USS Plunger (SS-2)

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USS Plunger/A-1 (SS-2) was one of the earliest submarines of the United States Navy. She was the lead boat of Template:Sclass and later renamed A-1 when she was designated an A-type submarine. She is not to be confused with the experimental submarine Template:USS which was evaluated by the US Navy from 1898 to 1900, but not accepted or commissioned.

Design

Plan of Plunger-class. A, storage batteries; B, gas-engine; C, dynamo and motor; D, water-tight compartments; E, main ballast tanks; F, air-flasks; G, gasolene tank; H, expulsion tube.

The Template:Sclasss were enlarged and improved versions of the preceding Holland, the first submarine in the USN. They had a length of Template:Cvt overall, a beam of Template:Cvt and a mean draft of Template:Cvt. They displaced Template:Cvt on the surface and Template:Cvt submerged. The Plunger-class boats had a crew of one officer and six enlisted men. They had a diving depth of Template:Convert.Template:Sfn

For surface running, they were powered by one Template:Convert gasoline engine that drove the single propeller. When submerged the propeller was driven by a Template:Convert electric motor.Template:Sfn The boats could reach Template:Cvt on the surface and Template:Cvt underwater.Template:Sfn

The Plunger-class boats were armed with one Template:Convert torpedo tube in the bow. They carried four reloads, for a total of five torpedoes.Template:Sfn

Construction

Plunger was laid down on 21 May 1901, at Elizabethport, New Jersey, at Lewis Nixon's Crescent Shipyard, a subcontractor for the John P. Holland's Holland Torpedo Boat Company. She was launched on 1 February 1902; sponsored by Miss Ernestine Wardwell, of Baltimore, Maryland; and commissioned at the Holland Torpedo Boat Company yard, at New Suffolk, New York, on 19 September 1903.Template:Sfn

Service history

Assigned to the Naval Torpedo Station at Newport, Rhode Island, for experimental torpedo work, Plunger operated locally from that facility for the next two years, a period of time broken only by an overhaul at the Holland yard, at New Suffolk, from March to November 1904. Besides testing machinery, armament and tactics, the submarine torpedo boat also served as a training ship for the crews of new submersibles emerging from the builder's yards.Template:Sfn

In August 1905, Plunger underwent two weeks of upkeep before leaving the yard on 22 August. She was towed by the tug Template:USS to New York City, where Plunger conducted trials near the home of President Theodore Roosevelt. Upon the submarine's arrival that afternoon, she moored alongside the tug and prepared for a visit from the President.Template:Sfn

Roosevelt visit

The following morning, Plunger charged her batteries and made a series of five short dives before returning alongside Apache to recharge. Later that afternoon, Roosevelt boarded Plunger and stayed aboard for almost two hours while she made another series of dives before returning to moor alongside the tug. Roosevelt spent almost another hour on board the submarine before he disembarked.Template:Sfn

Roosevelt's novel voyage prompted significant interest. On 6 September, Roosevelt wrote from Oyster Bay, to Hermann Speck von Sternburg: "I myself am both amused and interested as to what you say about the interest excited about my trip in the Plunger. I went down in it chiefly because I did not like to have the officers and enlisted men think I wanted them to try things I was reluctant to try myself. I believe a good deal can be done with these submarines, although there is always the danger of people getting carried away with the idea and thinking that they can be of more use than they possibly could be." To another correspondent he declared that never in his life had he experienced "such a diverting day ... nor so much enjoyment in so few hours."Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Later service

Decommissioned on 3 November 1905, Plunger remained inactive until she was recommissioned on 23 February 1907, she was assigned to the First Submarine Flotilla, based at the New York Navy Yard, joining sister ships Template:USS and Template:USS. On 3 May 1909, Ensign Chester Nimitz, the future fleet admiral who would say he considered the submarines of the time "a cross between a Jules Verne fantasy and a humpbacked whale", assumed command of Plunger. That September, the submarine torpedo boat visited New York City to take part in the Hudson-Fulton celebrations.Template:Sfn Nimitz commanded Plunger until he assumed command of Template:USS (later renamed C-5), when that submarine was commissioned on 2 February 1910.Template:CN

Reassigned to the Charleston Navy Yard, Plunger reached that port on 24 October 1909, and moored alongside the gunboat Template:USS, the tender for the Atlantic Submarine Flotilla. Shortly thereafter, CastineTemplate:'s medical officer, Assistant Surgeon Micajah Boland, inspected Plunger and two other submarine torpedo boats. His report graphically described living conditions on these boats. He found "their sanitary condition to be far from satisfactory, notwithstanding the fact that they had been at sea only about forty-five hours."Template:Sfn

Surgeon Boland recommended that cruises be limited to 36 hours and that when not underway the crews of the submarines, "except those absolutely necessary to be on the boats", live on board the "parent ship."Template:Sfn

Fate

Assigned to the Reserve Torpedo Division on 12 April 1910, Plunger was renamed A-1 on 17 November 1911. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 24 February 1913.Template:Sfn

On 29 August 1916, A-1 had been authorized for use as an "experimental target, designated 'Target E'". Approximately 22 March 1918, she sank at New Suffolk. Raised and sent to the Salvage Diving School at New London, Connecticut,Template:Sfn she was ultimately hoisted on board the hulk of the former monitor Template:USS and authorized for sale in 1921, on an "as is, where is" basis. She was sold for scrapping on 26 January 1922.Template:Sfn

Bibliography

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Further reading

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External links

• Template:Navsource
• history.navy.mil: USS Plunger
• Crescent Shipyard Lewis Nixon's Shipyard is acknowledged as place where first submarines were developed. Arthur Busch's role is mentioned and acknowledged as builder of Holland's submarines for Electric Boat Company.