Plan of Plunger-class. A, storage batteries; B, gas-engine; C, dynamo and motor; D, water-tight compartments; E, main ballast tanks; F, air-flasks; G, gasolene tank; H, expulsion tube.
The Plunger-classsubmarines were enlarged and improved versions of the preceding Holland, the first submarine in the USN. They had a length of 63ft 10in (19.5m)overall, a beam of 11ft 11in (3.6m) and a mean draft of 10ft 7in (3.2m). They displaced107 long tons (109t) on the surface and 123 long tons (125t) submerged. The Plunger-class boats had a crew of one officer and six enlisted men. They had a diving depth of 150 feet (45.7m).[2]
For surface running, they were powered by one 180-brake-horsepower (134kW)gasoline engine that drove the single propeller. When submerged the propeller was driven by a 70-horsepower (52kW)electric motor.[2] The boats could reach 8kn (15km/h; 9.2mph) on the surface and 7kn (13km/h; 8.1mph) underwater.[3]
The Plunger-class boats were armed with one 18-inch (457mm)torpedo tube in the bow. They carried four reloads, for a total of five torpedoes.[2]
Grampus' keel was laid down on 10 December 1900, in San Francisco, California, by the Union Iron Works, a subcontractor for the Holland Torpedo Boat Company, of New York City. She was launched on 31 July 1902; sponsored by Mrs. Marley F. Hay, the wife of the Superintendent of Construction at Union Iron Works; commissioned at the Mare Island Navy Yard on 28 May 1903.[4]
Her christening was marred by a failure of the ribbon from which the champagne was hung, leading some sailors to believe she was cursed.[5]
Service history
Over the next three and a half years, Grampus operated out of the San Francisco area, principally in training and experimental work. On 18 April 1906, men from her crew participated in relief efforts after the devastating San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Decommissioned, for the first time, at Mare Island, on 28 November 1906, Grampus remained inactive until recommissioned on 13 June 1908. Subsequently assigned to the First Submarine Division, Pacific Torpedo Flotilla, in January 1910, and to the Pacific Fleet, in March 1911, the submarine torpedo boat operated locally off the California coast until assigned to the Pacific Reserve Fleet on 28 June 1912. Toward the end of that period of active service, on 17 November 1911, Grampus was renamed A-3.[4]
A-3 remained inactive, at the Puget Sound Navy Yard into 1915. On 16 February 1915, she was hoisted onto the collierHector, which sailed soon thereafter for the Philippines with A-3 and her sister ship, A-5, ex-Pike, as deck cargo. Hector arrived at Olongapo, site of the Subic Bay Naval Base, on 26 March, and returned A-3 to the water 10 April 1915.[4]
Recommissioned at Olongapo, a week later, on 17 April 1915, A-3 was assigned to the First Submarine Division, Torpedo Flotilla, Asiatic Fleet, and remained in active service with that unit until decommissioned at Cavite, on 25 July 1921. During World War I, A-3 patrolled the waters off the entrance to Manila Bay. On 17 July 1920, A-3 was given the hull numberSS-4.[4]
Fate
A-3 was dismantled and used as a target by ships of the Asiatic Fleet, she was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 16 January 1922.[4]
Gardiner, Robert & Gray, Randal, eds. (1985). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN0-85177-245-5.
Further reading
Wright, C. C. (2003). "Question 40/02: Submarines Expended as Targets 1922". Warship International. XL (4): 286–298. ISSN0043-0374.
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