V-2

V-2 at rest during her builder's trials in Cape Cod Bay off Provincetown, MA. in the summer of 1925. The boat is at anchor. Radio technology was still in its infancy and adequate reception and transmission over long ranges required very high radio masts and long aerial antenna wires. These can be seen in this photo, with the thin wires strung between the main radio mast and the fore and aft masts. V-2 also has both of her small boat booms rigged out, with one of her boats in the water alongside. Large propeller guards can be see projecting out from the stern.

Original photo in the private collection of Ric Hedman

V-2 in drydock at the Boston Navy Yard, Charlestown, MA., probably in the late summer of 1927. The V-2 and her sisters V-1 and V-3 were preparing for a long trip, they were being transferred to the Pacific coast in November 1927 along with Submarine Division 20. In this photo she is firmly down on the keel blocks and she is braced to the dock sidewall. Divers have been in the water to ensure that the boat is resting squarely on the blocks and that none have shifted. The men on the floating platforms are performing a similar function. Emptying the dock is a tricky process and has to be carefully done over several hours to ensure safety.

Of note, on top of the right sidewall are two top masts from the sailing frigate USS Constitution, (Old Ironsides), that had been removed for work while the vessel was also undergoing maintenance at the shipyard.

Photo courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection. Used with permission.

In this view from the starboard bow, the draining process is proceeding, with keel blocks now visible. Both of the V-2's small boats have been hauled out of their enclosures and placed on deck, likely for maintenance. These two views give a good view of the boat's unusual hull form.

Photo courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection. Used with permission.

This photo was taken at the same time as the one above. Details of the V-2's paddle-blade propellers, propeller guards, shovel-shaped stern, and stern torpedo tubes can be seen. The ventrally mounted rudder and stern diving planes was a former Lake Torpedo Boat Company patent that had been incorporated into the design.

Photo courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection. Used with permission.

The same drydock photographed in September 2008 by webmaster David Johnston. Many of the buildings in the background were present in 1927.

Photo by David Johnston

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Five additional views of V-2 in drydock at Boston, fall of 1927. Platforms and ladders have been erected under her stern, likely to facilitate work on her aft torpedo tube muzzle doors, which are open in these shots. Above the tubes on either side of the hull are the angular propeller guards. On top of the hull, just forward of the flag staff is a cone shaped fairing for one of the boat's three radio antenna masts. The concept of operations for the fleet submarine called for very long-range radio communications. To achieve this, the V-2 and her sisters were equipped with two different sets of radio aerial wires. One set (probably for short range comms) had two heavy thick wires running from the stern fairing, up to a support stanchion on either side of the periscope shears, and down to a similar fairing on the bow. A second set of wires was attached to a mast that retracted into this fairing. These wires then ran to a heavy retractable mast aft of the periscope shears on the conning tower fairwater, then down to another retractable mast on the fairing at the bow. The bow mast (as seen in photos below) retracted down into the fairing and a tube that penetrated the bow buoyancy tank and then ran down between the torpedo tubes. The aft mast retracted down into the steering gear room above the rudder.

Also very prominent in these photos are the V-2's small boats, used as liberty launches when the boat was anchored out. These boats were housed in deck fairings aft of the conning tower fairwater and were covered over with teak deck slats. To launch the boats the decking above them would be removed and the boats hoisted out of the fairings using a large kingpost/boom crane, each located just forward of the fairings.

In the first and second photos the undulating sheer of her main deck can be clearly seen.

Photos courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection. Used with permission.

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In these bow photos two distinctive features of the V-2 stand out. The first is the bulbous bow, shaped somewhat like the nose of a porpoise or shark. This unusual design was intended to provide additional buoyancy and keep the bow above the waves at high speed. Unfortunately it was poorly conceived and it actually caused the bow to burrow into the waves, making for a very wet deck. The bow tapers to a very narrow width below the tank then flairs out again into a circular cross section in order to accommodate the bow torpedo tubes. When viewed from straight ahead, the bow looks a lot like a figure 8. The anchor can also be seen, and it is housed in a hawespipe inside the bow buoyancy tank. It gives the distinct impression of being held in the mouth of a shark. The small bump fairing on the main deck just forward of the radio mast fairing houses the shank of the large stem anchor when fully housed.

The holes along the side of the boat are "limber holes", used to flood the free flooding superstructure when the boat dives, and drain it upon surfacing. The large slit in the bow houses the retracted starboard side bow diving plane.

Photos courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection. Used with permission.

V-2 surfacing. The date on the photo is February 12, 1928. This date makes the exact location uncertain as to the physical location the V-2 would be. According to DANFS she could have been in Pacific waters off San Diego, or the Hawaiian Islands or even in the Caribbean during this time frame.

There is nothing else in the photo because it had been physically cropped by the newspaper service that had used the photo. It had much paint and ink on it that had to be removed by webmaster Ric Hedman in order to display the original image as seen here.

Original photo in the private collection of Ric Hedman

V-2 crew relaxing under an awning. The location is possibly Panama though it may also be San Diego or Hawaii. There just isn't enough information other than the awning. The date is probably between 1925 and 1930.

Some of the crew have brought up blankets and pillows to lay on the deck to relax upon. Interesting to note that the bow of the starboard launch is protruding through the decking over the small boat storage locker. The kingposts for launching and retrieving these boats are see at the outer edges of the awning. There is a portable shower rigged on the very back edge of the conning tower fairwater. The hose leading to it can be seen arcing to the right and toward the left.

The bitts seen on either side of the deck in the foreground appear to be retracting. The assumption is based on the fact that each has a handle built into the recessed top of each bitt. It is assumed that turning this handle would unlock or unscrew the bitt from a locked position and allow it to be lowered into the deck. This seems strange to be a strangely contrived attempt at streamlining on a boat with so many other sources of drag topside.

Original photo in the private collection of Ric Hedman

On February 19, 1931 V-2 was renamed Bass and was redesignated SS-164 a few months later. In 1935 as part of a force wide change she was repainted in a flat black paint scheme. During this time she was seen with the class identifier B2 on her fairwater. Bass is seen here in the 1935 to 1939 time frame, location unknown. Her original 5"/51 caliber deck gun has been replaced with a smaller and lighter 3"/50 caliber weapon in an attempt to partially correct a high center of gravity and overweight condition that had adversely affected stability. On the far left a large escape trunk has been installed, replacing the aft torpedo room loading and access hatch. She may be entering port, as both of her small boats have been hauled out and are sitting on deck.

Original photo in the private collection of Ric Hedman

Bass is seen entering port somewhere along the U.S. west coast between 1934 and 1936. The exact location is somewhat in doubt, but it could be San Diego, San Pedro/Long Beach, or the San Pablo Bay area north of San Francisco. During the time frame for this photo she was assigned to Submarine Division 12 out of San Diego, and she cruised along most of the west coast, into the Canal Zone and in the Hawaiian Islands until January 1937, when she departed the west coast for Philadelphia. There she went out of commission and into reserve on June 9, 1937.

Bass and her sisters were pressed back into service in the fall of 1940 in an effort to plus up the Submarine Force as war loomed. On August 17, 1942 a fire broke out while Bass was at sea. The electrical fire started in the after battery compartment and spread to the motor room and aft torpedo room. Tragically, 25 men died in the fire, nearly 50% of her crew. The Bass was escorted to a port of shelter in Costa Rica, where emergency repairs were made before departing for Balboa in the Canal Zone and eventually a yard period in Philadelphia. Bass continued to serve in a limited capacity until March 3, 1945 when she was decommissioned for the last time.

This photo gives a good view of the 3"/50 caliber Mk 17 gun that replaced her original 5"/51 caliber weapon.

Original photo in the private collection of Ric Hedman.

Bass shown transiting one of the lock sets in the Panama Canal, 1942. Bass was assigned to duty in the Canal Zone and made anti-submarine patrols on both the Atlantic and Pacific sides. Her and her sisters were judged to be of little value in the war zone in the western Pacific, but they still retained enough value to conduct these low intensity defensive patrols. To fend off the fierce Panamanian sun, the crew has rigged a canvas awning over the forward deck. Bass would remain in the Canal Zone area until October, 1942 when she returned to the U.S. east coast.

Original photo in the private collection of Ric Hedman.

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Just nine days after her decommissioning on March 3, 1945, Bass was expended as a target in a Mk 24 mine test. These two artist drawings depict her wreckage on the bottom of the Atlantic off Block Island.

Original drawings by Jim Christley. Used with permission.

Bass's wreck site off Block Island, NY.

Screen capture by Ric Hedman

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