L-4
In the late summer of 1918 while on patrol, the L-4 spotted a German U-boat on the surface charging batteries and lying motionless. The commanding officer, LCDR Lewis Hancock, Jr., fired a torpedo at the submarine. The Germans saw the torpedo and quickly sped forward and dived, evading the torpedo. In a later incident, the L-4 later had almost the same situation and the same result, the torpedo missed. The Mark 6 and 7 torpedoes in use at the time were known to be touchy. If bumped hard the gyro would malfunction and the weapon would stray off course.
Photo in the private collection of Ric Hedman.
The young woman has placed her left hand on the top of the 3”/23 caliber deck gun of the submarine. The curved disk is the gun's splinter shield and the gun as a whole, when not in use, would rotate to a vertical position and retract into the superstructure into the gun's water-tight housing. The curved splinter shield would mate with the housing's top edge making the breech water-tight.
Photo in the private collection of Ric Hedman.
Photo in the private collection of Ric Hedman.
Page created by:
Ric Hedman & David Johnston
1999 - 2023 - PigBoats.COM©
Mountlake Terrace, WA, Norfolk, VA
webmaster at pigboats dot com