USS Shark (SS-8)
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| Missing image Porpoise_(SS-7)_and_Shark_(SS-8).jpg USS Shark (left) and sister ship USS Porpoise at New York, 1905 USS Shark (left) and sister ship USS Porpoise | |
| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | |
| Laid down: | 11 January 1901 |
| Launched: | 19 October 1901 |
| Commissioned: | 19 September 1903 |
| Decommissioned: | 12 December 1919 |
| Fate: | Used as target |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 107 tons |
| Length: | 64 ft (20 m) |
| Beam: | 12 ft (4 m) |
| Draft: | 11 ft (3 m) |
| Speed: | 8 knots (15 km/h) surface, 7 knots (13 km/h) submerged |
| Complement: | 7 |
| Armament: | 1 18 inch (457 mm) torpedo tube |
The third USS Shark (SS-8) was an early Plunger-class submarine in the service of the United States Navy, later renamed as A-7.
She was laid down on 11 January 1901 at Elizabethport, New Jersey by the Crescent Shipyard, launched on 19 October 1901, and commissioned on 19 September 1903 at New Suffolk, New York with Lieutenant Charles P. Nelson in command.
Shark's hull was built of manganese bronze.
Over the next three and a half years, Shark operated locally at the Naval Torpedo Station at Newport, conducting firing tests with torpedoes, and participating in early research and development efforts in the field of undersea warfare. Assigned to the First Submarine Flotilla in March 1907, Shark was stationed at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland in the spring of 1907.
Taken to the New York Navy Yard in April 1908, the submarine torpedo boat was decommissioned there on the April 21. Loaded on board the collier USS Caesar, Shark and her sistership USS Porpoise comprised the auxiliary's deck cargo as she proceeded, via the Suez Canal, to the Philippine Islands. Shark was launched soon after her arrival at Cavite in July and was recommissioned on 14 August 1908.
Over the next several years, the submarine torpedo boat operated out of Cavite, interspersing training with periodic upkeep and repair work. On 17 November 1911, Shark was renamed A-7.
During World War I, A-7 and her sister ships based at Cavite and carried out patrols of the entrance to Manila Bay. In the early spring of 1917, Lt. (j.g.) Arnold Marcus assumed command of A-7. On 24 July 1917, shortly after the submarine torpedo boat's engine had been overhauled, gasoline fumes ignited and caused an explosion and fire while in the course of a patrol in Manila Bay.
After Marcus and his men had battled the blaze, he ordered the crew topside and into the boats that had been summoned alongside. The last man to emerge from the interior of the crippled submersible, Marcus sent up distress signals to the nearby monitor USS Monadnock and then took the helm himself in an attempt to beach the ship. He refused medical treatment until all his men had been attended to (six later died) and had to be ordered to leave his post. Marcus died the next day, 25 July 1917, of the effects of the explosion and fire that had ravaged his command. The Navy recognized this young officer's selfless heroism in naming a ship, USS Marcus, a destroyer, in his honor.
Placed in ordinary at Cavite on 1 April 1918, A-7 was decommissioned as of 12 December 1919. Given the alphanumeric hull number SS-8 on 17 July 1920, A-7 — initially advertised for sale in the 16th Naval District — was subsequently authorized for use as a target in 1921. She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 16 January 1922.
See USS Shark for other ships of the same name.
This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
| Plunger-class submarine |
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Plunger | Adder | Grampus | Moccasin | Pike | Porpoise | Shark |
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