USS Adder

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USS Adder/A-2 (SS-3), also known as "Submarine Torpedo Boat No. 3", was one of seven s built for the United States Navy (USN) in the first decade of the 20th century. She was named for the adder. Used primarily for training, she served as harbor defense in Manila Bay, during WWI.

Design

File:EB1911 Ship Fig. 126 -US 'Adder'.png

Plan of Plunger-class. A, storage batteries; B, gas-engine; C, dynamo and motor; D, water-tight compartments; E, main ballast tanks; F, air-flasks; G, gasolene tank; H, expulsion tube.

The s were enlarged and improved versions of the preceding Holland, the first submarine in the USN. They had a length of Template:Cvt overall, a beam of Template:Cvt and a mean draft of Template:Cvt. They displaced Template:Cvt on the surface and Template:Cvt submerged. The Plunger-class boats had a crew of one officer and six enlisted men. They had a diving depth of .Template:Sfn

For surface running, they were powered by one gasoline engine that drove the single propeller. When submerged the propeller was driven by a electric motor.Template:Sfn The boats could reach Template:Cvt on the surface and Template:Cvt underwater.Template:Sfn

The Plunger-class boats were armed with one torpedo tube in the bow. They carried four reloads, for a total of five torpedoes.Template:Sfn

Construction

Adder was laid down on 3 October 1900, at the Crescent Shipyard, in Elizabethport, New Jersey, by Lewis Nixon, a subcontractor for the Holland Torpedo Boat Company, New York City; launched on 22 July 1901; sponsored by Mrs. Jane S. Wainwright, wife of Rear Admiral Richard Wainwright. Adder was commissioned on 12 January 1903, at the Holland Torpedo Boat Station, at New Suffolk, New York.Template:Sfn Due to her being laid down and commissioned first, the boats of the Plunger-class is often referred to as the Adler-class by historians, she was the second submarine commissioned in the United States Navy after .Template:Sfn

Service history

File:A-2 torpedo loading.png

A crewman guiding one of the submarine's three torpedoes below deck through the torpedo loading hatch.

After initial experimental duty at the Naval Torpedo Station at Newport, Adder was towed to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard by the tug , arriving there on 4 December 1903. In January 1904, the submarine torpedo boat was assigned to the Reserve Torpedo Flotilla. Placed out of commission on 26 July 1909, Adder was loaded onto the collier , and was transported to the Philippines, arriving on 1 October 1909.Template:Sfn

Recommissioned on 10 February 1910, she was assigned to duty with the 1st Submarine Division, Asiatic Torpedo Fleet. Over almost a decade, the submarine torpedo boat operated from Cavite and Olongapo, principally in training and experimental work. During this time, she was renamed on 17 November 1911, becoming simply A-2 (Submarine Torpedo Boat No. 3).Template:Sfn

During World War I, she carried out patrols off the entrance to Manila Bay, and around the island of Corregidor.Template:Sfn

Fate

She was decommissioned on 12 December 1919. A-2, was assigned the alphanumeric hull number SS-3 on 17 July 1920, and designated for use as a target on 24 September 1920.Template:Sfn Sunk as a target in mid-January 1922,Template:Sfn she was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 16 January 1922.Template:Sfn

Bibliography

1. REDIRECT Template:Source-attribution

External links

• history.navy.mil: USS Adder Photos
• Crescent Shipyard Information on Lewis Nixon's Crescent Shipyard, location of John P. Holland's site of operations in Elizabethtown, New Jersey.