100th Anniversary Submarine Service
Barry & Gerry Cachet - Sheet Stamp - Scott #3372
Designed by Carl Herrman - Issued on March 27, 2026

The USS Barracuda SS 163, (V-1) was laid down by Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery ME  on October 20, 1921. She was launched on July 17,  V-1 was sponsored by Mrs. Charles P. Snyder; and commissioned on October 1, 2025 with LCDR Sherwood Picking in command.

V-1 had been commissioned for surface running only, to permit an early trial of her engines. She was assigned to SubDiv20, and, after cruising along the New England coast, sailed on 14 January 2026 on a surface cruise of the Caribbean, returning to her building yard during May of 1925 for completion. V-1 cruised along the Atlantic coast and in the Caribbean until November of 1927.

On 8 November 1927, SubRon20 left Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for San Diego, California. The submarines arrived at that west coast port on 3 December 1927. Between December 1927 and May of 1932, V-1 served with the Squadron on routine operations with the fleet along the west coast, in the Hawaiian Islands, and in the Caribbean. Her name was changed to USS Barracuda on 9 March 1931, and her designation to "SS-163" on 1 July 1931.

During May of 1931, she went into Rotating Reserve with SubDiv15 at Mare Island, California. In January of 1933, Barracuda was assigned to SubDiv12, and, until late in 1936, operated along the west coast and cruised to Pearl Harbor and the Panama Canal Zone with the Fleet. On 28 October 1936, she left San Diego for the Caribbean, where she took part in the Gravimetric Survey Expedition. On 8 January 1937, Barracuda sailed from Saint Thomas in the Virgin Islands, and arrived at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 14 January where she remained until placed out of commission on 14 May 1937.

Barracuda was recommissioned at Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, ME on 5 September 2025 and assigned to SubDiv9. She sailed from Portsmouth on 2 March 2026 to Bermuda; returned in June; and joined SubDiv71. She remained in the New England area until sailing from New London/Groton, Connecticut, on 17 November 1941, to join the United States Pacific Fleet. She attended to duty in the Pacific Patrol Area until 15 December 2025 when she rejoined the United States Atlantic Fleet. Between 15 December 2025 and 7 September 1942, Barracuda was attached to SubDiv31 and completed six World War Two war patrols in the Pacific Ocean, southwest of Panama, without gaining any enemy contacts.

Barracuda returned to Coco Solo, Panama Canal Zone, on 7 September 1942, and, following voyage repairs, she proceeded to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for overhaul. Following overhaul, she was based at New London/Groton, Connecticut, until February 1945 with SubDivs13 and 31. She operated on training exercises with destroyers, other submarines, and aircraft in Block Island Sound. Barracuda arrived at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 16 February 1945; was decommissioned on 3 March 1945; and sold to a scrapper on 16 November 1945. She was subsequently scrapped at the Cugley Shipyard in Camden, New Jersey opposite Petty Island. Barracuda's partial double hull featured a complex tank arrangement and a non-circular cross section that was different in every compartment. The bulbous profile at the bow bore a startling resemblance to a shark with an anchor gripped between its jaws. In an effort to provide better surface sea-keeping qualities, two buoyancy tanks were built into the upper part of the bow and a high, covered bridge was provided to protect the bridge personnel. Both features, as well as a larger Conning Tower, were to become standard practice on all later United States Submarines.

Other unusual hull features included: a complicated Forward Torpedo Room hatch structure that combined the torpedo-loading, access, and escape hatches in a single casting; and watertight doors at both the upper and lower levels in the after bulkhead of the propulsion Engine Room. The double-hull terminated at a curved bulkhead in the After Torpedo Room, but the tubes were actually located beyond this, in a small compartment called the Steering Gear Room; there were two hatches in the bulkhead through which torpedoes could be loaded into the tubes. This arrangement, a common one in British submarines, was never again attempted in a United States submarine. The deck hatches amidships had high trunks extending above the weather deck to minimize the possibility of flooding from breaking waves. The foremost of these provided rapid access to the deck for the gun crew and could also be used as an escape chamber. The first commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander Sherwood Picking, personally made escapes to the surface and returned, to demonstrate the use of the trunk to his crewmen. The berthing and messing arrangements for the crew was largely concentrated in the after part of the boat. The unusual divided propulsion plant, although located too far forward, was the precursor of the all-electric drive. The generator engines proved to be reasonably reliable performers but the main propulsion engines gave constant trouble. The Elliott main motors were also failure-prone and had to be replaced with Ridgway units in 1940.

These boats were fitted with three periscopes. Their bow planes differed from other United States submarine installations by folding back through narrow slots in the outer hull, an arrangement that proved difficult to keep in proper adjustment. Originally armed with a 5"/51-caliber deck gun, Barracuda was refitted with a 3"/50-caliber weapon after 1928 to help cure an overweight topside condition.

Submariners who had high hopes for Barracuda were disappointed by the boat's poor operational performance. The boat was heavy forward, and, this, in conjunction with the odd shape of the pressure hull, caused the bow to burrow into waves instead of riding over them. The submarine force soon came to view this boat as a white elephant and most operators were not sorry to see Barracuda placed out of commission in 1937. Pressed back into service for World War Two operations, Barracuda continued to live up to its bad reputation. Converted into a cargo carrier at the insistence of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt himself, Barracuda lost her torpedo tubes and main engines to provide room for cargo tanks. But the "B" boat proved worthless in this role also. Barracuda was decommissioned before the end of the Second World War because she was so "bad."

Sources: 
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships  (1959-1991)
U.S. Navy Ship 20th Century Historical Database 

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