USS S-6

Career
Ordered:
Laid down:	29 January 1918
Launched:	23 December 1919
Commissioned:	17 May 1920
Decommissioned:	10 April 1931
Fate:
Stricken:	25 January 1937
General characteristics
Displacement:	876 tons surfaced, 1092 tons submerged
Length:	231 feet
Beam:	21 feet 10 inches
Draft:	13 feet 1 inch
Propulsion:
Speed:	15 knots (17 mph; 28 km/h) surfaced, 11 knots (13 mph; 20 km/h) submerged
Range:
Complement:	38 officers and men
Armament:	one four-inch (102 mm) gun, four 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes
Motto:

USS S-6 (SS-111) was a second-group (S-3 or "Government") S-class submarine of the United States Navy. Her keel was laid down on 29 January 1918 by the Portsmouth Navy Yard. She was launched on 23 December 1919 sponsored by Miss Eleanor Westcott; and commissioned on 17 May 1920 with Lieutenant Commander George B. Junkin in command.

Following trials and outfitting, S-6 departed New London, Connecticut, on 18 November 1920 to join other S-boats of Submarine Divisions 12 and 18 for what was to be, at that time, the longest cruise for American submarines on record. The trip, begun with a rendezvous off Portsmouth, New Hampshire, took them through the Panama Canal, to Pearl Harbor and then to Cavite, Luzon, Philippine Islands. Other submarines had operated out of Cavite prior to this but had been transported there on the decks of colliers.

The two submarine divisions operated from Cavite over the next three years, from the date of their arrival on 1 December 1921 until 29 October 1924. During that time, they frequently visited Chinese ports at Shanghai, Chefoo, Chinwangtao, Tsingtao, Amoy, and Woosung.

On 30 December 1924, S-6 and her division (SubDiv 12) arrived at Mare Island, California. They operated along the West Coast until 15 February 1927; in the Panama Canal area during March and April; then returned to New London on 3 May to operate along the New England coast. On 17 December, S-4 (SS-109), a unit of SubDiv 12, sank after colliding with USCGC Paulding (CG-17, ex-DD-22), off Provincetown, Massachusetts. S-6 then served as a training model to familiarize divers preparing to raise the sunken sub. S-4 was raised on 17 March 1928 and S-6 resumed normal operations with her division. She conducted winter maneuvers in the Panama Canal area in 1929 and 1930, but primarily operated out of New London until decommissioned on 10 April 1931, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 25 January 1937.

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.