History
In the early 1910s, only a dozen years after Holland inaugurated the Navy's undersea force, naval strategists had already begun to wish for submarines that could operate as long range reconnaissance vessels, in closer collaboration with the surface fleet than the Navy's existing classes, which had been designed primarily for coastal defense. These notional "fleet" submarines would necessarily be larger and better armed, but primarily, they would need a surface speed of some 21 knots (39 km/h) to be able to maneuver with the battleships and cruisers of the line.
In the summer of 1913, Electric Boat's chief naval architect, former naval constructor Lawrence Y. Spear, proposed two preliminary fleet-boat designs for consideration in the Navy's 1914 program. In the ensuing authorization of eight submarines, Congress specified that one should "be of a seagoing type to have a surface speed of not less than twenty knots." This first fleet boat, laid down in June 1916, was named Schley after Spanish-American War hero Winfield Scott Schley. With a displacement of 1,106 tons surfaced, 1,487 tons submerged, on a length of 270 feet (82 m), Schley (later AA-1, and finally T-1) was twice as large as any previous U.S. submarine. To achieve the required surface speed, two tandem 1,000-horsepower (0.75 MW) diesel engines on each shaft drove twin screws, and a separate diesel generator was provided for charging batteries. Although Schley and two sisters authorized in 1915 -- AA-2 (later T-2), and AA-3 (later T-3) -- all made their design speed of 20 knots (37 km/h), insoluble torsional vibration problems with their tandem engines made them very troublesome ships.
They were based out of Hampton Roads, Virginia as part of Submarine Division 15 in the Atlantic Fleet. On 17 July 1920, the three boats were reclassified as Fleet Submarines and given the designations SF-1, SF-2, and SF-3. Their names were changed to T-1, T-2, and T-3 on 22 September 1920.
All three boats had been decommissioned by 1923 and placed into storage in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Between 1925 and 1927, T-3 was restored to service in order to test German diesel engines, then returned to Philadelphia. All three were struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 19 September 1930 and sold for scrap on 20 November 1930.
Read more about this topic: AA-1 Class Submarine
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