Submarine Classes

Harbor Defense, Coastal Defense, and Concept Development Submarines

What the U.S. Navy wanted in a submarine changed rapidly and often during the 1900-1933 years. These boats filled several different roles while the Navy developed and refined the strategic and tactical concepts of submarine operations. These roles included:

• Harbor defense - Small submarines based at a shore facility whose primary purpose was defending the base and the surrounding harbor from an invading enemy force. At sea endurance was usually 1-3 days. Example: Holland through the G-class.
  
• Coastal defense - An expansion of the harbor defense role, coastal submarines were of medium size and would range out from harbors to the littoral region along the coast with the purpose of interdicting an approaching enemy force before it made landfall. Essentially, they were being employed as a "mobile minefield". At sea endurance was about 7-10 days maximum. Example: H, K, L, N, O, & R-classes.
  
• Patrol - Larger boats with longer ranges intended to perform open ocean "blue water" patrols far from shore. At sea endurance could be 14-60 days. Example: M & S-classes.
  
• Fleet submarines - Large, fast, long-range, and heavily armed, these submarines were intended operate in the open ocean as direct adjuncts to the surface battle fleet. They would provide scouting reports of the enemy force's location, speed, course, and composition and then conduct preemptive attacks prior to the main fleet gun engagement. 60-90 days at sea endurance. Example: T-class, V-1 class, Dolphin, Cachalot-class, and the later Fleet Submarines (see the section below).
  
• Minelayer – A submarine meant to approach an enemy’s coast and lay a minefield off of a harbor or in a commercial sea lane. A concept used extensively by European navies, the USN built only one mission specific minelayer, V-4/Argonaut.
  
• Cruiser submarine – A large, fast, very long-range, and heavily armed submarine intended to cross oceans and seek out destroy an enemy’s merchant fleet, while still being able to fulfill the Fleet Submarine role. 60-90 days of at sea endurance. Example: V-5/Narwhal and V-6/Nautilus.
  

All of the boats in these categories contributed something to this effort, although not all were successful.

Many of these boats are the direct legacy of the father of the "modern" submarine, John Philip Holland. It should be noted that Holland had been forced out of the company that he founded, the Electric Boat Company, through a series of rather Machiavellian business moves, by March of 1904. The last submarine design that he had any influence over was the B-class. Despite this, so profound was his legacy that all of the Electric Boat submarines were colloquially known as "Holland types" long after his death in 1914.

In the period covered by PigBoats.COM, the U.S. Navy changed the convention that they used for naming and designating their submarines several times. Because of this, many of the pigboats have had more than one name, potentially leading to confusion. We have done our best to sort out this potentially bewildering situation, and we highly recommend that you read through the short article at this link.

Holland	A-class	B-class	C-class	D-class	E-class	F-class	G-class
H-class	K-class	L-class	M-class	N-class	O-class	R-class	S-class
			T-class	V-class

Later Fleet Submarine & Patrol Classes

By 1933 the Navy had benefited from rapidly improving technology and in its own refinement of submarine operational doctrine. The concept development era had ended with the last of the V-class, with the Navy now focused on refining the technology. The result was the Fleet Submarine period, a fortuitous convergence of events that would greatly contribute to eventual victory in World War II. These boats were intended to operate directly with the fleet at sea and were rugged, long-ranged, heavily armed, and among the best built by any nation in any era. The two boat Mackerel-class patrol submarines were an experiment to see if a medium size replacement for the S-class and some of the older coastal boats could be built. The big fleet submarines were the preferred type by the operating forces and no further medium size boats were built. Events of WWII proved that to be a wise choice.

The events of December 7, 1941, ended the Pacific Fleet battle line and with it the Fleet Submarine concept. Fortunately, the characteristics and qualities of the fleet submarine also made these boats superb commerce raiders and warship hunters, the roles that providence handed them in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor. These four classes represented the high-water mark of the classic Pigboat generation, a period of time that would be replaced by the titanic struggle of World War II. The time of the Pigboats essentially ended in 1941, so we will not be covering the later Gato, Balao, and Tench-classes.

Porpoise Class	Salmon/Sargo Class	Tambor/Gar Class	Mackerel Class

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