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NavSource Online: Submarine Photo Archive

S-12 (SS-117)

Radio Call Sign: November - India - Mike - Victor
S-4 Class Submarine (Government-type): Laid down, 8 January 1920, at Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, ME.; Launched, 4 August 1921; Commissioned, USS S-12 (SS-117), 30 April 1923; Decommissioned, 30 September 1936, at Philadelphia Navy Yard, Philadelphia, PA.; Laid up in the Reserve Fleet; Recommissioned, 4 November 1940; Decommissioned, and struck from the Naval Register, 18 May 1945, at Philadelphia Navy Yard, Philadelphia, PA.; Final Disposition, sold for scrapping, 28 October 1945, to Rosoff Bros., New York City, NY, resold to Northern Metals Co., Philadelphia, for scrapping.

Specifications: Displacement, Surfaced: 876 t., Submerged: 1092 t..; Length 231' ; Beam 21' 10"; Draft 13' 1"; Speed, surfaced 15 kts, submerged 11 kts; Depth Limit 200'; Complement 4 Officers, 34 Enlisted; Armament, five 21" torpedo tubes, 14 torpedoes, one 4"/50 deck gun; Propulsion, diesel electric engines, Maschinfabrik - Augsburg - Nurnburg, New York Navy Yard diesel engines, 2,000 hp, Fuel Capacity, 36,950 gal.; Westinghouse Electric Co., electric motors, 1,200 hp, Battery Cells, 120, twin propellers.
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S-12 137k S-12 (SS-117) just after launching 4 August 1921, at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.
US Navy photo courtesy of ussubvetsofwwii.org.
S-10 - 13 61k Bushnell (AS-5) at Gonaives, Haiti, circa 1924 tending her charges: S-11 (SS-116), S-12 (SS-117), S-10 (SS-115) & and S-13 (SS-118). US Navy photo courtesy of Robert M. Cieri.
S-12 26k S-12 (SS-117) underway on 7 Sept 1923 along the northeast coast of the U.S. US Navy photo courtesy of bluejacket.com.
S-boats 115k The Submarine Tender Camden (AS-6) photographed circa the middle or later 1920s, with ten S-boats alongside. The submarines are (on Camden's starboard side, from left to right):
S-18 (SS-123) & unidentified Electric Boat type S-boat;
S-19 (SS-124);
S-12 (SS-117); and an unidentified Government type S-boat.
On Camden'sport side, from left to right:
Unidentified unidentified Government type S-boat;
S-7 (SS-112);
S-8 (SS-113);
S-9 (SS-114); and
S-3 (SS-107). 		U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph NH 100459.Collection of Vice Admiral Dixwell Ketcham, USN.
S-12 120k Cheyenne (IX-4), inboard at left; S-12 (SS-117), outboard at left; and Dale (DD-290) at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania, 14 June 1926, during the National Sesquicentennial exhibit there. The small boat and Sailor, in the foreground, are on life-saving service to protect exhibit visitors.
U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph NH 55117. Collection of Vice Admiral Dixwell Ketcham, USN.
S-10, 12 & 13 151k S-13 (SS-118), S-10 (SS-115) and S-12 (SS-117) moored at balboa Docks, Panama. Note the Grace lines liner (one of four sisters built in 1933: Santa Elena, Santa Paula, Santa Rosa or Santa Lucia) being assisted to dock by a Canal Zone tug (probably Tavernilla). Circa 1933-1935. US Navy photo courtesy of Dave Wright. Photo added 10/29/07.
S-11 56k S-12 (SS-117), shown about 1941, was one of four government S-boats S-10-13 (SS-115-18), redesigned by Porsmouth Navy Yard to carry a torpedo tube aft. Structural detail has been included in this drawing to suggest the complexity of the C & R design, which made it extremely difficult to maintain. The V-1-class (SS-163-65) had similar complex structures. Drawing by Jim Christley. Text courtesy of U.S. Submarines Through 1945, An Illustrated Design History by Norman Friedman. Naval Institute Press.
S-12 46k S-12 (SS-117) leaving port.
US Navy photo from the Milne Special Collections, University of New Hampshire Library, Durham, N.H. courtesy of Ric Hedman.
S-12 28k S-12 (SS-117) underway, probably in the Phillipines, date unknown.
US Navy photo courtesy of subnet.com.
View the S-12 (SS-117)
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
Welcome to the S Boats Gallant Ladies of the Past
Through the Looking Glass A Historic Look at Submarines
Back To The Main Photo Index Back To the Submarine Index

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