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NavSource Online: Submarine Photo Archive

K-8 (SS-39)

Radio Call Sign: November - Yankee - Mike

K Class Submarine: Laid down, 10 May 1912, at Union Iron Works, San Francisco, CA.; Launched, 11 July 1914; Commissioned, USS K-8, 1 December 1914, at Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, CA.; Designated (SS-39), 17 July 1920; Decommissioned, 24 February 1923, at Norfolk, VA.; Towed to Philadelphia, 2 September 1924; Struck from the Navy Register, (date unknown); Final Disposition, sold for scrapping, 25 June 1931.

Specifications: Displacement, Surfaced: 392 t., Submerged: 521 t.; Length 153' 7"; Beam 16' 8"; Draft 13' 1"; Speed, Surfaced 14 kts, Submerged 10.5 kts; Operating Depth, 200'; Complement, 2 Officers, 26 Enlisted; Armament, four 18" torpedo tubes, 8 torpedoes, one 3"/23 deck gun; Propulsion, diesel-electric, New London Ship & Engine Co., diesel engine, HP 960, Fuel Capacity, 18,126, Electro Dynamic Co., electric motor, HP 960, Battery Cells, 120, single propeller.

Size	Image Description	Contributed By
60k	K-8 (SS-39) afloat immediately after she had been launched at the Union Iron Works shipyard, San Francisco, California, 11 July 1914.	U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph # NH 66742.
90k	K-8 (SS-39) underway circa late 1914, probably in San Francisco Bay, California.	U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph # 65149.
78k	K-8 (SS-39) at rest off San Francisco, December 1, 1914.	U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph # 69831, courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1969.
56k	K-8 (SS-39) recovering a torpedo, circa 1915, while serving on the Pacific Coast.	U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph # NH 100767, courtesy of Paul H. Silverstone, 1986.
122k	K-8 (SS-39) in center with two other submarines, at San Diego, California, circa 1915. Two destroyers and two cruisers are visible in the distance.	U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph # NH 100348 printed on a stereograph card, published by the Keystone View Company. Donation of Louis Smaus, 1985
387k	From outboard to inboard, what looks to be K-8 (SS-39), K-4 (SS-35), K-3 (SS-34) & K-7 (SS-38), at Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii on the 14 of October, 1915.	US Navy photo from NARA, courtesy of Daniel Dunham. Photo added 07/14/06.
56k	Exterior conning station and periscopes of the K-8 (SS-39). These long and short 2½ to 5-inch diameter Kollmorgen Type C periscopes were obtained under a contract dated 23 October 1916 and subsequently installed at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard. The photograph may have been taken there in late 1916 or in 1917. The evaluation of both of these non-housing periscopes (which had Submarine Periscope Registry Numbers 167 for the shorter unit, and 168 for the longer) was "A fairly good instrument". Note the submarine's radio antenna mast at the after end of the fairwater.	U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph # NH NH 52200.
58k	Exterior conning station and periscopes of the K-8 (SS-39). These long and short 2½ to 5-inch diameter Kollmorgen Type C periscopes were obtained under a contract dated 23 October 1916 and subsequently installed at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard. The photograph may have been taken there in late 1916 or in 1917. The evaluation of both of these non-housing periscopes (which had Submarine Periscope Registry Numbers 167 for the shorter unit, and 168 for the longer) was "A fairly good instrument".	U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph # NH NH 52201.
79k	K-8 (SS-39) underway, circa 1918.	U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph # NH 52399.
92k	Dry docked in Honolulu about 1916, K-8 (SS-39) displays the typical E.B. bow cap, which rotated to expose the torpedo tube muzzels (the holes in the cap were on the centerline, at top and bottom, when the cap was closed). Her periscope was fixed, with large heads. The temporary bridge structure has been removed, leaving only a streamlined fairwater.	Photo & text courtesy of U.S. Submarines Through 1945, An Illustrated Design History by Norman Friedman. Naval Institute Press.
143k	K-8 (SS-39) tied up alongside K-5 (SS-36), prior to World War I.	Fine-screen halftone reproduction, published in "Sea Power" magazine, May 1917. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph # NH 76058.
82k	Alert (AS-4) (1875-1922) tied up at Kuahua Island, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, while serving as a submarine tender, 22 August 1917. Submarines alongside *Alert* include, from inboard to outboard, K-4 (SS-35), K-3 (SS-34) and either K-7 (SS-38) or K-8 (SS-39).	USNHC photo # NH 42542, courtesy of the US Naval Historical Center.
77k	K-4 (SS-35) underway with a sister submarine, trimming down "ready for nose dive", circa 1918. The second submarine is probably K-3 (SS-34), K-7 (SS-38), or K-8 (SS-39).	USNHC photo # NH 41968, courtesy of the US Naval Historical Center.
108k	K-4 (SS-35) underway with a sister submarine, trimming down "ready for nose dive", circa 1918. The second submarine is probably K-3 (SS-34), K-7 (SS-38), or K-8 (SS-39).	USNHC photo # NH 41967, courtesy of the US Naval Historical Center.
70k	K-8 (SS-39) underway with crewmen standing in formation topsides, during the early 1920s. The flying boat overhead appears to have # A-2344 on the side of its hull. It may be a modification of the Curtiss F-type.	US Navy photo from NARA # 19-N-7080, courtesy of Daniel Dunham. Text courtesy of USNHC.
146k	Busy unknown and undated dockyard scene. From left to right: K-8 (SS-39), K-2 (SS-33), unknown *K class* boat, K-3 (SS-34) & K-1 (SS-32).	US Navy photo courtesy of STSCS(SS) Robert Carlin.