Yes. To all questions, that is. It's a micro history of sub development, the S boat was a WWI design, Porpoise was the first US sub with a welded hull and 4 engines, classed as a fleet boat. Salmon was the next step up, slightly longer and heavier with more fuel for more range, and 8 torpedo tubes instead of 6. Torpedo storage was also better - Porpoise had 4 forward tubes with 12 fish, two aft tubes with four fish, total of 16 torpedoes to the S class 12 torpedoes. Salmon enlarged both torpedo rooms so they could add two more tubes aft and make storage space for 4 reloads aft and 10 forward, for a total of 22 torpedoes, only two less than the Gato.
Sargo fixed several design flaws (like the main induction valve problem which sunk the Squalus) and added a slightly thicker pressure hull (test depth was listed as 250 for both classes but the Sargo was actually tested at 300).
In game there's little difference between Salmon and Sargo, but the main thing is range and how many fish you can fire before you're out - 12 for the S class, 16 for the Porpoise, 22 for Salmon/Sargo. Would be nice if career had promotion into other subs instead of "keep this one or get new construction". IRL some S boat skippers took over a Porpoise or Sargo while the old captain of that clunker went to Groton for a new Gato, no option for that in SH4. To me a career would be more fun if you could work your way up in steps rather than jumping directly from S to Gato.
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