USS H-5

USS H-5 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-5 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 24 September 1918, sponsored by Miss Mary Ingram Hoopes, and commissioned on 30 September 1918.

Operating out of San Pedro Submarine Base, San Pedro, California, with Submarine Divisions 6 and 7, H-5 participated in various training and battle exercises, with periodic overhauls at the Mare Island Navy Yard.

She departed San Francisco, California, on 25 July 1922, in company with both divisions and arrived at Norfolk, Virginia, on 14 September. H-5 decommissioned at Norfolk, on 20 October 1922. Her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 26 February 1931. She was sold for scrapping on 28 November 1933.