- USS O-5 (SS-66)
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"O-5" redirects here. For the Army spyplane, see de Havilland Canada O-5.
O-5 during trials, 14 April 1918Career 
Name: USS O-5 Ordered: 3 March 1916 Builder: Fore River Shipbuilding Company, Quincy, Massachusetts Laid down: 8 December 1916 Launched: 11 November 1917 Commissioned: 8 June 1918 Decommissioned: 18 October 1923 Struck: 28 April 1924 Fate: Sunk in collision, 23 October 1923
Raised & sold for scrap, 12 December 1924General characteristics Type: O-class submarine Displacement: 520.6 long tons (529.0 t) surfaced
629 long tons (639 t) submergedLength: 172 ft 4 in (52.53 m) Beam: 18 ft (5.5 m) Draft: 14 ft 5 in (4.39 m) Installed power: 440 hp (330 kW) (diesel engines)
370 hp (280 kW) (electric motors)Propulsion: Diesel-electric; 2 × diesel engines
2 × electric motors
2 × shaftsSpeed: 14 kn (16 mph; 26 km/h) surfaced
10.5 kn (12.1 mph; 19.4 km/h) submergedComplement: 2 officers, 27 men Armament: 4 × 18 in (460 mm) torpedo tubes (8 torpedoes)
1 × 3 in (76 mm)/50 cal deck gunUSS O-5 (SS-66) was an O-class submarine. Her keel was laid down on 8 December 1916 by the Fore River Shipbuilding Company of Quincy, Massachusetts. She was launched on 11 November 1917, and commissioned on 8 June 1918 with Lieutenant George A. Trever in command.
Service history
During the final months of World War I, O-5 operated along the Atlantic coast and patrolled from Cape Cod to Key West, Florida. She departed Newport, Rhode Island on 3 November with a 20-submarine contingent bound for European waters; however, hostilities had ceased before the vessels reached the Azores.
After the Armistice with Germany, O-5 operated out of the Submarine School at New London, Connecticut until 1923. O-5 then sailed to Coco Solo, Panama Canal Zone, for a brief tour. On 28 October, as O-5 entered Limon Bay, preparatory to transiting the Panama Canal, she was rammed by the United Fruit Company steamer Abangarez and sank in less than a minute. Three men died; 16 others escaped. Two crewmembers, Henry Breault and Lawrence Brown were trapped in the forward torpedo room, which they sealed against the flooding of the submarine. Local engineers and divers were able to rig cranes and other equipment and lift O-5 far enough off the bottom that the bow broke the surface, exposing a hatch which led to the compartment where the two men were trapped, allowing them to be freed.[1] Henry Breault was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions.
Struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 28 April 1924, she was raised and later sold as a hulk to R.K. Morris in Balboa, Panama, on 12 December 1924.
References
This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
- ^ Submarine Casualties Booklet. U.S. Naval Submarine School. 1966. http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/8200. Retrieved 2009-09-08.
External links
- Photo gallery of USS O-5 at NavSource Naval History
- On Eternal Patrol: USS O-5
Designed by Electric Boat Designed by Lake Torpedo Boat Categories:- United States O class submarines
- World War I submarines of the United States
- United States submarine accidents
- Lost submarines of the United States
- Maritime incidents in 1923
- Ships built in Massachusetts
- 1917 ships
- Shipwrecks in the Caribbean Sea
- Ships sunk in collisions
- United States submarine stubs
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