These 12 submarines made up the second contract awarded to the Electric Boat Company (EB), and all were assigned for construction to an EB sub-contractor, Union Iron Works in San Francisco. By the time of the start of construction, UIW had been sold to Bethlehem Steel and it was known as Bethlehem San Francisco (BSF). The boats were near duplicates of their 20 series sisters, with the only noticeable difference being the smaller, rounded shape of the bow plane pivot fairings. Like the boats built by Bethlehem Quincy, the 30 series boats were all of the standard EB single hull design with an axial mounted rudder, stern planes, and propellers. BSF got an immediate start on the boats and worked in parallel with the Quincy yard. In fact, S-30 was the 2nd of the EB boats to be commissioned, following S-1 by only four months.
These boats suffered from the same engine problems as the Quincy built boats, with their introduction into active service being greatly delayed until the solution of a larger diameter crankshaft was decided upon and implemented. Once fixed, these boats provided great service to the fleet, and they could be found in every theater that the U.S. Navy operated in.
The initial lack of adequate numbers of fleet boats meant that the Navy relied heavily on these submarines in the early months of the war. Most made many war patrols, with the high operational tempo being very hard on these then 20 year old submarines. Two of them were lost. The remainder served until the end of the war, receiving many upgrades like air conditioning, radar, rebuilt superstructures, and additional guns. The remaining boats were quickly discarded at the end of the war, but they had proved their worth by stepping up for war duty when called for.
S-30 (SS-135)
Photo in the private collection of Ric Hedman.
S-30 hauled out in the floating drydock at Submarine Base New London, Groton, CT. The date is approximately 1935-1936. S-30 has received all of the safety improvements following the S-4 disaster. Her aft superstructure skeg has been cut away forward of the rudder, an escape hatch has been installed in the motor room, and a rescue marker buoy has been installed at the new aft end of the superstructure.
S-32 maneuvering along a shoreline with a Chinese style junk or sampan in the foreground.
The photo is captioned on the back and states that the submarine is "...now stationed at Manila..." and dates February 1, 1932. Though this same exact photo is seen in a newspaper story in late 1928 and says it is at Tsingtao (now Qingdao), China.
It is likely that the photo was taken in 1928 in or near a Chinese port.
S-33 on builder's trials off San Pedro (Los Angeles), CA., November 23, 1920. When this photo was taken, the full extent of the engine issues facing Electric Boat was not yet fully known. S-33 would not be able to complete the full speed portion of her trials. The Navy had mandated lower power settings until the engines could be fixed by EB. Her commissioning was delayed until 1922 while the Navy and EB searched for a solution. Aftercommissioning, S-33 immediately headed for New London where the engine rebuild was accomplished.
S-34 sits in drydock at the Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, CA., August 22, 1924. S-34 had run aground 13 days earlier near Benicia, CA. Luckily damage was minor, and it can be seen low on the hull, aft of the conning tower fairwater. She would be quickly repaired and put back into service. This photo also clearly shows the smaller rounded fairings for the bow plane pivots, a noticeable change from the slab sided angular fairings of the Quincy built boats. Low on the hull underneath the "S 34" on the superstructure is a tubular fairing for the MV series passive sonar. There was a similar fairing on the starboard side.
