us navy submarine history

8/14/2019 US Navy Submarine History

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A Concise History of US Navy Submarine Design

1900: First "Real" US Navy

Submarine - Holland

With all due respect to the "submerging"iron-clads and other predecessors, what hasbecome known as the "fleet submarine" didn'treally have anything in common with designsdeveloped prior to about 1870.Out-performing designs by serious American andEuropean competitors in a long and demandingengineering battle in the late 1800's, immigrant

John Holland eventually sold the U.S. Navy theHolland VI for $150,000. The Navy subsequentlyordered 6 more improved versions at $170,000each from the holding company Holland wasindebted to for financing his development. ElectricBoat Company, primarily under the control of aman named Rice, who owned the patent on thebatteries (chloride accumulator) used for underwater propulsion, was to be the builder of the majority of U.S. submarines in the future.

Holland VI - USS Holland

The Holland VI or "Adder" used the recently patentedBrayton petrol-fueled (gasoline) internal combustion engineand had one torpedo tube forward. Many of the USSHolland's features carried forward into contemporary WW-Iboats: Engine/generator powerplants, battery/motor submerged operation, diving planes, and torpedo armament.Barely buoyant, USS Holland and subsequent Adder -classboats used mainly dynamic pressure on planes to submerge.

Hollands Biggest Competitor

Through the influence of money, Simon Lakeemerged as Holland's only real competitor through to WW-II.Lakes designs often featured wheels for runningon the bottom, and centrally-located diving planesto permit level submergence, something heconsidered very important for safety reasons.These complicated and sometimes clumsydesigns often caused him to lose sales to other nations as well as the USA.

Lake's Protector

Lake's Protector was not finished in time for Navy Boardtests. His only competitive offering, 'Argonaut' failed tomaintain depth and maneuver underwater. His importantcontributions included the separate conning tower andperiscope for submerged navigation. Fifty tons heavier thanHolland's 'Adder', Lake's 177-ton double-hulled boat alsoused flooding tanks for diving. He did sell some Protectors

to Russia.

1908-1918: Into WW-I

Lakes designs continued to fail, some say due tohis chronic under-funding. He frequently peddledhis drawings before heads of European state,including Russians, and occasionally got enoughto experiment. Most failed and in particular, failedto meet entrance criteria for US Navy contract

D-3 Salmon

During World War I, with the building of D-class boats, likethe D-3 Salmon, hull-strength bulkeads separating the boat

into water-tight compartments were introduced. Because the

avy Submarine History file:///D:/ngenet/22%20mei%2008/naw/us-sub

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trials during the early 1900's.Electric Boat kept an eye on his developments,though and several unpatented last ing featureslike flooding tanks, the conning tower, dualperiscopes and both electric and engine drivendrive shafts made it into A- B- and C-class boatsin the period.

rudder and stern planes were controlled by rods carriedoverhead inside the hull, the ships wheel had to besuspended on a yoke from above.

Lake Finally Succeeds

After many failures, and after watching many of his ideas appear in the E- and F- class ElectricBoat designs, Lake finally succumbed to moreconventional thinking. He actually sold severaldesigns to Russia as their Kaiman class, onenamed the Alligator . His first US Navy accepted

design was the G-1Electric Boat also sold boats to foreign navies,most notably Russia and Canada.

E-2

1916: Laurenti

Lake finally went bankrupt after failing to deliver completed boats on time and losing contracts tovarious ersatz buyers. His company was pickedup by Italian naval constructor Laurenti, however,and he was able to deliver G-4, the Navy's lastgasoline-powered submarine. She was deliveredvery late, and was quite obsolete. She rolledexcessively, needed a bigger rudder, but wasliked in 1916 despite these shortcomings.

G-4

Through the War

Lake (Laurenti) and Electric Boat and ElectricBoat's Portsmouth yards continued to improve,experiment and build boats for a number of countries, including Norway, Netherlands, andeven Austria. These carried through in to the USNavy's H- K- L- M- and N-classes. It was quite amix of builders - for instance, Lake built N-5 after EB's series starting with N-2.

Lake built an increasing number of boats under specifications of the Navy Bureau of Engineering(BuEng), although he steadfastedly held to someof his strange ideas, such as amid-ships planes.

O-12

Lake's O-12 had dual planes, one set in the engine roomone in the forward part of the control room. He also madeuse of a watertight superstructure that could be flooded ondemand for quicker diving.

Search for the Fleet

Submarine

BuEng and the Navy wanted a boat that could

R-2 (Length 186 ft, 680 tons, 13 knots)


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keep up with a battleship. That meant themaximum 17-knot offerings of the day werelacking by at lease 4 knots. If a boat couldn't stayin front of a task group, the tactics of battleship-based forces would be severelyhampered. Up to now, boats had had only twoengines. With the demise of the O-class, gasolinepower was out, diesel was in. A series of 2- 3-

and 4-engine boats ensued. Two large engineswere clutched to the shafts on the surface withtwo smaller engines driving generators for electrical power and charging batteries for submerged propulsion. These were the R- S- T-and V-classes. The engine room was gettingcrowded, power plants were increasinglyunreliable, but hulls were successful and speedscrept up to the needed 21 knots.Redesigned several times, R- and the little faster 14-knot S-boats received radar sets, air conditioning (actually dehumidifiers, to protect thenew electronics) and gradually more space for the larger crews. They took submarines into thesea, away from coastal limitations.Lake was allowed to go out of business. ElectricBoat became sole supplier. Similar in size andperformance to German Type VII U-Boats,S-boats were still too slow, 11 to 14 knots tops,depending on configuration. Three T-class boatsmanaged 20 knots, but power plants were stillcantankerous. Something more was needed.

S-35 (Length 219 ft, 1,062 tons, 14.5 knots)

T-2 (Length 268 ft, 1,482 tons, 20 knots)

We Learn From the Germans

Between the wars a curious thing happend. Tohelp raise money for reparations in Germany,some of their U-boats came to the U.S. to tour and raise money through admission fees. Itworked. It also allowed key Electric Boat, Navyand BuEng folks to study them. It was scary...the Germans were way ahead of U.S. and Britishsubmarine technology.U-boats had larger rudders so could turn moresharply, had higher surface and submergedspeeds, more reliable power plants, better electical systems,... it went on and on. Theycould dive in under 40 seconds, due to advances

in ballast tank flood and vent design.All the while, with typical bureaucraticmomentum, the U.S. was building larger, morelethargic craft in search of ocean-crossing fleetcapabilities.

V-7

Based on knowledge gained from the touring GermanU-166, the V-class models were eventually designed inseveral varieties, ranging from small 800-ton coastaldefense boats to 1,000-ton minelayers, and also had varioustypes of deck armaments. They also experimented withdifferent powerplant arrangements, from 2 to 4 engines of various sizes, in a single engine room. A real barrel-shapped

conning tower was employed.

Gato-Class Wins WWII

1941 - Suddenly, war in the Pacific was a reality.The need for a long range, ocean-going fleet

Gato/Balao Fleet Boat (Length 311 ft, 2,200 tons, 21 knots)


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boat capability now clearly exceeded anyconsiderations for coastal defense andminelaying. But it took a while for the U.S.industrial might to ramp up production of the newhulls. Eventually, though new boats were comingoff the ways at the rate of one a week .A flurry of boats based on this excellent designbuilt in 1942 and 1943 undisputably won the war

in the Pacific. Employing many of the mostrewarding V-boat technologies, Gatos accountedfor more than half the total Japanese tonnagesunk in the war, overcoming many obstacles suchas faulty torpedoes, hot working conditions, andoften extemely competent Japanese destroyer commanders. Had torpedo problems beenacknowledged earlier and solved quickly,Japanese maritime shipping would have beenwiped out completely by 1943.Later in 1942, hull thickness was increased from9/16-inch to 7/8-inch and a re-engineered trimpump was employed for superior depth chargeresistance and 400-foot operating capability.Otherwise indistinguishable from the Gato, Balao

was the first of the new deeper diving fleet class,later superceded by the similar Tench class.

The Gato-class, with its dual enginerooms, large fuel

capacity, 10 torpedo tubes, deeper diving (300 feet) andfleet surface speed of 21 knots, finally made the grade. Its10,000 mile range and 75-day patrol duration capabilitiessatisfied the needs of its day. Later Balao-class boats hadeven thicker hulls for operating depths to 400 feet.

What is a GUPPY submarine?

1947-49 - With the speeds of surface ships increasing with each new class, the Navy Department was always playingcatch-up in submarine development. In order to speed up surface and submerged speeds of Balao class submarineslike CUBERA, several important modifications were made. GUPPY-I boats typically got only a snorkel and deckstreamlining for about $500,000. GUPPY-II modifications cost several million, due largely to the expensive newbatteries and drive system modifications. Which boats got which modifications was largely determined by fiscal budget

allocations. CUBERA got the first of 24 GUPPY-II conversions:

Decks were streamlined by removing "standing rigging" (deck guns, bridgeclutter, life lines, stanchions and other protrusions), and the bow wasreshaped. A new fast-draining superstructure without limber holes wasinstalled. Sonar gear was upgraded to the new BQR-2B and transducersmoved to a streamlined "chin" dome. Topside streamlining yielded a 5%decrease in underwater resistance.

1.

The conning tower compartment, bridge and periscope shears and other mast supports as well as the snorkel and main air induction were coveredwith a smoothly fared one-piece "sail" made of welded aluminum, yieldinganother 10% speed increase.

2.


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Battery capacity was increased from 256 to 504 specially designed GUPPYcells by extending the both battery wells towards the control room. The newcells provided higher motor currents at the expense of 50% in battery life.

3.

Snorkels were installed to permit battery charging while submerged.Consisting of two masts, one for air intake with a valve to prevent water ingestion and the other to vent engine exhaust as a froth of small bubbles,the snorkel system operated at about 54 feet keel depth.

4.

Higher capacity electric motors allowed operation of both halves of the

double motor windings while submerged as well as on the surface.

5.

Faster, more powerful hydraulic controls for operating the bow and sterndiving planes were installed.

6.

Air conditioning capacity was increased to help cool the batteries whilecharging.

7.

(GUPPY inboard profile -- 205KB)

(GUPPY inboard plan -- 156KB)

Rik Nilsson | [email protected] [email protected]


us navy submarine history

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