USS H-4

USS H-4 was an [United States United States H-class submarine|H-class submarine|H-class] submarine of the United States Navy originally built for the Imperial Russian Navy. Six of these were not delivered, pending the outcome of the Russian Revolution of 1917, before being purchased by the USN, on 20 May 1918.

Design

The H-class submarines had an overall length of, a beam of, and a mean draft of. They displaced on the surface and submerged. They had a diving depth of. The boats had a crew of 2 officers and 23 enlisted men.
For surface running, they were powered by two New London Ship & Engine Company diesel engines, each driving one propeller shaft. When submerged each propeller was driven by two Electro-Dynamic Company electric motors. 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 four 18-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes in the bow. They carried four reloads, for a total of eight torpedoes.

H-4 was laid down on 12 May 1918, at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, she had been already been preassembled by the British Pacific Construction and Engineering Company, in Vancouver, Canada, for Imperial Russian Government, which had failed to exist in September 1917. She was launched on 9 October 1918, and commissioned on 24 October 1918.

Stationed at San Pedro, California, first with Submarine Division 6 and then SubDiv 7, H-4 participated in various battle and training exercises along the West Coast with her sister H-boats. These exercises were interrupted by occasional patrol duty off Santa Catalina Island, and periodic overhauls at the Mare Island Navy Yard.

In company with the two sub divisions and tender, H-4 sailed from San Pedro, on 25 July 1922, and reached Norfolk, Virginia, on 14 September, via Magdalena Bay, Corinto, and Coco Solo. She decommissioned there on 25 October. H-4 was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 26 February 1931, and sold for scrap on 14 September.