- USS C-5 (SS-16)
USS "C-5" (SS-16) was a "C" ("Octopus")-class submarine of the
United States Navy . Her keel was laid down byFore River Shipbuilding Company inQuincy, Massachusetts ,Fact|date=August 2007 under a subcontract fromElectric Boat Company, as "Snapper", making her the first ship of the United States Navy named for thesnapper . "Snapper" was launched on16 June 1908 sponsored by Miss A. Nicoll, and commissioned on2 February 1910 with LieutenantChester W. Nimitz in command. She was renamed "C-5" on17 November 1911 and givenhull number SS-16 in 1920."Snapper" fitted out at the
Boston Navy Yard , then began three years of training and tests along the East Coast and inChesapeake Bay . She ran experiments withradio , submarine signaling apparatus, different types of batteries, and other equipment, all of which has since become standard in submarines. She joined in Fleet maneuvers helping to develop submarine tactics in submerged attacks on combatant ships, and engaged in operations with airplanes in the infancy of naval aviation. Highlights of the period were the reviews of the Fleet byPresident of the United States William H. Taft andSecretary of the Navy George von L. Meyer , in November 1911 and October 1912.On
20 May 1913 , "C-5" and her sisters of the First Group, Submarine Flotilla, Atlantic Fleet, commanded byLieutenant (junior grade) R. S. Edwards in "C-3", departedNorfolk, Virginia , in tow of tender "Castine" and collier "Mars", for Guantanamo Bay,Cuba . From her arrival on29 May , "C-5" exercised in Cuban waters, principally conductingtorpedo drills, until7 December 1913 . On that date "C-5" and her sisters of the redesignated First Division, escorted by four surface ships, sailed for Cristobal in thePanama Canal Zone . Five days later the ships completed the 700 mile passage, at that time the longest cruise made by United States submarines under their own power."C-5" operated in
Panama nian waters, conducting exercises and harbo defense patrols as well as studying the suitability of various ports of Panama for submarine bases. "C-5" was decommissioned atCoco Solo in thePanama Canal Zone ,23 December 1919 , and sold13 April 1920 .Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz wrote of "C-5"::Her Craig gasoline engines were built in Jersey City by James Craig, an extraordinarily wise and capable builder. Craig was a self-taught engineer who began as a draftsman in the Machinery Division of theNew York Navy Yard and who started his "Machine and Engine Works" in Jersey City at a later date. "C-5"’s engines were excellent as were also the Craig diesel engines he built for a subsequent submarine. These engines were designed and built by Craig and I have never forgotten his Foreword to the pamphlet of Operating Instructions which read briefly somewhat like this::"No matter what the designer and the builder may have planned for these engines and no matter what the operator may try to do with them "the Laws of Nature will prevail in the End"."
:How True !!
See USS "Snapper" for other ships of the same name.
References
External links
* [http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/c1/c-5.htm history.navy.mil: USS "C-5"]
* [http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/08016.htm navsource.org: USS "Snapper"]
* [http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/submar/ss16.htm hazegray.org: USS "Snapper"]
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