The United States D-class submarines were a trio of
submarine
A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...
s built for 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 ...
in the first decade of the 20th century. All three ships served during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
providing training for crews and officers on the US East Coast, before the class was decommissioned and sold for scrap in 1922.
Description
The D-class submarines were enlarged versions of the preceding
C class, the first American submarines armed with four
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. They were built by the
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 of
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 ...
, under a
subcontract
A subcontractor is an individual or (in many cases) a business that signs a contract to perform part or all of the obligations of another's contract.
Put simply the role of a subcontractor is to execute the job they are hired by the contractor f ...
from the
Electric Boat Company of
Groton, Connecticut
Groton is a town in New London County, Connecticut located on the Thames River. It is the home of General Dynamics Electric Boat, which is the major contractor for submarine work for the United States Navy. The Naval Submarine Base New London is ...
. They 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 D-class boats had a crew of 1 officer and 14 enlisted men. They had a diving depth of .
[Friedman, p. 306]
For surface running, they were powered by two
NELSECO
The New London Ship and Engine Company (NELSECO) was established in Groton, Connecticut as a subsidiary of the Electric Boat Company to manufacture diesel engines.
History
Electric Boat acquired a license to manufacture MAN diesels, probably in ...
gasoline engines, each driving one
propeller shaft.
[Gardiner and Gray, p. 127] When submerged each shaft 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 ...
. Two 60-
cell batteries
Battery most often refers to:
* Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power
* Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact
Battery may also refer to:
Energy source
*Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...
provided power when submerged. They could reach on the surface and underwater. On the surface, the boats had a range of at and at submerged.
[
The boats were armed with four 18-inch (45.7 cm) torpedo tubes in the bow. They did not carry reloads for them.][ They were the first US submarines to have four forward torpedo tubes which was standard until the ''Tambor'' class which joined the fleet in 1940.
These vessels included some features intended to increase underwater speed that were standard on US submarines of this era, including a small sail and a rotating cap over the torpedo tube muzzles. For extended surface runs, the small sail was augmented with a temporary piping-and-canvas structure. Apparently the "crash dive" concept had not yet been thought of, as this would take considerable time to deploy and dismantle. This remained standard through the L class, commissioned 1916-1917. 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. This feature remained standard through the K class, after which it was replaced with shutters that were standard through the 1950s.
]
Ships
* was laid down on 16 April 1908, launched on 8 April 1909 and was commissioned on 23 November 1909 as ''Narwhal''. Renamed ''D-1'' on 17 November 1911, the submarine was decommissioned on 8 February 1922 and sold afterwards.
* was laid down on 16 April 1908, launched on 16 June 1909 and was commissioned on 23 November 1909 as ''Grayling''. Renamed ''D-2'' on 17 November 1911, the submarine was decommissioned on 18 January 1922 and sold afterwards.
* was laid down on 16 April 1908, launched on 12 March 1910 and was commissioned on 8 September 1910 as ''Salmon''. Renamed ''D-3'' on 17 November 1911, the submarine was decommissioned on 20 March 1922 and sold afterwards.
Notes
References
*
*
* Silverstone, Paul H., ''U.S. Warships of World War I'' (Ian Allan, 1970), .
*
External links
Navsource.org early submarines page
{{DEFAULTSORT:D class submarine, United States
Submarine classes
D class