The United States' S-class submarines, often simply called S-boats, were the first class of submarines with a significant number built to United States Navy designs. They made up the bulk of the USN s
S-class submarine USS S-44 (SS-155) leaving Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, c. 1929
USS S-1 off Provincetown, Massachusetts, on 17 April 1920, while running sea trials
USS S-2 backing at low speed, probably off Bridgeport, Connecticut, at the time of her builders' trials in September 1919, many of the men standing on her deck are civilians
Portside view of USS S-3 on her trials, May 1919, notice the complete lack of an enclosed bridge fairwater, or her 4"/50 caliber gun, a features that were added later
The R-class submarines were a class of United States Navy coastal patrol submarines active from 1918 until 1945. With the first of the class laid down following the American entry into World War I, th
United States S-class submarine
…December 1941, the S-class submarines ranged in age from 16 to 21 years. While the US Navy had two older classes of submarines at that time, the O and R classes, originally commissioned in 1918 and 1919, the S-class was the oldest class of submarine, possibly in the world, to be used in combat operations…
Tied up along the dock from right to left: USS R-12, USS R-15, USS R-13, with USS R-9, and an unidentified R-boat, probably in Pearl Harbor, c. mid-1920s