Submarine USS V-3 (SF-6) /

USS Bonita (SS-165) - Ship's History

The formal legal steps leading to the acquisition of United States naval vessels are often confusing to many people but are important to an understanding of the United States Navy's submarine programs. Generally speaking, the Navy cannot acquire a ship until Congress has both authorized the size of the fleet and appropriated funds for the procurement of new vessels. This requires two separate acts of Congress, as a result of which ships have frequently been authorized several years before funds were actually appropriated for their construction, and some authorized ships have never been built at all. Authorization and procurement procedures are usually quite formal in peacetime but more expedient methods are usually followed during wars or national emergencies. In the past, Congress was often very specific in defining the characteristics of particular ships, their cost, and sometimes even their names and where they were to be built.

The United States Navy's first fleet-type submarines were authorized under such a procedure.

The Act of 30 June 1914 authorized one fleet-type submarine "to be of a seagoing type to have a surface speed of not less than twenty knots..." This submarine was assigned hull number 52. By the Act of 3 March 1915 Congress added "two submarines to be of a seagoing type to have a surface speed of twenty-five knots or more if possible but not less than twenty knots, to cost, exclusive of armor and armament, not exceeding $1,500,000 each... " These boats were assigned hull numbers 60 and 61. All three boats were built to essentially the same design and were ultimately designated the "T" class. The "T" class submarines were the first fleet-type submarines in the United States Navy.

Congress authorized nine more fleet-type submarines by the Act of 29 August 1916, but did not immediately appropriate funds for their construction. Hull numbers 163 to 171 were set aside for these boats. By Acts of 1 July 1918 and 11 July 1919 Congress provided that vessels authorized under the 1916 act, whose construction had not specifically beeen directed heretofore, should be begun as soon as practicable.

Funds for a few of these boats were appropriated, starting with hulls 163, 164, and 165 by the Act of 1 July 1918. Funds for hull number 166 were not appropriated until 28 May 1924 when Congress directed the procurement of "one fleet submarine (mine laying type) heretofore authorized, to have the highest practicable speed and greatest desirable radius of action and to cost not to exceed $5,300,000 for construction and machinery and $850,000 for armor, armament, and ammunition..." The Act of 11 February 1925 approved two more submarines of similar characteristics and cost but not of the mine laying type, assigned hull numbers 167 and 168. Funds for numbers 169, 170, and 171 were appropriated by the Act of 2 March 1929. These nine submarines were originally known as the "V" class although they were actually of five different designs and carried several different designations under the Navy's ship classification system. When names were assigned in 1931 in place of class letters and numbers these boats were regrouped as follows: 163, 164, and 165, "B" class; 166, "A" class; 167 and 168, "N" class; 169, "D" class; and 170 and 171, "C" class.

The third ship in the United States Navy to be named USS Bonita, for the species of fish allied to the mackerel, was laid down on 16 November 1921 at the Portsmouth Navy Yard at Kittery, Maine, as USS V-3 (SF-6). The fleet-type submarine was christened by Mrs. Louis R. DeSteiguer, wife of Rear Admiral DeSteiguer, and launched on 9 June 1925. The submarine was commissioned into the United States Navy on 22 May 1926 with Lieutenant Commander Charles Andrews Lockwood, Junior, in command.

During the Second World War, Vice Admiral Charles Andrews Lockwood, Junior, directed most of the United States Navy's submarine operations in the Pacific Ocean from his headquarters at Pearl Harbor in the Territory of Hawaii.

When commissioned, this V-1 class submarine displaced 2,000 tons (standard) on the surface (and had a mean draft of 14'7") and 2,620 tons submerged; was 341'6" in length overall; had an extreme beam of 27'6"; could safely dive to 200'(the test depth); had a partial double and riveted hull; had 10 watertight compartments; had a 9/16 inch mild steel pressure hull; was manned by a crew of eight officers and eighty enlisted men; was armed with one 5-inch/51-caliber deck gun and four bow and two stern 21-inch torpedo tubes (Twelve torpedoes were carried); could make 18.71 knots on the surface and 9 knots submerged; had a maximum cruising range on the surface at 11 knots of 10,000 miles and could run submerged at 5 knots for 10 hours; carried 90,935 gallons of diesel fuel; and was designed to patrol for 45 days...unsupported.

The submarine had two engine rooms: In the after portion of the hull were two 2,250 brake horsepower diesel engines built by the Busch Sulzer Diesel Engine Company at Saint Louis, Missouri. These main propulsion engines moved the submarine on the surface through a diesel direct drive system. In the forward part of the hull two 1,000 brake horsepower Maschinenfabrik-Augsburg-Nurnberg (M.A.N.) type diesel engines were installed for auxiliary power. These engines turned generators that, through a diesel-electric drive system, could propel the vessel via two 1,200 horsepower main propulsion motors manufactured by the Elliot Motor Company at Jeannette, Pennsylvania.

These motors could also be driven for submerged propulsion by power from a 120-cell main storage battery...which was divided into two 60- cell batteries... made by the Electric Storage Battery Company (Exide) at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Total shaft horsepower developed on the surface during trials was 6,200; total shaft horsepower available for submerged propulsion was 2,400.

In later years, USS V-3 became known as a "B" boat when she became a unit of the "B" class...as did USS V-1 and USS V-2...when the three submarines of that class were renamed Barracuda, Bass, and Bonita, respectively, in 1931.

Assigned to Submarine Division Twenty, USS V-3 (SF-6) cruised along the east coast of the United States and in the Caribbean Sea until November of 1927. With her submarine division, the submarine then transferred to the Pacific Ocean ... arriving at San Diego, California, on 17 December 1927. After service with Submarine Division Twenty and Twelve along the Pacific coast of the United States and off the Territory of Hawaii, the "V" boat joined Submarine Division Fifteen of the Rotating Reserve at the Mare Island Navy Yard at Vallejo, California, on 1 June 1932.

USS V-3 (SF-6) was renamed USS Bonita on 9 March 1931 and was reclassified SS-165 on 1 July 1931.

USS Bonita (SS-165) rejoined Submarine Division Twelve during September of 1933 and cruised in the Caribbean Sea, along the west coast of the United States, and in Hawaiian waters through 1936.

The "B" class submarine departed San Diego on 20 January 1937 and transited to the Philadelphia Navy Yard at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...arriving there on 18 February 1937.

USS Bonita (SS-165) was placed out of commission, in reserve, at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, on 4 June 1937, and placed in the reserve fleet for possible future use.

Recommissioned on 5 September 1940, the submarine departed the United States Naval Submarine Base New London, Groton, Connecticut, on 17 November 1940, for the submarine base at Coco Solo in the Panama Canal Zone. Upon arrival, the "B" boat commenced patrolling in the Pacific Ocean, off Panama.

On 7 December 1941, air and submarine units of the Empire of Japan attacked targets in the Territory of Hawaii, thus plunging the United States of America into the Second World War as an active participant.

During October of 1942, USS Bonita transited to, and arrived at, the Philadelphia Navy Yard, for repairs, overhaul, and conversion to a cargo-carrying submarine. All work was completed by April of 1943. The submarine was supposed to have been redesignated "APS-4" upon completion of the conversion, but that was never done.

Following departure from the City of Brotherly Love, USS Bonita (SS-165) patrolled off the Maine coast until mid-1943; then joined Submarine Division Thirteen of Submarine Squadron One, and provided services to various tenant commands at the United States Naval Submarine Base New London, Groton, Connecticut, until February 1945.

USS Bonita transited to the Philadelphia Navy Yard, and arrived there on 17 February 1945. The submarine was decommissioned on 3 March 1945 and struck from the Navy List seven days later.

On 2 September 1945, representatives of the Empire of Japan signed the instruments of surrender on board battleship USS Missouri (BB-63), which was anchored in Tokyo Bay, Japan, for that occasion... and, by so doing, formally ended the Second World War.

On 4 October 1945, the "B" boat was sold to Rosoff Brothers of New York for $11,734. The hulk was resold to the Northern Metals Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 28 October 1945, for subsequent scrapping.

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USS V-1, USS V-2, and USS V-3 were the last United States Navy submarines to be designed to meet true fleet characteristics. Their design, while quite original, did not reflect much wartime operating experience.

USS Bonita's partial double hull featured a complex tank arrangement and a non-circular cross section that was different in every compartment. The bulbous profile at the bow bore a startling resemblance to a shark with an anchor gripped between its jaws. In an effort to provide better surface seakeeping qualities, two buoyancy tanks were built into the upper part of the bow and a high, covered bridge was provided to protect the bridge personnel. Both features, as well as a larger conning tower, were to become standard practice on many later United States submarines.

Other unusual hull features included: a complicated forward torpedo room hatch structure that combined the torpedo loading, access, and escape hatches in a single casting; and watertight doors at both the upper and lower levels in the after bulkhead of the propulsion engine room. The double hull terminated at a curved bulkhead in the after torpedo room, but the tubes were actually located beyond this, in a small compartment called the steering-gear room; there were two doors in the bulkhead through which torpedoes could be loaded into the tubes. This arrangement, a common one in

British submarines, was never again attempted in a United States submarine. The deck hatches amidships had high trunks extending above the weather deck to minimize the possibility of flooding from breaking waves. The foremost of these provided rapid access to the deck for the gun crew and could also be used as an escape chamber. The first commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander Charles Lockwood, personally made escapes to the surface and returned, to demonstrate the use of the trunk to his crewmen. The berthing and messing arrangements for the crew was largely concentrated in the after part of the boat.

The unusual divided propulsion plant, although located too far forward, was the precursor of the all-electric drive. The generator engines proved to be reasonably reliable performers but the main propulsion engines gave constant trouble. The Elliott main motors were also failure-prone and had to be replaced with Ridgway units in 1940.

These boats were fitted with three periscopes. Their bow planes differed from other United States submarine installations by folding back through narrow slots in the outer hull, an arrangement that proved difficult to keep in proper adjustment. Originally armed with a 5-inch/51-caliber deck gun, USS Bonita was refitted with a 3-inch/50-caliber weapon after 1928 to help cure an overweight topside condition.

Submariners who had high hopes for USS Bonita were disappointed by the boat's poor operational performance. The boat was heavy forward, and, this, in conjunction with the odd shape of the pressure hull, caused the bow to burrow into waves instead of riding over them.

The submarine force soon came to view this boat as a white elephant and most operators were not sorry to see USS Bonita placed out of commission in 1937. Pressed back into service for World War Two operations, USS Bonita continued to live up to its bad reputation.

Converted into a cargo carrier at the insistence of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt himself, USS Bonita lost her torpedo tubes and main engines to provide room for cargo tanks. But the "B" boat proved worthless in this role also. USS Bonita was decommissioned before the end of the Second World War...because she was not a good submarine.

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