USS R-14 (SS-91)

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Career
Ordered:
Laid down:	6 November 1918
Launched:	10 October 1919
Commissioned:	24 December 1919
Fate:
Stricken:	19 May 1945
General Characteristics
Displacement:	569 tons surfaced, 680 tons submerged
Length:	186 feet 2 inches
Beam:	18 feet
Draft:	14 feet 6 inches
Propulsion:	880 hp diesel engines surfaced, 934 hp electric motors submerged
Speed:	13.5 knots surfaced, 10.5 knots submerged
Range:	3700 miles at 10 knots surfaced; 100 miles at 10 knots submerged
Depth:	200 feet
Complement:	two officers, 27 enlisted men
Armament:	one three-inch/50-caliber gun, four 21-inch bow torpedo tubes, eight torpedoes

USS R-14 (SS-91) was an R-class submarine of the United States Navy. Her keel was laid down by the Fore River Shipbuilding Company, in Quincy, Massachusetts on 6 November 1918. She was launched on 10 October 1919 sponsored by Miss Florence L. Gardner and commissioned on 24 December 1919, with Lieutenant Vincent A. Clarke, Jr., in command.

After shakedown off the New England coast, R-14 moved to New London, Connecticut, where she prepared for transfer to the Pacific Fleet. In May she headed south. Designated SS-91 in July, she transited the Panama Canal in the same month and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 6 September. There, for the next nine years, she assisted in the development of submarine and anti-submarine warfare tactics, and participated in search and rescue operations.

During a search for the sea-going tug Conestoga in May 1921, R-14 ran out of fuel southeast of Hawaii. Sails were made from blankets and mattresses, and the submarine arrived at Hilo on 15 May after five days under sail.

On 12 December 1930, R-14 cleared Pearl Harbor for the last time and headed back to the Atlantic. Proceeding via San Diego, California, and the Panama Canal, she returned to New London on 9 February 1931, and through the end of the decade conducted training exercises for the Submarine School. In the spring of 1941, she moved down the coast to Key West, Florida, her homeport as of 1 June. In the fall, she returned to New London for overhaul and on 22 November resumed operations out of Key West. Into April 1945 she conducted training exercises for the Sound School and patrolled the Yucatan Channel and the Florida Straits. On 25 April she headed north and in early May arrived at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

R-14 was decommissioned on 7 May, struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 19 May, and sold on 28 September 1945, to Rossoff Brothers of New York. She was later resold to the Northern Metals Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and scrapped in 1946.

References

This article includes information collected from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.