USS ''N-1'' (SS-53) was a N-class coastal defense

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

built for the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

during

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Description

The N-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 power ...

(''N-1'' through''N-3'') were built to slightly different specifications from the other N-class submarines, which were designed by

Lake Torpedo Boat The Lake Torpedo Boat Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut, was an early builder of submarines for the United States Navy in the early 20th century. History Founded by Simon Lake in 1912, the company was located at the east end of Seaview Avenue i ...

, and are sometimes considered a separate class. The Electric Boat submarines had a length of

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, a

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of and a mean

draft Draft, the draft, or draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a v ...

of . They displaced on the surface and submerged. The N-class submarines had a crew of 2 officers and 23 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 the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...

s, each driving one

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, torque, and rotation, usually used to connect o ...

. When submerged each propeller was driven by a

electric motor An electric motor is a 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 electromagnetic coil, wire winding to gene ...

. 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 (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.Gardiner & Gray, p. 129

Construction and career

''N-1'' was

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on 26 July 1915 by

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Company in

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. She was launched on 30 December 1916 sponsored by Mrs. Guy E. Davis, and commissioned on 26 September 1917 with Lieutenant George A. Trever in command. ''N-1'' was fitted out at

Puget Sound Navy Yard Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, officially Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility (PSNS & IMF), is a United States Navy shipyard covering 179 acres (0.7 km2) on Puget Sound at Bremerton, Washington in uninterrupted ...

and then departed on 21 November 1917 for

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, in company with her sisters and . Reassigned to the East Coast, she departed San Francisco on 13 December for Balboa,

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, and thence proceeded via Cristobal,

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, and

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, to

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, arriving on 7 February 1918. Reporting for duty to Commander, First Naval District, the submarine began her first patrol on 23 June by hunting for a

U-boat U-boats are Submarine#Military, naval submarines operated by Germany, including during the World War I, First and Second World Wars. The term is an Anglicization#Loanwords, anglicized form of the German word , a shortening of (), though the G ...

reported in the vicinity of

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. After an intensive but fruitless search, ''N-1'' continued her patrol off the

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coast. For the remainder of the war and until early 1922, ''N-1'' continued her operations in the area from New London to

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. Placed in reduced commission on 1 May 1922, ''N-1'' became a training submarine for the Submarine School, New London. She continued this duty until ordered to

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on 9 December 1925. Arriving at

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, on 18 December, she was decommissioned on 30 April 1926. Struck from the

Naval Vessel Register The ''Naval Vessel Register'' (NVR) is the official inventory of ships and service craft in custody of or titled by the United States Navy. It contains information on ships and service craft that make up the official inventory of the Navy from t ...

on 18 December 1930, ''N-1'' was scrapped in early 1931.

Notes

References

* *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:N-01 (SS-53) United States N-class submarines World War I submarines of the United States Ships built in Seattle 1916 ships