USS S-38

S-class submarine

Service

United States Navy as USS S-3811 May 1923 — 14 December 19441,931 days of the war

S-class submarine Particulars

Name: USS S-38
Builder: Union Iron Works
Laid down: 15 January 1919
Launched: 17 June 1919
Commissioned: 11 May 1923
Decommissioned: 14 December 1944
Struck: 20 January 1945
Fate: Sunk as target 20 February 1945 (1945)
Status: Wreck

Specifications

Displacement, surfaced: 854 long tons (868 t)
Displacement, submerged: 1,062 long tons (1,079 t)
Length: 66.75 m (219 ft) OA
Beam: 6.1 m (20 ft)
Draught: 4.88 m (16 ft)
Speed: 14.5 knots (26.9 km/h, 16.7 mph)
Complement: 42
Main gun: 102 mm (4 in)

USS S-38 was a S-class submarine built for the United States Navy. Her keel was laid at Union Iron Works on 15 January 1919. Launched on 17 June 1919, she entered service on 11 May 1923.

She was one of 111 ships of her class.

The boat displaced 854 long tons surfaced and 1,062 long tons submerged. She measured 66.8 m (219 ft) long with a beam of 6.1 m (20 ft). Her designed speed was 14.5 knots, and she carried a complement of 42.

Her main battery was one 102 mm (4 in) guns.

She was in commission for 1,931 days of the Second World War. She was decommissioned on 14 December 1944. She was struck from the register on 20 January 1945.

She was expended as a target on 20 February 1945. The wreck survives.

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

Armament and machinery

Propulsion: NLSE diesels, 1200 hp
General Electric motors, 1500 hp
120-cell Exide battery
2 shafts
168 tons oil fuel
Armament: 1 × 4 in/50 deck gun
4 × 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes
12 torpedoes

Sister ships

86 more in the class

Sources

Facts harvested from USS S-38 on Wikipedia. Figures only — no wording is taken from it.
Photograph: U.S. Navy — U.S. Navy photo 1198-43 from the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard collection now held at Seattle NARA, available at Navsource.org — Public domain — Wikimedia Commons