USS G-4

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USS Thrasher/G-4 (SS-26), also known as "Submarine No. 26", was a G-class submarine of the United States Navy (USN). Thrasher was the first ship of the USN to be named for the thresher shark,Template:Efn a shark with a long dorsal tail fin, though she was renamed G-4 prior to being launched.

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.Template:Sfn

Design

Thrasher was an attempt to introduce competition to the United States Navy submarine acquisition process. Italian naval architect Cesare Laurenti had been campaigning for permission to build a submarine for the Navy and he was granted a contract for one submarine in the Fiscal Year 1909 building program.Template:Sfn The contract was approved with the proviso that the boat be built in the United States.Template:Sfn

Thrasher was built with a radically different hull design. She had a full double hull, with an inner elliptically shaped pressure hull wrapped by a flattened circle shaped outer hull. Electric Boat had built all of their designs up to that point with a circular single hull. The hull design was not entirely successful, as she suffered from stability problems throughout her service. She very nearly capsized during her launch from the building ways. This boat also was the first USN submarine, by date of full commission status, with stern torpedo tubes. Thrasher had retractable bow and stern diving planes and two rudders, one ventral and one dorsal both at the stern.Template:Sfn

Construction

ThrasherTemplate:'s keel was laid down on 9 July 1910, by William Cramp & Sons, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was renamed G-4 on 17 November 1911. G-4 was launched on 15 August 1912, and sponsored by Ms. Grace Anna Taussig. She was commissioned in the Philadelphia Navy Yard, on 22 January 1914.Template:Sfn

Service history

After fitting out, G-4 proceeded to the New York Navy Yard, on 25 April 1914, for service with Division Three, Submarine Flotilla, Atlantic Fleet. Based on plans purchased from Italian designer Cesare Laurenti, G-4 was an even keel boat, meaning the round pressure hull was flat on the bottom. When surrounded by a streamlined outer hull, the boat was theoretically more stable than the earlier Holland-type boats. The different equipment and operating procedures meant G-4 spent the next five months conducting trial runs and diving tests, many of which failed owing to engine machinery breakdown. Still, almost all of her preliminary trials were completed by the end of August, and the boat was conditionally accepted by the Navy on 21 September.Template:Sfn

At the end of October 1914, the boat shifted to New London, Connecticut, and from there she sailed on to Newport, Rhode Island, in mid-November. Moving back to New York, on 22 November, G-4 received post-shakedown repairs to her engines, which suffered from sea water damage owing to leaky exhaust lines and salt contamination of the oil system. After failing several engine trials that winter, the boat proceeded south to her builder's yard, in Philadelphia, on 9 March 1915. Following two months of repairs, G-4 departed Philadelphia, on 12 May, and sailed to New York, for a Naval Review before President Woodrow Wilson. G-4 then conducted maneuvers with the submarine flotilla off Newport, in late May, and again in October, in addition to local training operations out of New York, and the submarine base, in New London.Template:Sfn

On 14 January 1916, G-4 commenced a planned three-month overhaul at the New York Naval Shipyard. Workers installed a gyrocompass and repaired equipment in preparation for final acceptance trials on 7 March. Although successfully put through her paces, the boat returned to the yard for further alterations, including the installation of new diving rudders. Trouble with the Sperry gyrocompass rudder control mechanism, as well as continued modifications to engines and other machinery, kept the boat in the New York Navy Yard through the end of the year. Finally tested at sea in February 1917, the gyro stabilizer and diving rudders then failed in heavy weather. After G-4 returned to the yard, the broken rudders were repaired and the stabilizer mechanism removed by 10 March.Template:Sfn

Sailing to New London, on 24 April, G-4 was attached to Division Three, Submarine Flotilla. For the next year, she combined experimental work with new sound detection devices with training new student crews in submarine operations and torpedo firing, a period of time punctuated by her joining the submarine tender Template:USS for harbor harbor net defense experiments. Later in the month, G-4 carried out sound experiments, with Template:USS and Template:USS, in the Thames River and Long Island Sound. In late July, she conducted battle exercises and submerged attack drills against submarine chaser Template:USS. On 22 October, Thetis experimented with sound and magnetic detectors while G-4 lay on the bottom of Long Island Sound. Over the winter, she conducted numerous sound experiments with the newly established Submarine School, in the area of Block Island Sound and Long Island Sound.Template:Sfn

In March 1918, G-4 shifted from New London to Newport, where she conducted magnetic detector experiments with Template:USS. The submarine also conducted practice approaches and torpedo instruction for officer and enlisted submarine students. On 21 May, G-4 commenced test firing the new Mark VII torpedo for installation in O and N-class submarines, evolutions that lasted through mid-July. The boat then returned to New London for a yard period, undergoing motor and electrical repairs through October. Although G-4 resumed training and instruction duties on 4 November, the boat was slated for inactivation on 24 February 1919.Template:Sfn

G-4 continued her training and experimental duties until 1 March, when she was placed in ordinary for stripping and inactivation.Template:Sfn

Fate

She decommissioned on 5 September, was designated as a target for depth charge and ordnance tests on 6 December, and was sold for scrapping to Connecticut Iron & Metal Company, of New London, on 15 April 1920. She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 13 August 1921.Template:Sfn

Bibliography

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Further reading

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External links

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