USS S-51 (SS-162)

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Career
Ordered:
Laid down:	22 December 1919
Launched:	20 August 1921
Commissioned:	24 June 1922
Fate:	sunk, salvaged, sold for scrap
Stricken:	27 January 1930
General Characteristics
Displacement:	903 tons surfaced, 1230 tons submerged
Length:	240 feet
Beam:	21 feet 10 inches
Draft:	13 feet 6 inches
Speed:	14.5 knots surfaced, 11 knots submerged
Complement:	38 officers and men
Armament:	one four-inch gun; five 21-inch torpedo tubes

USS S-51 (SS-162) was a S-class submarine. Her keel was laid down on 22 December 1919 by the Lake Torpedo Boat Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut. She was launched on 20 August 1921 sponsored by Mrs. R.J. Mills, and commissioned on 24 June 1922 with Lieutenant W.S. Haas in command.

The new submarine was based at New London, Connecticut, on 1 July 1922 as a unit of Submarine Division 4 and followed a normal peacetime training cycle, operating out of her home port with visits to Newport, Rhode Island, and Providence, Rhode Island. She departed from New York City on 4 January 1924 for the Panama Canal Zone to participate in winter fleet maneuvers off Panama and in the Caribbean Sea. During this cruise, she visited Trinidad, Guantanamo Bay, Culebra, and St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. After returning to New York City on 30 April, she resumed type training off Block Island and in New England coastal waters.

On the night of 25 September 1925, S-51 was rammed and sunk off Block Island, New York, by the merchant steamer City of Rome. Only three survivors of the 36 men on board the ill-fated submarine were recovered.

S-51 was raised on 5 June 1926; struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 27 January 1930; and sold for scrap on 23 June 1930 to the Borough Metal Company, Brooklyn, New York.

References

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