USS Plunger (1895)
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States
| |
| Name: | USS Plunger |
| Namesake: | Plunger, a diver or daring gambler |
| Ordered: | 13 March 1895 |
| Builder: | Holland Torpedo Boat Company |
| Commissioned: | Never |
| Fate: | Cancelled April 1900 prior to completion |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Submarine |
| Displacement: |
|
| Length: | 85 ft 3 in (25.98 m) |
| Beam: | 11 ft 6 in (3.51 m) |
| Draft: | 11 ft (3.4 m) |
| Propulsion: | Steam engine |
| Speed: |
|
| Complement: | 7 |
| Armament: | 2 × 18 in (460 mm) torpedo tubes |
USS Plunger, ordered in 1895, was the first submarine built for the United States Navy, but she was never completed.
On 3 March 1893, the United States Congress authorized the first "submarine torpedo boat" to be built for the U.S. Navy. John P. Holland won a Navy design competition in 1895 to build it with his design for a submarine powered by a steam engine. The Navy ordered Holland's design as USS Plunger, and awarded a contract for her construction to Holland's firm, the Holland Torpedo Boat Company, on 13 March 1895.
While building Plunger, Holland concluded that steam power would never be suitable in a submarine, and he abandoned construction of Plunger in favor of the construction of another submarine, Holland, powered by a gasoline engine, which he funded personally.[1]
Accordingly, the Navy cancelled the contract for Plunger's construction in April 1900. That same month, it purchased Holland and commissioned her as its first submarine, USS Holland (SS-1).
Notes
- ↑ Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906-1921, p. 127.
References
- This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
- Gardiner, Robert. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906-1921. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1985. ISBN 0-87021-907-3.