USS Grampus (SS-4)

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USS Grampus/A-3 (SS-4), also known as "Submarine Torpedo Boat No. 4", was a , and the fourth ship of the United States Navy to be named for a member of the dolphin family, Grampus griseus. She was stationed on the West Coast, assisting in the relief efforts after the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, and was later transported to the Philippines, serving as harbor defense 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

File:USS Grampus (SS-4) 1910 - NH 77180.jpg

Bow view of Grampus, in San Diego, 1910

GrampusTemplate:' keel was laid down on 10 December 1900, in San Francisco, California, by the Union Iron Works, a subcontractor for the Holland Torpedo Boat Company, of New York City. She was launched on 31 July 1902; sponsored by Mrs. Marley F. Hay, the wife of the Superintendent of Construction at Union Iron Works; commissioned at the Mare Island Navy Yard on 28 May 1903.Template:Sfn

Her christening was marred by a failure of the ribbon from which the champagne was hung, leading some sailors to believe she was cursed.Template:Sfn

Service history

Over the next three and a half years, Grampus operated out of the San Francisco area, principally in training and experimental work. On 18 April 1906, men from her crew participated in relief efforts after the devastating San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Decommissioned, for the first time, at Mare Island, on 28 November 1906, Grampus remained inactive until recommissioned on 13 June 1908. Subsequently assigned to the First Submarine Division, Pacific Torpedo Flotilla, in January 1910, and to the Pacific Fleet, in March 1911, the submarine torpedo boat operated locally off the California coast until assigned to the Pacific Reserve Fleet on 28 June 1912. Toward the end of that period of active service, on 17 November 1911, Grampus was renamed A-3.Template:Sfn

A-3 remained inactive, at the Puget Sound Navy Yard into 1915. On 16 February 1915, she was hoisted onto the collier , which sailed soon thereafter for the Philippines with A-3 and her sister ship, A-5, ex-, as deck cargo. Hector arrived at Olongapo, site of the Subic Bay Naval Base, on 26 March, and returned A-3 to the water 10 April 1915.Template:Sfn

Recommissioned at Olongapo, a week later, on 17 April 1915, A-3 was assigned to the First Submarine Division, Torpedo Flotilla, Asiatic Fleet, and remained in active service with that unit until decommissioned at Cavite, on 25 July 1921. During World War I, A-3 patrolled the waters off the entrance to Manila Bay. On 17 July 1920, A-3 was given the hull number SS-4.Template:Sfn

Fate

A-3 was dismantled and used as a target by ships of the Asiatic Fleet, she was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 16 January 1922.Template:Sfn

Bibliography

1. REDIRECT Template:Source-attribution

Further reading

• Pigboats Template:Webarchive (retrieved 27 February 2018)