Background and History
The predecessor for this class were two submarines ordered in 1911 for the Chilean Navy, to the John Philip Holland design 19-E and design 19-B. These eventually became the CC class submarines of the Royal Canadian Navy.
Three prototypes were then built to an improved design 30, with an increased displacement of 358/434 tons. These became the United States H class submarines and were designated H-1, H-2 and H-3.
In October 1914, after the start of World War I, the British Admiralty ordered ten submarines to design 602E, to be built by Canadian Vickers in Montreal, Quebec. These would become the British H class submarines. Another ten submarines were secretly constructed at Fore River Yard at Quincy, Massachusetts, in the then neutral United States. This group was impounded by the United States government and ended up in the Chilean Navy and the Royal Canadian Navy after the American declaration of war. A third group, of twenty-five British H class subs, was constructed in 1917-1919 in Britain, many of them serving in World War II.
In the summer of 1915 eight type 602 submarines were ordered by the Italian Regia Marina. These were built in Montreal, Quebec.
In 1917 the Imperial Russian Navy ordered a total of 17 submarines for its Baltic and Black Sea Fleets. These were built at a temporary shipyard in Barnet on Burrard Inlet outside Vancouver, British Columbia. They were then disassembled, taken by ship to Vladivostok, by the Trans-Siberian Railroad to Saint Petersburg and Nikolayev to be reassembled in Russian Shipyards. In Russia they were known as the "Amerikansky Golland" class submarines.
Six of the boats were undelivered at the time of the Russian Revolution of 1917. These were later bought by the United States Navy, and after reassembly at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, they became the United States H class submarines H-4 - H-9. In 1918 the Black Sea Fleet submarines "АG-21" - "АG-26" were taken over by the Ukrainian State Navy. In May 1918 the Finnish Navy salvaged two of the Baltic fleet submarines scuttled off Hanko at the end of the Finnish Civil War, but was unable to refit them for service.
Read more about this topic: Holland 602 Type Submarine
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