Sub classes?

[Torplexed]

Originally Posted by Stealhead

I wish they would have better modeled the S-boats myself the S-boats had a bit of variation depending on who had built them and when they where overhauled.Some had rear tubes and the the hull was are much more similar to the appearance of German U-boats where as the ones in SH4 are all of the original "Holland" design though he did not design them they still had his look.It would also have been nice to have the various yard boats have their distinct conning tower appearances because there was some variation between Electric Boat,Portsmouth,and Maintowoc boats.We are stuck with generic ones that is just me being nit picky.

Yup. This is the major problem with defining the S-class. I remember being surprised to learn that the 51 S-class submarines were anything but a homogenous, identical group and were in fact a class in name only. The S-class was actually made up of no less than six distinct groups that were built by four different manufacturers. The Navy considered all 51 boats a single class because they were all designed to meet roughly the same set of performance and military specifications. These specifications were approximately 800-1000 tons submerged displacement, length approximately 250 ft., surface speed 18-20 knots, submerged speed 14 knots for 1 hour and 10 knots for 3 hr, surface range radius of 5000 nautical miles, and 4 bow torpedo tubes (two reloads each). The Navy's reason for splitting up the design and construction was they felt Electric Boat was getting too politically powerful and was too fond of installing it's own patented (and sometimes inferior) gadgets in the boats.

Although ultimately proven to be flawed in many areas, both the S-1 and the S-3 designs were deemed satisfactory enough to warrant series production. The S-1 had better underwater maneuverability, was a fairly fast diver, and her single hull construction eased exterior maintenance. The S-3 had better engines and a longer range. In the end, the Navy felt that both types were nearly evenly matched, but ironically Electric Boat ended up with the bulk of the construction, mostly due to the much larger construction capacity of their yards.