USS Moccasin (SS-5)

The s were enlarged and improved versions of the preceding Holland, the first submarine in the USN. They had a length of overall, a beam of and a mean draft of . They displaced on the surface and submerged. The Plunger-class boats had a crew of one officer and six enlisted men. They had a diving depth of . For surface running, they were powered by one gasoline engine that drove the single propeller. When submerged the propeller was driven by a electric motor. The boats could reach on the surface and underwater. The Plunger-class boats were armed with one torpedo tube in the bow. They carried four reloads, for a total of five torpedoes. ==Construction==

Moccasin was laid down on 8 November 1900, in Elizabethport, New Jersey, at the Crescent Shipyard, by Lewis Nixon, a subcontractor for the Holland Torpedo Boat Company, New York City; launched on 20 August 1901; sponsored by a Mrs. Rice; and commissioned on 17 January 1903, at the Holland Torpedo Boat Station, at New Suffolk, New York. ==Service history==

of A-4. Two torpedoes are on wooden skids in the foreground. The skids slid across the deck for loading. Assigned to duty at the Naval Torpedo Station at Newport, Moccasin operated locally on principally training and experimental activities until assigned to the Reserve Torpedo Flotilla at Norfolk on 15 June 1904, in which unit she remained inactive for the next half decade. Grounding The submarine ran aground in North Carolina's outer banks in late 1903, and was several miles away from the Wright Brothers' inaugural flight on 17 December 1903. Transfer to Asiatic Fleet On 20 July 1909, the submarine torpedo boat was loaded onto the collier , which sailed soon thereafter for the Philippines. Moccasins sister ship, , was on board as deck cargo as well, lashed to the auxiliary's forward well deck. Arriving at Olongapo, on 1 October, Moccasin was launched on 7 October. Recommissioned on 10 February 1910, she was assigned to the First Submarine Division, Asiatic Torpedo Fleet, based in the Manila area. Early in the period she was operating with the Asiatic Fleet, Moccasin was renamed A-4, on 17 November 1911. During World War I, like her sister ships, she patrolled the entrance to Manila Bay, and convoyed ships moving out of local waters. ==Fate==

Later placed in reserve, A-4 was decommissioned at Cavite, on 12 December 1919. Designated as a target vessel, A-4, which had been assigned the identification number SS-5 on 17 July 1920, was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 16 January 1922. ==References==