USS O-11
USS O-11 , also known as "Submarine No. 72", was one of 16 [United States United States O-class submarine|O-class submarine|O-class] submarines of the United States Navy commissioned during World War I.
Design
The later O-boats, O-11 through O-16, were designed by the Lake Torpedo Boat Company, to different specifications from the earlier boats designed by Electric Boat. They did not perform as well, and are sometimes considered a separate class. The submarines had a length of overall, a beam of, and a mean draft of. They displaced on the surface and submerged. The O-class submarines had a crew of 2 officers and 27 enlisted men. They had a diving depth of.For surface running, the boats were powered by two Busch-Sulzer diesel engines, each driving one propeller shaft. When submerged each propeller was driven by a Diehl Manufacture Company electric motor. They could reach on the surface and underwater. On the surface, the O class had a range of at.
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. The O-class submarines were also armed with a single /23 caliber retractable deck gun.
Construction
O-11s keel was laid down on 6 March 1916, by the Lake Torpedo Boat Company, in Bridgeport, Connecticut. She was launched on 29 October 1917, sponsored by Mrs. Anne Baruch, and commissioned at the New York Navy Yard, on 19 October 1918.Service history
Commissioned too late for World War I combat service, O-11 joined other boats of her class at Cape May, New Jersey, in 1919. On 20 September 1919, she was placed in commission, in reserve, at Cape May, and steamed to the Philadelphia Navy Yard, in October; workmen at Philadelphia, spent months working on the boat before she departed for Coco Solo, in the Panama Canal Zone.The arrival of a submarine squadron at Coco Solo, in 1913, had demonstrated the usefulness of the boats, the base continued as a distant submarine overhaul and testing area, into the 1920s.
When the US Navy adopted its hull classification system on 17 July 1920, she received the hull number SS-72.
O-11 reported there in 1922; after deck crews had brought her up to prime efficiency, she took several test dives off Panama, in spring 1923. In October, she sailed to Philadelphia.