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NavSource Online: Submarine Photo Archive

R-21 (SS-98)


R-21 Class Submarine: Laid down, 19 April 1917, at Lake Torpedo Boat Co., Bridgeport, CT.; Launched, 10 July 1918; Commissioned, USS R-21, 17 June 1919; Redesignated USS R-21 (SS-98), 17 July 1920; Decommissioned, 21 June 1924, at Philadelphia Navy Yard, Philadelphia, PA.; Laid up in the Reserve Fleet at League Island, PA.; Struck from the Naval Register, 9 May 1930; Final Disposition, sold for scrapping, 30 July 1930.

Specifications: Displacement, Surfaced: 510 t., Submerged: 583 t.; Length 175' ; Beam 16' 8"; Draft 13' 11"; Speed, surfaced 14 kts, submerged 11 kts; Depth Limit, 200'; Complement 2 Officers, 27 Enlisted; Armament, four 18" torpedo tubes forward, 8 torpedoes, one 3"/50 deck gun; Propulsion, diesel electric engines, Busch Sulzer Brothers Diesel Engine Co., diesel engines, HP 1,000, Fuel Capacity, 17,922 gals., Diehl Manufacture Co., electric motors, HP 800, Battery Cells 120, twin propellers.
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Lake's R boats 88k Lake's R-boats R-21-27 / (SS-98/104), were the last of his designs to be built in any numbers. He abandoned amidships diving planes in this class, but his characteristics stern remained. The horizontal tube aft is an access tube connecting the motor room to the tiller room aft. Drawing by Jim Christley, text courtesy of U.S. Submarines Through 1945, An Illustrated Design History by Norman Friedman. Naval Institute Press.
R-21 64k Bow view of the R-21 (SS-98) at Lake Torpedo Boat Co., Bridgeport, CT. 15 July 1918. US Navy photo # 19-N-2494, from the National Archives and Records Administration
(NARA), courtesy of Daniel Dunham.
R-21,22,23,27 & S-2 411k In port, pictured from left to right:
R-21 (SS-98)
R-23 (SS-100)
R-27 (SS-104)
S-2 (SS-106)
At Lake Torpedo Boat Co. Yard, Bridgeport CT., April 2, 1919.
US Navy photo # 19-N-2584, from the National Archives and Records Administration
(NARA), courtesy of Daniel Dunham.
R-21 72k Bow view of the R-21 (SS-98) starboard view, date and location unknown. US Navy photo courtesy of ussubvetsofwwii.org.

View the R-21 (SS-98)
DANFS history entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Web Site.
Crew Contact And Reunion Information
U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation
Fleet Reserve Association

Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
Through the Looking Glass A Historic Look at Submarines

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