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NavSource Online: Submarine Photo Archive

Plunger / A-1 (SS-2)

Adder Class Submarine Torpedo Boat: Laid down as Plunger, 21 May 1901, at Crescent Shipyards, Elizabethport, NJ ; Launched, 1 February 1902; Commissioned USS Plunger, 19 September 1903, at the Holland Co., New Suffolk, Long Island, NY; Decommissioned, 3 November 1905; Recommissioned, 7 March 1907; Renamed USS A-1 (Submarine Torpedo Boat No.2), 17 November 1911; Decommissioned, (date unknown); Struck from the Naval Register, 24 February 1913; Authorized as an experimental target, designated Target E, 29 August 1916; Final Disposition, sold for scrapping, 26 January 1922.

Specifications: Displacement; Surfaced, 107 t., Submerged, 123 t.; Length 63' 10"; Beam 11' 11"; Draft 10' 7"; Speed, Surfaced, 8 kts, Submerged, 7 kts; Depth Limit 150'; Complement, 1 Officer, 6 Enlisted; Armament, one 18" torpedo tube, 5 torpedoes; Propulsion, Otto Gas Engine Works gasoline engine, HP 160; Fuel Capacity 767 gal.; Electro Dynamic electric motors, HP 150; Battery Cells 60; single screw.
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Plunger 100k On the stocks at the Lewis Nixon yard on 18 January 1901. A-1 illustrates typical single hull construction. The pressure hull is wrapped around the frames, and any tankage is inside. Bulkheads for some tanks have already been installed. Framing for another boat is visible through the frames. (Submarine Force Museum and Library.
 		Photo and text courtesy of U.S. Submarines Through 1945, An Illustrated Design History by Norman Friedman. Naval Institute Press.
Plunger 70k Plunger and Shark moored, 1902. Photo is labeled U.S.S.M.B. Plunger, possibly a Holland Co. photo.
 		US National Archives photo # 19-N-15-25, a US Navy Bureau of Ships photo now in the collections of the US National Archives.
Plunger 67k Plenty of free parking at the Holland plant at 100 Broadway, New York. The Plunger appears here alongwith other Holland type submarines at anchor at a New York dock in 1902.
 		Photo from War Under The Pacific, by K.Wheeler and submitted courtesy of Robert Hurst. Photo added 07/18/07.
Plunger 64k A group of A-type submarines at the Holland Submarine Co., basin, New Suffolk, Long Island, circa 1903. In the front line Plunger (SS-02) (later A-1), Porpoise (SS-07) (later A-6), and Adder (SS-03) (later A-2) along the breakwater (background) are Shark (SS-08) (later A-7) and Moccasin (SS-05) (later A-4).
 		US Navy photo # NH 45937, from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, courtesy of Joe Radigan, MACM, USN Ret.
Plunger 107k Plunger hauled out of the water, during the early 1900s. Note the bollard in the foreground, made from an old muzzle-loading cannon.
Photo courtesy of the Electric Boat Company, Groton, Connecticut & U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph # NH 42622.
Plunger 107k Officer in the Plunger's conning tower hatch, circa the early 1900s. Published on a contemporary picture postal card.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph # NH 85735. Courtesy of Alfred Cellier, 1977.
Plunger 58k Plunger at dockside, 1905.
US Navy photo courtesy of someniceguy/gal.
BB-2 Massachusetts & Plunger 101k The submarine Plunger (SS-02) at the New York Navy Yard, circa 1903. Massachusetts, (BB-02) is under refit in the background. Published on a stereograph card by the Keystone View Company, circa 1918. Photo from the USNHC, # NH 85293. Courtesy of Commander Donald J. Robinson, USN(MSC), 1977.
BB-8 Alabama & Plunger94k The submarine Plunger (SS-02) hauled out of the water at a Navy yard, circa 1903-1905. Alabama (BB-8) is in the right background. Photo from the USNHC, # NH 102428. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Joe Cahn, 1990.
Plunger 141k Plunger on her way out of the New York Navy Yard, sometime before Oct 1909.
At that time she was assigned to the First Submarine Flotilla, based at the New York Navy Yard, joining sisterships Porpoise (SS-07) , and Shark (SS-08).
Among the ships in the background is the then dcommissioned battleship Massachusetts (BB-02). The Massachusetts had her cage mast installed sometime in 1909. 		US Navy photo courtesy of Darryl Baker. Partial text courtesy of DANFS. Photo i.d. and partial text i.d. courtesy of Mike Green from "U.S. Warships of WW1", by Paul Silverstone on the Indiana class listing on page #31.
Porpoise , Plunger and Shark145k New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, New York: Submarines Shark (SS-08), Plunger (SS-02) and Porpoise (SS-07) housed over and covered with snow, in one of the Navy Yard's drydocks, 25 January 1908. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph # NH 19-N-15-28-7. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.
Moccasin 122k Dewey Drydock, Olongapo Naval Station, Philippines. Submarines A-6 (SS-07) ex-Porpoise, A-4 (SS-05) ex-Moccasin and A-2 (SS-03) ex-Adder in the Dewey Drydock, circa 1912. The bow of their tender, Mohican, is at left, with an anchor suspended from her starboard cathead.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph # NH 90185.
Moccasin 87k Submarines and their tender, Mohican, in the drydock, circa 1912. The submarines are (from left to right): A-6 (SS-07) ex-Porpoise, A-4 (SS-05) ex-Moccasin and A-2 (SS-03) ex-Adder.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph # NH 90181.
Plunger 258k Plunger at dockside, date and location unknown.
 		US Navy photo courtesy of ussubvetsofwwii.org.
View the Plunger / A-1 (SS-2)
DANFS history entry located at Navsource.
Crew Contact And Reunion Information
Not Applicable to this Vessel
Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
USS Plunger SS-2 Tribute
Through the Looking Glass, a Historic Look at Submarines

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