The first three submarines of the class were laid down in March–April 1911, as Seawolf, Nautilus, and Garfish, and were renamed H-1, H-2, and H-3, while still under construction on 17 November 1911, as part of a forcewide submarine redesignation. They were commissioned in December 1913/January 1914.
H-1 ran aground and was wrecked off the coast of Mexico, on 12 March 1920,[5] while the remaining eight submarines were decommissioned in late 1922, and laid up in the Reserve Fleet. Finally stricken from the Navy List in 1930, they were sold for scrap in 1931 and 1933.
Design
These vessels included some features intended to increase underwater speed that were standard on US submarines of this era, including a small conning tower and fairwater, and a rotating cap over the torpedo tube muzzles. For extended surface runs, the small fairwater and its open bridge was augmented with a temporary piping-and-canvas structure. US Navy tactical employment of these submarines in this era did not require crash dives, so the considerable time it took to dismantle and store below the temporary bridge structure was not considered a liability.[3] Experience in World War I showed that the piping and canvas structure was inadequate in the North Atlantic weather, and USN submarines serving overseas in that war, E, K, and L-classes, had the forward structure of the fairwater modified with a metal "chariot" shield. Starting in 1918-1919, with lessons learned from overseas experience, US submarines had bridges more suited to surfaced operations in rough weather.[6]
The streamlined, rotating torpedo tube muzzle cap eliminated the drag that muzzle holes would otherwise cause. In the stowed position, the submarine appears to have no torpedo tubes, as the holes in the cap are covered by the bow stem. This feature remained standard on Electric Boat designed submarines through the O-class, with the exception of the L-class and the M-1. The L and M-class boats pioneered the use of shutter-style doors for the torpedo tubes, which then became the standard for all USN submarines starting with the S-class patrol submarines of the 1920's.[7]
The EB26A design, originally built for the USN, H-1 to H-3, had a watertight bulkhead separating the torpedo room from the forward battery compartment.[8] The six boats of the H-4 to H-9 group were built to the EB602L design, EB26R for the USN, for export to Russia. When seized by the US, they were completed to that slightly modified design. The biggest difference being that they did not have the bulkhead between the torpedo room and the forward battery, essentially making it one large compartment.[9]
Since the acquisition of the H-4 to H-9 group was delayed, other types had already been acquired by the USN, so these last six boats were assigned hull numbers that fell into the middle of the S-class (147-152).[4]
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United States Navy 
