L-5

Photo courtesy of The US Navy Submarine Force Library & Museum.

L-5 under construction at the Lake yard, Bridgeport, CT., April 30, 1916. She would be launched the next day. The Lake design had the stern end in a flat, horizontal "shovel", with the rudder, stern diving planes, and propeller shafts mounted ventrally under the stern. In an effort to preserve buoyancy while surfaced, portions of the superstructure atop the hull were intended to be watertight. The small round holes on the side were actually for flood port valves for these superstructure buoyancy tanks. The fairwater around the conning tower can be seen in the center.