USS R-26 (SS-103), also known as "Submarine No. 103", was an R-21-class coastal and harbor defense submarines of the United States Navy commissioned after the end of World War I.
Design
The R-boats built by the Lake Torpedo Boat Company, through , are sometimes considered a separate class, R-21-class, from those built by the Fore River Shipbuilding Company, through , and the Union Iron Works, through , R-1-class.
The submarines had a length of overall, a beam of , and a mean draft of . They displaced on the surface and submerged. The R-21-class submarines had a crew of 3 officers and 23 enlisted men. They had a diving depth of .
For surface running, the boats were powered by two Busch-Sulzer diesel engines, each driving one propeller shaft. When submerged each propeller was driven by a Diehl Manufacture Company electric motor. They could reach on the surface and underwater. On the surface, the R-21-class had a range of at , or if fuel was loaded into their main ballast tanks.
The boats were armed with four American 21-inch torpedo| torpedo tubes in the bow. They carried four reloads, for a total of eight torpedoes. The R-21-class submarines were also armed with a single /50 caliber deck gun.
Construction
R-26s keel was laid down on 26 April 1917, by the Lake Torpedo Boat Company, in Bridgeport, Connecticut. She was launched on 18 June 1919, sponsored by Mrs. Mary Barnett, and commissioned on 23 October 1919.
Service history
Homeported at Coco Solo, in the Panama Canal Zone, R-26 departed New London, Connecticut, on 26 November 1919, and arrived in the Canal Zone, 11 January 1920.
When the US Navy adopted its hull classification system on 17 July 1920, she received the hull number SS-103.
She spent her entire career operating out of Coco Solo. Interrupting her service in those waters only for overhauls at Balboa, and on the East Coast.
Fate
She returned to the United States for inactivation in January 1925. Arriving at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, on 25 January, she was decommissioned on 12 June 1925, after only five-and-a-half years of service. She was berthed at League Island, until struck from the Naval Vessel Register in May 1930. Her hull was sold for scrapping on 30 July 1930.