Grayling I (Submarine No. 18)
1909-1911
A fresh water game fish closely related to the trout.
(Submarine No. 18: displacement 288 (normal); length 134'10" (overall); beam 13'11" (extreme); draft 11'8" (mean); speed 13 knots (surfaced), 8.5 knots (submerged); complement 15; armament4 18-inch torpedo tubes; class Narwhal)
Grayling (Submarine No. 18) was laid down on 16 April 1908 at Quincy, Mass., by the Fore River Shipbuilding Co., under subcontract from Electric Boat Co., New York, N.Y.; launched on 16 June 1909; sponsored by Miss Catherine H. Bowles, daughter of Francis T. Bowles, President of the Fore River Shipbuilding Co.; and commissioned on 23 November 1909, Lt. Owen Hill in command.
Grayling joined the Atlantic Torpedo Fleet as flagboat for Submarine Division 3. Along the Atlantic coast, she participated in diving, torpedo, and experimental exercises. Less than two years following her commissioning, she was renamed D-2 on 17 November 1911. She participated in the Presidential Review of the Fleet in the North River, N.Y. from 5 to 18 May 1915.
During the Great War, D-2 conducted training and experimental work out of New London. She was placed in commission in reserve at Philadelphia Navy Yard on 9 September 1919 and placed in ordinary [a non-commissioned status] on 15 July 1921. Towed to the Philadelphia Navy Yard, she was decommissioned there on 18 January 1922 and sold as a hulk on 25 September 1922.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman
12 May 2021
