USS N-1 (SS-53), also known as "Submarine No. 53", was the lead ship of her class of coastal submarines of the United States Navy commissioned during World War I. She spent the war patrolling off the coast of New England, and was decommissioned after less than ten years in service.
Design
The N-class boats designed by Electric Boat, N-1 throughN-3, also referred to as the N-1-class, were built to slightly different specifications from the other N-class submarines, which were designed by Lake Torpedo Boat, referred to as the N-4-class. The Electric Boat submarines had a length of overall, a beam of , and a mean draft of . They displaced on the surface and submerged. The Electric Boat submarines had a crew of 2 officers and 23 enlisted men. They had a diving depth of .
For surface running, the Electric Boat submarines were powered by two NELSECO 240V8FS diesel engines, each driving one propeller shaft. When submerged each propeller was driven by a Electro Dynamic electric motor. They could reach on the surface and underwater. On the surface, the boats had a range of at 11 kn and at submerged.
The boats were armed with four 18-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes in the bow. They carried four reloads, for a total of eight torpedoes.
Construction
N-1s keel was laid down on 26 July 1915, by the Seattle Construction and Drydock Company, in Seattle, Washington. She was launched on 30 December 1916, sponsored by Mrs. Mabel Davis, and commissioned on 26 September 1917.
Service history
Designed as a coast defense submarine,N-1 was fitted out at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, in Bremerton, Washington, and then departed on 21 November 1917, for San Francisco, California, in company with her sisters, and . Reassigned to the East Coast, she departed San Francisco, on 13 December, for Balboa, in the Panama Canal Zone, and thence proceeded via Cristobal, Jamaica, Key West, Florida, and Norfolk, Virginia, to New London, Connecticut, arriving on 7 February 1918.
Reporting for duty to Commander, First Naval District, the submarine began her first patrol on 23 June 1918, by hunting for a U-boat reported in the vicinity of Cape Cod. After an intensive search, N-1 continued her patrol off the New England coast. For the remainder of the war and until early 1922, N-1 continued her operations in the area from New London to Bar Harbor.
Placed in reduced commission on 1 May 1922, N-1 became a training submarine for the Submarine School, New London. She continued this duty until ordered to Philadelphia Navy Yard on 9 December 1925.
Fate
Arriving at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 18 December, she was decommissioned on 30 April 1926. Struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 18 December 1930, N-1 was scrapped in early 1931.