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NavSource Online: Submarine Photo Archive

O-11 (SS-72)

Radio Call Sign: November - Echo - Tango - Kilo
O-11 Class Submarine: Laid down, 6 March 1916, at Lake Torpedo Boat Co., Bridgeport, CT.; Launched, 29 October 1917; Commissioned, USS O-11, 19 October 1918, at New York; Designated (SS-72), 17 July 1920; Decommissioned, 21 June 1924, at Philadelphia, PA.; Laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet; Struck from the Naval Register, 9 May 1930; Final Disposition, sold for scrapping, 30 July 1930

Specifications: Displacement, surfaced: 491 t., submerged: 566 t.; Length 175'; Beam 16' 7"; Draft 13' 11"; Speed, surfaced 14 kts, submerged 11 kts; Operational Depth Limit 200 ft; Complement 2 Officers 27 Enlisted; Armament, four 18" torpedo tubes, eight torpedoes, one 3"/23 deck gun; Propulsion, diesel-electric, Busch Sulzer Brothers Diesel Engine Co., diesels, 1,000 hp, Fuel Capacity, 18,588 gal.; Diehl Manufacture Co. electric motors, 800 hp, Battery Cells 120, single propeller.
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O-11 208k Bottle & presentation case from the launch of the O-11 (SS-72), 29 October 1917. Electric Boat photo courtesy of George K.Chastain, Executive Director of The Belle W. Baruch Foundation.
Great thanks to John Spivey, who looks for things to make this website better.
O-11 293k Inscription of the presentation case from the launch of the O-11 (SS-72), 29 October 1917. Electric Boat photo courtesy of George K.Chastain, Executive Director of The Belle W. Baruch Foundation.
Great thanks to John Spivey, who looks for things to make this website better.
O-11 154k The letter from the Secretary of the Navy, Josephus Daniels to Mrs. Baruch on the occasion of the christening of the O-11 (SS-72), 1 November 1917. Electric Boat photo courtesy of George K.Chastain, Executive Director of The Belle W. Baruch Foundation.
Great thanks to John Spivey, who looks for things to make this website better.
Pargo 86k Sponsor photos of the O-11 (SS-72) are hard to come by (perhaps non-existent). The O-11 was launched by Mrs. Annie Griffen Baruch. Her daughter Miss Belle W. Baruch sponsored the launching of the Pargo (SS-264) 25 years later.
The sponsor's party appear from left to right:
Mrs. L. Y. Spear, R. (Rene) Samstag, Financier Bernard Mannes Baruch & Miss Belle W. Baruch, on 24 January 1943 at the Electric Boat Co., Groton, CT.		 Electric Boat photo courtesy of George K.Chastain, Executive Director of The Belle W. Baruch Foundation.
Great thanks to John Spivey, who looks for things to make this website better.
O-11 113k O-11 (SS-72) fitting out at the Lake Torpedo Boat Company shipyard, Bridgeport, Connecticut on 8 July 1918. Note the Lake T.B. Co. logo in the lower right. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph # NH 44549 submitted by Robert Hurst.
O-11 850k O-11 (SS-72) fitting out at the Lake Torpedo Boat Co., Bridgeport, Connecticut, July, 1918. R-21 (SS-98) is fitting out at left. Source: Naval History and Heritage Command, Photo No. NH 44557 via Mike Green.
O & R 995k Bow view of the O-11 (SS-72), R-21 (SS-98), R-22 (SS-99), R-24 (SS-101) & R-27 (SS-104) at the Lake Torpedo Boat Company shipyard, Bridgeport, Connecticut on 7 October 1918. US National Archives photo # 19 lc 1154 from NARA, College Park, Maryland, courtesy of Sean Hert.
Coco Solo1.66kUS Sub Base, Coco Solo, Panama Canal Zone: 26 September 1922.
France Field is in the background.
One of the Henry Ford built Eagle class patrol boats is in the lower left corner of the basin.
Identifiable submarines are not clear enough for positive ID’s, but all the 6 Lake Torpedo Boat Co. O-class boats: O-11 (SS-72), O-12 (SS-73), O-13 (SS-74), O-14 (SS-75), O-15 (SS-76) & O-16 (SS-77) were assigned there for the bulk of their active service before being scrapped in 1930.		Photo i.d. courtesy of Ric Hedman & David Johnston (USN, retired) .
Record Group 18: Records of the Army Air Forces, ca. 1902 - 1964
Series: "Airscapes" of American and Foreign Areas, 1917 - 1964
File Unit: Panama Canal Zone - Coco Solo
Local Identifier: 18-AA-108-33
National Archives Identifier: 68147899
Photo courtesy of catalog.archives.gov
O-11 through O-16 238k From inboard to outboard: O-11 (SS-72), O-13 (SS-74), O-14 (SS-75), O-15 (SS-76), O-16 (SS-77), and O-12 (SS-73), at the Washington D.C. Navy Yard, circa 1918-24. USN photo # 80-G-1024950, from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), courtesy of Daniel Dunham.
R-25
0810203		NR SHIPS RUSH TO AID OF U S. SUBMARINES
Underwater Craft Disabled by Rough Seas Near Bahamas, Navy Reports
CHARLESTON, S. C, 29 October. Seven destroyers and several tugs have been dispatched to the assistance of submarines O-11 (SS-72) and R-25 (SS-102), reported disabled in a rough sea 100 miles east of the Great Guana key, near the Bahamas, according to an announcement today at headquarters of the sixth naval district here. The submarines broke down about 1 o’clock yesterday afternoon, it was stated.		 Image and text provided by Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Photo & text by Evening Star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 29 October 1923, Image 1, via chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.
O-11 through O-16 81k O boats possibly in Phila. PA circa 1924:
From inboard to outboard: unidentified O boat, O-11 (SS-72), O-12 (SS-73), O-16 (SS-77) & O-14 (SS-75). 		USN photo submitted by Charles Worcester.
O-16
0807700		674kPhiladelphia in the late 1920’s.
From left to right: Two K-class: (No definite i.d. which ones of the following 8 ): K-1 (SS-32), K-2 (SS-33), K-3 (SS-34), K-4 (SS-35), K-5 (SS-36), K-6 (SS-37), K-7 (SS-38), K-8 (SS-39).
Four EB design L-class (No definite i.d. which ones of the following 4 ): L-2 (SS-41), L-3 (SS-42), L-9 (SS-49) & L-11 (SS-51).
Two Lake design O-class (No definite i.d. which ones of the first 4): O-11 (SS-72), O-13 (SS-74), O-14 (SS-75), O-15 (SS-76 ), with the last boat being O-16 (SS-77) on far right.
All boats are in various states of disrepair, and all would be disposed of by scrapping by the summer of 1930 in accordance with the London Naval Treaty. 		Photo courtesy of David Wright.
Text i.d. via David Johnston.
View the O-11 (SS-72)
DANFS history entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Web Site.
Crew Contact And Reunion Information
Not Applicable to this Vessel
Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
PigBoats.COM TM, a Historic Look at Submarines
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