USS C-5
USS C-5 , also known as "Submarine No. 16", 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 named for the snapper.
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
Snapper was laid down on 17 March 1908, by Fore River Shipbuilding Company, in Quincy, Massachusetts, under a subcontract from Electric Boat Company. Snapper was launched on 16 June 1909, sponsored by Ms. A. Nicoll, and commissioned on 2 February 1910, with Ensign Chester W. Nimitz in command.Service history
Snapper was fitted out at the Boston Navy Yard, then began three years of training and tests along the East Coast and in Chesapeake Bay. She ran experiments with radio, submarine signalling apparatus, different types of batteries, and other equipment, all of which has since become standard in submarines. She joined in Fleet maneuvers helping to develop submarine tactics in submerged attacks on combatant ships, and engaged in operations with airplanes in the infancy of naval aviation. Highlights of the period were the Naval Reviews of the Fleet by President William H. Taft and Secretary of the Navy George von L. Meyer, in November 1911 and October 1912. She was renamed C-5 on 17 November 1911.On 20 May 1913, C-5 and her sister ships of the First Group, Submarine Flotilla, Atlantic Fleet, commanded by Lieutenant (junior grade) R. S. Edwards in, departed Norfolk, Virginia, in tow of submarine tender and collier, for Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. From her arrival on 29 May, C-5 exercised in Cuban waters, principally conducting torpedo drills, until 7 December 1913. On that date, C-5 and her sisters of the redesignated First Division, escorted by four surface ships, sailed for Cristóbal, Colón, Panama Canal Zone. Five days later the ships completed the passage, at that time the longest cruise made by United States submarines under their own power.
C-5 operated in Panamanian waters, conducting exercises and harbor defense patrols as well as studying the suitability of various ports of Panama for submarine bases.
Fate
C-5 was decommissioned at Coco Solo, in the Panama Canal Zone, on 23 December 1919, and sold on 13 April 1920.Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz wrote of C-5: