USS G-1

USS Seal/G-1 (SS-19½/20), also known as "Submarine No. 19 1/2", was the lead ship of her class of submarines of the United States Navy (USN). She was the first ship of the USN to be named for the seal, a sea mammal valued for its skin and oil, though she was renamed G-1 prior to commissioning.

While the four G-boats were nominally all of a class, they differed enough in significant details that they are sometimes considered to be four unique boats, each in a class by herself.

Seal was the first contract the Lake Torpedo Boat Company secured from the United States Government, but the contract's requirements were among the most severe ever required of a shipbuilder. The Company did not receive any payment on account during her construction and her required performances had never been approached by any other submarine in the world. G-1 eventually met those requirements and was commissioned into the Navy, albeit several years late. In addition to a pair of fixed torpedo tubes in the bow, G-1 carried two torpedo tubes in mounts inside her superstructure that could be trained in the same manner as a deck gun on a surface vessel while the boat was submerged, thus allowing a "broadside" shot of one or more torpedoes.

Seal's keel was laid down on 2 February 1909, by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Company, in Newport News, Virginia, under a subcontract from the Lake Torpedo Boat Company. She was launched on 8 February 1911, sponsored by Miss Margaret V. Lake, daughter of Simon Lake, the submarine pioneer. She was renamed G-1 on 17 November 1911, and commissioned in the New York Navy Yard, on 28 October 1912.

After fitting out in New York, G-1 proceeded to the Naval Torpedo Station, Rhode Island, arriving there on 30 January 1913. Attached to the Atlantic Submarine Flotilla, G-1 spent the next year and a half conducting dive training and torpedo firing exercises in Long Island Sound and Narragansett Bay. In preparation for her final acceptance trials in October 1913, the boat made a record dive of 256 ft (78 m) in Long Island Sound. Financial considerations led to G-1 being put in reserve at New York, on 15 June 1914.

G-1 was placed in full commission at New York, on 6 February 1915. In company with her sister ship G-2, tender Fulton, and tug Sonoma, G-1 sailed south on 25 March, into Chesapeake Bay, and down the seaboard for Norfolk, Virginia. Arriving there two days later, she conducted maneuvers in Hampton Roads, as part of the Third Division, Submarine Flotilla, Atlantic Fleet. On 2 April, while off Old Point Comfort, G-1 grazed the steam ship Ocean View, wrecking the submersible's wooden false bow.

After a short period at Norfolk, for repairs, the division cruised south to Charleston, South Carolina, mooring there on 17 April. Heavy seas encountered during this coastwise passage caused the two G-class submarines to roll heavily, spring oil leaks, and pop engine rivets. Following a three-week yard period in Charleston, the two boats, accompanied by Fulton and gunboat Castine, proceeded back to New York, on 6 May, arriving there three days later.

Upon arrival, retired Rear Admiral Yates Stirling Jr., senior aide on the staff of Commander, Submarine Flotilla, Atlantic Fleet, inspected the boat and concluded the G-boats were crude and inefficient in comparison to current designs. Deeming "their military value...negligible", he urged that a field of scientific or experimental use be found for them.