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NavSource Online: Submarine Photo Archive

R-23 (SS-100)

Radio Call Sign: November - India - Lima - Zulu
R-21 Class Submarine: Laid down, 25 April 1917, at Lake Torpedo Boat Co., Bridgeport, CT.; Launched, 5 November 1918; Commissioned, USS R-23, 23 October 1919; Redesignated USS R-23 (SS-100), 17 July 1920; Decommissioned, 25 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, 30 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.
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
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-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-23,25, 26 & 27 222k Bow view of R-boats before commissioning. R-23 (SS-100), R-25 (SS-102) & R-26 (SS-103) were all commissioned on the same day, 23 October 1919. R-27 (SS-104) was commissioned on 3 September 1919.
Pictured from left to right:
R-26,
R-25,
R-27 &
R-23 at Lake Torpedo Boat Co. Yard, Bridgeport CT., 10 July 1919.
Note: The "H" painted on the hulls of these boats was the Lake yard hull number designation. EB had similar things. These yards built more than subs and each hull was numbered in sequence. 		USN photo # 19-N-2585, from the National Archives and Records Administration
(NARA), courtesy of Pete Sundstrom.
Partial text courtesy of Ric Hedman.
R-23 1.30k R-23 (SS-100) underway during trials, 30 September 1919. Photographed by her builder, the Lake Torpedo Boat Company, Bridgeport, Connecticut. Note the two-masted schooner under sail in the left distance, immediately beyond R-23's bow. USNHC photograph # NH 41522.
R-23
0810006		NR SUBMARINE GOES ON ROCK AT HELL GATE
The United States submarine R-23 (SS-100) limped into the port of New London early Friday morning and made her way to the submarine base, following an accident at Hell Gate, New York, Thursday morning.		Image and text provided by Connecticut State Library, Hartford, CT.
Photo & text by Norwich Bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 22 November 1919, Image 8, via chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.
R-23 171k Another boat lies behind the R-23 (SS-100) as the submarines lay off port in the early 20's. Photo courtesy of ATC Alex Hester.
R-24 134k PDF entitled "How the Diesel engine came to America." Photo courtesy of subvetpaul.com.
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-23 (SS-100)
DANFS history entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Web Site.
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