G-1 SS-19

 

 

 

G-1

(SS-19: dp. 400 (n.); 1. 161'; b. 13'1", dr. 12'2", s.
14 k.; cpl. 24; a. 6 18" tt.; cl. G-1)

G-1 was laid down as Sea 2 February 1909 by the Newport News Shipbuilding Co., Newport News, VA., under a subcontract from Lake Torpedo Boat Co., launched 9 February 1911; sponsored by Miss Margaret. Lake, daughter of the submarine pioneer; renamed G-1 on 17 November 1911, and commissioned in the New York Navy Yard 28 October 1912, Lt. K. Whiting~ in command.

G-1, Simon Lake's first submarine for the United States Navy, introduced the even keel submarine into the United States Navy, being the forerunner of the Lake designs that influenced United States Navy submarines into the atomic and hydrodynamic era.

G-1 joined the Atlantic Torpedo Flotilla in practice operations that were usually conducted from New York and Newport into Long Island Sound and the Narragansett Bay. She made a record dive of 256 feet in Long Island Sound and departed New York 25 March 1916 for a cruise with the 3d Division of the Submarine Flotilla into Chesapeake Bay and down the seaboard to the Charleston Navy Yard, where she completed overhaul 5 May. She departed the following day to act as school ship at Newport where she carried out in harbor defense and patrol problems along with practice on the torpedo range. This duty continued until 3 October 1915 when she set course with the Flotilla for practice attacks in the Chesapeake Bay, thence via Newport to New London, Conn.

Gl arrived at the last named port 18 October 1915 in company with three other O-class submarines, tended by monitor Ozark. This marked the beginning of her career as a submarine designated for experimental tests and instructional purposes. She acted as a schoolship for the newly established Submarine Base and Submarine School at New London, playing an important role in preparing officers and men of the expanded submarine service occasioned by the new construction after our entry into World War I. Concurrently, G-1 tested detector
devices for the Experiment Board in. Provincetown, and served in similar capacity for the Experimental Stations at Nahant, Mass., and New London in the development and use of sound detection and experiments with the "K tube," a communications device- With German U-boats reported off the coast in June 1918, the submarine spent two four-day periscope and listening patrols in the vicinity of Nantucket as a defense screen for shipping. She continued her instructions of student submariners of the Listener and Hydrophone School at New London until 13 January 1920, than was towed to the Philadelphia Navy Yard, where she decommissioned on 6 March 1920.

G-1 was designated a target for depth charge experiments under cognizance of the Bureau of Ordnance. She was sunk 21 June 1921, following eight experimental bomb attacks administered by Grebe in Narragansett Bay off Taylor's Point, R.I. Her wreck was officially abandoned 26 August 1921.