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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS L-5 (Submarine # 44, later SS-44), 1918-1925

USS L-5, lowest numbered though last completed of a class of four 456-ton Lake-type submarines, was built at Bridgeport, Connecticut. Commissioned in mid-February 1918, she operated in U.S. East Coast waters until October of that year, when she deployed to the Central Atlantic. World War I ended soon after L-5 arrived in the Azores, and she returned to the U.S. in December 1918. Early in 1919 the submarine went to the Caribbean, then transited the Panama Canal to begin service along the West Coast. That duty lasted until mid-1922, when she returned to the Atlantic. USS L-5 was decommissioned in December 1922 and laid up. She was sold for scrapping three years later.

This page features the only views we have concerning USS L-5 (Submarine # 44, later SS-44).

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 81352 USS L-5 (Submarine # 44) Underway, circa 1918. Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1974. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 47KB; 740 x 590 pixels
Photo #: NH 51133 USS L-5 (Submarine # 44) Making 9.05 knots during submerged trials off Provincetown, Massachusetts, 15 August 1917. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 69KB; 740 x 540 pixels
Photo #: NH 103256 Submarines at a West Coast port, circa 1919-1922 The Lake type USS L-8 (SS-48) is at the outboard (left) end of the nest, with her sister, USS L-7 (SS-46), in the middle (3rd from left). USS H-3 (SS-30) is between them, with another Electric Boat Company submarine second from right. The inboard (right) "boat" and that in the foreground are the other two units of the Lake-designed L-5 class, USS L-5 (SS-44) and USS L-6 (SS-45). Note piloting station details, periscope, and wide deck of the Lake type "L-boat" in the foreground. Collection of Chief Engineman Virgil Breland, USN. Donated by Mrs. E.H. Breland, 1979. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 97KB; 740 x 455 pixels
Photo #: NH 103255 Submarines at a West Coast port, circa 1919-1922 The Lake type USS L-8 (SS-48) is at the outboard (left) end of the nest, with her sister, USS L-7 (SS-46), in the middle (3rd from left). USS H-3 (SS-30) is between them, with another Electric Boat Company submarine second from right. The inboard "boat" and that in the foreground are the other two units of the Lake-designed L-5 class, USS L-5 (SS-44) and USS L-6 (SS-45). Note the "Y-tube" hydrophone mounted on the bow of the submarine in the foreground. Collection of Chief Engineman Virgil Breland, USN. Donated by Mrs. E.H. Breland, 1979. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Online Image: 89KB; 740 x 460 pixels

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Page made 29 October 2005
New images added 18 November 2005