Recognition Guide Warships of the Second World War
United States Navy — Submarine SS-168

USS Nautilus (SS-168)

V-boat V-6 composite direct-drive diesel and diesel-electric submarine

USS Nautilus (SS-168)
USN; Originally from User Gdr on en.wikipedia , 17 December 2004 — Official U.S. Navy photograph NH 45666 — Public domain — Wikimedia Commons Plate — SS-168 The U.S. Navy submarine N2 USS Nautilus (SS-168) underway in the early 1930s.

Service

  1. United States Navy as USS Nautilus1 July 1930 — 30 June 19452,127 days of the war
V-boat V-6 composite direct-drive diesel and diesel-electric submarine Particulars
Name
USS Nautilus
Pennant / hull number
SS-168
Builder
Mare Island Naval Shipyard
Laid down
2 August 1927
Launched
15 March 1930
Commissioned
1 July 1930
Decommissioned
30 June 1945
Struck
25 July 1945
Fate
Sold for scrap, 16 November 1945 (1945)
Status
Scrapped

Specifications

Displacement, submerged
3,900 long tons (3,963 t)
Length
106.38 m (349 ft) OA
Beam
10.06 m (33 ft)
Draught
4.88 m (16 ft)
Speed
17.4 knots (32.2 km/h, 20 mph)
Range
9,380 nmi (17,372 km)
Complement
97

USS Nautilus was a V-boat V-6 composite direct-drive diesel and diesel-electric submarine built for the United States Navy. She carried the pennant number SS-168. Her keel was laid at Mare Island Naval Shipyard on 2 August 1927. Launched on 15 March 1930, she entered service on 1 July 1930.

The boat displaced 3,900 long tons submerged. She measured 106.4 m (349 ft) long with a beam of 10.1 m (33 ft). Her designed speed was 17.4 knots, and she carried a complement of 97.

Her main battery was six 533 mm (21 in) guns.

She was in commission for 2,127 days of the Second World War. She was decommissioned on 30 June 1945. She was struck from the register on 25 July 1945.

She was broken up for scrap on 16 November 1945.

Written from the harvested record. Every figure above is sourced; the wording is this site's own.

Armament and machinery

Armament and machinery
Propulsion
  • As Built:
  • 2 × BuEng-built, MAN-designed direct-drive main diesel engines, 2350 hp each
  • 2 × BuEng MAN
  • 300 kW auxiliary diesel generators
  • 2 × 120-cell Exide ULS37 batteries
  • 2 × Westinghouse electric motors, 800 hp each
  • Re-engined 1941-42: 4 × General Motors Winton Model 16-278A 16-cylinder two-cycle diesel-electric diesel engines, 1600 hp each
  • 2 × GM Winton 8-268A 2-cycle auxiliary diesel generators, 300 kW each
  • 2 × 120-cell Exide UHS39B batteries
  • 2 × Westinghouse electric motors, 1270 hp each
  • Fairbanks-Morse reduction gears
  • 2 × shafts
Armament
  • 6 × 21 in torpedo tubes (four forward, two aft; 24-26 internal torpedoes)
  • (four external tubes {two each bow and stern, four torpedoes} added 1941-42; provision for 8-12 additional torpedoes externally) 2 × 6 in/53 caliber Mark XII Mod. 2 wet type deck guns

Sources

  • Facts harvested from USS Nautilus (SS-168) on Wikipedia. Figures only — no wording is taken from it.
  • Photograph: USN; Originally from User Gdr on en.wikipedia , 17 December 2004 — Official U.S. Navy photograph NH 45666 — Public domain — Wikimedia Commons