USS Porpoise (SS-7)
Template:Short description Template:Other ships
Template:Infobox ship imageTemplate:Infobox ship careerTemplate:Infobox ship careerTemplate:Infobox ship characteristicsUSS Porpoise/A-6 (SS-7), also known as "Submarine Torpedo Boat No. 7", was one of seven Template:Sclasss built for the United States Navy (USN) in the first decade of the 20th century. She was the third boat in the USN named for the porpoise. Used primarily for training, she was partially disassembled and transported to the Philippines, in 1908. During WWI she was used for harbor defense in Manila Bay.
Design
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
Porpoise was laid down on 13 December 1900, in Elizabethport, New Jersey, at the Crescent Shipyard, by Lewis Nixon, a subcontractor for the Holland Torpedo Boat Company, New York City; launched on 23 September 1901; sponsored Mrs. E.B. Frost, the wife of E.B. Frost of Crescent Shipyard; and commissioned at the Holland Torpedo Boatyard at New Suffolk, New York on 19 September 1903.Template:Sfn
Service history
Assigned initially to the Naval Torpedo Station, at Newport, Rhode Island, for experimental torpedo firing work, Porpoise entered the New York Navy Yard, in September 1904, for repairs and alterations, remaining there until February 1906. Assigned then to the First Torpedo Flotilla, on 7 March 1907, she operated at Annapolis, Maryland, temporarily assigned to the United States Naval Academy, for instruction of future naval officers, until June 1907. Taken subsequently to the New York Navy Yard, she was decommissioned on 21 April 1908. Partially disassembled, she was then loaded onto the after well deck of the collier Template:USS, for a voyage to the Philippines, as deck cargo along with her sister ship Template:USS via the Suez Canal.Template:Sfn
Arriving at the Naval Station at Cavite, Porpoise was relaunched on 8 July 1908, and recommissioned on 20 November 1908. Due to the small size of Plunger-class boats, officers and men lived on board the gunboat Template:USS.Template:Sfn
Whiting's experiment
In April 1909, Ensign Kenneth Whiting, a future naval aviation pioneer, became the commanding officer of Porpoise. On 15 April, Whiting and his crew of six took the submarine out for what was to be a routine run. Porpoise got underway, cleared the dock and moved out into Manila Bay. She dove soon thereafter, and leveled off at a depth of Template:Cvt. Only then did Whiting reveal the purpose of the dive.Template:Sfn
Convinced that a man could escape from a submarine through the torpedo tube, Whiting determined that he was going to try and test his theory with himself as a guinea pig. Squeezing into the 18-inch diameter tube, he clung to the crossbar which stiffened the outer torpedo tube door, as the crew closed the inner door. When the outer door was opened and water rushed in, Whiting hung onto the crossbar that drew his elbows out of the tube's mouth, and then muscled his way out using his hands and arms, the entire evolution consuming 77 seconds. He then swam to the surface, Porpoise surfacing soon thereafter. Reluctant to speak about the incident in public, he nevertheless informed his flotilla commander, Lieutenant Guy W.S. Castle, who submitted a report on how the feat had been accomplished. In PorpoiseTemplate:'s log that day, Whiting had simply commented: "Whiting went through the torpedo tube, boat lying in (the) water in (a) normal condition, as an experiment..."Template:Sfn
Asiatic fleet and WWI service
Subsequently, becoming a unit of the First Submarine Division, Asiatic Torpedo Fleet, United States Asiatic Fleet, on 9 December 1909, Porpoise continued her routine of local operations out of Cavite, for the next decade. Renamed A-6, on 17 November 1911, she patrolled the entrance to Manila Bay, and convoyed vessels out of port during World War I.Template:Sfn
Fate
Placed in ordinary, on 1 December 1918, she spent a little over a year in that status, until decommissioned, on 12 December 1919, and turned over to the Commandant of the Naval Station, at Cavite, for disposal. Given the alphanumeric hull number SS-7 on 17 July 1920, A-6 was authorized for use as a target in July 1921, and as of 16 January 1922, was struck from the Naval Vessel Register.Template:Sfn