USS ''C-3'' (SS-14) was one of five
C-class submarines 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.
Description
The C-class submarines were enlarged versions of the preceding
B class, the first American submarines with two
propeller shaft
A drive shaft, driveshaft, driving shaft, tailshaft (Australian English), propeller shaft (prop shaft), or Cardan shaft (after Girolamo Cardano) is a component for transmitting mechanical power and torque and rotation, usually used to connect ...
s. They had a length of
overall, a
beam of and a mean
draft of . They
displaced on the surface and submerged. The C-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 Craig
gasoline engine
A petrol engine (gasoline engine in American English) is an internal combustion engine designed to run on petrol (gasoline). Petrol engines can often be adapted to also run on fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas and ethanol blends (such as '' ...
s, each driving one propeller shaft. When submerged each propeller was driven by a
electric motor
An electric motor is an 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 wire winding to generate forc ...
. 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 two 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 abo ...
s in the bow. They carried two reloads, for a total of four torpedoes.[Gardiner & Gray, p. 127]
Construction and career
''C-3'' was laid down by Fore River Shipbuilding 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 Metropolitan Boston as one of Boston's immediate southern suburbs. Its population in 2020 was 101,636, making ...
, under a subcontract from Electric Boat Company, as ''Tarpon''. She was launched on 8 April 1909 as ''Tarpon'' sponsored by Katherine E. Theiss, and commissioned on 23 November 1909.Pigboats
(Retrieved 27 February 2018) She was renamed ''C-3'' on 17 November 1911. The boat cruised along the east coast with the
Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...
Torpedo Fleet and the Atlantic Submarine Flotilla through the early 1913, operating in tests and exercises. From May to December 1913, she was based at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and on 12 December reported at
Cristóbal,
Panama Canal Zone
The Panama Canal Zone ( es, Zona del Canal de Panamá), also simply known as the Canal Zone, was an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the Isthmus of Panama, that existed from 1903 to 1979. It was located within the terr ...
. Her operations included exploration of anchorages, tactical drills, and harbor defense patrol at Canal Zone ports. In the summer of 1918, she patrolled off
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...
, then returned to
Panama
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...
nian waters. ''C-3'' was placed in ordinary at
Coco Solo, Canal Zone, on 22 August 1919, decommissioned there on 23 December 1919, and sold on 12 April 1920.
Notes
References
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:C-3 (SS-14)
United States C-class submarines
World War I submarines of the United States
Ships built in Quincy, Massachusetts
1909 ships