USS O-13
USS O-13 , also known as "Submarine No. 74", was one of 16 [United States United States O-class submarine|O-class submarine|O-class] submarines of the United States Navy commissioned after the end of 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-13s keel was laid down on 6 March 1916, by the Lake Torpedo Boat Company, in Bridgeport, Connecticut. She was launched 27 December 1917, sponsored by Miss Margaret Arletta Adams, and commissioned at the New York Navy Yard, on 27 November 1918.Service history
While conducting submerged trials in Long Island Sound, on 5 October 1918, prior to her commissioning, O-13 rammed, the section patrol boat that was accompanying her during a submerged circular run off Bridgeport, Connecticut, holing Mary Alice amidships. Although Mary Alice sank within minutes, O-13 rescued her entire crew.O-13 operated along the coast of New Jersey and New York, until 8 October 1919, when she arrived at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, for a five-month overhaul. After returning to Cape May, New Jersey, on 8 March 1920, she departed on 1 April, for duty in the Caribbean Sea. Steaming via Key West, Florida, and Havana, Cuba, she arrived Coco Solo, in the Panama Canal Zone, on 30 April.
When the US Navy adopted its hull classification system on 17 July 1920, she received the hull number SS-74.
For over three years O-13 operated out of the Submarine Base, at Coco Solo, both in the Caribbean Sea, and in the Pacific Ocean. Cruises sent her to ports in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, while assigned to Submarine Division 10.