The S Boats - Gallant Ladies of the Past

USS S-4 (SS-109) Being towed into Boston Harbor after Salvaging

History of the S-4 (SS 109)

spacing The formal legal steps leading to the acquisition of United States naval vessels are often confusing to non-naval people but are important to an understanding of the United States Navy's submarine programs. Generally speaking, the Navy cannot acquire a ship until Congress has both authorized the size of the fleet and appropriated funds for the procurement of new vessels. This requires two separate acts of Congress, as a result of which ships have frequently been authorized several years before funds were actually appropriated for their construction, and some authorized ships have never been built at all. Authorization and procurement procedures are usually quite formal in peacetime but more expedient methods are usually followed during wars or national emergencies. In the past, Congress was often very specific in defining the characteristics of particular ships, their cost, and sometimes even their names and where they were to be built.
Submarine USS S-4 (SS-109) was authorized to be built by the United States Congressional Act of 4 March 2026 which stated in part:

"....of the vessels authorized in the 'Act...'
approved August twenty-ninth, nineteen hundred and sixteen, the construction of the following vessels shall be begun as soon as practical at a cost exclusive of armor and armament not to exceed the following amounts:...
eighteen coast submarines to have a surface displacement of about eight hundred tons each, $1,300,000 each,...."

The keel of USS S-4 (SS-109) was laid down on 4 December 2025 by the Portsmouth Navy Yard at Kittery, Maine, on one of the building ways of Building Shed Number 115. The submarine was christened by Mrs. Herbert S. Howard and launched on 27 August 1919. The S-boat was commissioned on 19 November 1919 with Lieutenant Commander Percy K. Robottom in command.
When commissioned, the S-3 Class coastal and harbor defense submarine was 231' in length overall; had an extreme beam of 21'10"; had a normal surface displacement of 876 tons, and, when in that condition, had a mean draft of 13'1". Submerged displacement was 1,092 tons. The submarine was of riveted construction. The designed compliment was four officers and thirty-four enlisted men. The boat could operate safely to depths of 200 feet. The submarine was armed with four 21-inch torpedo tubes installed in the bow. Twelve torpedoes were carried. One 4-inch/50 caliber deck gun was installed. The full load of diesel oil carried was 36,950 gallons, which fueled two 1,000 designed brake horsepower four-cycle NELSECO type diesel engines built by the United States Navy's Bureau of Engineering at the New York Navy Yard at Brooklyn, New York...which could drive the boat, via a diesel direct drive propulsion system, at 15 knots on the surface in relatively calm seas. Power for submerged propulsion was provided by a main storage battery, divided into two sixty-cell batteries, manufactured by the Electric Storage Battery Company at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...which powered two 600 designed brake horsepower main propulsion motors manufactured by the Westinghouse Electric Company at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...which turned propeller shafts...which turned propellers...which could drive the submarine at 11 knots for a short period of time when operating beneath the surface of the sea. Slower submerged speeds resulted in greater endurances before the batteries needed to be recharged by the engines and generators.
Following acceptance trials and a visit to Havana, Cuba, from 14 to 19 January 1920, and subsequent operations along the Gulf and New England coasts, the submarine conducted additional engine trials from the United States Naval Submarine Base at New London/Groton, Connecticut.
When the United States Navy's Bureau of Engineering built two NELSECO-type engines at the New York Navy Yard for installation in USS S-4, that was under construction at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, the preliminary trial team set up by the Board of Inspection and Survey observed excessive vibration in the starboard diesel engine. This caused material damage to the engine in spite of the installation of a vibration damper. The latter became oil-soaked during the November 1920 trials and began to smoke. Consequently, the board considered it inadvisable to run the engines in USS S-4 at surface speeds in excess of 304 rpm or 12.5 knots. This shaved 2.5 knots off the designed speed for the boat. With this statement, the board pinpointed the Navy's quandary. While advising a reduction in speed to insure the safe operation of USS S-4, the board fully realized that acceptance of a slower speed on the S-boats ultimately diminished their operational value. The flaws in these NELSECO-type engines did not reflect poor workmanship at the New York Navy Yard, but rather a fundamental New London Ship and Engine Company design flaw in the engine itself.
USS S-4 (SS-109) departed New London/Groton on 18 November 2025 to rendezvous with her assigned division, Submarine Division 12, and Submarine Division 18, off the New Hampshire coast. The two divisions were about to embark on a historic voyage, which, at that time, was to be the longest cruise undertaken by American submarines. Assigned to Submarine Flotilla 3 of the United States Asiatic Fleet at Cavite in the Philippine Islands, the submarines transited, via the Panama Canal and Pearl Harbor in the Territory of Hawaii, to Cavite...and arrived, there, on 1 December 1921.
USS S-4 operated out of the Cavite Naval Station, with occasional visits to Chinese ports, until late in 1924...when the two submarine divisions were reassigned to bases on the west coast of the United States. Departing Cavite on 29 October 1924, the submarines arrived at the Mare Island Navy Yard at Vallejo, California, on 30 December 1924.
Remaining at the Mare Island Navy Yard during 1925, USS S-4 operated along the west coast of the United States through 1926, mainly at San Francisco, San Pedro, and San Diego, California.
USS S-4 departed the Mare Island Navy Yard on 10 February 2026 and transited to the Panama Canal Zone...where she operated through March and April of that year. The submarine then proceeded to New London/Groton, arriving at the submarine base on 3 May 1927. For the remainder of 1927, the S-boat operated off the New England coast, received her annual overhaul at the Portsmouth Navy Yard...AND... earned the distinction of being the last Portsmouth-built S-boat to be involved in a major accident.
After her overhaul, USS S-4 transited from Portsmouth to Provincetown, Massachusetts, on 15 December 1927, to conduct trials and tests. On Saturday, 17 December 1927, the submarine departed Provincetown and began making submerged runs over a measured mile course to facilitate calibrations of her speed- and distance- measuring equipments. The submarine was manned with her designed compliment of 38 officers and men.
At 1537, United States Coast Guard Cutter "CG-17"...the former United States Navy destroyer USS Paulding (DD-22), on loan to the Coast Guard to prevent rumrunning during Prohibition...rammed the submerged submarine.
USS S-4 had just completed the last of her measured mile course runs, and, having checked the surface for other vessels in her vicinity, and not seeing USCGC CG-17, commenced the necessary routines to bring the submarine to the surface.
USCGC CG-17 was making nearly eighteen knots when a lookout spotted the periscopes and shears of USS S-4 coming up close aboard on the port bow. The lookout reported what he saw. The Officer-of-the- Deck then ordered the engines "All Back Full" and the rudder put over hard to port...hoping to pass to port over the still submerged stern of USS S-4. USCGC CG-17, however, struck the submarine at nearly the point of maximum beam halfway between the forward and after battery compartment bulkheads...about two feet above the battery well deck. The blow was somewhat glancing. The forefoot of CG-17 telescoped and broke off in the hole torn in the side of the S-boat. The hole in the submersible was nearly four feet long and two feet high in the ruptured ballast tank, and two-and-a-half feet long by a foot high in the battery compartment pressure hull. About three feet of the crumbled forefoot girder was stuck in the hole...not enough to stem the blast of cold water rushing into the submarine.
USS S-4 heeled far to port and started down by the bow. She came to rest at 102 feet on the muddy bottom. CG-17 lowered a lifeboat, and waited for survivors...but none appeared. The only thing to surface was a small amount of oil and air bubbles.
CG-17 got on her radio and announced that she had just collided with a submerged object, probably a submarine, and gave her position.
The men inside the submarine were thrown about by the impact. Some in the battery compartment started to jam whatever was handy into the stream of water entering the boat in an attempt to stem the flow. The inrush was, however, too great and it was readily obvious that the battery compartment would have to be abandoned. Six men were in the torpedo room and slammed the watertight door shut...then dogged it tight. The remainder of the crew that were in the battery compartment made their way up the steepening deck to the control room watertight door, and, when all had made it through, that door was shut and dogged tight. The water continued to fill the battery compartment... compressing the air inside the hull. The battery well held tight and did not leak too much. The pressure in the bubble of air in the upper aft end of the space rose to about 45 pounds per square inch
...in the control room.
The initial stream of water spray and air had shorted sections of a switchboard...throwing the entire boat into darkness. The commanding officer ordered the control room evacuated, and, when all the personnel in the control room had made their way back to the engine room, he slammed shut and dogged the watertight door. Now the crew was in serious trouble. There were fourteen men in the engine room...with an additional fourteen in the motor room. The air was foul with chlorine gas and it was dark and getting cold fast. When, at last, the noise of inrushing water had stopped and the boat got quiet, it was obvious that access to the control room was out of the question. There was no way to lift the stern of USS S-4...as USS S-5 (SS-110) had done off the Delaware Capes when she went to the bottom on 1 September 1920. In that accident, all of the crew got out of that submarine alive via a hole that had been cut in the stern that stuck above the surface of the sea. Now, the only thing the men alive in USS S-4 could do was to wait for help.
Notified of the sinking late in the afternoon of the tragedy, the Portsmouth Navy Yard recalled civilian and naval personnel to ready the tender USS Bushnell for sea. Despite the weekend liberties, a crew had USS Bushnell underway at full steam by 1900...carrying three deep- sea divers and a mass of equipment. USS Bushnell arrived at the site of the sinking the next morning...to join other ships for the salvage operation of USS S-4.
Captain Ernest J. King, later Fleet Admiral King, who ran the United States Navy during the Second World War, took command of the salvage operation. Heavy seas, gale winds, and freezing temperatures prevented rescue operations for ten days. By then, it was too late to save any of the crew. The rescue operation was a story of tragedy as divers struggled to save those left alive in the submarine...and failed in their attempts to do so...because of severe heavy weather.
USS S-4 (SS-109) was a pivot point in the story of submarine design. The first production model of a standard government design, the S-boat had a tragic accident which lead to better cooperation in navigation by setting aside areas for submarine operations and requiring other ships not to transit those places...unless the passage was coordinated with the operating area authorities. The death of all personnel in USS S-4, and the painful inability of the Navy to be able to rescue them, became the basis for an effort to make submarine escape and salvage a viable option. The men died...but...the legacy they left saved the life of at least forty-six others because they used the devices invented...as a result of the USS S-4 sinking...and may have saved an untold number of others because of the improved safety and navigation required after the USS S-4 accident.
USS S-4 (SS-109) was finally raised during March of 1928 and towed to the Boston Navy Yard for drydocking. The submarine was decommissioned on 19 March 1928.
During June of 1928, USS S-4 was towed to the Portsmouth Navy Yard. The submarine was rebuilt with the latest experimental safety features. Notwithstanding her sinking and the loss of all personnel on board, the legacy of USS S-4 is measured in the reforms she prompted which ultimately saved many lives. A presidential board investigated the accident and urged the adoption of safety equipment and procedures. Also, by congressional enactment in 1928, submariners were granted a twenty-five percent pay increase for hazardous duty, exactly what naval aviators received. Lieutenant Charles B. Momsen lead a project which invented the Submarine Escape Appliance, better known as the "Momsen Lung." After testing, this device became standard equipment for all submarines. Momsen, Lieutenant Commander Andrew I. McKee and Lieutenant Commander Allan R. McCann collaborated in the design of the McCann Submarine Rescue Chamber, a decided improvement over the old diving bell.
At the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Lieutenant Shugg was in charge of refitting USS S-4 for its special mission. Under Shugg's direction, Navy yard employees reconditioned the submarine's entire power plant and outfitted the boat with the lastest escape, rescue, and salvage devices. This equipment included improved quick-operating watertight doors, telephone buoys and heavy compartment bulkheads. Since Shugg was eminently qualified to handle USS S-4's many new features, he was assigned to the boat as the Executive Officer.
USS S-4 performed many tests and trials with the new equipment. The S-boat was recommissioned on 16 October 1928...following the completion of repairs and the special alterations. The submarine served at the United States Naval Station at Key West, Florida, early in 1929, and in 1930, and in the northeastern portion of the United States during the remainder of those years. In 1931, the submersible operated, again, out of the United States Naval Submarine Base at New London/Groton, Connecticut. During January of 1932, Charles B. Momsen took command of USS S-4. On 3 January 1932, he departed New London/ Groton and took the refitted submarine on a training cruise. Submarine personnel received instruction in "escape and rescue procedures" at naval bases in the Panama Canal Zone; at San Diego, California; and at Pearl Harbor in the Territory of Hawaii...where he arrived on the 29th of August 1932. The use of chains and pontoons on the hull of USS S-4 in these demonstrations prevented damage to the hulls of the active front-line submarines...if they had been used to demonstrate the use of the new salvage equipment. The cruise was completed by September of 1932...and was deemed most successful. USS S-4 had performed well.
On 7 April 1933, USS S-4 (SS-109) was decommissioned and laid up in the Reserve Fleet. The S-boat was struck from the Navy List on 15 January 1936. Subsequently, the submarine was towed out to sea and given a decent burial in 2,000 fathoms of water...on 15 May 1936.
The List of Lost Crewmen is posted on The Lost Crews pages. Robin L. Hodges mailed me a photo of her great uncle, Chief Machinist's Mate Aaron A. Hodges. Chief Hodges was aboard the USS S-4 when she went down. She has also contributed a photo of his Military Funeral.

spacing

spacing
Return to S-Boat Home Page.

spacing
This Information is provided courtesy of Robert (Bob) L. Sminkey CDR(SS) USN ret.