Francisco (BSF) yard, January 3, 1918. Two of her sisters are on either side. BSF launched their boats only about 20% complete, finishing the work while the boat was sitting alongside a fitting out pier. BSF was very busy with wartime shipbuilding contracts, and had to clear the ways so that a new hull could be laid down. Their relatively roomy waterfront allowed them to do this. Other yards, like Bethlehem Quincy in Massachusetts launched the boat when it was about 59% complete. This photo shows her with a false bow that was added for the launch. It would later be replaced with a permanent one with a towing fairlead through the stem. R-16 is sitting very high in the water; both of her upper torpedo tubes are visible. The vertical cylinder in the center is the conning tower. Note the open hatch at the top that will eventually lead to the bridge. The conning tower will have an extensive fairwater built around it that will also form the supporting periscope shears.

Photo courtesy of the Submarine Force Library & Museum.

The rudder and stern planes of the R-16 while the boat was under construction on January 3, 1918 in San Francisco. The axial mounted rudder is attached right at the end of the hull. A push rod exits the aft skeg and is attached to the rudder. This rod enters the hull through a watertight packing gland and is used by the electrical steering gear inside the motor room to move the rudder left or right. Both of the stern planes are angled downward in the full dive position. The twin propellers have not yet been installed just forward of the planes.

Photo courtesy of the Submarine Force Library & Museum.

USS Beaver (AS-5) with R-16 diving along side. Beaver is painted in WW I era "dazzle" paint. Each side has a different pattern on it. It was intended to make it very difficult for a German U-boat to accurately judge distance and speed of the ship through a periscope, greatly increasing the difficulty in aiming torpedoes. Its effectiveness was questionable.

Photo from the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum via Mr. Darryl Baker. MAY NOT be reused without permission.

A very nice crew photo of the R-16, likely taken in Pearl Harbor in the early 1920's by famed Hawaiian photographer Tai Sing Loo. The young boy in front is likely the son of the commanding officer. Submarines and ships of the era sometimes had ceremonial mascots of young boys, so this young lad might be that too. The deck gun has been turned to port and the back row of men are standing on it.

U.S. Navy photo.

This photo of R-16 was taken in Pearl Harbor in the mid 1920's. It illustrates an unusual feature for the time. Instead of the boat's name (R-16) painted on the side of the fairwater, the boat's hull number is there (93). Although a Navy standard after 1938, having the hull number displayed during this time was quite rare. Why it is being done here is not known. All other R-class photos of this era show the name. That makes this view unique.

Photo courtesy of the USSVWII via Navsource.org

Interior Photos

Notes

A large number of interior photos of the R-16 were discovered at the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum in California by submarine researcher Darryl Baker. He kindly took the time to scan the images and send them on to PigBoats.COM for posting. We have worked at bringing out as much detail of the images as possible and in a number occasions even make close-ups of interesting bits of information. The photos are reported to have been taken in 1923.

Torpedo Room

The R-16 torpedo tube doors. You can see that the hull narrows quite a lot at this point by the curvature of the hull frames. The hull at this point is not a true circle but a vertical ellipse.

Each door has a sea pressure gauge and sight glass except for door on Number One torpedo tube. The sight glass may have been damaged and has yet to be replaced. The tubes are numbered from right to left and top to bottom; 1, 2 and 3, 4. Odd numbers on the starboard side and even on the port side. The row of large wheel handles are for opening and closing the shutter doors on the outside of the bow. The shutters are inter-linked with the torpedo tube muzzle door that close off the seaward end of the torpedo tube.

The black squares in the corners are from the tabs that glued the photo into the original scrapbook.

Photo in the collection of the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum. Contributed by Darryl Baker

Forward Battery Compartment/Berthing

This view in the R-16's forward battery compartment. This is just behind or aft of the torpedo room. This view is looking aft to the door into the control room. Lockers on the left are for the crew to put uniforms and personal items. The dark colored caged area houses the ships gyro compass.

The forward battery compartment housed both enlisted crew as well as the sub's three officers. The starboard side, seen here, is for bunks and lockers for enlisted. The port side, blocked off by a canvas curtain is where the officers had their quarters. On the right edge of the photo can be seen the end of a table with cloth over it. This table acted as a desk and eating surface for the officers.

Under the deck was one half of the boat's massive storage battery. It contained 60 cells. The battery well was covered by wood planking and bolted down and then heavy canvas was shellacked down over the planks to make it watertight. Shellac gave the decks their dark green color.

Photo in the collection of the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum. Contributed by Darryl Baker

This photo shows the officer's side of the forward battery compartment. The rest of the table/desk can be seen with books and note books on it. Over the table hangs a portable light that could be unplugged and stored away while at sea so it wouldn't be damaged.

Two of the officer's bunks are seen on the right of the photo. There are storage lockers under the bunks. Not seen are larger cupboards and lockers for officer's use. The purpose of the six canisters against the bulkhead are unknown. They could hold soda lime to absorb CO2 in an emergency, although the containers seem a bit small for that purpose. Battery well ventilation blowers are seen against the bulkhead along with piping to the battery well. This system was used to exhaust battery gases during charging to prevent explosions.

The dark shaft seen to the left of top center, next to the valve handle, is the drive shaft for operating the bow planes.

Photo in the collection of the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum. Contributed by Darryl Baker

The captain's bunk with a light and depth gauge. Unlike later boats the commanding officer did not have a private space. These boats were too small for that.

Photo in the collection of the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum. Contributed by Darryl Baker

The depth gauge is dual calibrated. It shows the depth to keel and pounds per square inch of pressure. Even though this gauge was calibrated to 300 feet, the maximum safe operating depth (test depth) for an R-boat was 200 feet.

Photo in the collection of the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum. Contributed by Darryl Baker

Control Room

This is the forward end of the control room, just to the left of the helm wheel, which is visible on the right. These are valves and gauges for the compressed air system. These gauges give pressures in various banks, tanks, and systems.

The surrounding gauges seems to be for monitoring the various air pressure systems; 60 psi., 100 psi., 200 psi., & 300 psi. Hinted at but no photo taken, at the left top is another gauge which is possibly part of a series of gauges for the different air banks.

Photo in the collection of the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum. Contributed by Darryl Baker

In this close up the top row of dials shows, left to right; a gauge marked "Air Flask". The center is a barometer. On the right is a gauge marked "Air Manifold".

The center row, left to right the dials say: "Aft Trim Tank"; Sea Pressure" and "Fwd Trim Tank".

The bottom row of dials say; "Regulator"; "Auxiliary Tank"; "Aft Main Ballast", and "Fwd Main Ballast".

Photo in the collection of the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum. Contributed by Darryl Baker

This air manifold handles the blow functions for ballast tanks, with the "Auxiliary Tank" on the left, "Forward Trim" in the center and "After Trim" on the right. Printed in paint written above the label plate someone has painted the word "BLOW" probably to avoid confusion on which handles to turn.

Photo in the collection of the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum. Contributed by Darryl Baker

Moving left around the compartment, this is the dive station of the R-16. The station is on the port side of the control room. That makes the bow of the submarine to the right in the photo. The wheel on the right is for the bow planes and the one on the left is for the stern planes.

The depth gauges only show 100 feet though the submarines had a test depth of 200 feet. Many skippers complained about having no way of knowing how deep they were after the first 100 feet. Finally the Navy relented and made deeper gauges available.

Above the stern planes wheel is a speaking tube, though where it came from or went isn't known at this time.

Photo in the collection of the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum. Contributed by Darryl Baker

Continuing on our swing to the left around the control room of the R-16 we come to the main motor field rheostats, seen at the top of the photo, and the engine order telegraphs in the center. At the bottom are the motor controller hand switches.

This arrangement sits on the forward side of the bulkhead that enclosed the radio room. The view is looking aft. Between the engine order telegraphs is a bell and on either side of that are small signs that say "PORT" and "STAR". Since the operator is facing aft the controls would be backwards so board is set up as if the operator was facing the other direction. This whole arrangement was moved aft of the engine room in later submarine classes and eventually became what is known as the maneuvering room.

Photo in the collection of the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum. Contributed by Darryl Baker

Stepping around the corner from the motor controllers you are looking to port and into the door of the radio room. It is a pretty small space maybe four feet by four feet in size. In the center is the transmitter/receiver, likely Morse Code only. This was 1920's crystal and vacuum tube technology. It generated a low-power signal and required very long line antenna aerials topside in order to get any useable range. It tended to overheat and be unreliable, but it was a tremendous advance over semaphore and signal lamps and allowed the boats to stay in contact with their squadron command or a shore station.

Photo in the collection of the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum. Contributed by Darryl Baker

From this view the photographer is standing almost in the center of the control room looking directly aft. On the right is the ladder that leads up into the conning tower. Behind that is the #2 periscope. The #1 periscope was only usable from the conning tower, out of the picture to the right and above. There is a third periscope located in the after battery compartment.

The two large boxes on the bulkhead can also be seen in the photo showing the Motor Controllers. The man standing at a small desk is Radio Electricians Mate 3rd Class E. R. Brown and would have worked in the radio room. He would have also needed to know how to send Morse Code via blinker light and send and read semaphore using hand flags, combining the jobs of Radioman and Signalman into one job on a submarine. The R-16 was stationed at Pearl Harbor for 11 years. These subs had no air conditioning and were hot below decks, hence the reason for the casual dress seen in this photo.

To the left in the photo are seen the levers for operating the Kingston valves that are used for diving or surfacing.

Photo in the collection of the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum. Contributed by Darryl Baker

Rounding on to the starboard side of the submarine we come to the Kingston levers. These are used to open and shut large valves in the bottoms of various tanks to let water in or out as needed. The large valves were mechanically linked to these levers and were fully manually operated. There was no power assist of any kind. Oftentimes, water pressure made these valves very hard to open and combined with the mechanical resistance from the linkage, operating these levers required a tremendous amount of brute strength.

The large sight gauges seen to the right and left of the Kingston levers are, on the right, for the Auxiliary Tanks (there were two of these) and the one on the left is for the Regulator Tank. (This tank is to change its name in the future and become the Negative Tank. All were used to adjust Trim and Weight.)

The large tube in the upper left corner and extending over the top of the first three levers is the barrel cooling tube for the Lewis Mk VI Light Machine Gun that would be mounted on the bridge if needed.

Photo in the collection of the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum. Contributed by Darryl Baker

The name plates on the levers are readable for the most part. Left to right the first four levers are: unreadable, "Port (something) Main Ballast Kingston", "Port For'd Main Ballast Kingston", and the last is "Stbd For'd Main Kingston".

Photo in the collection of the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum. Contributed by Darryl Baker

The last four Kingston levers are easier to read. Left to right they are: "Regulator Tank Kingston", "Auxiliary Tank Kingston", "Port Aft Main Ballast Kingston", and "Stbd Aft Main Ballast Kingston".

The Regulator Tank handle looks to have some sort of coating to make it feel different. The Auxiliary Tank Kingston handle has been wrapped and then a Turks Head Knot applied to it so it feels different from all the rest. It is also painted. This was an attempt to make it easier to operate the levers correctly in the dark.

Photo in the collection of the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum. Contributed by Darryl Baker

This is the trim and drain manifold. Manipulating these valves allowed the operator to move ballast water to various tanks in the fore, amidships, and aft parts of the boat. This greatly aided in keeping the boat on an even keel while submerged.

Only a few names can be read on the right side name plate. The far left says "From Bilge". The next two are unreadable. The fourth reads "Trim Line Aft". The fifth reads "From Duct Keel". The last is unreadable. The large back box with the big wheel is the regulator for the trim pump, used for moving the ballast water between the various tanks.

In the upper right corner of the photo the rest of the Lewis Mk VI .30-06 light machine gun can be seen. There were mounts on the bridge where this could be placed if it was needed for protection.

Photo in the collection of the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum. Contributed by Darryl Baker

The famous WWI era "Lewis Gun", known in the U.S. Navy as Lewis Mk VI. Invented by American Army Colonel Isaac Newton Lewis, he couldn't get the U.S. military to buy the gun. Lewis resigned his commission and moved his operation to Belgium and also licensed it for manufacture in England when WW I started.

Lewis and family settled in England where he became extremely rich from license agreements for his gun. The English and Empire troops used it with much success all through WW I and WW II. After WWI, the U.S. military adopted it in numbers, although it was never as popular as the .30 caliber Browning Machine Gun. There were two calibers for this gun, the British .303 and the American .30-06. The gun used a distinctive 47 or 97 round circular pan magazine mounted on the top of the weapon. It also had extensive cooling fins attached to the barrel, covered by a tube that made the barrel look a lot larger than it really was. Lewis Guns were used by many nations up through the mid 1950's.

If you look closely at the movie "Star Wars: A New Hope" there is a scene in which filmmaker George Lucas adapted a Lewis gun as a Stormtrooper weapon!

Photo in the collection of the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum. Contributed by Darryl Baker

After Battery Compartment/Crew's Mess

Stepping through the door into the after battery compartment and turning back to the door for a peek back into the control room. On the left can be seen the third periscope. To the right is the main electrical switch board.

The periscope is an early Kollmorgen design. It was 18 feet 10½ inches in length and 6 inches in diameter. It had an 8 degree field of view at 6 power. At low power (1.25 power) it gave a 38 degree field of view.

During construction of the R-boats, a desire arose to have a third periscope. Cramming a third scope into the conning tower trunk or into the control room was just not going to work as there wasn't enough room. The existing two scopes were also fairly short and there was a desire to have a longer periscope which gave the advantage of a greater height of eye, and thus a longer visual range. The designers at Electric Boat proposed a scheme to convert an existing access trunk and hatch, used to gain access to the aft deck from the after battery compartment, into a makeshift second conning tower. The hatch at the top would be blanked off and an 18 foot periscope would be added. When fully raised the eyepiece of the scope would be at the top of the trunk, allowing the top of the scope to be considerably higher than the other two. To give the user of the periscope someplace to stand while using it, a platform was attached to the bottom of the scope by a cable, which pulled the platform up with a the scope while it was being raised. Two metal guide rods on each side of the platform kept it straight while raised and provided an additional point to secure the platform.

The designers at the USN Bureau of Construction and Repair agreed with Electric Boat and wanted the third scope installed, but Electric Boat pointed out the because the boats were already under construction making a major change like this would cause a delay in delivery of the boats. Being wartime a delay was not acceptable, so the conversion happened after the boats were delivered to the Navy and commissioned. Ultimately, the third periscope turned out to be not successful, as it tended to vibrate while being used, restricting the boat to a slow speed while it was raised. By the late 1920's the R-boats had standardized on two 27 foot periscopes and presumably the third scope in the after battery was removed and the trunk re-converted to a topside access trunk

Photo in the collection of the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum. Contributed by Darryl Baker

The main electrical switch board on the starboard side of the compartment. The curved section of the deck below is actually the top of the starboard ballast tanks.

Historian Jim Christley has this to say about this electrical panel set up: "Starting from the top left. On the horizontal bracket. The rectangular item with 66 spots is most probably the Individual Cell Voltage plug board for one of the two batteries. There would be another plug board on the other side of the meter. There were 60 cells per battery so the plug board had some spare plugins as well as one for each end cell terminal.

To the right the two sets of light bulbs were simply an indication of the state of charge of the battery. Brighter meant higher voltage thus higher charge and lower amperage draw. Kind of a quick visual indicator. Between the sets of bulbs are two rectangular boxes with a kind of meter. These most likely are 'amp-hour' meters. They give a numerical reading of the amount of ampere hours charged into and discharged from the battery. If a particular battery had a rating of 4000 amp hours for instance it could output 4000 amps for one hour or 400 amps for 10 hours or 40 amps for 100 hours. Amperes times hours equal amp hours. Thus if the boat is running submerged at the one hour rate of 4000 amps to the motors, the amp hour meter would give an indication of how much battery capacity remained. The other option was to record the specific gravity of the electrolyte which was slower and not as accurate.

Below these are an interesting set of motor operated main power contactors. The old timers when I was first on diesel boats remarked on these. I don't remember exactly what was said but it was not, as I recall, praising their operation. Note that the electrical connections are not enclosed in any way. Not fun in a hot humid or wet situation. Plus finding a place to lean upon with the boat pitching an rolling was an interesting proposition. It was not until the early 1950's that the distribution switch gear became completely enclosed. Above the motor is a set of motor starting flat plate resistors."

Photo in the collection of the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum. Contributed by Darryl Baker

Amp hour meters for the forward and after batteries. The switches below are covered with a heavy cloth or leather to protect them from condensation or spray. The covering also protected the men from falling into the open switches and being electrocuted.

Photo in the collection of the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum. Contributed by Darryl Baker

This view showing the after port corner of the after battery compartment shows the galley stove and sink area. On the bulkhead is the ships "Watch, Quarter and Station Bill" and also shows the submarine's name, R-16.

Photo in the collection of the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum. Contributed by Darryl Baker

A number of things are sitting on the galley range. What looks like a small coffee pot, a toaster and one more indistinct item.

Photo in the collection of the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum. Contributed by Darryl Baker

The WQS bill displays in one place a sailor's duties for each emergency and watch condition. It also shows his administrative and operational duties. A Velvet pipe tobacco can sits on a ledge.

Photo in the collection of the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum. Contributed by Darryl Baker

Engine Room

We've moved one compartment aft to the engine room. The photo was taken looking aft from the forward end of the compartment. The man at the right is Radio Electricians Mate 3rd Class E. R. Brown. He was seen before in the control room photograph. Seen in the foreground are the engine order telegraphs above the throttle wheels on the front of the diesels. The engines are NELSECO 6-EB-14 diesels built at an Electric Boat subsidiary in Groton, CT. These engines were reasonably reliable and served the boats for their entire lives.

Photo in the collection of the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum. Contributed by Darryl Baker

This is a view of the front of the starboard diesel engine showing the instrument cluster, the engine order telegraph and throttle.

Photo in the collection of the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum. Contributed by Darryl Baker

Another view looking down the engine room between the engines. The door to the motor room can be seen in the background. Just beyond the lower right corner of the door you can see the top of the low pressure ballast pump. The internal framework of these single hull submarines is very evident in the overhead between the engines.

Photo in the collection of the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum. Contributed by Darryl Baker

This view is looking at the after end of the port diesel engine looking forward.

Photo in the collection of the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum. Contributed by Darryl Baker

Motor Room

The motor room. The major equipment in this space are the two large main propulsion motors that drive the boat while it is submerged. The deck seems to have been removed, possibly for maintenance work. In the foreground, to the right is the low pressure ballast pump. A ventilation duct runs down the center of the overhead and just aft of the matching curved pipes, on either side of the room are the shaft driven air compressors. The large electric motor just to the left of center is believed to be for the high pressure ballast pump. A few pieces of the equipment seen farther aft could be the lathe and drill press but detail is lacking to make positive determinations.

The room appears to be a bit dirty. Perhaps due to the maintenance work going on. Compared to the appearance of the rest of the submarine this space is pretty messy so this appearance is probably not normal.

Photo in the collection of the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum. Contributed by Darryl Baker

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