USS ''L-4'' (SS-43) was an L-class submarine of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

Description

The L-class boats designed by

Electric Boat An electric boat is a powered watercraft driven by electric motors, which are powered by either on-board battery packs, solar panels or generators. While a significant majority of water vessels are powered by diesel engines, with sail pow ...

(''L-1'' to ''L-4'' and ''L-9'' to ''L-11'') were built to slightly different specifications from the other L boats, which were designed by Lake Torpedo Boat, and are sometimes considered a separate class. The Electric Boat submarines had a length of overall, a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

of and a mean draft of . They displaced on the surface and submerged. The L-class submarines had a crew of 28 officers and enlisted men. They had a diving depth of .Friedman, p. 307 For surface running, the Electric Boat submarines were powered by two

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-call ...

s, each driving one propeller shaft. When submerged each propeller was driven by a

electric motor An electric motor is an Electric machine, electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a Electromagneti ...

. They could reach on the surface and underwater. On the surface, the boats had a range of at and at submerged.Gardiner & Gray, p. 129 The boats were armed with four 18-inch (450 mm)

torpedo tube A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...

s in the bow. They carried four reloads, for a total of eight torpedoes. The Electric Boat submarines were initially not fitted with a deck gun; a single

3"/50 caliber gun The 3"/50 caliber gun (spoken "three-inch fifty-caliber") in United States naval gun terminology indicates the gun fired a projectile in diameter, and the barrel was 50 calibers long (barrel length is 3 in × 50 = ). Different guns (identifi ...

on a disappearing mount was added during the war.

Construction and career

''L-4''s

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...

was laid down on 23 March 1914 by

Fore River Shipbuilding Fore River Shipyard was a shipyard owned by General Dynamics Corporation located on Weymouth Fore River in Braintree and Quincy, Massachusetts. It began operations in 1883 in Braintree, and moved to its final location on Quincy Point in 1901. In ...

Company in

Quincy, Massachusetts Quincy ( ) is a coastal U.S. city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest city in the county and a part of Greater Boston, Metropolitan Boston as one of Boston's immediate southern suburbs. Its population in 2020 was 1 ...

. She was launched on 3 April 1915 sponsored by Mrs. Stephen A. Gardner, and commissioned on 4 May 1916 with Lieutenant (junior grade)

Lewis Hancock, Jr. USS ''Lewis Hancock'' (DD-675) was a ''Fletcher''-class destroyer of the United States Navy. Namesake Lewis Hancock Jr. was born on 15 October 1889 in Austin, Texas. He was appointed to the United States Naval Academy from that state in 1906 an ...

, in command.

Service history

Assigned to the Atlantic Submarine Flotilla, ''L-4'' operated along the Atlantic coast, assisting in the development of new techniques in undersea warfare until April 1917. Following the declaration of war on the

Central Powers The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,german: Mittelmächte; hu, Központi hatalmak; tr, İttifak Devletleri / ; bg, Централни сили, translit=Tsentralni sili was one of the two main coalitions that fought in ...

, the

dispatched submarines to

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an waters to protect the Allied shipping lanes. After a

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, overhaul, ''L-4'' departed

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, ...

, on 4 December and steamed for the

Azores ) , motto =( en, "Rather die free than subjected in peace") , anthem= ( en, "Anthem of the Azores") , image_map=Locator_map_of_Azores_in_EU.svg , map_alt=Location of the Azores within the European Union , map_caption=Location of the Azores wi ...

. She departed Ponta Delgada on 19 January 1918, arriving for patrol operations at Berehaven, Ireland, on 27 January. While on patrol during April, ''L-4'' twice encountered enemy

U-boat U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare role ...

s in British waters and chased them from the paths of friendly convoys. Based at Berehaven for the rest of the war, U.S. submarines protected Allied shipping from U-boat attacks. Following the Armistice with Germany, ''L-4'' departed the

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, on 3 January 1919 for the United States, arriving Philadelphia on 1 February. For the next two years, the submarine operated along the East Coast performing experiments developing the tactics of undersea warfare. ''L-4'' decommissioned at Philadelphia on 14 April 1922 and was sold to Pottstown Steel Company in Douglassville, Pennsylvania, on 31 July 1922 for scrapping.

Notes

References

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:L-04 (SS-43) United States L-class submarines World War I submarines of the United States Ships built in Quincy, Massachusetts 1915 ships