United States Navy submarine class
 USS Tarpon (later C-3), 1909
|
| Class overview |
|---|
| Builders | |
| Operators |  United States Navy |
| Preceded by | B class |
| Succeeded by | D class |
| Built | 1906–1909 |
| In commission | 1908–1919 |
| Completed | 5 |
| Retired | 5 |
| General characteristics |
|---|
| Type | Submarine |
| Displacement |
- 238 long tons (242 t) surfaced
- 275 long tons (279 t) submerged
|
| Length | 105 ft 4 in (32.11 m) |
| Beam | 13 ft 11 in (4.24 m) |
| Draft | 10 ft (3.0 m) |
| Propulsion | |
| Speed |
- 10.5 knots (19.4 km/h; 12.1 mph) surfaced
- 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph) submerged
|
| Range | 800 nautical miles (1,500 km; 920 mi) (surfaced), 80 nautical miles (150 km; 92 mi) (submerged) |
| Test depth | 200 ft (61 m) |
| Complement | 15 (1 officer and 14 enlisted) |
| Armament | 2 × 18 in (457 mm) bow torpedo tubes, (4 torpedoes) |
The C-class submarines were five United States Navy submarines built by the Fore River Shipbuilding Company in Quincy, Massachusetts, under a subcontract from the Electric Boat Company. Built between 1906 and 1909, and in commission from 1908 to 1919, all five were subsequently sold for scrap in 1920. They were considerably larger than the preceding B-class at 275 tons submerged vs. 173 tons submerged, and were the first United States submarines with two-shaft propulsion, doubling the machinery of the B class.
Design
The C-class boats were the first to be designed solely by Electric Boat's new chief designer Lawrence Spear.[3] They were the first USN submarines to have two propellers, a design trend that would last until 1953.[4] Electric Boat made the design available for export, and two boats (with rights for a third) were sold to the Austro-Hungarian Navy and commissioned as the U-5 class.
These vessels had features intended to increase underwater speed, including a small sail and a rotating cap over the torpedo tube muzzles. The streamlined, rotating torpedo tube muzzle cap eliminated the drag that muzzle holes would otherwise cause. In the stowed position, the submarine appears to have no torpedo tubes, as the holes in the cap are covered by the bow stem. With the exception of the L-class and the one-off M-1, this feature remained standard for submarines designed by the Electric Boat Company through the O-class, after which it was replaced with individual muzzle doors faired with shutters that remain standard through the modern day.[5]
For extended surface runs, the small sail was augmented with a temporary piping-and-canvas structure. Tactical doctrine for harbor defense submarines dictated that quick "crash dives" would not be necessary, thus the considerable time it took to dismantle this structure and stow it below was not considered a liability.[6] Experience in World War I showed that this was inadequate in the North Atlantic weather, and earlier submarines serving overseas in that war (E, K, and L-classes) had their bridge structures augmented with a "chariot" shield on the front of the bridge. Starting with the N-class, built with lessons learned from overseas experience, U.S. submarines had bridges more suited to surfaced operations in rough weather.
Service history
C-1, originally named Octopus, was built as a prototype by Electric Boat for demonstration in a 1906 competition with Simon Lake's submarine Simon Lake XV. Octopus won the trials,[7] and the Navy ordered four additional boats of the design. This accounts for the non-sequential hull numbers for the C-class.
The C-class submarines served in the Atlantic Fleet. On 20 May 1913, the five C-class boats of the First Group, Submarine Flotilla, Atlantic Fleet, departed Norfolk, Virginia for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They exercised in Cuban waters, principally conducting torpedo exercises, until 7 December 1913. On that date the C-class boats, now of the redesignated First Division, escorted by four surface ships, sailed for Cristóbal in the Panama Canal Zone. Five days later the ships completed the 700-mile (1,100 km) passage, at that time the longest cruise made by United States submarines under their own power. The submarines remained at the Coco Solo submarine base until they were decommissioned in 1919 and scrapped in 1920.[8]
