L-8
L-8 was a Lake design built under license at the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, ME. It is shown here on April 13, 1916 on the building ways in the old Franklin Shiphouse. It was the first submarine built at a U.S. government owned shipyard. The USN was trying to gain experience in building submarines so that some level of competition could be provided to Electric Boat and Lake. Simon Lake desperately needed the cash the license provided his company, and the Navy gained valuable experience in the complicated art of building submarines.
L-8 was armed with four 18-inch torpedo tubes in the bow. Her primary weapon was the Bliss-Leavitt Mk 6 or Mk 7 torpedo. She could carry eight of the weapons, four in the tubes with one reload each. The large handwheels on each tube opened the breech door. The levers on each tube side would open the outer muzzle doors once the tube was flooded and prepared to fire.
