V-boat
Encyclopedia
The V-boats were a group of nine United States Navy
submarine
s built between World War I
and World War II
from 1919-1934. These were not a ship class
in the usual sense of a series of nearly identical ships built from the same design, but shared authorization under the "fleet boat" program. The term "V-boats" is used to includes five separate classes of submarines.
Originally called USS V-1 through V-9 (SS-163 through SS-171), the nine submarines were renamed in 1931 as , , , , , , , , and , respectively. All served in World War II, six of them on war patrols in the central Pacific. Argonaut was lost to enemy action.
s and cruiser
s of the line.
In the summer of 1913, Electric Boat
's chief naval architect, former naval constructor Lawrence Y. Spear, proposed two preliminary fleet-boat designs for consideration in the Navy's 1914 program. In the ensuing authorization of eight submarines, Congress specified that one should "be of a seagoing type to have a surface speed of not less than twenty knots". This first fleet boat, laid down in June 1916, was named after Spanish-American War
hero Winfield Scott Schley
. With a displacement of 1106 LT (1,123.8 t) surfaced, 1487 LT (1,510.9 t) submerged, on a length of 270 ft (82.3 m), Schley (later AA-1, and finally T-1) was twice as large as any previous U.S. submarine. To achieve the required surface speed, two tandem 1000 hp diesel engines on each shaft drove twin screws, and a separate diesel generator was provided for charging batteries. Although Schley and two sisters authorized in 1915— (originally AA-2), and (originally AA-3)—all made their design speed of 20 kn (24.4 mph; 39.2 km/h), insoluble torsional vibration problems with their tandem engines made them very troublesome ships, and they were decommissioned in 1922-1923 after a service life of only a few years.
In 1916, well before this T-class debacle transpired, Congress authorized 58 coastal submarines and nine additional "fleet" boats. Three of the larger 800 LT (812.8 t) coastal boats eventually became competing prototypes for the long-lived, 51-member S-class
. The nine "fleet boats" became the "V-boats", built between 1921 and 1934, and in fact, they were the only U.S. submarines produced in that period.
Unfortunately, the first three V-boats had poor operational performance. Designed for 21 kn (25.6 mph; 41.2 km/h) on the surface, they only made 18.7 kn (10.2 m), and also failed to make their submerged design speed of 9 kn (11 mph; 17.6 km/h). As built, they were somewhat too heavy forward, which made them poor sea boats, even after replacing the original deck guns with smaller 3 in (76.2 mm)/50 cal models to save weight. Moreover, both the main propulsion diesel engines and their original electric motors were notoriously unreliable, and full-power availability was rare. Renamed Barracuda, Bass, and Bonita in 1931, they were decommissioned in 1937, and only the imminence of World War II provided a reprieve, in preparation for which they were recommissioned in September 1940. Just before Pearl Harbor, the three boats were transferred to Coco Solo, Panama Canal Zone, and each made a number of defensive war patrols—without seeing any action—off the approaches to the Panama Canal
.
All three boats were overhauled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
, in late 1942 and early 1943 and converted to cargo submarines by removing both torpedo tubes and main engines, thereby leaving them solely dependent on their diesel generators for propulsion. Because this rendered the boats severely under-powered, they apparently never served operationally in their cargo-carrying role but instead were relegated to training duties at New London until just before the end of the war in 1945. After decommissioning, Barracuda and Bonita were scrapped, and Bass was scuttled as a sonar target near Block Island
.
, suggested the need for long-range submarine "cruisers", or "strategic scouts", as well as long-range minelayers, for which long endurance, not high speed, was most important. Funded in fiscal year 1925, laid down at Portsmouth in May of that year, and commissioned in April 1928, V-4 was 381 ft (116.1 m) long overall and carried four 21 in (533.4 mm) torpedo tubes forward and two 40 in (1,016 mm) mine-laying chutes and their associated mechanical handling equipment aft. Considerable engine-room volume was sacrificed to achieve an internal payload of 60 specially designed Mark XI moored mines, and consequently, the main propulsion diesels were limited to a total of 2800 hp, yielding only 15 kn (18.3 mph; 29.4 km/h) on the surface.
An over-large, under-powered, and one-of-a-kind submarine, Argonaut was never particularly successful but stayed in commission all through the 1930s. Early in World War II, she was re-engined at Mare Island to increase her main propulsion output to 3600 hp, and additionally received two external aft-firing torpedo tubes. Then, at Pearl Harbor
, having never laid a mine in anger, her mine-laying gear was stripped out to facilitate conversion to a troop-carrying submarine. In that guise, she participated in the commando
assault on Japanese-held Makin Atoll by Carlson's Raiders in August 1942. In transferring to Brisbane
, Australia
late that year, Argonaut was diverted to a war patrol near Bougainville
in the northern Solomon Islands
and lost with all hands on 10 January 1943 after attacking a heavily defended Japanese convoy.
. The Navy had experimented with seaplanes on submarines with a prototype hangar installation on during the mid-1920s. However, the resulting increase in scouting capability was significantly offset by several additional dangers to the host submarine, and the initiative was dropped.
The two double-hulled boats displaced 2730 LT (2,773.8 t) on the surface and 3,900 underwater on a length of 370 ft (112.8 m). They displayed prominent "surface-ship" characteristics, notably high freeboard and an expansive deck structure. Each was powered by two 10-cylinder, two-stroke, 2350 hp MAN diesel engines (designed by the German firm that built engines that powered many German U-Boats of World War I, the rights to which the U.S. Navy purchased to build domestically for their own submarines). They also had a pair of smaller 450 hp diesel-powered generators for charging batteries or augmenting the main propulsion engines on the surface. On trials, the two boats achieved nearly 17.5 kn (21.3 mph; 34.3 km/h) surfaced and 8 kn (9.7 mph; 15.7 km/h) submerged, and their claimed endurance was 18000 mi (15,641.5 nmi; 28,968.1 km) at 10 kn (12.2 mph; 19.6 km/h). In addition to the customary torpedo tubes—four forward and two aft with 24 torpedoes (eight external)—they (and Argonaut) carried two 6 in (152.4 mm)/53 cal deck guns, the largest ever mounted on U.S. submarines.
Funded in 1926 and commissioned in 1930, V-5 and V-6 emerged as too large and unwieldy for fully successful operation: slow to dive, hard to maneuver, and easy to detect. Nonetheless, as Narwhal and Nautilus, they served usefully in the 1930s, and just before World War II Nautilus was modified to carry 20000 US gal (75,708.2 l) of aviation gasoline for refueling seaplanes at sea. Early in the war, each was re-fitted with four 1600 hp General Motors
diesels and four additional external torpedo tubes, and despite their age and inherent design flaws, they went on to compile enviable war records.
Narwhal completed 15 successful war patrols and Nautilus 14, and between them, they are credited with sinking 13 enemy ships for a total of 41 in 6 in (12.65 m)35,000 tons. Somewhat more serendipitously, their large size made them useful for carrying both troops and cargo on covert missions. Thus, Nautilus joined with Argonaut in transporting Carlson's Raiders to Makin
, and then with Narwhal, landed a strong detachment of United States Army Scouts on Attu
in the Aleutian Islands preparatory to the main landing that regained that island from the Japanese in May 1943. For the final two years of the war, the two boats were devoted almost exclusively to clandestine insertion and retrieval operations behind enemy lines, particularly in preparation for the U.S. campaign to retake the Philippines
.
With the end of the war in sight, Narwhal and Nautilus were withdrawn from service in April and June 1945, respectively, and sold for breaking up soon thereafter. Narwhal′s 6 in (152.4 mm) guns are retained as a memorial at the Naval Submarine Base New London.
, Balao
, and Tench
classes had similar dimensions.
Early in the war, Dolphin herself made three patrols from Pearl Harbor without notable distinction, and her deteriorating material condition soon led to restricting her to training duties, first in Hawaii
, and then in New London, Connecticut
, for the duration of the war. She was decommissioned in October 1945 and sold for scrapping a year later.
of 1930 for the first time imposed international limits on total submarine tonnage, the incentive to build smaller ships became especially compelling. (The restrictions of the London Naval Treaty were a factor in the disposal in 1930 of T-1, T-2, and T-3, which had been laid up for nearly a decade. By special agreement, Argonaut, Narwhal, and Nautilus were exempted from the treaty limitations.)
The result was the two smallest V-boats, Cachalot (originally V-8) and Cuttlefish (originally V-9), funded in fiscal year 1932. At 271 ft (82.6 m) overall and only 1130 LT (1,148.1 t) surface displacement, Cachalot and Cuttlefish were even smaller than the T-boats of 15 years earlier. The engineering plant consisted of two innovative, compact Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg (MAN)-designed main diesels, supposedly capable of delivering 1535 hp each, plus a single diesel generator rated at 440 hp. Although the boats approached 17 kn (20.7 mph; 33.3 km/h) on trials, the new MAN engines failed repeatedly from excessive vibration and were replaced in 1938 by General Motors diesels with reduction gearing.
Perhaps of most interest was the Navy's assignment of Cuttlefish to the Electric Boat Company, the first submarine award to a private yard since the last of the S-class in 1921. Accordingly, Cuttlefish differed from her Portsmouth-built sister, Cachalot, in many respects, including more spacious internal arrangements, the first installation of air conditioning on a U.S. submarine, and the first partial use of welding (vice riveting) in hull fabrication. Moreover, Cachalot and Cuttlefish served as the first test beds for the Mark I Torpedo Data Computer
that revolutionized underwater fire control in the mid-1930s.
Unfortunately, because small size severely limited their speed, endurance, and weapons load, neither boat was successful under the conditions of the Pacific war. Each did three scoreless war patrols in the central and western Pacific, and Cachalot did one in Alaska
n waters, but by late 1942, it was clear both were out-classed and worn out, and they finished the war at New London as training ships. The two were decommissioned in October 1945 and broken up several years later.
Porpoise
, Salmon
, Sargo
, Tambor
, and Gato
classes.
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
s built between World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
from 1919-1934. These were not a ship class
Ship class
A ship class is a group of ships of a similar design. This is distinct from a ship-type, which might reflect a similarity of tonnage or intended use. For example, the is a nuclear aircraft carrier of the Nimitz class....
in the usual sense of a series of nearly identical ships built from the same design, but shared authorization under the "fleet boat" program. The term "V-boats" is used to includes five separate classes of submarines.
Originally called USS V-1 through V-9 (SS-163 through SS-171), the nine submarines were renamed in 1931 as , , , , , , , , and , respectively. All served in World War II, six of them on war patrols in the central Pacific. Argonaut was lost to enemy action.
Background
In the early 1910s, only 12 years after inaugurated the Navy's undersea force, naval strategists had already begun to wish for submarines that could operate in closer collaboration with the surface fleet than the Navy's existing classes, which had been designed primarily for coastal defense. These notional "fleet" submarines would necessarily be larger and better armed, but primarily, they would need a surface speed of some 21 kn (25.6 mph; 41.2 km/h) to be able to maneuver with the battleshipBattleship
A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...
s and cruiser
Cruiser
A cruiser is a type of warship. The term has been in use for several hundreds of years, and has had different meanings throughout this period...
s of the line.
In the summer of 1913, Electric Boat
Electric boat
While a significant majority of water vessels are powered by diesel engines, with sail power and gasoline engines also remaining popular, boats powered by electricity have been used for over 120 years. Electric boats were very popular from the 1880s until the 1920s, when the internal combustion...
's chief naval architect, former naval constructor Lawrence Y. Spear, proposed two preliminary fleet-boat designs for consideration in the Navy's 1914 program. In the ensuing authorization of eight submarines, Congress specified that one should "be of a seagoing type to have a surface speed of not less than twenty knots". This first fleet boat, laid down in June 1916, was named after Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
hero Winfield Scott Schley
Winfield Scott Schley
Winfield Scott Schley was a rear admiral in the United States Navy and the hero of the Battle of Santiago Bay during the Spanish-American War.-Civil War:...
. With a displacement of 1106 LT (1,123.8 t) surfaced, 1487 LT (1,510.9 t) submerged, on a length of 270 ft (82.3 m), Schley (later AA-1, and finally T-1) was twice as large as any previous U.S. submarine. To achieve the required surface speed, two tandem 1000 hp diesel engines on each shaft drove twin screws, and a separate diesel generator was provided for charging batteries. Although Schley and two sisters authorized in 1915— (originally AA-2), and (originally AA-3)—all made their design speed of 20 kn (24.4 mph; 39.2 km/h), insoluble torsional vibration problems with their tandem engines made them very troublesome ships, and they were decommissioned in 1922-1923 after a service life of only a few years.
In 1916, well before this T-class debacle transpired, Congress authorized 58 coastal submarines and nine additional "fleet" boats. Three of the larger 800 LT (812.8 t) coastal boats eventually became competing prototypes for the long-lived, 51-member S-class
United States S class submarine
The United States' S-class submarines, often simply called S-boats , were the first class of submarines built to a United States Navy design....
. The nine "fleet boats" became the "V-boats", built between 1921 and 1934, and in fact, they were the only U.S. submarines produced in that period.
V-1 through V-3—the Barracudas
The first three V-boats were funded in fiscal year 1919, laid down at the Portsmouth Navy Yard in October and November 1921, and commissioned somewhat less than a year apart between 1924 and 1926. Significantly, V-1, V-2, and V-3 were the only members of the class designed to satisfy the Navy's original "fleet-boat" requirement for high surface speed. These were large and powerfully engined submarines, displacing 2119 LT (2,153 t) surfaced and 2506 LT (2,546.2 t) submerged on a length of 342 ft (104.2 m). The propulsion plant was divided between two separate engine rooms—forward and aft of the control room—with two 2250 hp main-propulsion diesels aft, and two independent 1000 hp diesel generators forward. The latter were primarily for charging batteries, but to reach maximum surface speed, they could augment the mechanically coupled main-propulsion engines by driving the 1200 hp electric motors in parallel. The three boats were partially double-hulled and fitted forward with buoyancy tanks inside a bulbous bow for better surface sea-keeping. They were armed with six torpedo tubes—four forward and two aft—plus a 5 in (127 mm)/51 cal deck gun.Unfortunately, the first three V-boats had poor operational performance. Designed for 21 kn (25.6 mph; 41.2 km/h) on the surface, they only made 18.7 kn (10.2 m), and also failed to make their submerged design speed of 9 kn (11 mph; 17.6 km/h). As built, they were somewhat too heavy forward, which made them poor sea boats, even after replacing the original deck guns with smaller 3 in (76.2 mm)/50 cal models to save weight. Moreover, both the main propulsion diesel engines and their original electric motors were notoriously unreliable, and full-power availability was rare. Renamed Barracuda, Bass, and Bonita in 1931, they were decommissioned in 1937, and only the imminence of World War II provided a reprieve, in preparation for which they were recommissioned in September 1940. Just before Pearl Harbor, the three boats were transferred to Coco Solo, Panama Canal Zone, and each made a number of defensive war patrols—without seeing any action—off the approaches to the Panama Canal
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is a ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Built from 1904 to 1914, the canal has seen annual traffic rise from about 1,000 ships early on to 14,702 vessels measuring a total of 309.6...
.
All three boats were overhauled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
, in late 1942 and early 1943 and converted to cargo submarines by removing both torpedo tubes and main engines, thereby leaving them solely dependent on their diesel generators for propulsion. Because this rendered the boats severely under-powered, they apparently never served operationally in their cargo-carrying role but instead were relegated to training duties at New London until just before the end of the war in 1945. After decommissioning, Barracuda and Bonita were scrapped, and Bass was scuttled as a sonar target near Block Island
Block Island
Block Island is part of the U.S. state of Rhode Island and is located in the Atlantic Ocean approximately south of the coast of Rhode Island, east of Montauk Point on Long Island, and is separated from the Rhode Island mainland by Block Island Sound. The United States Census Bureau defines Block...
.
V-4—Argonaut
Displacing 4164 LT (4,230.8 t) submerged, V-4—later —was both the largest submarine the Navy ever built before the advent of nuclear power and the only U.S. submarine specifically designed as a minelayer. Her configuration, and that of the following V-5 and V-6, resulted from an evolving strategic concept that increasingly emphasized the possibility of a naval war with Japan in the far western Pacific. This factor, and the implications of the 1922 Washington Naval TreatyWashington Naval Treaty
The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, was an attempt to cap and limit, and "prevent 'further' costly escalation" of the naval arms race that had begun after World War I between various International powers, each of which had significant naval fleets. The treaty was...
, suggested the need for long-range submarine "cruisers", or "strategic scouts", as well as long-range minelayers, for which long endurance, not high speed, was most important. Funded in fiscal year 1925, laid down at Portsmouth in May of that year, and commissioned in April 1928, V-4 was 381 ft (116.1 m) long overall and carried four 21 in (533.4 mm) torpedo tubes forward and two 40 in (1,016 mm) mine-laying chutes and their associated mechanical handling equipment aft. Considerable engine-room volume was sacrificed to achieve an internal payload of 60 specially designed Mark XI moored mines, and consequently, the main propulsion diesels were limited to a total of 2800 hp, yielding only 15 kn (18.3 mph; 29.4 km/h) on the surface.
An over-large, under-powered, and one-of-a-kind submarine, Argonaut was never particularly successful but stayed in commission all through the 1930s. Early in World War II, she was re-engined at Mare Island to increase her main propulsion output to 3600 hp, and additionally received two external aft-firing torpedo tubes. Then, at Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
, having never laid a mine in anger, her mine-laying gear was stripped out to facilitate conversion to a troop-carrying submarine. In that guise, she participated in the commando
Commando
In English, the term commando means a specific kind of individual soldier or military unit. In contemporary usage, commando usually means elite light infantry and/or special operations forces units, specializing in amphibious landings, parachuting, rappelling and similar techniques, to conduct and...
assault on Japanese-held Makin Atoll by Carlson's Raiders in August 1942. In transferring to Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
late that year, Argonaut was diverted to a war patrol near Bougainville
Bougainville Island
Bougainville Island is the main island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville of Papua New Guinea. This region is also known as Bougainville Province or the North Solomons. The population of the province is 175,160 , which includes the adjacent island of Buka and assorted outlying islands...
in the northern Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is a sovereign state in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea, consisting of nearly one thousand islands. It covers a land mass of . The capital, Honiara, is located on the island of Guadalcanal...
and lost with all hands on 10 January 1943 after attacking a heavily defended Japanese convoy.
V-5 and V-6—Narwhal and Nautilus
In their overall appearance and dimensions, V-5, later Narwhal and V-6, later Nautilus were similar to Argonaut and constituted "submarine cruiser" counterparts at least partially inspired by German success with long-range submarine commerce raiders in World War I. Endurance, sea-keeping, increased torpedo capacity, and large deck guns were emphasized at the cost of high speed; and originally, a small scouting seaplane was to be carried in a water-tight hangar abaft the conning towerConning tower
A conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine, often armored, from which an officer can con the vessel; i.e., give directions to the helmsman. It is usually located as high on the ship as practical, to give the conning team good visibility....
. The Navy had experimented with seaplanes on submarines with a prototype hangar installation on during the mid-1920s. However, the resulting increase in scouting capability was significantly offset by several additional dangers to the host submarine, and the initiative was dropped.
The two double-hulled boats displaced 2730 LT (2,773.8 t) on the surface and 3,900 underwater on a length of 370 ft (112.8 m). They displayed prominent "surface-ship" characteristics, notably high freeboard and an expansive deck structure. Each was powered by two 10-cylinder, two-stroke, 2350 hp MAN diesel engines (designed by the German firm that built engines that powered many German U-Boats of World War I, the rights to which the U.S. Navy purchased to build domestically for their own submarines). They also had a pair of smaller 450 hp diesel-powered generators for charging batteries or augmenting the main propulsion engines on the surface. On trials, the two boats achieved nearly 17.5 kn (21.3 mph; 34.3 km/h) surfaced and 8 kn (9.7 mph; 15.7 km/h) submerged, and their claimed endurance was 18000 mi (15,641.5 nmi; 28,968.1 km) at 10 kn (12.2 mph; 19.6 km/h). In addition to the customary torpedo tubes—four forward and two aft with 24 torpedoes (eight external)—they (and Argonaut) carried two 6 in (152.4 mm)/53 cal deck guns, the largest ever mounted on U.S. submarines.
Funded in 1926 and commissioned in 1930, V-5 and V-6 emerged as too large and unwieldy for fully successful operation: slow to dive, hard to maneuver, and easy to detect. Nonetheless, as Narwhal and Nautilus, they served usefully in the 1930s, and just before World War II Nautilus was modified to carry 20000 US gal (75,708.2 l) of aviation gasoline for refueling seaplanes at sea. Early in the war, each was re-fitted with four 1600 hp General Motors
General Motors
General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...
diesels and four additional external torpedo tubes, and despite their age and inherent design flaws, they went on to compile enviable war records.
Narwhal completed 15 successful war patrols and Nautilus 14, and between them, they are credited with sinking 13 enemy ships for a total of 41 in 6 in (12.65 m)35,000 tons. Somewhat more serendipitously, their large size made them useful for carrying both troops and cargo on covert missions. Thus, Nautilus joined with Argonaut in transporting Carlson's Raiders to Makin
Makin (islands)
Makin is the name of a chain of islands located in the Pacific Ocean island nation of Kiribati, specifically in the Gilbert Islands.-Geography:...
, and then with Narwhal, landed a strong detachment of United States Army Scouts on Attu
Attu Island
Attu is the westernmost and largest island in the Near Islands group of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, making it the westernmost point of land relative to Alaska and the United States. It was the site of the only World War II land battle fought on the incorporated territory of the United States ,...
in the Aleutian Islands preparatory to the main landing that regained that island from the Japanese in May 1943. For the final two years of the war, the two boats were devoted almost exclusively to clandestine insertion and retrieval operations behind enemy lines, particularly in preparation for the U.S. campaign to retake the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
.
With the end of the war in sight, Narwhal and Nautilus were withdrawn from service in April and June 1945, respectively, and sold for breaking up soon thereafter. Narwhal′s 6 in (152.4 mm) guns are retained as a memorial at the Naval Submarine Base New London.
V-7—Dolphin
The penultimate design in the V-boat series was laid down at Portsmouth in June 1930 and emerged as (formerly V-7) two years later. With a length of 319 ft (97.2 m) and a displacement only a little more than half that of her three predecessors, Dolphin was clearly an attempt to strike a happy medium between those latter ships and earlier S-class submarines, which were little more than large coastal boats. The general arrangement of propulsion machinery was identical to that of V-5 and V-6, but even with a surface displacement of only 41 in 6 in (12.65 m)1,718 tons, Dolphin′s scaled-down main engines—rated at 1750 hp each—could only just deliver the surface speed of the larger ships, and her endurance and torpedo load-out were much reduced. Interestingly, however, Dolphins size and weight were very nearly ideal for the range and duration of the war-patrols that became customary in the Pacific during World War II, and indeed, the war-time GatoGato class submarine
The United States Navy Gato class submarine formed the core of the submarine service that was largely responsible for the destruction of the Japanese merchant marine and a large portion of the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II...
, Balao
Balao class submarine
The Balao class was a successful design of United States Navy submarine used during World War II, and with 122 units built, the largest class of submarines in the United States Navy. An improvement on the earlier Gato class, the boats had slight internal differences...
, and Tench
Tench class submarine
Tench-class submarines were a type of submarine built for the United States Navy between 1944 and 1951. They were an evolutionary improvement over the Gato and Balao classes, only about 35 to 40 tons larger, but more strongly built and with a slightly improved internal layout...
classes had similar dimensions.
Early in the war, Dolphin herself made three patrols from Pearl Harbor without notable distinction, and her deteriorating material condition soon led to restricting her to training duties, first in Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
, and then in New London, Connecticut
New London, Connecticut
New London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States.It is located at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, southeastern Connecticut....
, for the duration of the war. She was decommissioned in October 1945 and sold for scrapping a year later.
V-8 and V-9—Cachalot and Cuttlefish
Even before V-5 and V-6 had been completed and V-7 laid down, submarine officer opinion had begun to shift in favor of smaller boats similar to Germany's 1,200-ton design from World War I. Then, when the London Naval TreatyLondon Naval Treaty
The London Naval Treaty was an agreement between the United Kingdom, the Empire of Japan, France, Italy and the United States, signed on April 22, 1930, which regulated submarine warfare and limited naval shipbuilding. Ratifications were exchanged in London on October 27, 1930, and the treaty went...
of 1930 for the first time imposed international limits on total submarine tonnage, the incentive to build smaller ships became especially compelling. (The restrictions of the London Naval Treaty were a factor in the disposal in 1930 of T-1, T-2, and T-3, which had been laid up for nearly a decade. By special agreement, Argonaut, Narwhal, and Nautilus were exempted from the treaty limitations.)
The result was the two smallest V-boats, Cachalot (originally V-8) and Cuttlefish (originally V-9), funded in fiscal year 1932. At 271 ft (82.6 m) overall and only 1130 LT (1,148.1 t) surface displacement, Cachalot and Cuttlefish were even smaller than the T-boats of 15 years earlier. The engineering plant consisted of two innovative, compact Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg (MAN)-designed main diesels, supposedly capable of delivering 1535 hp each, plus a single diesel generator rated at 440 hp. Although the boats approached 17 kn (20.7 mph; 33.3 km/h) on trials, the new MAN engines failed repeatedly from excessive vibration and were replaced in 1938 by General Motors diesels with reduction gearing.
Perhaps of most interest was the Navy's assignment of Cuttlefish to the Electric Boat Company, the first submarine award to a private yard since the last of the S-class in 1921. Accordingly, Cuttlefish differed from her Portsmouth-built sister, Cachalot, in many respects, including more spacious internal arrangements, the first installation of air conditioning on a U.S. submarine, and the first partial use of welding (vice riveting) in hull fabrication. Moreover, Cachalot and Cuttlefish served as the first test beds for the Mark I Torpedo Data Computer
Torpedo Data Computer
The Torpedo Data Computer was an early electromechanical analog computer used for torpedo fire-control on American submarines during World War II . Britain, Germany, and Japan also developed automated torpedo fire control equipment, but none were as advanced as US Navy's TDC...
that revolutionized underwater fire control in the mid-1930s.
Unfortunately, because small size severely limited their speed, endurance, and weapons load, neither boat was successful under the conditions of the Pacific war. Each did three scoreless war patrols in the central and western Pacific, and Cachalot did one in Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
n waters, but by late 1942, it was clear both were out-classed and worn out, and they finished the war at New London as training ships. The two were decommissioned in October 1945 and broken up several years later.
Conclusion
By 21st century standards, the Navy's exploitation of the Congressional "fleet boat" authorization of 1916 to build five vastly different submarine designs in a series that ended only in 1934 may seem surprising or even disingenuous. However, as the only U.S. submarines built during an entire decade of shifting and often-contradictory operational concepts, the nine V-boats could hardly have been expected to be homogeneous. But the relative freedom that the Navy was granted to try so many novel submarine approaches in so few years may only have been matched subsequently in the initial era of the nuclear-propulsion program. Except for Narwhal and Nautilus—and these for unexpected reasons—none of the V-boats achieved significant success either in peacetime or under combat conditions in World War II. But the willingness to experiment—or perhaps it was only shooting in the dark—that produced the V-boats in all their interesting variety paid off handsomely in a host of lessons-learned that were quickly applied to the subsequent succession of true "fleet boat" designs—thePorpoise
United States Porpoise class submarine
The Porpoise class were submarines built for the United States Navy in the late 1930s, and incorporated a number of modern features that would make them the basis for subsequent classes such as the Salmon, Tambor, Gato, Balao, and Tench classes...
, Salmon
Salmon class submarine
The United States Navy Salmon-class submarines were an important developmental step in the design of the "Fleet Submarine" concept during the 1930's...
, Sargo
Sargo class submarine
The Sargo-class submarines were the first US submarines to be sent into action after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, starting war patrols the day after the attack...
, Tambor
Tambor class submarine
The Tambor class submarine was a United States Navy submarine design, used primarily during World War II. It was the USN's first practical fleet submarine and formed the core of the United States Pacific submarine fleet at the time of the US entry into World War II.-Design history:Early U.S...
, and Gato
Gato class submarine
The United States Navy Gato class submarine formed the core of the submarine service that was largely responsible for the destruction of the Japanese merchant marine and a large portion of the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II...
classes.
Ships
In 1920, the Navy adopted a numbering scheme that distinguished between coastal and general purpose boats, designated "SS"; and fleet boats, designated "SF." Accordingly, T-1 through T-3 were originally designated SF-1 through SF-3, and V-1 through V-9 were designated SF-4 through SF-12. V-4 was also designated SM-1 at one time, indicative of her mine-laying role.- V-1 (SF-4):
- V-2 (SF-5):
- V-3 (SF-6):
- V-4 (SF-7/SM-1):
- V-5 (SF-8/SC-1):
- V-6 (SF-9/SC-2):
- V-7 (SF-10/SC-3):
- V-8 (SF-11/SC-4):
- V-9 (SF-12/SC-5):