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NavSource Online: Submarine Photo Archive

S-19 (SS-124)

Radio Call Sign: November - India - November - Golf

S-18 Class Submarine (Holland-type): Laid down, 15 August 1918, at Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., Quincy MA.; Launched, 21 June 1920; Commissioned, USS S-19 (SS-124), 24 August 1921; Decommissioned: 8 March 1922; Recommissioned 6 January 1923; On 13 January 1925, S-19 grounded in the South of Cape Cod; the crew was brought to shore in the morning of 15 January and the submarine refloated then repaired in drydock at Boston, MA.; Decommissioned, 10 February 1934, at Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, Pearl Harbor, TH; Laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet; Struck from the Naval Register, 18 December 1938; Final Disposition, sunk as a target off Pearl Harbor, 18 December 1938 in accordance with the terms of second London Treaty.
Partial data submitted by Yves Hubert.

Specifications: Displacement, Surfaced: 854 t., Submerged: 1062 t.; Length 219' 3" ; Beam 20' 8"; Draft 15' 11"(mean); Speed, Surfaced 14.5 kts, Submerged 11 kts; Depth Limit 200'; Complement 4 officers, 34 enlisted; Armament, four 21" torpedo tubes, 12 torpedoes, one 4"/50 deck gun; Propulsion, diesel electric. New London Ship and Engine Co, diesel engines, 1200 hp; Fuel Capacity, 41,921 gal.; Ridgeway Dynamo and Electric Co. electric motors, 1500 hp, Battery Cells 120, twin propellers.
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SS 124
0812422
74k Sponsor: Miss Genevieve Kittinger, (No photo) daughter of CDR Theodore Albert Kittinger, (Pictured) U. S. Navy, Inspector of Ordnance at the works. Partial text via Ships of the United States Navy and Their Sponsors, 1913—1923, by Anne Martin Hall (Editor), Edith Wallace Benham (Editor), pg. 203.
Photo courtesy of findagrave.com
S-19 100k S-19 (SS-124) tied up along the dock at Groton, CT., 2 October 1922. USN photo # 19-N-8916, from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), courtesy of Daniel Dunham.
SS 124
0812423
383k View of conning tower and guns of S-19 (SS-124) (outboard & S-20 (SS-125) inboard). Photo NH 108410 courtesy of history.navy.mil
SS 124 649k S-19 (SS-124) operated off the northeastern coast of the United States from 1923 into 1930, taking part in fleet exercises off Panama in the early months of each year.This routine was interrupted in the foggy, early hours of 13 January 1925, when the submarine ran aground off Chatham, Mass., on the southern coast of Cape Cod, after strong winds and unusually heavy seas had pushed her far from her course. She had departed Portsmouth (N.H.) Navy Yard the previous afternoon after overhaul, and was en route to New London. The Coast Guard cutters Tampa (CG-48) and Acushnet came to the S-19's assistance, as did life-saving crews from two nearby Coast Guard stations. Heavy seas made it impossible to pass a line to the grounded submarine or to reach her by boat until late in the evening of 14 January, when a party from the Nauset, Mass., Coast Guard station succeeded in boarding. By the morning of the 15th, S-19's crew had been safely brought to shore. After strenuous effort by Navy tugs and the Coast Guard cutters, S-19 was finally freed from the shoal. Text courtesy of DANFS.
Photo courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection via Sean Hert & flickr.com.
S-49
0812421
1.48k S-19 (SS-124) ashore on the coast of Massachusetts, Cutter Tampa (CG-48) standing by, 18 June 1927. Photo courtesy of history.navy.mil
SS 124 352k Diagram showing the pulling arrangement for refloating the submarine S-19 (SS-124).   From Mud, Muscle and Miracles, by Captain Charles A. Bartholomew, USN, and Commander William I. Milwee, Jr., USN, (Retired), courtesy of Robert Hurst.
SS 124 1.10k The S-19 (SS-124) in Boston Navy Yard drydock. Photo courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection via Sean Hert & flickr.com.
SS 124 981k View of the S-19 (SS-124) in Boston Navy Yard drydock and the damage to her stern. Photos courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection via Sean Hert & flickr.com.
SS 124 287k The Navy's S-19 (SS-124), which ran aground at Orleans, Mass., was recently floated and towed to the Boston navy yard, where it is undergoing repairs. The rudder and propellers of the craft were badly damaged, and many of the plates were sprung. Photo courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection via Sean Hert & flickr.com.
Insert image and text provided by Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Photo from Evening Star.(Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 24 March 1925, Image 17, via chroniclingamerica.loc.gov
SS 124 1.10k Your local neighborhood submarine, S-19 (SS-124) before her paint job. Photo courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection via Sean Hert & flickr.com.
S-19 297k Off to the races as S-19 (SS-124) sails along with a three masted ship in this post 1925 photo. Photo courtesy of Dorothy Deina Porter. Photo i.d. courtesy of Chuck Haberlein & Gary Priolo.
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 Government type S-boat;
S-7 (SS-112);
S-8 (SS-113);
S-9 (SS-114); and
S-3 (SS-107).
Collection of Vice Admiral Dixwell Ketcham, USN. USNHC photograph NH 100459.
S-19 75k S-19 (SS-124) underway with other S-boats during the Presidential review somewhere in the Atlantic ocean, 4 June 1927. USN photo # 19-N-11212, from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), courtesy of Daniel Dunham.
S-19 78k S-19 (SS-124) underway with other S-boats, S-21 (SS-126), S-23 (SS-128), during the Presidential review somewhere in the Atlantic ocean, 4 June 1927. USN photo # 19-N-11053, from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), courtesy of Daniel Dunham.
S-19 61k Starboard view of the S-19 (SS-124) sailing along the Thames river in New London, CT., circa 1923-30. USN photo # 19-N-12152, from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), courtesy of Daniel Dunham.
S-19 38k Conning tower of the S-19 (SS-124) encrusted in North Atlantic ice, circa 1923-30. USN photo # 19-N-8358, from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), courtesy of Daniel Dunham.
S-19 59k Portside view of the S-19 (SS-124) sailing along the Thames river in New London, CT., circa 1923-30. USN photo # 19-N-9123, from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), courtesy of Daniel Dunham.
S-19 898k Dressed in whites, the crew of the S-19 (SS-124) man the rails as she sails along the Thames river in New London, CT., circa 1923-30. USN photo # 19-N-9117, from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), courtesy of Daniel Dunham.
S-19 60k Dressed in whites, the crew of the S-19 (SS-124) man the rails as she sails along the Thames river in New London, CT., circa 1923-30. USN photo # 19-N-9122, from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), courtesy of Daniel Dunham.
O-2885k Jason (AC-12) at Coco Solo, Panama Canal Zone, circa 1924. Several submarines are in the foreground, including (from left to right):
S-19 (SS-124);
O-9 (SS-70);
R-26 (SS-103) -- probably--; and
O-2 (SS-63).
USN photo NH 102780 courtesy history.navy.mil
US Fleet Problem Number VI 1.72k Control Force Employment Schedule, 4 January to 1 March 1926. US Fleet Problem Number VI. Photo courtesy of Steve Ireland.
refleting 140k S-boats top and bottom as in a reflecting pool, probably at Pearl Harbor when they operated with Division 7, circa 1931-33. S-21 (SS-126), S-22 (SS-127), S-23 (SS-128) & what was thought to be S-24 (SS-129).
On 25 April 1931, S-22 & S-23 arrived together at Pearl Harbor.
If you look closely at the outboard one (on the far left) the fairings that cover the bow plane pivots are rounded. On the other boats in this photo these fairings are angular in shape. The angular fairings are a distinctive characteristic of the Quincy built 20 series S-boats (S-18) to (29). For the Union Iron Works built boats (S-30) to (41) this fairing is rounded and smaller in size. The only exception to this rule is the (S-19). She alone amongst the Quincy boats had the rounded fairings of the UIW boats (why I don’t know yet). Therefore, the outboard boat in this photo can not be the (S-24). It has to be (S-19) or (30) to (41).
Text & photo i.d. courtesy of David Johnston
USN photo courtesy of Scott Koen & ussnewyork.com.
S-19 28k Remains of the wreck of the S-19 (SS-124) off the coast of Hawaii, 2005. Photo courtesy of soest.hawaii.edu.
SS 124 1.81k Remains of the wreck of the S-19 (SS-124) off the coast of Hawaii, 3 September 2015. Photo courtesy of oceanexplorer.noaa.gov via Gary Fabian.

View the S-19 (SS-124)
DANFS history entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway Web Site.
Crew Contact And Reunion Information
U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation
Fleet Reserve Association

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