USS C-3


USS Tarpon/C-3 , also known as "Submarine No. 14", was one of five C-class submarines built for the United States Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. She was the first boat in the USN to be named for the tarpon.

Design

The C-class submarines were enlarged versions of the preceding B class; they were the first American submarines with two propeller shafts. They had a length of overall, a beam of and a mean draft of. They displaced on the surface and submerged. They had a diving depth of. The C-class boats had a crew of 1 officer and 14 enlisted men.
For surface running, they were powered by two Craig gasoline engines, each driving one propeller shaft. When submerged each propeller was driven by a electric motor. They could reach on the surface and underwater. On the surface, the boats had a range of at and at submerged.
The boats were armed with two 18-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes in the bow. They carried two reloads, for a total of four torpedoes.

Construction

Tarpon was laid down, on 17 March 1908, by Fore River Shipbuilding Company, in Quincy, Massachusetts, under a subcontract from Electric Boat Company. She was launched on 8 April 1909, sponsored by Miss Katherine E. Theiss, and commissioned on 23 November 1909.

Service history

She was renamed C-3 on 17 November 1911. The boat cruised along the East Coast with the Atlantic Torpedo Fleet and the Atlantic Submarine Flotilla, Atlantic Fleet, through the early 1913, operating in tests and exercises. From May to December 1913, she was based at Guantánamo Bay, and on 12 December, reported at Cristóbal, Colón, Panama Canal Zone. Her operations included exploration of anchorages, tactical drills, and harbor defense patrol at Canal Zone ports. In the summer of 1918, she patrolled off Florida, then returned to Panamanian waters.

Fate

C-3 was placed in ordinary at Coco Solo, Canal Zone, on 22 August 1919, decommissioned there on 23 December 1919, and sold on 12 April 1920.