The Fiscal Year 1916 coastal submarine construction program was expanded with 16 submarines authorized. The Navy took the L-class specifications and scaled up the requirements a bit. The result was the O-class. As usual, the Navy chose to have the submarines built to two different designs submitted by Electric Boat and the Lake Torpedo Boat Company. In an unusual move, the Navy obtained a legal license to build two subs of the EB design at government Navy yards. O-1 was built at the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Maine, and O-2 at the Puget Sound Navy Yard in Bremerton, WA. O-3 through O-10 were also EB designs, but they were built at the EB contractor Fore River Shipbuilding in Quincy, MA. O-11 to O-13 were built at the Lake yard in Bridgeport, CT., and O-14 to O-16 at a Lake contractor, California Shipbuilding Company in Long Beach, CA. CALSHIP ran into severe difficulties in construction, and all three boats had to be towed up the coast, incomplete, to Mare Island Navy Yard in Vallejo, CA. for completion.
USS O-5 (SS-66) was sunk in a collision with a steamer near the entrance to the Panama Canal. Three men died, 16 successfully escaped before the boat went down, and two, Henry Breault and Lawrence Brown were trapped alive in the torpedo room. The bow was lifted from the mud and the two men were rescued. O-5 was a total loss and even though she was salvaged the boat was not returned to service. She was sold as scrap in Balboa, C.Z., Panama.
These were the first U.S. submarines with really satisfactory diesel engines from the start. In addition, they were the last USN submarines built with 18-inch torpedo tubes. All subsequent USN designs used 21-inch diameter tubes. In general they were well liked and quite useful, although once again the Lake variant was rated inferior to the EB boats. They spent a lot of time in Panama guarding the approaches to the canal. The Lake boats were discarded in the mid 1920's, and the EB boats were laid up in mothballs In Philadelphia between 1931 and 1941. They were hurriedly returned to service as war clouds loomed in 1941 and served in a useful capacity as training boats in New London. Unfortunately, USS O-9 (SS-70) was lost with all hands in a tragic accident in June 1941. Her crew is "On Eternal Patrol".
The decommissioned O-12 was pulled out of mothballs and sold back to Lake. He had the boat heavily modified for Sir Hubert Wilkins' polar expedition of 1930 and renamed it Nautilus. It was intended to run the boat under the ice all the way to the Pole. It was not successful in this role and it sank in a deep Norwegian fjord in 1931.
O-1 (SS-62)
Photo NH 44543 courtesy of NHHC.
O-1 underway off the Brooklyn Navy Yard, New York City, November 1922. There is one sailor half way out of the torpedo room hatch.
O-2 running on the surface during WWII, November 26, 1943. The location is in the western Atlantic off the coast of Long Island, NY. By this time the original 3"/23 caliber Mk 9 gun had been removed. These boats were used to train basic course students at the Submarine School in Groton, CT. so it was felt that the gun was not needed. O-2 has received the mandated safety modifications, with McCann Chamber compatible hatches forward and aft, rescue/marker buoys, and a motor room escape hatch. The unusual structure on her forward deck that looks like a stick figure is actually the transducers for the JK/SC sonar array.
O-3 is seen here during her builder's trials off Provincetown in Cape Cod Bay, March 24, 1918. While essentially complete at this point, O-3 has yet to receive her full bridge and conning tower fairwater. The Fore River Shipbuilding Company had painted her hull number on the side of the fairwater. This would be replaced with the boat's name when she was commissioned into the Navy a few months later.
O-4 is seen running trials in Cape Cod Bay off Provincetown, MA., March 23, 1918. O-4 and O-3 were running mates, completed at almost the same time. They ran trials together on the measured mile off Provincetown. Curiously, it seems that O-4 received a much more complete bridge fairwater than O-3 did. The vertical pipe sticking up from the deck forward of the fairwater is actually the barrel of the 3"/23 caliber gun. The gun is retracted into its watertight tub that extended down into the hull in the forward battery compartment. It can also be seen in the O-3 photo above. This gun was never well liked by the crews because it lacked hitting power and it had the tendency to suddenly self-retract when it was fired, posing a substantial safety threat to its own crew.
O-5 at rest in the calm waters of Cape Cod Bay off Provincetown, MA., April 14, 1918. This was during her builder's trials period and she had not yet been commissioned into the USN. A visual characteristic of the EB design for the O-class was the large, rounded towing fairlead at the very tip of the bow, easily seen in this photo.
O-6 photographed from an airplane, mid, 1920's. The location is not known, but the O-boats were stationed in the Panama Canal Zone during this period, so this is likely taken somewhere near Coco Solo, Panama on the Atlantic side. An awning has been rigged over the bridge to shield the watchstanders from the oppressive equatorial sun. Two sailors on the forward deck are waving to the photographer.
O-7 seen underway in an unknown location. This is possibly her final builder's trials in 1918 as some of the men standing on deck appear to be civilians. The location is possibly on the measured mile in Cape Cod Bay off Provincetown, MA.
O-8 underway, 1919. The location is not confirmed, but is suspected to be the Hudson River at the northern end of New York City during the Victory Fleet celebrations commemorating the end of WWI. Unusually, the submarine's bow planes are rigged out, which would normally be done only at the start or immediately after a dive. Of note in the background is a three masted sailing ship with a horizontal white stripe. This ship is likely the USS Constitution, the famous frigate of the War of 1812.
O-9 entering port, likely at Submarine Base Coco Solo, Panama, 1924-1928. A large number of her crew are on deck, one of them is in whites and he is probably the duty topside watch. The stern of another O-boat is visible in the foreground. Only the top of the superstructure skeg and the top of the rudder can be seen.
O-10 and sister boat O-4 at the Boston Navy Yard in Charlestown, MA., September 28, 1922. O-10 was operating out of New London at the time and was likely in Boston for a periodic refit. Note that O-4 has her gun raised and O-10 has it retracted. The large, four-funneled ship in the far right background is the Army transport USAT Mount Vernon.
O-11 under construction at the Lake Torpedo Boat Company yard in Bridgeport, CT., July 8, 1918. The Lake design for the O-boats, although having the same armament and very similar operational characteristics, were vastly different internally and externally from their EB design brethren. One of the major external differences was that the bow planes retracted into a slit in the superstructure, as opposed to folding up alongside in the EB design. A lot of work remains to be done and equipment installed on O-11, and she is riding high in the water. One of her torpedo tubes is visible at the bow. At the right is another boat under construction. It can't be confirmed which boat it is, as Lake was building both O and R-class submarines at the same time.
