Selected
US Naval Submarine Force Statistics and Numbers.
Updated last on 4-15-09
A note on sources: Much of this data has been researched and collected by the author.
For that data, the author is responsible. Other sources are cited as necessary.
General
Number of submarines commissioned: 664
Number of submarines named for:
Fish: 364
States: 23
Cities: 61
People: 51
Animals other than fish: 40
Note: Total counts USS Texas
Number of submarines that carried only letter/number designators: 127
Losses
Number of submarines lost: 65 (See explanation of criteria)
Number of submarines lost in declared war: 53
Number of ‘peacetime’ losses: 12
Number of submarines “lost” then raised and recommissioned: 2
Number of personnel lost with ship: 3882
Number lost in single or group incidents: 145
Total number lost: 4027
Officers lost: 420
Enlisted lost: 3607
Locations of lost boats:
Short answer:
Of the 65 submarines we have lost 53 wartime, 12 peacetime; Ten (10) are still on the bottom and in known locations. Six (6) have been salvaged and either reused or disposed of. Twenty four (24) are lost in locations which if the reports of loss are accurate have known locations within about ten (10) nautical miles (radius). The remaining twenty five (25) are in unknown locations.
Longer answer:
The 10 boats that are in known locations:
1. F-1 (wartime) is 3 miles off Bird Rock (
2. S-5 is off the entrance to
3. O-9 is off Isle of Shoals near
4. Grenadier (wartime) is in shallow water off
5. R-12 (wartime) is 12 miles off
6. Darter’s (wartime) remains were still visible on Bombay Shoal as late as the late 1980s.
7. Lagarto’s (wartime) location has recently been verified and the boat dived upon.
8. Stickleback is in deep water off
9. Thresher is off Isle of Shoals near
10. Scorpion is in the mid
11. Perch (wartime) is about 20 miles NW of Soerabaja, Java has been dived and identified.
12. Wahoo is in
13. Grunion is 10 miles northwest of
Boats whose location is known within 10 nmi. Most of these boats have not been physically located and the location is based on reports which may be and are most probably in error. The 10nmi circle is where one would begin looking. Some locations may be known to locals, but not generally reported.
H-1 is in or near the entrance to
S-36 (wartime) grounded on Taka Bakang
Reef in the
S-26 (wartime) is 14 miles west of San Jose Light in the
S-27 (wartime) Grounded 400 yards of
S-39 (wartime) Grounded off
The following wartime loss locations are based on US or Japanese reports the 10 nmi circle is based on that report.
Argonaut, Pickerel, Corvina, Capelin, Grayback, Herring, S-28, Golet, Growler, Robalo, Harder, Flier, Shark, Tang, Seawolf, Albacore, Bonefish.
The peacetime loss, Cochino’s location is known within the accuracy of the navagation position of Tusk.
The following boats were lost and salvaged as noted.
F-4 was raised, studied and buried in a trench off the north
side of the submarine base at
O-5 was raised and sold for scrapping.
S-51 was raised, studied and scrapped.
S-4 was raised recommissioned and
used as a submarine rescue test platform before being scuttled off
Squalus was raised refurbished and renamed Sailfish.
Sealion (wartime) was destroyed off Sangley Point by US Forces. There were some reports that the Japanese had raised and studied the wreck. Sold for scrapping in the late 1950s, and scrapped.
The rest have location possibilities that are quite large and therefore are classified as unknown.
All are wartime:
Shark, Amberjack, Grampus, Triton, Runner, Pompano, Grayling, Cisco, S-44, Dorado, Sculpin, Scorpion, Trout, Tullibee, Gudgeon, Escolar, Scamp, Barbel, Swordfish, Kete, Trigger, Snook, Bullhead.
Number of personnel lost: 4028 (1900 to 2009)
History
First operational submarine accepted into the Navy: Alligator (Submarine Propeller) 13 June 1862.
First operational submarine commissioned:
Oldest US Naval Submarine in existance: Intellegent Whale (dates from 1864)
World War I statistics:
Note: These only cover the period of
Number of war patrols: 105
Number of submarines lost: 1
Number of personnel lost: 23
World War II statistics:
Note: These only cover the period of
At the beginning of WWII the
Location of submarines on 7 December 1941:
USS O-2 (SS - 63)
USS O-3 (SS - 64)
USS O-4 (SS - 65)
USS O-6 (SS - 67)
USS O-7 (SS - 68)
USS O-8 (SS - 69)
USS O-10 (SS - 71)
USS R-1 (SS - 78)
USS R-2 (SS - 79)
USS R-3 (SS - 80)
USS R-4 (SS - 81)
USS R-5 (SS - 82)
USS R-6 (SS - 83)
USS R-7 (SS - 84) ASW Patrol between
USS R-9 (SS - 86)
USS R-10 (SS - 87)
USS R-11 (SS - 88)
USS R-12 (SS - 89)
USS R-13 (SS - 90)
USS R-14 (SS - 91)
USS R-15 (SS - 92) ASW Patrol between
USS R-16 (SS - 93)
USS R-17 (SS - 94)
USS R-18 (SS - 95)
USS R-19 (SS - 96)
USS R-20 (SS - 97)
USS S-1 (SS - 105) At
USS S-11 (SS - 116) At
USS S-12 (SS - 117) At
USS S-13 (SS - 118) At Coco Solo, PCZ
(Operating area)
USS S-14 (SS - 119) At Coco Solo, PCZ
(Operating area)
USS S-15 (SS - 120) At
USS S-16 (SS - 121) At
USS S-17 (SS - 122) At Coco Solo, PCZ
(Operating area)
USS S-18 (SS - 123)
USS S-20 (SS - 125)
USS S-21 (SS - 126)
USS S-22 (SS - 127) Overhaul
USS S-23 (SS - 128)
USS S-24 (SS - 129) At Coco Solo, PCZ
(Operating area)
USS S-26 (SS - 131)
USS S-27 (SS - 132)
USS S-28 (SS - 133)
USS S-29 (SS - 134) At Coco Solo, PCZ
(Operating area)
USS S-30 (SS - 135) Out of
USS S-31 (SS - 136) Overhaul
USS S-32 (SS - 137)
USS S-33 (SS - 138) Operating off
USS S-34 (SS - 139)
USS S-35 (SS - 140)
USS S-36 (SS - 141)
USS S-37 (SS - 142) On patrol outside
USS S-38 (SS - 143) On patrol outside
USS S-39 (SS - 144) In San Bernadino Straits
USS S-40 (SS - 145) In
USS S-41 (SS - 146) In
USS S-42 (SS - 153)
USS S-43 (SS - 154)
USS S-44 (SS - 155) Overhaul
USS S-45 (SS - 156)
USS S-46 (SS - 157)
USS S-47 (SS - 158)
USS S-48 (SS - 159)
USS Barracuda V-1 (SS - 163) Enroute New
USS Bass V-2 (SS - 164) At
USS Bonita V-3 (SS - 165) At
USS Argonaut V-4 (SS - 166) On patrol off Midway
USS Narwhal V-5 (SS - 167)
USS Nautilus V-6 (SS - 168)
USS Dolphin V-7 (SS - 169)
USS Cachalot V-8 (SS - 170)
USS Cuttlefish V-9 (SS - 171)
USS Porpoise (SS - 172) In
USS Pike (SS - 173) In
USS Shark (SS - 174) In
USS Tarpon (SS - 175) In
USS Perch (SS - 176) In
USS Pickerel (SS - 177) In
USS Permit (SS - 178) In
USS Plunger (SS - 179) 125 Miles NE Oahu, transit
USS Pollack (SS - 180) 125 Miles NE Oahu, transit
USS Pompano (SS - 181) 125 Miles NE Oahu, transit
USS Salmon (SS - 182) In
USS Seal (SS - 183) In
USS Skipjack (SS - 184) In
USS Snapper (SS - 185) In
USS Stingray (SS - 186) In
USS Sturgeon (SS - 187) At
USS Sargo
(SS - 188) In
USS Saury
(SS - 189) In
USS Spearfish (SS - 190) In
USS Sculpin
(SS - 191) In
USS Sailfish (SS - 192) In
USS Swordfish (SS - 193) In
USS Seadragon
(SS - 194) In
USS Sealion
(SS - 195) In
USS Searaven
(SS - 196) In
USS Seawolf
(SS - 197) In
USS Tambor
(SS - 198) North of
USS Tautog
(SS - 199)
USS Thresher (SS - 200) 50 Miles NW Oahu, enroute Midway to
USS Triton (SS - 201) South of
USS Trout (SS - 202) On patrol off Midway
USS Tuna (SS - 203)
USS Mackerel (SS - 204)
USS Marlin (SS - 205)
USS Gar (SS - 206) Enroute
USS Grampus (SS - 207) PSA
USS Drum (SS – 228) Outfitting Portsmouth NH
USS Grayback
(SS - 208) Refit
USS Grayling (SS - 209) Enroute
USS Grenadier (SS - 210) Refit
USS Gudgeon (SS - 211) Lahina
Roads
Number of submarines making patrols: 288 Source; Roscoe; “Submarine Operations in WWII”
Number of patrols made:
Total: 1692: (SORG)
Pacific: 1606 (SORG minus Blair)
Number of ‘successful patrols: 1059
Number lost: (all causes) 52
Number lost in combat operations: 48
Number lost due to enemy action: 41
Average strength of force: 14,750
Number of personnel lost: 374 officers (375 officers (Blair, “Silent Victory”)) and 3131 men. Note: this does not count all the personnel lost in single or small group incidents. Source; Roscoe; “Submarine Operations in WWII”
Author’s count : 3523
Number of merchant ships sunk:
1178 (total: 5,053,491 tons) Source; Roscoe; “Submarine Operations in WWII”
(total 5,320,094 tons) (Blair, “Silent Victory”)
Number of warships sunk 214 (577,626) Source; Roscoe; “Submarine Operations in WWII”
Number of submarine Commanding Officers who commanded combat patrols: 465 (Blair, “Silent Victory”)
Number of aviators rescued: 504 Source; Roscoe; “Submarine Operations in WWII”
Cold War
The number of ‘patrols’ during the “Cold War” (1946 to 1996) is unknown and will likely remain unknown for many years. It can be estimated as follows:
Surveillance patrols in Barents, North Pacific,
War on Terror (including Gulf
These are estimated generalizations only.
Strategic Deterrent Program.
Regulus Patrols: 39
Number of submarines:
Polaris/Poseidon: 41 (note some of these were carried early Trident missiles)
Trident: 14
Total Patrols: As of February 2009 there have been 3500 Fleet Ballistic Missile Submarine (FBM) deterrent patrols. Because a single class or class group of boats have carried, during their lifetime, different types of missiles the below list is categorized by the name of the missile type and the number of patrols in which that missile was carried.
Polaris (all variants) 1245
Poseidon 1182
Trident I 826
Trident II 247
At an average patrol length of 60 days (on alert) this amounts to a total of some 245,000 days with missiles on patrol.
Number of submarines cut apart to for initial Polaris Conversion: 1
The simple answer to what Skipjack type boats were cut apart to make what Polaris boats is: One only, the hull that was to be Scorpion at EB. All other of the first five Polaris FBMs were built from the keel up. That being said, some explanation is in order.
1. It should be noted that even though a ship name is assigned, generally on keel laying, there are occasions where the name is changed during building. The name used on launching (christening) is the name the ship carries throughout her life. There are, however, exceptions.
2. The submarine launched missile program generated some interesting ship designations until things got formalized. The first was the SSG(N) (FBM) which generally was used to describe the concepts associated with the Jupiter missile projects although it carried over to the early Polaris designs. The next was SSG(N) which was used throughout 1957 and into 1958. This was changed to SSB(N) in 1959. The George Washington was launched as (SSBN-598). The use of parenthesis around the N was not always used, especially in signs.
3. What follows is general run of events that led to the USS George Washington and a general accounting of all the Skipjacks and the first 5 FBMs.
An SSGN,was similar in concept to the Halibut, but with the improved S5W reactor plant the basic Thresher class hull was in the works. SSGN 600 was to be one of these. It was to have four hangers each carrying one or more missiles. At the same time, a separate path of missile design was ongoing. This path was to use a modified Jupiter missile in a configuration which had four missile tubes in an enlarged sail. A Jupiter equipped SSBN was included in the FY 1959 budget. This plan was scrapped when in 1956, the Jupiter equipped submarine program was scrapped and work turned to using a solid fueled missile (to become the Polaris). The Secretary of Defense required the Navy to make a definitive choice in the programs. It should be remembered that this was at the time that there was a real battle between the Navy and the Air Force about control of strategic forces. The Navy scrapped the Regulus development program, stopped Regulus I production and cut Regulus II production and ended the Triton development program. All the efforts were to be used in development of the Polaris.
The Polaris program accelerated and the plan of putting 16 missile tubes in two rows of eight on a Skipjack or Thresher class hull and have it ready by 1963. By year's end the Special Projects Office (SPO) had a way to get everything put together (lightweight warhead, submarine, navigation system, and missile) by late 1960. To do this a submarine had to be designed. Rather than use the Thresher design for the first five of the new SSBN's, the Skipjack design was far enough along to allow it to be used with significant modifications. It was also decided to spread the work load around to get faster results. EB had a hull on the ways which was to become the USS Scorpion and the USS Skipjack was nearly ready for launch.
The Scorpion hull
was selected as the first conversion. At the same time, Mare Island which was
getting ready to build the boat which was to become the USS Scamp, and Newport
News which had parts and sections for the boat which was to be the USS Shark
got orders to build SSBNs, one each. Neither had laid
the keels for the Skipjack class boats (which were actually to be a separate
(SSN 588) class.
The conversion from Scorpion to George Washington was not as simple as slicing the hull forward of the reactor compartment and inserting a missile compartment. The control planes had to be enlarged, the hydraulics plant beefed up, the air systems enlarged and so on. Berthing and stowage spaces had to be redesigned.
Many of the long lead time items could be used for both types (Skipjack and George Washington) and orders went out to double the orders for these. For example, there were 6 torpedo tubes in the bow of a Skipjack class. Given that 5 boats were on order, there were five shipsets of tubes on order. This was doubled to ten shipsets to have enough for the five new Polaris boats also. When a shipset was ready to deliver, it might have been originally assigned to a Skipjack class boat at one shipyard, but may have been actually diverted to one of the Polaris boats at another yard. Some of these long lead time items had already been delivered or were being fabricated at the building yards. What boat they went into depended on which boat needed them first.
At EB, the
Scorpion was cut apart and used to construct the George Washington. The Patrick
Henry was laid down in the ways vacated by the launch of the Skipjack, within
18 hours of the launching. At
The Shark was
under construction, at
This accounts for the all the Skipjacks and all the George Washington class FBMs.
HARDER, DARTER (??), TRIGGER, TROUT ... ...ALWAYS IN, NEVER OUT?
by Jim Christley (updated
1998)
It was 1945, the war was just over and most of the Naval Submarine Force was
wanting to go home and be done with the boats. There was an air of contentment
that the force had won the war by strangling the sea lanes around
The fleet boat had a problem. It was slow. Fast enough on the surface, when submerged it could do nearly six knots but only for an hour. That meant it could run for a distance of only six nautical miles. At a slower speed, say three knots, it could run for maybe 10 hours, a distance of thirty nautical miles. A destroyer could easily circle above it for days. With the advances in sonars the surface ships had, the fleet boat could be killed with an ease the Japanese Imperial Navy could only dream of. The lone fleet boat could still harass a convoy or kill a few escorts, but the newly organized fast surface battle groups were a threat to be reckoned with. Fortunately, the US Navy was the only force that possessed fast surface battle groups.
The trigger that started the revolution in submarine design and construction
was a German submarine designated as the Type XXI. Nearly 60 feet shorter than
the Tench-class American submarine, the Type XXI had two
things the
These submarines could clearly attack a fast battle group with some good chance of success and might even take out a carrier. The Soviet Navy took nearly fifteen of these boats back to the homeland after the war. We had a problem. We needed a new submarine. One question that needed answering was whether only one design was needed or separate designs for separate missions. In August 1945 Commodore Merrill Comstock was ordered by CNO to conduct a study of WWII submarine experience. A questionnaire was circulated among submarine officers soliciting their views on submarine speed, depth, and other issues. The outcome of the General Board and Submarine Officer's conference was that a single design new attack submarine would be built starting in 1946 and that other existing vessels would be converted for specialized uses. The new design was formally started in February 1946.
The designers called for a streamlined ship with few appendages. The bridge and masting support structure was to be enclosed in a light faired structure which would become known as the sail. The old fleet boat open shears mast support structure contributed over 50% of the total resistance at high speed. All things that didn't have to stick out were made retractable (capstan, towing fairleads, cleats and the safety track), the deck guns were done away with in all forms. The resulting hull form was more efficient than the XXI. The circular section hull was chosen over the more radical figure 8 form of the German boat. The pressure hull was two feet wider than a Tench but one hundred feet shorter. To save space, a radical new engine was adopted.
The General Motors company had built a new lightweight compact engine that ran at a high speed. It was quite a bit different than the 16-268 and 16-278 the submarine crews were used to. Instead of the crankshaft being horizontal and the cylinders being arranged in two rows of eight each, this engine had a vertical crankshaft and the cylinders were arranged like a radial aircraft engine. These were the GM 16-338 "pancake" engines. The engine was a mere 13.5 feet from the base of the generator to the top of the air intake filter and 4 feet wide. It was a two cycle engine which developed 1090 bhp at 1600 rpm. On the top was an air intake then four layers of four cylinders each. Each cylinder had a six inch bore and a six and one half inch stroke. On the bottom of the crank shaft was an Elliot generator which developed 817 kW at a maximum of 710 volts DC. The whole engine, all up and loaded with fuel and oil weighed just over eight tons. Being just over 4 feet wide, the designers could pack four engines in an engine room only 22 feet long. This dropped an entire engine room from the submarine design.
More space and weight was saved by the elimination of four 21 inch diameter by 22 foot long torpedo tubes and the requirement for additional torpedo stowage of the long Mk 14, 16, and 18 torpedo. The initial design called for no tubes aft. The submarine officers however, lobbied hard for retention of the aft tube nest but settled for two tubes of 21" and a length of 15 feet. These would take the Mk-27 and the planned Mk 37 torpedo and were to be used as countermeasures weapons. Countermeasures were fired at pursuing ASW ships or other pursuing submarines. These tubes were new, they were simpler and were designed for swim out type torpedoes.
The tubes forward were all new. Instead of using a pulse of air behind the torpedo to push it out, the new tubes used a slug of water. There was a piston which had air on one side and water on the other. It worked kind of like a hypodermic needle. The piston was moved all the way aft with the forward end of the cylinder filling with water from the sea. The sea valve, called the barn door on some ships, was closed. To fire a torpedo, the tube was prepared as normal then when the firing signal was given, high pressure air was ported to the aft end of the piston. This pressurized the water in the piston. A slide valve with ports around the torpedo tube opened to allow the water from the piston to enter the aft end of the tube. This high pressure water forced the torpedo out. No air bubble and no poppet valving arrangement was needed. The new system made somewhat less noise than the air system, and is still in use on modern nuclear (and foreign nuc and non-nuc) submarines.
In October 1946, the design was finalized and two boats ordered. The first
was to be USS Tang (SS-563) and was to be built at Portsmouth Naval
Shipyard. The second was to be USS Trigger and was contracted to
The next fiscal year (FY47) two more boats were ordered. They were to become
USS Wahoo and USS Trout, (SS-565 and 566). Wahoo went to
Several reasons have been given for the failure of the pancake engine in
submarine use. It was undoubtedly a combination of effects. The engines were
supposedly to use a special lubricating oil. The Navy
supposedly insisted on standard diesel lubricating oil and that adversely
affected the bearings. This may have been the case or it may have been the
lightness of the internal structures of the engines. They did leak oil into the
generators and from information gained from people who worked on them, they were a real maintenance problem in the confined
space of the engine room. Whatever the reasons the engines
made advocates out of some and enemies of others. The Navy decided in
1956 to replace all the engines with the smaller, lightweight version of the
10-cylinder Fairbanks-Morse opposed piston engine. The boats had to be
lengthened some 9 feet in the engine room to make enough space for the new
engines, only three of which could be installed. Thus in 1957/58 each of the
first four boats were stretched to 277 feet. Gudgeon
and Harder were built to a length of 277 feet and with the FM engines as
initial installation. In 1967, some of the boats got an additional 15 (some
sources say 18) foot section added to receive the PUFFS installation and to
give added room. These boats were the 563, 565, 567 (all the
At the same time as these boats were being built and used, the Guppy program
was taking off. Other than the deeper depth capability of the Tangs, the
Guppies were nearly as good and a whole lot cheaper. The nuclear propulsion
plant in the Skipjack shaped hull made a quantum leap in submarine
capabilities.
Comparison Item Balao/Tench Class Tang Class Skipjack Class
Length
311.0'
268.0' 252.0'
Beam
(PH)
27'(16)
27'(18) 31.5'
Disp. Subm.
2415
2260
3500
Speed Subm.
8.75(1hr)
18(1hr)
29(unlimited)
Endurance Subm.
48hrs/2kts
43hrs/3kts 2160hrs/29kts
90 days (due to food)
96nmi
129nmi 62,640nmi
Even though the Tang-class was seemingly left in the dust, it took its place
alongside the Guppies performing the arduous duties of maintaining the watch on
the Soviet fleet and training our Naval ASW forces and those of our allies. That
is not to say the class wasn't worked hard. For example Tang was based
in
Trigger, actually the first of the Tangs to see service, was
initially home ported in
Gudgeon was attached to SubRon 1 in
Harder operated out of
Wahoo joined the Pacific Fleet in
Trout has had the longest, if not always active, service career.
Operating out of
These boats rendered exemplary service. They spent as much if not more time
at sea as did their contemporaries, either diesel or nuc.
The appellation that is the title of this piece is absolutely untrue. The
operations these boats performed are the stuff of legends, but under the cloak
of Cold War secrecy and the cloud of World War II prejudices, they go
unrecognized. There are unsubstantiated rumors of one or more of the boats
penetrating harbors and rivers to gather intelligence and of hold-downs by
foreign ships in and out of international waters. The boats made war patrols in
combat and classified situations for which they and their crews have not
received the proper recognition. As times change and the operations of the Cold
War and
By the way, USS Darter (SS-576) is in a class of its own and, although a direct descendant of the Tang-class, is different. The reason for its inclusion in the rhyme used as the title is because she looked like a Tang, operated like a Tang and rhymed. Sunk as target 1/7/92