Harder, Darter, Trigger, Trout: Always in and never out.

It was 1945, the war was just over and most of the Naval SubmarineForce was wanting to go home and be done with the boats. There was anair of contentment that the force had won the war by strangling thesea lanes around Japan and causing the downfall of the Empire. Thatwas certainly unarguable. There was a sense of well being in that theAmerican fleet submarine was as good as a submarine needed to be forall those who would challenge the US Navy. That unfortunately wassoon to change. The fleet submarine was obsolete and even though itwould exist for another 20 years, it was as useful in the newsubmarine world as a biplane was at the beginning of World War II.Useful enough, if the opponent had only the same thing.

The fleet boat had a problem. It was slow. Fast enough on thesurface, when submerged it could do nearly six knots but only for anhour. That meant it could run for a distance of only six nauticalmiles. At a slower speed, say three knots, it could run for maybe 10hours, a distance of thirty nautical miles. A destroyer could easilycircle above it for days. With the advances in sonars the surfaceships had, the fleet boat could be killed with an ease the JapaneseImperial Navy could only dream of. The lone fleet boat could stillharass a convoy or kill a few escorts, but the newly organized fastsurface battle groups were a threat to be reckoned with. Fortunately,the US Navy was the only force that possessed fast surface battlegroups.

The trigger that started the revolution in submarine design andconstruction was a German submarine designated as the Type XXI.Nearly 60 feet shorter than the Tench-class American submarine, theType XXI had two things the US boat needed. The first was highunderwater speed and the second was a snorkel. The boat was beingbuilt in 1944 and 1945 in a Germany which was being heavily bombedand overrun by Allied forces. In January 1945, the Germanshipbuilding industry was making a Type XXI operational every 28hours. There weren't enough crews and the training time requiredmeant that very few if any Type XXI's made offensive patrols in theAtlantic or North Sea. When the war ended, many of the boats weretrashed, but many were taken by the allied powers for study and use.What we found while testing the U-2513 and U-3008 was shocking. TheType XXI could dive to nearly 650 feet, had a crew of only 57, had a6-tube bow nest and a decent reload capacity and most shocking offall, she was really fast. In a state three sea, the boat could outrun a destroyer by heading into the sea and remaining submerged. Theboat could snorkel 10,000 miles at 12 knots. The boat could hit 15knots in short sprints and could maintain over 6 knots for nearly 40hours at 300 feet. That meant the Type XXI could outrun the activesonar tracking ability and the fire control systems of most US ASWvessels. The German boat was also quieter at 6 knots than aTench-class was at 2 knots.

These submarines could clearly attack a fast battle group withsome good chance of success and might even take out a carrier. TheSoviet Navy took nearly fifteen of these boats back to the homelandafter the war. We had a problem. We needed a new submarine. Onequestion that needed answering was whether only one design was neededor separate designs for separate missions. In August 1945 CommodoreMerrill Comstock was ordered by CNO to conduct a study of WWIIsubmarine experience. A questionnaire was circulated among submarineofficers soliciting their views on submarine speed, depth, and otherissues. The outcome of the General Board and Submarine Officer'sconference was that a single design new attack submarine would bebuilt starting in 1946 and that other existing vessels would beconverted for specialized uses. The new design was formally startedin February 1946.

 The designers called for a streamlined ship with fewappendages. The bridge and masting support structure  was to beenclosed in a light faired structure which would become known as thesail. The old fleet boat open shears mast support structurecontributed over 50% of the total resistance at high speed. Allthings that didn't have to stick out were made either flush orretractable (capstan, towing fairleads, cleats and the safety track),the deck guns were done away with in all forms. The resulting hullform was more efficient than the XXI. The circular section hull waschosen over the more radical figure 8 form of the German boat. Thepressure hull was two feet wider than a Tench but one hundred feetshorter. To save space, a radical new engine was adopted.

The General Motors company had built a new lightweight compactengine that ran at a high speed. It was quite a bit different thanthe 16-268 and 16-278 the submarine crews were used to. Instead ofthe crankshaft being horizontal and the cylinders being arranged intwo rows of eight each, this engine had a vertical crankshaft and thecylinders were arranged like a radial aircraft engine. These were theGM 16-338 "pancake" engines. The engine was a mere 13.5feet from the base of the generator to the top of the air intakefilter and 4 feet wide. It was a two cycle engine which developed1090 bhp at 1600 rpm. On the top was an air intake then four layersof four cylinders each. Each cylinder had a six inch bore and a sixand one half inch stroke. On the bottom of the crank shaft was anElliot generator which developed 817 kW at a maximum of 710 volts DC.The whole engine, all up and loaded with fuel and oil weighed justover eight tons. Being just over 4 feet wide, the designers couldpack four engines in an engine room only 22 feet long. This droppedone entire engine room from the submarine design.

More space and weight was saved by the elimination of four 21 inchdiameter by 22 foot long torpedo tubes and the requirement foradditional torpedo stowage of the long Mk 14, 16, and 18 torpedo inan after torpedo room. The initial design called for no aft at all.The submarine officers however, lobbied hard for retention of the afttube nest but settled for two tubes of 21" and a length of 15feet. These would take the Mk-27 and the planned Mk 37 torpedo andwere to be used as countermeasures weapons. Countermeasures werefired at pursuing ASW ships or other pursuing submarines. These tubeswere new, they were simpler and were designed for swim out typetorpedoes.

The tubes forward were all new. Instead of using a pulse of airbehind the torpedo to push it out, the new tubes used a slug ofwater. There was a piston which had air on one side and water on theother. It worked kind of like a hypodermic needle. The piston wasmoved all the way aft with the forward end of the cylinder fillingwith water from the sea. The sea valve, called the barn door on someships, was closed. To fire a torpedo, the tube was prepared as normalthen when the firing signal was given, high pressure air was portedto the aft end of the piston. This pressurized the water in thepiston. A slide valve with ports around the torpedo tube opened toallow the water from the piston to enter the aft end of the tube.This high pressure water forced the torpedo out. No air bubble and nopoppet valving arrangement was needed.

In October 1946, the design was finalized and two boats ordered.The first was to be USS Tang (SS-563) and was to be built atPortsmouth Naval Shipyard. The second was to be USS Triggerand was contracted to Groton in the Electric Boat yard. The boatswere to become the Tang Class. The class was to be built at a lengthof 268 feet and a beam of 25 feet. With 2850 shaft horsepower on eachof two shafts, the boat could do 17.5 knots at 700 feet. (at the onehour rate) or snorkel 10,000 nautical miles at 10 knots.

The next fiscal year (FY47) two more boats were ordered. They wereto become USS Wahoo and USS Trout, (SS-565 and 566).Wahoo went to Portsmouth and Trout went to EB. The nextset were split the same way the next year and were the USS Gudgeonand USS Harder (SS-567 and 568). The construction went welland boats were delivered on time. Trigger was delivered first.However, when the boats started to operate, there were problems. Theengines they didn't work well.

Several reasons have been given for the failure of the pancakeengine in submarine use. It was undoubtedly a combination of effects.The engines were supposedly to use a special lubricating oil. TheNavy supposedly insisted on standard diesel lubricating oil and thatadversely affected the bearings. This may have been the case or itmay have been the lightness of the internal structures of theengines. They did leak oil into the generators and from informationgained from people who worked on them, they were a real maintenanceproblem in the confined space of the engine room. They may have runinto the same problem that the supercharged Fairbanks Morse engineshad when the boats in which they were installed were converted tosnorkel boats. The turbocharger casing flexed slightly when thepressure in the boat changed quickly thus causing blower failures. The housing was stiffened and the problem was minimized. Whensnorkeling it is possible that flexures in the hull, engine frame,and/or mounting foundation exacerbated by the lightness ofconstruction contributed to the bearing issues. Whatever the reasonsthe engines made advocates out of some and enemies of others. TheNavy decided in 1956 to replace all the engines with the smaller,lightweight version of the 10-cylinder Fairbanks-Morse opposed pistonengine. The boats had to be lengthened some 9 feet in the engine roomto make enough space for the new engines, only three of which couldbe installed. Thus in 1957/58 each of the first four boats werestretched to 277 feet. Gudgeon and Harder were built toa length of 277 feet and with the FM engines as initial installation.In 1967, some of the boats got an additional 15 (some sources say 18)foot section added to receive the PUFFS installation and to giveadded room. These boats were the 563, 565, 567 (all the Portsmouthboats) and the 568.

At the same time as these boats were being built and used, theGuppy program was taking off. Other than the deeper depth capabilityof the Tangs, the Guppies were nearly as good and a whole lotcheaper. The nuclear propulsion plant in the Skipjack shaped hullmade a quantum leap in submarine capabilities. The nuclear poweredsubmarine proved to be the path followed by the Navy.

Even though the Tang-class was seemingly left in the dust, it tookits place alongside the Guppies performing the arduous duties ofmaintaining the watch on the Soviet fleet and training our Naval ASWforces and those of our allies. That is not to say the class wasn'tworked hard. For example Tang was based in Pearl Harbor and inthe period from July 1956 to 1972 she deployed seven times to theWestern Pacific to operate with units of the Seventh Fleet or alonein areas assigned by the fleet commands. Each deployment lasted 6 to7 months. That meant a deployment on average, once every 20 months(which does not take into consideration overhauls and otheroperations). During the Viet Nam War, she aided US Naval forces inand around the South China Sea and earned four battle stars. Duringthe same period, she made trips from Pearl Harbor to the Northwest USand Canada to operate from the Naval Torpedo Station at Keyport,Washington as far west as the Aleutians. From 1972 to 1978 sheoperated in UNITAS XV with our South American allies and numerousdeployments for training exercises. Tang was decommissionedand transferred to the Turkish Navy, renamed the Piri Reis(S-343): first as a lease arrangement in 1980, then purchasedoutright in 1987, decommissioned from the Turkish Navy on 13 August,2004, now a Submarine Museum in Izmir Turkey.

Trigger, actually the first of the Tangs to see service,was initially home ported in New London. She made trips at and underthe edge of the ice pack in conjunction with USS Nautilus (SSN-571)in 1957. She made a couple of Northern and Northern European trips tokeep watch on the Kola Peninsula and to assist our allies in trainingtheir ASW forces. In 1959, she changed home port to Charleston andfrom that port made three Med trips until 1968 when she went into theshipyard for modernization and a hull lengthening. The newlyoverhauled Trigger changed home port to San Diego and operatedout of Bangor Washington on several occasions as a MK 48 torpedo testship. In 1972, she made her first WesPac from October of that year toMarch of 1973. Then in July of 1973, she was decommissioned andtransferred to Italy where she served as the Livio Piomarta(S-515) until the Italian Navy put her out of commission andthen she was scrapped.

Gudgeon was attached to SubRon 1 in Pearl initially whereshe reported in July 1953. In the next four years she made twoWesPacs and had local ops. She took part in secret operations whichare rumored to have included close monitoring of the Soviet port ofVladivostok. Taking on the flag of ComSubPac, Gudgeon sailed fromPearl Harbor on 8 July 1957. In the next 8 months, she operated withforces out of Yokosuka, Japan, Subic, transited through the IndianOcean, and visited ports in Africa. The boat transited the Atlanticthen after a trip of 25,000 miles, reentered Pearl again on 21February 1958 becoming the first US submarine to circumnavigate theglobe. More Wespacs were made in 1959, 1961 and 1963 after which sheentered Mare Island Naval Shipyard to undergo the lengthing processmentioned above. Gudgeon served in the Pacific until she wasdecommissioned. Then in 1983, she was transferred by lease to Turkeyand renamed the Hizir Reis (S-342). She was purchasedin 1987. Decomissioned in 2003 now a submarine museum in the city ofIzmit Turkey.

Harder operated out of New London after her commissioning.She made an historic test of the ability of a submarine to transit onthe snorkel by making the trip from New London to the Bahamassnorkeling. In 1959, she participated in SUBICEX where the cruisedsome 280 miles under the Arctic Ice pack. Harder changed homeport to Charleston late in 1959 and operated out of that port on Medtrips, and extensive ASW operating exercises in the Atlantic andCaribbean. In 1967 the boat was modernized and lengthened. Harderwas sold to Italy where she served as the Romeo Romei (S-516)until the Italian Navy put her out of commission and she was thenscrapped.

Wahoo joined the Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor in 1953. Herfirst WesPac was in 1954 then the next year she started her second.After extensive local ops and a short overhaul at the Pearl HarborNaval Shipyard, she started another WesPac in October 1957 whichincluded a visit to Tahiti. In 1959 she headed out again. From thenuntil she changed home ports in June of 1971, Wahoo continuedto meet commitments in the local area, western pacific and madeextensive trips to the war zone off Vietnam where she earned threebattle stars. It was during her involvement in the Viet Nam War whereshe performed patrol, insertion and extraction operations and othermore sensitive work that application was made for the awarding of theWar Patrol Pin for this service. The application as well as those byother boats who served at the time in combat was met with stubbornresistance on the part of Submarine Force veterans of WW II, many ofwhom were in senior positions, who reminded the applicants thatunless the boat sank enemy shipping, it was not a successful patroland didn't deserve a patrol pin. Thus none of the submarine crews ofthe force which made patrols during that conflict, some of which werelonger and as arduous as World War II patrols were able to earn warpatrol pins. Nor did boats that did similar service during the Koreanwar. The same situation is seen in the awarding of strategicdeterrent patrol recognition to those who made  Reguluspatrols.Wahoo was placed out of commission in 1980 andremained in Philadelphia at the shipyard in storage until the early1990's when she was sold out for scrapping. All that remained at thattime was a gutted hulk as most of the parts had been used to supplyspares for the other boats in foreign service.

Trout has had the longest, if not always active, servicecareer. Operating out of New London after her commissioning in 1952,Trout operated extensively with NATO units from the NorthAtlantic to the Caribbean. At one time she sailed under the ice forsome 268 miles setting a record that was later bested by Harder.In 1959 she was assigned to SubRon 4 in Charleston where sheunderwent BuShips Shock tests. After an overhaul in 1963, Troutoperated out of Charleston in local operations and three Meddeployments. In 1970 the boat's home port was changed to San Diegowhere she made two WesPacs, one in 1972 and again in 1975. Her homeport was changed to Philadelphia in 1976. She, along with Wahoo,was slated to be transferred to the Iranian Navy in 1979. Extensiveoverhauls were performed on both ships and Iranian crews underwenttraining in both Philadelphia and New London. When the Shah of Iranwas replaced in 1979, the deal was put off and finally canceled. Theboats, Trout and Wahoo were put in storage. Wahoowas used for parts replacement for other ships, Trout remainedin Philadelphia in storage until 1994. In that year, she was takenout of storage and preparations were made to use the boat as a radiocontrolled test platform. As such, the boat would have been acontrollable submerged target for our submarines to practiceanti-submarine exercises against a quiet diesel submarine. It wouldalso be used as a target to insure the ADCAP would perform againstthis type target as it is our mainstay torpedo. For some time Troutwas at Pier two in Newport, RI but was then towed to Key West. Troutwas later towed to Philadelphia placed on the donation list forhistoric ships later removed from the list sold for scrap towed toGalveston and scrapped in 2008.

These boats rendered exemplary service. They spent as much if notmore time at sea as did their contemporaries, either diesel or nuc.The appellation that is the title of this piece is absolutely untrue.The operations these boats performed are the stuff of legends, butunder the cloak of Cold War secrecy and the cloud of World War IIprejudices, they go unrecognized. There are unsubstantiated rumors ofone or more of the boats penetrating harbors and rivers to gatherintelligence and of hold-downs by foreign ships in and out ofinternational waters. The boats made war patrols in combat andclassified situations for which they and their crews have notreceived the proper recognition. As times change and the operationsof the Cold War and Vietnam are declassified, researchers will beable to document the service of this class.

By the way, USS Darter (SS-576) is in a class of its ownand, although a direct descendant of the Tang-class, is different.The reason for its inclusion in the rhyme used as the title isbecause she looked like a Tang, operated like a Tang and rhymed. Shewas sunk as a target by USS Tautog (SSN-639) off Hawaii.

These boat's hull designs formed an important milestone in thetransition from the submersible warships of the pre-nuclear age tothe fully submerged high speed hull designs of today. It also atransition from the requirements for submarine tactics up to themiddle of the 20^th to the tactics of the latter half ofthe century which included the “blue water submarine vs submarine”tactics. The general form design served well for the Tang Classboats but also can be seen in the Nautilus, Seawolf, and Skate Class. The design of the engineering spaces can be seen in the Regulusmissile submarines Grayback and Growler. The hull form stern seen inthe Skate Class is also seen in the missile boat Halibut.

In the above narration the ship histories have been condensed fromDictionary Of Naval Fighting Ships which can be found at https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs.html.