A VISUAL GUIDE TO THE S-CLASS SUBMARINES

1918-1945
PART 2: THE GOVERNMENT BOATS
(2nd Edition, June 2011)

BY

DAVID L. JOHNSTON
 2010/2011

Of the three S-boat prototypes, Electric Boat’s S-1 and the Government’s (sometimes
called the Bureau design, for the Bureau of Construction and Repair) S-3 were picked for
series production. The Navy strongly desired an in-house design and construction
capability, thus the S-3, while less than perfect, was satisfactory enough to warrant follow
on boats. The first group consisted of S-4 through S-9 and they were all built by the
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine. They were near copies of the S-3
prototype.

Milne Special Collections via Ric Hedman

This is an excellent shot of the ill-fated S-5, probably while on trials in early 1920. Unlike
the prototype S-3, all of the follow-on boats were built with the gun mount foundation
already installed and the deck sponsons flared out around the mount, although several
boats did not actually have the gun installed until after commissioning. The cage structure
on her forward deck protected the three conical rubber diaphragm “rats” of her Y-tube
sonar. Sonar installations varied considerably over the lifetime of the boats. Note in the
later S-7 photo below that she lacks the Y-tube rats, which have probably been replaced
by linear arrays of the MV sonar, located in sausage-like bulges on either side of the bow,
below the waterline.

National Archives via Navsource

In an effort to preserve surface buoyancy, the Government design split the main ballast
tanks into upper and lower sections, each with their own vents and flood ports. This had
the unfortunate side effect of making the Government design very slow divers. The upper
tanks would not begin
to flood until the boat
National Archives via Daniel Dunham & Navsource
had settled enough to
submerge the upper
flood ports (shown here
on S-3). The later boats
had additional upper
flood ports added, but
this only resulted in a
minor decrease in dive
times. The Government
boats were rated at 100
seconds from fully
surfaced to periscope
depth, as compared to
the EB boats at 75
seconds. In an apparent
attempt to further
alleviate this problem,
S-8 and S-9 were
modified during construction, moving the bow planes to below the water line and making
them fixed in place and non-retractable. An angle iron guard was built around the planes
to prevent them from being damaged by tugs or by contact with the pier. Compare the
photo below of S-8 with the one above of S-7 and the absence of the bow plane slit just
aft of the anchor becomes apparent.

Milne Special Collections via Ric Hedman

This photo of the aft

end of S-8 gives a
Milne Special Collections via Ric Hedman
good view of the
characteristic
vertical “chisel”
stern of this group.
You can also see
the fairly unique
arrangement of the
stern diving planes:
one large plate
suspended on its
own pivot posts
above the rudder.

The second group

consisted of S-10
through S-13. They
were also to have
been direct follow-ons of the Government S-3 design (although with the S-8 bow plane
modification). However, studies of captured German submarines had left the Bureau
designers very impressed with the tactical advantage afforded by the U-boat’s stern
torpedo tubes.
 Courtesy Ric Hedman

Accordingly, S-10 through 13 were redesigned during construction with a single 21 inch
tube, with the breech letting into the large motor room that this design already had.
This also necessitated extensive modifications to the tiller room at the very stern, a
separate watertight compartment that housed the rudder operating gear. The tube greatly
altered the characteristic chisel stern and from the right angle made this group easy to
spot.

U.S. Navy via Navsource

As stated, these four boats all had the S-8 bow plane modification and this launch day
photo of S-10 below gives a good shot of the plane and guard arrangement.

Naval Historical Center via Navsource

To keep the plane from being damaged during the stresses of launch, a wooden beam and
two blocks have been temporarily installed under the plane guard, bracing the plane and
holding it in place. This brace would be removed after launch. This next photo of S-10
gives a good shot of the stern plane and rudder arrangement of the Government type. You
can also see how the stern
was rearranged to
accommodate the stern
torpedo tube for the S-10
group.

Electric Boat had been

strongly criticized for the
poor performance of the
diesel engines made by
their subsidiary the New
London Ship & Engine
Company (NELSECO).
These engines were

National Archives via Daniel Dunham & Navsource

license built derivations of the German Maschinenfabrik-Augsberg-Nurnberg (MAN)
company designs. Inferior American metallurgy and manufacturing processes of the time
made these copies less than perfect. They suffered from excessive torsional vibrations
that frequently broke crankshafts. Unfortunately, at the time the NELSECO engines were
the only ones that would provide the necessary horsepower in a package small enough
and light enough to fit into a submarine hull. The Bureau was forced to purchase the
NELSECO designs and built engines directly from NELSECO plans at navy yards. These
engines were installed in the S-4 group boats and accordingly they battled engine
problems throughout their career. However, the S-10 group was engined with a MAN
design that was built directly by the New York Navy Yard, eliminating the NELSECO
middleman. These engines, while still not perfect, were tremendous improvements and
were considered to be quite reliable.

Simon Lake’s S-2 was the last of his in-house designs to be purchased by the Navy. Due
to its numerous flaws and Lake’s lack of large-scale production capacity, he was not
awarded a large contract for S-2 follow-ons. However, the Navy had a keen interest in
maintaining a commercial competitor to EB and offered a contract to Lake to build copies
of its own Bureau design. Lake, his pride stinging a little from the rejection of S-2, took
the contract and built S-14 through S-17 at his Bridgeport, CT. yard. These boats were
straight copies of the S-4 group, without the S-10 stern tube and reverting to the above
water retractable bow planes.

U.S. Navy via Navsource

The only major difference from the original group is not apparent externally. In a timely
development, Simon Lake chose engines built by the Busch-Sulzer subsidiary of the
famous Busch Brewing Company. These 4-cycle engines, although considered to be
underpowered, were well liked and quite reliable, making the S-14 to 17 the most
successful of the Government boats.

National Archives via Daniel Dunham & Navsource

This is a good view of S-

14’s conning tower
National Archives via Daniel fairwater. Both of her
Dunham& Navsource
control room periscopes
are visible, along with
the large telescoping
radio aerial mast just aft
of the scopes. Just below
the bridge and to the
right of the Sailor in the
black shirt are the
circular deadlight
windows for the conning
tower itself. A short 10
½ foot periscope was
installed here, and there
was a steering station
(via electric switches,
not the traditional wheel). A tubular framework for a canvas awning is installed on the
bridge rail.
These four boats, along with the S-11, 12, 13 and 48 were the only Government boats to
serve all the way through World War II, the rest having been discarded in the 1930’s to
meet treaty requirements. Refitted during the war, these boats received more powerful
MAN diesels (which required larger mufflers, necessitating raising the after deck to
accommodate them), rescue/marker buoys, and the removal of the ready service ammo
locker on the forward edge of the conning tower fairwater.

The last of the Government design S-boats was the S-48 through 51 group. These four
boats were also built by Lake and proved to be the last submarines the Lake Torpedo
Boat Company would build for the Navy. The S-48 group design was a derivative of the
S-10, but was the most altered of all the Government S-boat groups.

Courtesy Rick Hedman

These boats reverted to the below water, fixed bow planes with guards as seen on the S-8
through S-13. They also had a different arrangement for the stern planes and rudder, a
design that would presage the arrangement on the later Fleet Boats. They were powered
by a heavier, 2-cycle version of the Busch-Sulzer diesel.

Lengthened by 9 feet, they separated the single large Maneuvering/Aft Torpedo Room of
the S-10 group into two separate spaces, with the electrical controls for the main motors
divided from the torpedo room by a bulkhead. Instead of the S-10 style finely tapered
stern faired around the muzzle end of the tube, the S-3 style chisel stern returned, with the
torpedo tube jutting through the center of the chisel.
 U.S. Navy via Ric Hedman

The above photo of a damaged S-48 shows her in drydock with the starboard shaft and
stern diving plane removed, but this gives a good view of this design’s arrangement of
the aft torpedo tube.

Jim Christley via Navsource

The conning tower
fairwater incorporated
several changes. The
former ammunition U.S. Navy photo courtesy Scott Koen via
storage locker was Navsource
replaced with a full gun
access trunk. With an
opening into the control
room, the trunk allowed
direct access to the deck
gun from below. The
conning tower itself was
slightly taller and had
fewer deadlight
windows. The trailing
edge of the fairwater was
more vertical and not
tapered as much as the
earlier boats. This photo
of S-50’s fairwater
clearly shows all three
periscopes, the bridge
searchlight, and the
braces for the fore to aft
radio aerial wires.

By 1925 it was becoming apparent to the Navy Department that the far reaches of the
Pacific Ocean would be a prime operating area for our submarines. Unfortunately, the S-
boats lacked sufficient range to make adequate patrols in the Pacific. Several ideas were
bandied about, including the construction of a submarine tanker to refuel S-boats during
patrol. However, it was feared that the loss of the tanker sub would seriously hamper
operations of the attack boats. The scheme that was decided on was a complete rebuilding
of the Government design S-boats (the EB single hull boats were not capable of being
heavily modified). This plan called for lengthening the boats by 26 feet, adding a stern
tube to the boats that didn’t have them, re-engining the boats that didn’t already have
MAN engines, and a complete redesign and rebuild of the interior. Initially, this plan
seemed like a real bargain, as it would cost about a quarter of what a brand new design
1250 ton boat would cost.

S-48 ran aground in January 1925 and was heavily damaged. She was quickly salvaged,
but it was decided to take her in hand and make her the prototype for the General Board’s
modification scheme. She was lengthened by 25 ft. 6 in., new MAN engines were
installed, and she was completely rebuilt internally. The most significant internal change
was the splitting of the main battery. Previously, the Government design had the battery
all in one large compartment forward of the Control Room. The S-48 rebuild split the
battery into two compartments, forward and aft of the Control Room, with the crew’s and
officer/chief’s berthing split as well. Additional buoyancy tanks were added and she
received one of the first air conditioning plants installed in submarines. In this
configuration, she was a precursor to the later Fleet Boats.

U.S. Navy via Ric Hedman

All these modifications, while generally successful, failed to correct the basic
deficiencies of the design. The cost of the modifications had spiraled upward, reducing
the economic advantages versus a new design, and when compared to the estimated
remaining life span for the boats (2-5 years), it was becoming rapidly apparent that the
program wasn’t going to work. The Submarine Officers Conference of 1927 successfully
argued against any further modifications of the S-boats and pushed for a new
construction program, which would eventually become the Fleet Boats. The S-48 served
well through the end of World War II (although with two periods in decommissioned
reserve), providing training services to submarine crews and ASW forces. S-11 through
17 also served during the war, making patrols in the Caribbean.

S-4 was sunk in a collision with a Coast Guard cutter in 1927. After a dramatic but
ultimately futile attempt to rescue six survivors in the torpedo room, she was
subsequently raised, partially reconditioned, and put back into limited service as a test
boat to develop new salvage techniques. Towed to various fleet locations she provided
valuable training in submarine salvage techniques and trained numerous submariners in
escape procedures from an escape trunk installed on her deck above the engine room.

U.S. Navy via Navsource

 This photo shows S-4 at the
Courtesy Ric Hedman
end of her life as a test boat,
shortly before she was
discarded and scuttled in
May 1936. Years of salvage
and escape testing had taken
their toll and S-4 was in bad
shape. The large cylinder on
her aft deck was the
experimental escape
chamber.

S-5 was lost in a diving

accident and was not
recovered, although her
entire crew was rescued in a
dramatic fashion by raising
her stern above water and
cutting a hole in the
pressure hull in the tiller
room. S-51 sank in 1925
after a collision with a
steamer. She was salvaged,
but never repaired or re-
commissioned and was
eventually sold for scrap.
The remainder of the
Government design S-boats,
(S-3, S-6 through 10, and S-49 through 50) not as well liked by the Navy as the EB boats,
were discarded under the terms of the London Naval Treaty in the early 1930’s.

The S-49 clung to life after decommissioning. She was purchased by a civilian firm,
rendered incapable of diving, and used as an exhibition boat touring the Great Lakes and
many other U.S. ports, attracting scores of visitors. She was a featured attraction at the
1933 Chicago World’s Fair. In this guise, she had a large “C” painted on her bow, which
apparently designated her as
a Civilian vessel.
Courtesy Ric Hedman

Eventually reacquired by
the Navy, she was used as a
test hulk in experimental
work until she accidentally
foundered in the Patuxent
River, Maryland in 1942, no
lives were lost.
Final honors go to the USS S-15 (SS-120). She was the last operational Government
design S-boat, serving the Navy well until 11 June 1946, when she was finally
decommissioned and her name struck from the Navy register. This closed the book on an
elegant and iconic, albeit flawed chapter in our submarine history.

John Hummel via Navsource

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This article would not have been possible without the photographs collected and
published by Michael Mohl at Navsource.org and Ric Hedman at Pigboats.com. Ric and
the eminent historian Jim Christley also provided valuable editorial advice. I would also
like to offer my personal thanks to the late Rear Admiral Edward Ellsberg, whose 1929
book On The Bottom inspired me as a kid.

REFERENCES

U.S. Submarines through 1945: An Illustrated Design History, Norman Friedman, Naval
Institute Press, 1995
The American Submarine: 2nd Edition, Norman Polmar, The Nautical & Aviation
Publishing Company of America, 1983

The Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, DANFS Online via Hazegray.org