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NavSource Online: Submarine Photo Archive

R-22 (SS-99)

Radio Call Sign: November - India - Lima - Xray
R-21 Class Submarine: Laid down, 19 April 1917, at Lake Torpedo Boat Co., Bridgeport, CT.; Launched, 23 September 1918; Commissioned, USS R-22, 1 August 1919; Redesignated USS R-22 (SS-99), 17 July 1920; Decommissioned, 29 April 1925, at Philadelphia Navy Yard, Philadelphia, PA.; Laid up in the Reserve Fleet at League Island, PA.; Struck from the Naval Register, 9 May 1930; Final Disposition, sold for scrapping in July 1930.

Specifications: Displacement, Surfaced: 510 t., Submerged: 583 t.; Length 175' ; Beam 16' 8"; Draft 13' 11"; Speed, surfaced 14 kts, submerged 11 kts; Depth Limit, 200'; Complement 2 Officers, 27 Enlisted; Armament, four 18" torpedo tubes forward, 8 torpedoes, one 3"/50 deck gun; Propulsion, diesel electric engines, Busch Sulzer Brothers Diesel Engine Co., diesel engines, HP 1,000, Fuel Capacity, 17,922 gals., Diehl Manufacture Co., electric motors, HP 800, Battery Cells 120, twin propellers.
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Lake's R boats 88k Lake's R-boats R-21-27 / (SS-98/104), were the last of his designs to be built in any numbers. He abandoned amidships diving planes in this class, but his characteristics stern remained. The horizontal tube aft is an access tube connecting the motor room to the tiller room aft. Drawing by Jim Christley, text courtesy of U.S. Submarines Through 1945, An Illustrated Design History by Norman Friedman. Naval Institute Press.
R 852k What will be the R-21 (SS-98) lies on slip 25 as hull #32 3 months after her keel has been laid at the Lake Torpedo Boat Company shipyard, Bridgeport, Connecticut on 19 April 1917. What could be the R-22 (SS-99) lies under construction on her left. Both were laid down on the same day. US National Archives photo # 19 lc cr 2488 from NARA, College Park, Maryland, courtesy of Sean Hert.
R 863k Bow view of the R-21 (SS-98) on 1 April 1918.
The R-22 (SS-99) lies under construction on her left. 		US National Archives photo # 19 lc cr 2491 from NARA, College Park, Maryland, courtesy of Sean Hert.
SS 99
0809900		NR TWIN SUBMARINES ARE
CHRISTENED TODAY AT
LAUNCHING AT LAKE'S
Bottles of Champagne Broken on Bows of the R-22 and R 27 in Presence of Large Gathering of Distinguished Guests Launching Entirely Successful.
 Two more nails were driven in the coffin of William "the Last," today when a double launching at the Lake Torpedo Boat Company's yards added the R-22 (SS-99) and the R-27 (SS-104), two of the largest submarines ever built, to the fighting forces of Democracy. 		Image and text provided by Connecticut State Library, Hartford, CT.
Photo from Republican Farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1810-1920, 27 September 1918, Image 6, via chroniclingamerica.loc.gov
R-22 345k R-22 (SS-99) before launching on 23 September 1918. Photographer: Committee Public Information.
National Archives Identifier: 45548671
Local Identifier: 165-WW-505B-65.
Photo courtesy of catalog.archives.gov
S-99
0809908		2.11kCrowd at launching of R-22 (SS-99) on 23 September 1918.
What is prpobably the R-23 (SS-100) is in the background with the crowd around her. 		Photographer: Committee Public Information.
National Archives Identifier: 45547330
Local Identifier: 165-WW-499A-100.
Photo courtesy of catalog.archives.gov
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.
R 986k R-21 (SS-98), R-22 (SS-99), R-23 (SS-100), R-24 (SS-101) & R-27 (SS-104) bow view on 2 January 1919. US National Archives photo # 19 lc cr 1239 from NARA, College Park, Maryland, courtesy of Sean Hert.
R-22 47k Bow view of the R-22 (SS-99) underway off the Atlantic coast, 15 February 1919, 3 months after her launching and 8 months before her commissioning. USN photo # 19-N-14768, from the National Archives and Records Administration
(NARA), courtesy of Daniel Dunham.
R-24 134k PDF entitled "How the Diesel engine came to America." Photo courtesy of subvetpaul.com.
R-22 64k Bow view of the R-22 (SS-99) at Lake Torpedo Boat Co., Bridgeport, CT. 2 April 1919. USN photo # 19-N-2511, from the National Archives and Records Administration
(NARA), courtesy of Daniel Dunham.
R-21,22,23,27 & S-2 411k In port, pictured from left to right:
R-21 (SS-98)
R-23 (SS-100)
R-27 (SS-104)
S-2 (SS-106)
At Lake Torpedo Boat Co. Yard, Bridgeport CT., 2 April 1919. 		USN photo # 19-N-2584, from the National Archives and Records Administration
(NARA), courtesy of Daniel Dunham.
R-22 577k R-22 (SS-99) starboard view underway with the crew lining the deck, probably in the Thames river off New London, CT., in the early 1920's. USN photo # 19-N-10666, from the National Archives and Records Administration
(NARA), courtesy of Daniel Dunham & Robert Hurst.
R-22 491k R-22 (SS-99) dockside showing her bow buoyancy conversion bow at the Navy Yard, Portsmouth New Hampshire, 29 July 1922.
The R-22 was the second R-boat constructed by the Lake Torpedo Boat company. During 1921, R-22 was transferred back to the Connecticut Submarine Base for duty with SubDiv0, an experimental division of submarines. 		Text contributed by Ric Hedman/rddesigns.com. USN photo courtesy of Scott Koen & ussnewyork.com.
R-22 43k Simon Lake added this same bow to the R-22 (SS-99) over his concerns about reserve buoyancy. USN photo and text contributed by Ric Hedman/rddesigns.com.
R-22 431k Bow view of the R-22 (SS-99) at the Navy Yard, Portsmouth New Hampshire, 29 July 1922. USN photo courtesy of ussubvetsofwwii.org.
R-23, 25 & S-1 1.58k Control Force submarines and their tenders at Cristobal, Panama Canal Zone, circa 1923. The tenders are (from left to right):
Savannah (AS-8),
Bushnell (AS-2),
Beaver (AS-5) and
Camden (AS-6).
Submarines are mostly R-boats, among them R-23 (SS-100) and R-25 (SS-102), both in the nest alongside Savannah's port quarter. The larger submarine alongside Savannah's bow may be S-1 (SS-105), with her large seaplane hangar. 		USNHC photograph # NH 42573. Photographed by A.E. Wells. Courtesy of Commander Christopher Noble, USN (Retired), 1967.
S-16 1.40k S-16 (SS-121) & next to her is possibly the S-50 (SS-161) with another unknown S-boat and 4 unidentified R-boats alongside their tender, Shawmut (CM-4) probably in the Panama Canal area, circa 1924. USN photo #80-G-1024884, from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), courtesy of Daniel Dunham.
View the R-22 (SS-99)
DANFS history entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Web Site.
Crew Contact And Reunion Information
U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation
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