United States S class submarine
S-class submarine S-44
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | S class |
| Builders: | |
| Operators: | |
| Preceded by: | R class |
| Succeeded by: | V-boats |
| Subclasses: | Holland, Lake, Navy Yard, 2nd Holland, 2nd Navy Yard |
| Built: | 1918–1925 |
| In commission: | 1920–1946 |
| Planned: | 65 |
| Completed: | 51 |
| Cancelled: | 14 |
| Lost: | 9 |
| Retired: | 42 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Submarine |
| Displacement: | At most 906 tons surfaced, 1230 Submerged |
| Length: | 219–240 ft (67–73 m) (S-2 207 ft (63 m)) |
| Beam: | 21–22 ft (6.4–6.7 m) |
| Draft: | 13 ft 1 in–16 ft 1 in (3.99–4.9 m) |
| Speed: | 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)-15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph) surfaced |
| Range: | 5,000 nmi (9,300 km; 5,800 mi) at 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph) surfaced |
| Test depth: | 200 ft (61 m) |
| Complement: | 38 |
| Armament: |
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The United States' S-class submarines, often simply called S-boats (sometimes "Sugar" boats, after the then contemporary Navy phonetic alphabet for "S"), were the first class of submarines with a significant number built to United States Navy designs. Others of this class were built to contractor designs.
The United States Navy commissioned 51 S-class submarines from 1920 to 1925. The first S-boat, USS S-1 (SS-105), was commissioned in 1920 and the last numerically, USS S-51 (SS-162), in 1922. The last of the class actually commissioned was USS S-47 (SS-158) in 1925. The S class is subdivided into four groups of different designs:
S-2 was a prototype built by Lake, and was not repeated.
S-1, S-2, and S-3 were prototypes built to the same specification: S-1 designed by Electric Boat, S-2 by Lake, and S-3 by the Bureau of Construction and Repair (BuC&R) (later Bureau of Ships). The S-2 Lake boat was considered inferior. The Electric Boat and BuC&R designs were put into production as Group I and Group II.
SS-159 to SS-168 (2nd Holland) and SS-173 to SS-176 (2nd Navy Yard) were cancelled and, contrary to later practice, the hull numbers were used for subsequent submarines. Some of the material for these was used by Electric Boat to build the Peruvian Navy's four R-boats.
The first S-boat, S-1, was launched on 26 September 1918, by Bethlehem at Fore River, but not commissioned until 5 June 1920.
There were three distinctly different prototypes for the S-boats. The Electric Boat (EB) design formed the basis for the Group I and Group IV boats and were essentially enlarged versions of all their previous designs. A single hull design, all of the ballast tanks were contained within the pressure hull. The hull was a rounded spindle shape and the rudder was placed at the very end of the hull, aft of the twin screws. Compared to the previous R-boats, Group I S-boats were 33 feet (10.1 m) longer, with 3 feet 3 inches (1.0 m) more beam, 2 feet 3 inches (0.7 m) more draft, and 60% greater displacement. This allowed for greater range, larger engines and higher speed, and more torpedo reloads, though the number of forward torpedo tubes was unchanged.
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