USS F-4

For other ships with the same name, see USS Skate.

US Naval Inspection personnel examining the large implosion hole in F-4's port side, in drydock at Honolulu, Hawaii, circa late August or early September 1915. She had been raised from over 300 feet of water and towed into port. This view was taken from off the port bow, showing the submarine's port side diving plane in the center. She is upside down, rolled to starboard approximately 120 degrees from the vertical.
History
Name	USS F-4
Builder	Moran Brothers Company, Seattle, Washington
Laid down	21 August 1909, as USS Skate
Launched	6 January 1912
Commissioned	3 May 1913
Renamed	USS F-4, 17 November 1911
Stricken	31 August 1915
Fate	Foundered, 25 March 1915 Raised, 29 August 1915; later a harbor marker and buried as trench fill off Pearl Harbor, 1940
General characteristics
Class and type	F-class submarine
Displacement	330 long tons (335 t)
Length	142 ft 7 in (43.46 m)
Beam	15 ft 5 in (4.70 m)
Draft	12 ft 2 in (3.71 m)
Speed	14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Complement	22 officers and enlisted
Armament	4 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes

USS F-4 (SS-23) was a F-class submarine. Her keel was laid down by the Moran Brothers Company of Seattle, Washington. She was originally named Skate, making her the first ship of the United States Navy named for the skate. She was renamed F-4 on 17 November 1911. She was launched on 6 January 1912 sponsored by Mrs. M.F. Backus; and commissioned on 3 May 1913, Lieutenant (junior grade) K.H. Donavin in command.

Service history

Joining the First Submarine Group, Pacific Torpedo Flotilla, F-4 participated in the development operations of that group along the west coast, and from August 1914, in Hawaiian waters. During submarine maneuvers off Honolulu, Hawaii, on 25 March 1915, she sank in 51 fathoms (93 m), 1½ miles (3 km) from the harbor. Despite valorous efforts of naval authorities at Honolulu to locate the missing boat and save her crew, all 21 perished. F-4 was the first commissioned submarine of the United States Navy to be lost at sea.

A diving and engineering precedent was established with the Navy's raising of the submarine on 29 August 1915. Courage and tenacity marked the efforts of divers who descended to attach cables to tow the boat into shallow water, while ingenuity and engineering skill characterized the direction of Naval Constructor J.A. Furer, Rear Admiral C.B.T. Moore, and Lieutenant C. Smith who accomplished the feat with the aid of specially devised and constructed pontoons. Only 4 of the dead could be identified; the 17 others were buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

The investigating board subsequently conjectured that corrosion of the lead lining of the battery tank had permitted seepage of sea water into the battery compartment and thereby caused the commanding officer to lose control on a submerged run. Others believe that the bypassing of an unreliable magnetic reducer closed a Kingston valve in the forward ballast tank resulting in a delay. Based on other reported issues, there many also have been problems with the air lines supplying the ballast tank.

F-4 was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 31 August 1915.

In 1940, the remains of F-4 were buried as fill in a trench off the Submarine Base, Pearl Harbor.

References

 This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

External links

• Photo gallery of USS F-4 at NavSource Naval History
• On Eternal Patrol: USS F-4