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USS Shark (SS-8)
USS Shark/A-7 (SS-8), also known as "Submarine Torpedo Boat No. 8", was one of seven Plunger-class submarines built for the United States Navy (USN) in the first decade of the 20th century. She was the third boat of the USN to be named for the shark. Used primarily for training, she was transported to the Philippines, in 1908. During WWI she served as harbor defense in Manila Bay.
The Plunger-class submarines were enlarged and improved versions of the preceding Holland, the first submarine in the USN. They had a length of 63 ft 10 in (19.5 m) overall, a beam of 11 ft 11 in (3.6 m) and a mean draft of 10 ft 7 in (3.2 m). They displaced 107 long tons (109 t) on the surface and 123 long tons (125 t) submerged. The Plunger-class boats had a crew of one officer and six enlisted men. They had a diving depth of 150 feet (45.7 m).
For surface running, they were powered by one 180-brake-horsepower (134 kW) gasoline engine that drove the single propeller. When submerged the propeller was driven by a 70-horsepower (52 kW) electric motor. The boats could reach 8 kn (15 km/h; 9.2 mph) on the surface and 7 kn (13 km/h; 8.1 mph) underwater.
The Plunger-class boats were armed with one 18-inch (457 mm) torpedo tube in the bow. They carried four reloads, for a total of five torpedoes.
Shark was laid down on 11 January 1901, in Elizabethport, New Jersey, at the Crescent Shipyard, by Lewis Nixon, a subcontractor for the Holland Torpedo Boat Company, New York City; launched on 19 October 1901; sponsored Mrs. Walter Stevens Turpin, wife of an officer on duty at Crescent Shipyard; and commissioned at the Holland Torpedo Boatyard at New Suffolk, New York on 19 September 1903.
Over the next three and a half years, Shark operated locally at the Naval Torpedo Station, in Newport, Rhode Island, conducting firing tests with torpedoes and participating in early research and development efforts in the field of undersea warfare. Assigned to the First Submarine Flotilla, in March 1907, Shark was stationed at the United States Naval Academy, at Annapolis, Maryland, in the spring of 1907.
In April 1908, Shark was taken to the New York Navy Yard, and decommissioned there on 21 April. Loaded onto the collier Caesar, Shark and her sister ship Porpoise, comprised the auxiliary's deck cargo as she proceeded, via the Suez Canal, to the Philippines. Shark was relaunched soon after her arrival at the Naval Station at Cavite, in July, and was recommissioned on 14 August 1908.
Over the next several years, the submarine torpedo boat operated out of Cavite, interspersing training with periodic upkeep and repair work. On 17 November 1911, Shark was officially renamed A-7.
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USS Shark (SS-8)
USS Shark/A-7 (SS-8), also known as "Submarine Torpedo Boat No. 8", was one of seven Plunger-class submarines built for the United States Navy (USN) in the first decade of the 20th century. She was the third boat of the USN to be named for the shark. Used primarily for training, she was transported to the Philippines, in 1908. During WWI she served as harbor defense in Manila Bay.
The Plunger-class submarines were enlarged and improved versions of the preceding Holland, the first submarine in the USN. They had a length of 63 ft 10 in (19.5 m) overall, a beam of 11 ft 11 in (3.6 m) and a mean draft of 10 ft 7 in (3.2 m). They displaced 107 long tons (109 t) on the surface and 123 long tons (125 t) submerged. The Plunger-class boats had a crew of one officer and six enlisted men. They had a diving depth of 150 feet (45.7 m).
For surface running, they were powered by one 180-brake-horsepower (134 kW) gasoline engine that drove the single propeller. When submerged the propeller was driven by a 70-horsepower (52 kW) electric motor. The boats could reach 8 kn (15 km/h; 9.2 mph) on the surface and 7 kn (13 km/h; 8.1 mph) underwater.
The Plunger-class boats were armed with one 18-inch (457 mm) torpedo tube in the bow. They carried four reloads, for a total of five torpedoes.
Shark was laid down on 11 January 1901, in Elizabethport, New Jersey, at the Crescent Shipyard, by Lewis Nixon, a subcontractor for the Holland Torpedo Boat Company, New York City; launched on 19 October 1901; sponsored Mrs. Walter Stevens Turpin, wife of an officer on duty at Crescent Shipyard; and commissioned at the Holland Torpedo Boatyard at New Suffolk, New York on 19 September 1903.
Over the next three and a half years, Shark operated locally at the Naval Torpedo Station, in Newport, Rhode Island, conducting firing tests with torpedoes and participating in early research and development efforts in the field of undersea warfare. Assigned to the First Submarine Flotilla, in March 1907, Shark was stationed at the United States Naval Academy, at Annapolis, Maryland, in the spring of 1907.
In April 1908, Shark was taken to the New York Navy Yard, and decommissioned there on 21 April. Loaded onto the collier Caesar, Shark and her sister ship Porpoise, comprised the auxiliary's deck cargo as she proceeded, via the Suez Canal, to the Philippines. Shark was relaunched soon after her arrival at the Naval Station at Cavite, in July, and was recommissioned on 14 August 1908.
Over the next several years, the submarine torpedo boat operated out of Cavite, interspersing training with periodic upkeep and repair work. On 17 November 1911, Shark was officially renamed A-7.