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NavSource Online: Submarine Photo Archive

R-25 (SS-102)

Radio Call Sign: November - India - Mike - Charlie
R-21 Class Submarine: Laid down, 26 April 1917, at Lake Torpedo Boat Co., Bridgeport, CT.; Launched, 15 May 1917; Commissioned, USS R-25, 23 October 1919; Redesignated USS R-25 (SS-102), 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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For Full Size		Size Image Description Source
L-5
0804410		 NR The R-25's (SS-102) Sponsor was Mrs. Rosalind Robinson, wife of former Naval Constructor R. H. M. Robinson, the General Manager of the Lake Torpedo Boat Company. She was camera shy, he was not. (Note: The initials are reversed, RHM is listed as HRM. I am willing to bet that this is a typo.) Image and text provided by West Virginia University.
Photo & text by The Wheeling Intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1903-1961, 02 October 1915, Image 19, courtesy of chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.
S-5 917k R-25 being launched at Lake Torpedo Boat Co., Bridgeport, CT., 15 May 1917. Courtesy of ussubvetsofwwii.org. Photo i.d. courtesy of David Johnston
R-25
0810200		853k R-25's (SS-102) 1st CO was Lt. Comdr. Charles A. Lockwood, Jr. He would later make his mark in history during WW II. USN photo # 80-G-216649 courtesy of history.navy.mil
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-23,25, 26 & 27 222k Bow view of R-boats before commissioning. R-23 (SS-100), R-25 (SS-102) & R-26 (SS-103) were all commissioned on the same day, 23 October 1919. R-27 (SS-104) was commissioned on 3 September 1919.
Pictured from left to right:
R-26,
R-25,
R-27 &
R-23 at Lake Torpedo Boat Co. Yard, Bridgeport CT., 10 July 1919.
Note: The "H" painted on the hulls of these boats was the Lake yard hull number designation. EB had similar things. These yards built more than subs and each hull was numbered in sequence. 		USN photo # 19-N-2585, from the National Archives and Records Administration
(NARA), courtesy of Pete Sundstrom.
Partial text courtesy of Ric Hedman.
R-25 73k Portside view of the R-25 (SS-102), probably at Lake Torpedo Boat Co., Bridgeport, Conn., 1919. USN photo courtesy of usssubvetsofwwii.org
R-24 134k PDF entitled "How the Diesel engine came to America." Photo courtesy of subvetpaul.com.
R-25
0810203		NR SHIPS RUSH TO AID OF U S. SUBMARINES
Underwater Craft Disabled by Rough Seas Near Bahamas, Navy Reports
CHARLESTON, S. C, 29 October. Seven destroyers and several tugs have been dispatched to the assistance of submarines O-11 (SS-72) and R-25 (SS-102), reported disabled in a rough sea 100 miles east of the Great Guana key, near the Bahamas, according to an announcement today at headquarters of the sixth naval district here. The submarines broke down about 1 o’clock yesterday afternoon, it was stated.		 Image and text provided by Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Photo & text by Evening Star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 29 October 1923, Image 1, via chroniclingamerica.loc.gov.
R-23, 25 & S-1 1.58k Control Force submarines and their tenders at Cristobal, Panama Canal Zone, circa 1923. The tenders are (from left to right):
Savannah (AS-8),
Bushnell (AS-2),
Beaver (AS-5) and
Camden (AS-6).
Submarines are mostly R-boats, among them R-23 (SS-100) and R-25 (SS-102), both in the nest alongside Savannah's port quarter. The larger submarine alongside Savannah's bow may be S-1 (SS-105), with her large seaplane hangar. 		USNHC photograph # NH 42573. Photographed by A.E. Wells. Courtesy of Commander Christopher Noble, USN (Retired), 1967.
S-16 1.40k S-16 (SS-121) & next to her is possibly the S-50 (SS-161) with another unknown S-boat and 4 unidentified R-boats alongside their tender, Shawmut (CM-4) probably in the Panama Canal area, circa 1924. USN photo #80-G-1024884, from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), courtesy of Daniel Dunham.
View the R-25 (SS-102)
DANFS history entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Web Site.
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U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation
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