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- Heritage
- Uniforms
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1776-1783
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1797
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1802
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1812-1815
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1815
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1830-1841
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1841
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1852
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1852-1855
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1862-1863
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1864
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1898
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1900
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1905-1913
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1917-1918
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1918-1919
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1922-1931
- Uniforms of the U.S Navy 1941
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1942-1943
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- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1961
- Uniforms of the U.S. Navy 1967
- Customs and Traditions
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- Uniforms
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- U.S. Navy Installations
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- Diversity
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- The World Cruise of the Great White Fleet
- The Voyage of a Lifetime
- The Ships of the Great White Fleet
- Great White Fleet Gallery
- Beginning of the Cruise
- Fleet Leadership
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- World Cruise Experience
- At Sea
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- Philippines and Ceylon (Sri Lanka)
- Suez Canal-Egypt-Turkey
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- Notable People
- Presidents
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- The Office
- Admiral William S. Benson
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- Admiral Harold R. Stark
- Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King
- Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz
- Admiral Louis E. Denfeld
- Admiral Forrest P. Sherman
- Admiral William M. Fechteler
- Admiral Robert B. Carney
- Admiral Arleigh A. Burke
- Admiral George W. Anderson Jr.
- Admiral David L. McDonald
- Admiral Thomas H. Moorer
- Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr.
- Admiral James L. Holloway III
- Admiral Thomas B. Hayward
- Admiral James D. Watkins
- Admiral Carlisle A. H. Trost
- Admiral Frank B. Kelso II
- Admiral Jeremy M. Boorda
- Admiral Jay L. Johnson
- Admiral Vernon E. Clark
- Admiral Michael G. Mullen
- Admiral Gary Roughead
- Admiral Jonathan W. Greenert
- Admiral John M. Richardson
- Admiral Michael Gilday
- Master Chief Petty Officers of the Navy
- MCPON Delbert D. Black
- MCPON John D. Whittet
- MCPON Robert J. Walker
- MCPON Thomas S. Crow
- MCPON Billy C. Sanders
- MCPON William H. Plackett
- MCPON Duane R. Bushey
- MCPON John Hagan
- MCPON James L. Herdt
- MCPON Terry D. Scott
- MCPON Joe R. Campa Jr.
- MCPON Rick D. West
- MCPON Michael D. Stevens
- MCPON Steven S. Giordano
- MCPON Official Photographs
- Historical Figures
- Secretaries of the Navy
- Benjamin Stoddert (1798 - 1801)
- Robert Smith (1801 - 1809)
- Paul Hamilton (1809 - 1812)
- William Jones (1813 - 1814)
- Benjamin W. Crowninshield (1815 - 1818)
- Smith Thompson (1819 - 1823)
- Samuel Southard (1823 - 1829)
- John Branch, Jr. (1829 - 1831)
- Levi Woodbury (1831 - 1834)
- Mahlon Dickerson (1834 - 1838)
- James K. Paulding (1838 - 1841)
- George Edmund Badger (1841)
- Abel P. Upshur (1841 - 1843)
- David Henshaw (1843 - 1844)
- Thomas W. Gilmer (1844)
- John Y. Mason (1844-1845) (1846-1849)
- George Bancroft (1845 - 1846)
- William B. Preston (1849 - 1850)
- William A. Graham (1850 - 1852)
- John P. Kennedy (1852 - 1853)
- James C. Dobbin (1853 - 1857)
- Isaac Toucey (1857 - 1861)
- Gideon Welles (1861 - 1869)
- Adolph Edward Borie (1869)
- George M. Robeson (1869 - 1877)
- Richard W. Thompson (1877 - 1880)
- Nathan Goff, Jr. (1881)
- William Henry Hunt (1881 - 1882)
- William Eaton Chandler (1882 - 1885)
- William C. Whitney (1885 - 1889)
- Benjamin F. Tracy (1889 - 1893)
- Hilary A. Herbert (1893 - 1897)
- John D. Long (1897 - 1902)
- William H. Moody (1902 - 1904)
- Paul Morton (1904 - 1905)
- Charles J. Bonaparte (1905 - 1906)
- Victor H. Metcalf (1906 - 1908)
- Truman H. Newberry (1908 - 1909)
- George von L. Meyer (1909 - 1913)
- Josephus Daniels (1913 - 1921)
- Edwin Denby (1921 - 1924)
- Charles F. Adams, III (1929 - 1933)
- Claude A. Swanson (1933 - 1939)
- Charles Edison (1940)
- William Franklin Knox (1940 - 1944)
- James Forrestal (1944 - 1947)
- John Lawrence Sullivan (1947 - 1949)
- Francis P. Matthews (1949 - 1951)
- Dan A. Kimball (1951 - 1953)
- Robert B. Anderson (1953 - 1954)
- Charles S. Thomas (1954 - 1957)
- Thomas S. Gates (1957 - 1959)
- William Birrell Franke (1959 - 1961)
- John Bowden Connally, Jr. (1961)
- Fred Korth (1962 - 1963)
- Paul B. Fay (acting) (1963)
- Paul Henry Nitze (1963 - 1967)
- Charles Fitz Baird (acting) (1967)
- Paul R. Ignatius (1967 - 1969)
- John Hubbard Chafee (1969 - 1972)
- John William Warner (1972 - 1974)
- J. William Middendorf (1974 - 1977)
- William Graham Claytor, Jr. (1977 - 1979)
- Edward Hidalgo (1979 - 1981)
- John Lehman (1981 - 1987)
- James H. Webb (1987 - 1988)
- William L. Ball (1988 - 1989)
- Henry L. Garrett III (1989 - 1992)
- Daniel Howard (acting) (1992)
- Sean Charles O'Keefe (1992 - 1993)
- ADM Frank B. Kelso, II (acting) (1993)
- John Howard Dalton (1993 - 1998)
- Richard Jeffrey Danzig (1998 - 2001)
- Robert B. Pirie, Jr. (acting) (2001)
- Gordon R. England (2001-2003) (2003-2005)
- Susan M. Livingstone (acting) (2003)
- Hansford T. Johnson (acting) (2003)
- Donald Charles Winter (2006 - 2009)
- Raymond Edwin Mabus, Jr. (2009 - 2017)
- Sean G. J. Stackley (acting) (2017)
- Richard V. Spencer (2017 - 2019)
- Thomas B. Modly (acting) (2019-2020)
- James E. McPherson (acting) (2020)
- Kenneth J. Braithwaite (2020-2021)
- Thomas W. Harker (acting) (2021)
- Carlos Del Toro (2021-present)
- Medal of Honor Recipients
- Modern Navy Veterans
- Namesakes
- Sergeant Cornelius H. Charlton
- Private First Class Oscar P. Austin
- Civil Rights Activist Medgar Evers
- Private George Watson
- Cook First Class William Pinckney
- Commander Mary Sears
- Rear Admiral Grace Hopper
- Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt
- Senator Daniel K. Inouye
- Private First Class Herbert K. Pililaau
- Sergeant First Class Rodney J.T. Yano
- First Lieutenant Baldomero Lopez
- Master Sergeant Roy Benavidez
- Civil Rights Activist Cesar Chavez
- Admiral David Glasgow Farragut
- Private First Class Fernando Garcia
- Sergeant Alfredo Gonzalez
- Sergeant Rafael Peralta
- Chief Petty Officer James E. Williams
- Guide and Interpreter Sacagawea
- Sergeant Darrell Samuel Cole
- Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee
- Captain Thomas J. Hudner, Jr.
- Trailblazers
- Notable Ships
- U.S. Navy’s Six Original Frigates
- Ships of Sail
- Sail-to-Steam
- Modern Ships
- Alchiba (AK-23)
- Arizona (BB-39)
- Cole (DDG-67)
- Fletcher (DD-445)
- Harmon (DE-678)
- Houston (CA-30)
- Indianapolis (CA-35)
- Jacob Jones (DD-61)
- Johnston (DD-557)
- Maddox (DD-731)
- Missouri (BB-63)
- O'Bannon (DD-450)
- Pueblo (AGER-2)
- Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58)
- San Diego (CL-53)
- San Francisco (CA-38)
- Tripoli (LPH-10)
- Turner Joy (DD-951)
- Washington (BB-56)
- Aircraft Carriers
- Submarines
- Boats-Ships--Submarine
- Historical Summary
- World War I 1917-1918
- World War II 1939-1945
- Revolutionary War 1775-1783
- Special Operations-Warfare
- Image (gif, jpg, tiff)
- NHHC
Submarine Force
Submarines have a long history in the United States, beginning with Turtle, during the American Revolution. The world’s first combat submarine, invented by David Bushnell, was devised as a means of breaking the British blockade of Boston Harbor but was unsuccessful on multiple attempts. The U.S. Navy officially joined the undersea world when it purchased USS Holland (SS-1) on 11 April 1900, and commissioned her on 12 October 1900. The boat, designed by John P. Holland, proved valuable for experimental purposes during her 10-year career.
Although submarines did not play a large part for the U.S. during World War I, submarines such as USS K-5 (Submarine No. 36), one of the first U.S. diesel-electric submarines, deployed to the Azores patrolling for German submarines. World War II was when the submarine force became the workhorse of the U.S. Navy. Assessments indicated that U.S. submarines sank 540,192 tons of Japanese naval vessels, and 4,779,902 tons of merchant shipping during the course of the war, accounting for 54.6 percent of all Japanese vessel losses.
USS Nautilus (SSN-571) — developed by Hyman G. Rickover — was the first nuclear-powered submarine, and the first submarine to cross the North Pole under the Arctic polar ice pack. USS George Washington (SSBN-598) made history on 20 July 1960, when she successfully launched the first Polaris from a submerged submarine. The Tomahawk land-attack missile was later developed, and was first used by, submarines in combat during Operation Desert Storm by USS Louisville (SSN-724) and USS Pittsburgh (SSN-720).
Today’s submarine force is the most capable force in the world and the history of the U.S. Navy. The composition of the current force consists of Los Angeles, Ohio, Seawolf, and Virginia-class submarines.
The Naval Undersea Museum and Submarine Force Museum
The Naval Undersea Museum collects, preserves, and interprets naval undersea history, science, and operations for the benefit of the U.S. Navy and the people of the United States. The Submarine Force Museum collects, preserves and interprets the history of the United States Naval Submarine Force in order to honor veterans and to educate naval personnel and the public in the heritage and traditions of the U.S. Submarine Force and its relationship to America’s freedom.
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Video: The History of Submarines
Submarines have a long history in the United States, beginning with Turtle, during the American Revolution. The world’s first combat submarine, invented by David Bushnell, was devised as a means of breaking the British blockade of Boston Harbor but was unsuccessful on multiple attempts.
The U.S. Navy officially joined the undersea world when it purchased USS Holland (SS-1) on 11 April 1900, and commissioned her on 12 October 1900. The boat, designed by John P. Holland, proved valuable for experimental purposes during her 10-year career. Since then submarines have evolved dramatically, but remain a vital part of the American fleet.
Notable Submariners
- David Bushnell
- H.L. Hunley
- John P. Holland
- Richard H. O’Kane
- Slade D. Cutter
- Dudley W. Morton
- Edward L. Beach
- Howard W. Gilmore
- William R. Anderson
- John P. Cromwell
- Chancellor Alphonso "Pete" Tzomes
Notable Submarines
- Turtle
- Holland (SS-1)
- Tang (SS-306)
- Flasher (SS-249)
- Wahoo (SS-238)
- Seahorse (SS-304)
- Seawolf (SS-197)
- Silversides (SS-236)
- Bowfin (SS-287)
- Tautog (SS-199)
- Rasher (SS-269)
- Nautilus (SSN-571)
- Scorpion (SSN-589)
- Growler (SSG-577)
- Skate (SSN-578)
- Triton (SSR(N)-586)
- Thresher (SSN-593)
- Tullibee (SSN-597)
- Narwhal (SS (N)-671)
- Los Angeles (SSN-688)
- George Washington (SSBN-598)
H-Grams
- H-019-3: U.S. Navy Non-Combat Submarine Losses and Major Accidents
- H-022-4: Loss of USS Wahoo (SS-238) and Lieutenant Commander “Mush” Morton
- H-008-3: Torpedo Versus Torpedo
- H-015: “Take Her Down!”
Art Exhibit
Underwater Archaeology Sites and Projects
Further Resources
- Commander Task Force Operation Plan 1-45
- Current Doctrine Submarines USF 25(A)
- Submarine Warfare Insignia (Dolphins)
- United States Submarine Losses, World War II
- The U-boat Threat in the Caribbean: Opportunities Lost
- Ultra and the Campaign Against the U-boats in World War II
- The Sinking of the USS Housatonic by the Submarine CSS H.L. Hunley, off Charleston, South Carolina, 17 February 1864
- Submarine Combat Patrols Against Japan 1942–45
- Submarine Battle Flags of World War II
- Pearl Harbor Submarine Base: 1918–1945
- Post 1946 Submarine Patrol Reports, 1946–1963
- Submarine Silhouette Book No. 1
- Commander Submarine Squadron FOUR, Report of Pearl Harbor Attack
- German Submarine Attacks
- Submarine Cartoon: August 1917
Selected Imagery
Footnotes
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