O-5 during trials, 14 April 1918 |
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| Career | |
|---|---|
| Name: | USS O-5 |
| Ordered: | 3 March 1916 |
| Builder: | Fore River Shipbuilding Company, Quincy, Massachusetts |
| Laid down: | 8 December 1916 |
| Launched: | 11 November 1917 |
| Commissioned: | 8 June 1918 |
| Decommissioned: | 18 October 1923 |
| Struck: | 28 April 1924 |
| Fate: | Sunk in collision, 23 October 1923 Raised & sold for scrap, 12 December 1924 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | O-class submarine |
| Displacement: | 520.6 long tons (529.0 t) surfaced 629 long tons (639 t) submerged |
| Length: | 172 ft 4 in (52.53 m) |
| Beam: | 18 ft (5.5 m) |
| Draft: | 14 ft 5 in (4.39 m) |
| Installed power: | 440 hp (330 kW) (diesel engines) 370 hp (280 kW) (electric motors) |
| Propulsion: | Diesel-electric; 2 × diesel engines 2 × electric motors 2 × shafts |
| Speed: | 14 kn (16 mph; 26 km/h) surfaced 10.5 kn (12.1 mph; 19.4 km/h) submerged |
| Complement: | 2 officers, 27 men |
| Armament: | 4 × 18 in (460 mm) torpedo tubes (8 torpedoes) 1 × 3 in (76 mm)/50 cal deck gun |
USS O-5 (SS-66) was an O-class submarine. Her keel was laid down on 8 December 1916 by the Fore River Shipbuilding Company of Quincy, Massachusetts. She was launched on 11 November 1917, and commissioned on 8 June 1918 with Lieutenant George A. Trever in command.
During the final months of World War I, O-5 operated along the Atlantic coast and patrolled from Cape Cod to Key West, Florida. She departed Newport, Rhode Island on 3 November with a 20-submarine contingent bound for European waters; however, hostilities had ceased before the vessels reached the Azores.
After the Armistice with Germany, O-5 operated out of the Submarine School at New London, Connecticut until 1923. O-5 then sailed to Coco Solo, Panama Canal Zone, for a brief tour. On 28 October, as O-5 entered Limon Bay, preparatory to transiting the Panama Canal, she was rammed by the United Fruit Company steamer Abangarez and sank in less than a minute. Three men died; 16 others escaped. Two crewmembers, Henry Breault and Lawrence Brown were trapped in the forward torpedo room, which they sealed against the flooding of the submarine. Local engineers and divers were able to rig cranes and other equipment and lift O-5 far enough off the bottom that the bow broke the surface, exposing a hatch which led to the compartment where the two men were trapped, allowing them to be freed.[1] Henry Breault was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions.
Struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 28 April 1924, she was raised and later sold as a hulk to R.K. Morris in Balboa, Panama, on 12 December 1924.
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
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