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NavSource Online: Submarine Photo Archive

Turbot / G-3 (SS-31)

Radio Call Sign: November - Yankee - Alpha
G-3 Class Submarine: Laid down, as Turbot, 30 March 1911, at Lake Torpedo Boat Co., Bridgeport, CT.; Renamed G-3, 17 November 1911; Launched, 27 December 1913, at Lake Torpedo Boat Company shipyard, Bridgeport, Connecticut; Commissioned USS G-3, 22 March 1915; Decommissioned and struck from the Naval Register, 5 May 1921, at Sub Base New London, CT.; Final Disposition, towed to Philadelphia Navy Yard, 17 August 1921, and sold for scrapping, 19 April 1922, to J. G. Hitner, Philadelphia, PA.

Specifications: Displacement, surfaced 393 t., submerged 460 t.; Length 161'; Beam 13' 1"; Draft 12' 10"; Speed, surfaced 14 kts, submerged 9.5 kts; Depth Limit 200'; Complement 2 Officers 23 Enlisted; Armament, six 18" torpedo tubes, 10 torpedoes; Propulsion, diesel-electric, Busch Sulzer Brothers Diesel Engine Co., diesel engines, 1,200 hp, Fuel Capacity 13,500 gals., Diehl Manufacture Co. electric motors, 600 hp, Battery Cells 120, single propeller.
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For Full Size		Size Image Description Source
Turbot 538k Psetta maxima, a Turbot. Photo courtesy of en.wikipedia.org.
G-345kLake's G-3 (SS-31) had to be blistered, as shown, before she was accepted. Note her two amidship planes, in addition to conventional fore & aft planes. The big openings in the sides of the hull are flooding ports. Drawing by Jim Christley.
Photo & text courtesy of U.S. Submarines Through 1945, An Illustrated Design History by Norman Friedman. Naval Institute Press.
G-3111kTurbot (SS-31) under construction at the Lake Torpedo Boat Company shipyard, Bridgeport, Connecticut, 28 September 1911.Turbot was renamed G-3 in November 1911, prior to launching. USN photo # NH 42197 from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center.
G-399k Color-tinted postal card, published by Danziger and Berman, New Haven, Connecticut. It depicts the G-3 (SS-31) launching, at the Lake Torpedo Boat Company shipyard, Bridgeport, Connecticut, on 27 December 1913. USN photo # NH 101248-KN from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center. Courtesy of Commander Donald J. Robinson, USN (Retired), 1983
G-3 788k G-3 (SS-31) down the ways on 27 December 1913. Photo courtesy of David Wright.
G-31.46kSUBMARINES WILL WIN WARS OF THE FUTURE
A Confederate submarine driven by hand. The crew of negroes were drowned when the boat was given an experimental submergence.
The Confederate submarine Hunley, which sank, the Houstanic.
The biggest commissioned submersible in the United States navy. The GL, of 450 tons submerged displacement. A boat of the Lake type.		Image and text provided by The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundation.
Photo by The Sun. (New York, [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 14 March 1915, FOURTH SECTION PICTORIAL MAGAZINE, Image 40, courtesy of chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.
G-3NRUNITED STATES HAS WORLD'S GREATEST SUBMARINE
This is a good photograph of G-3 (SS-31),the greatest submarine in the world, built by Simon Lake in his works at Bridgeport, Conn. Mr. Lake and his superintendent refused permission to one who "tried to photograph the vessel, insisting that some naval officers had told them this must not be done.		Image and text provided by Penn State University Libraries; University Park, PA.
Photo by Harrisburg Telegraph. (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 21 July 1915, Image 1, courtesy of chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.
Ozark 836k THE G-3 (SS-31), SHE CAN CROSS the ATLANTIC and RETURN WITHOUT RENEWING HER SUPPLY of OIL FUEL
....Real Underwater Power of U. S., With 77 Ships, Revealed by New Ocean-Crossing Submarines
Forty-five in Actual Service Now, Most of Them Able to Go Far Out to Meet Foe.
NEW GIANTS PLANNED.
Fast as Battleships and Able to Travel Almost as Far Without Aid. 		Image and text provided by The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundation.
Photo from The Evening World. (New York, N.Y.) 1887-1931, 19 July 1915, Final Edition, Image 2, via chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.
Ozark 417k AT THE SUBMARINE MANEUVERS AT NEWPORT, R. I.
A United States boat of the G type is nestling close alongside its "mother," the monitor Ozark (M-7).
G-1 (SS-19½) arrived at New London, Conn 18 October 1915 in company with three other G-class submarines, tended by monitor Ozark. 		Text courtesy of DANFS.
Image and text provided by Penn State University Libraries; University Park, PA.
Photo from Evening Public Ledger.(Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 07 October 1915, Final, Image 16, via chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.
G-1 93k The crew of the G-1 (SS-19½) pose on deck, circa 1915. Judah Moses is on the top right with his arm around the periscope.
The G-3 (SS-31) is moored outboard of the G-1. 		Photo i.d. courtesy of Ric Hedman.
Photo from the collection of Helen Moses via Aryeh Wetherhorn.
These photos are from her father in law of blessed memory, Judah Moses.
G-389kBow view of the G-3 (SS-31) looking aft, at the Lake Torpedo Boat Company shipyard, Bridgeport, Connecticut, on 5 December 1915. USN photo courtesy of Ric Hedman, USN (Retired).
G-3109kG-3 (SS-31) starboard side looking aft, at the Lake Torpedo Boat Company shipyard, Bridgeport, Connecticut, 9 December 1915. USN photo courtesy of ussubvetsofworldwarii.org.
G-358kG-3 (SS-31) hauled out at the Lake Torpedo Boat Company shipyard, Bridgeport, Connecticut, circa December 1915. USN photo # NH 42196 from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center. Courtesy of William H. Davis, 1980.
New London 549k U.S. submarine going to sea for practice, circa 1918:
From right to left, two subs in the photo to the right, You can just see the sterns and a flag. Class/s unknown.
D-boat in mid-river. She is ballasted down aft so that her props, rudder, and aft diving planes clear the ice in the river. Next to pier is the G-3 (SS-31), the other two boats alongside the pier are actually EB design N-class boats, ( N-1, 2 & 3). The arrangement of the towing fairlead bullnose, the towing shackle, and the bow plane arrangement all match EB design N-boats. You can see Conn College on the hill in the background. 		Photo & text i.d. courtesy of David Johnston & Ric Hednan .
Photographer: Western Newspaper Union.
National Archives Identifier: 45512000
Local Identifier: 165-WW-331E-7.
Photo courtesy of catalog.archives.gov
N-7 60k G-3 (SS-31), left and N-7 (SS-59) at the New London Submarine Base, Groton, Connecticut, circa late 1918. Note the hinged flap covering the muzzle of G-3's port after torpedo tube (right foreground). USNHC photograph # NH 104986. Photograph from the album of Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Edward D. Porges. Donated by his daughter, Gail Porges Guggenheim, 2007.
SS-19380kD-3 (SS-19) alongside a dock with other submarines on an icy day, circa 1918. Location is probably the Submarine Base at Groton, Connecticut. D-3 appears to be wearing pattern camouflage. Other submarines present are (moving outward from D-3: D-1 (SS-17); G-4 (SS-26); and G-3 (SS-31). Photograph # NH 99157 via Robert Hurst.
G-393kSubmarines grew quickly before WW I. Lake's big G-3 (SS-31) is shown alongside E.B.'s much smaller D-1 (SS-17), photographed on 4 May 1920, at the Submarine Base New London, Groton, Connecticut. Both show the standard wartime modifications, a permanent metal ("chariot") bridge. G-3 also shows a radio mast aft, a torpedo loading crane forward, and the shutter of one of her above-water bow tubes (the other tube on this side was below the surface). USN photo # NH 92608 from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center. Collection of Admiral John S. McCain, Jr.
Text courtesy of U.S. Submarines Through 1945, An Illustrated Design History by Norman Friedman. Naval Institute Press.
R-24 134k PDF entitled "How the Diesel engine came to America." Photo courtesy of subvetpaul.com.
View the Turbot / G-3 (SS-31)
DANFS history entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Web Site.
Crew Contact And Reunion Information
Not Applicable to this Vessel
Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
PigBoats.COM TM, a Historic Look at Submarines
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