USS S-51 (SS 162)

Design: Lake
Built by: Lake Torpedo Boat Company
Keel laid: 22 December 1919
Launched: 20 August 1921
Sponsor: Mrs. R. P. Mills
Commissioned: 24 June 1922
First Skipper: Lt. Walter S. Haas

Fate of USS S-51:

25 Sept. 1925: S-51 was rammed and sunk by the merchant steamer CITY OF ROME off Block Island. The Commanding officer was Lt. Rodney H. Dobson -- he & 32 officers and men were lost. Three of the crew survived.

5 June 1926: S-51 returns to the surface after a massive salvage operation. She was towed to the New York Navy Yard for dry docking and body removal. The boat was sold to a Brooklyn scrap dealer for $100.

SS-159 through SS-162 were Lake Design

length 240 feet
beam 21 feet 10 inches
draft 13 feet 6 inches
displacement 903/1,230 tons
power (diesel) 1,800 hp (Busch-Sultzer Brothers)
power (electric) 1,500 hp (Ridgeway Dynamo and Electric Co.)
bunkers 44,350 gallons
speed (diesel) 14 1/2 knots
speed (diesel) 11 knots
tubes (fwd) four 21 inch
tubes (aft) one 21 inch (carried 16 torpedoes)
guns single 4 inch 50 cal.
AA guns none
depth of dive 200 feet
battery 120 cells
compliment 4 officers, 34 enlisted men

USS Barracuda (SS 163)

Design: Government
Built by: Portsmouth Naval Shipyard
Keel laid 20 October 1921
Launched: 17 July 1924
Sponsor: Mrs. C. P. Snyder
Commissioned: 1 October 1924
First Skipper: LCdr Sherwood Picking

USS BARRACUDA was also known as V-1, the first of the three V-Class boats. She was stricken in 1945 and sold.

USS Bass (SS 164)

Design: Government
Built by: Portsmouth Naval Shipyard
Keel laid 20 October 1921
Launched: 27 December 1921
Sponsor: Mrs. D. E. Dismukes
Commissioned: 26 September 1925
First Skipper: LCdr George A. Rood

The second of the V-Boats. USS BASS was also known as V-2.

This boat had an interesting history. Let's read a letter we received from Captain ROBERT THEW (333-+-1987). BOB was in the ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence) during the war and eventually in the NVA (National Security Agency - or No Vuch Agency as some see it); his father designed the twin Dolphins worn by submariners during the war years. In a letter dated 16 February 1989, he wrote..

"Concerning USS BASS (SS-164): I don't remember who was the CO in 1934, but my father was the engineering officer shortly thereafter. As a youngster I spent many happy hours aboard, mostly to eat in her outstanding ward-room and to watch movies on her afterdeck. BASS went out of commission in February 1937 and was brought back in 1940.

She was assigned to the Panama Canal Zone in 1941. She made four defensive war patrols from there until suffering a serious fire that killed 25 of her crew on 17 August 1942. Following this she reported to Philadelphia for repairs and then went to New London. There she conducted secret experiments and then returned to Philadelphia for overhaul in 1944. She was decommissioned at New London on 3 March 1945 and was scuttled as a sonar target 8 miles south of Block Island on 12 March 1945.

Thus rests a very gallant ship and one very familiar to me. She is probably the one that got me interested in submarines in the very beginning."

There is much more to the story of USS BASS and we will read it in KTB #138 next month - including the position where she is sunk.