Editing USS F-4

{{Short description|F-class submarine of the U.S. Navy, in service from 1912 to 1915}}
{{redirect|USS Skate (SS-23)|other ships|USS Skate}}
{|{{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image
|Ship image= USS F-4 (SS-23).jpg
|Ship image size=200
|Ship caption=USS ''F-4'', 1913-1915.
}}
{{Infobox ship career
|Hide header=
|Ship country=United States
|Ship flag={{USN flag|1915}}
|Ship name=USS ''F-4''
|Ship namesake=
|Ship ordered=
|Ship builder=[[The Moran Company]], [[Seattle, Washington]]
|Ship laid down=21 August 1909, as USS ''Skate''
|Ship launched=6 January 1912
|Ship acquired=
|Ship commissioned=3 May 1913 
|Ship decommissioned= 
|Ship in service=
|Ship out of service=
|Ship struck=31 August 1915
|Ship renamed=USS ''F-4'', 17 November 1911
|Ship reclassified=
|Ship homeport=
|Ship motto=
|Ship nickname=
|Ship honors=
|Ship fate=*Foundered, 25 March 1915
*Raised, 29 August 1915; later a harbor marker and buried as trench fill off Pearl Harbor, 1940
|Ship notes=
}}
{{Infobox ship characteristics
|Hide header=
|Header caption=
|Ship class=[[United States F-class submarine|F-class]] [[submarine]]
|Ship displacement= {{convert|330|LT|t|abbr=on}}
|Ship length={{convert|142|ft|7|in|m|abbr=on}}
|Ship beam={{convert|15|ft|5|in|m|abbr=on}}
|Ship draft={{convert|12|ft|2|in|m|abbr=on}}
|Ship propulsion=
|Ship speed={{convert|14|kn|mph km/h|lk=in|abbr=on}} 
|Ship range=
|Ship complement=22 officers and enlisted
|Ship armament=4 × [[American 18 inch torpedo|18 inch (450 mm)]] [[torpedo tube]]s
|Ship armor=
|Ship notes=
}}
|}
[[File:USS F-4 1913.jpg|300px|thumb|U.S. Navy inspectors examining the implosion hole in ''F-4''{{'}}s [[Port (nautical)|port]] side in [[drydock]] at [[Honolulu, Hawaii|Honolulu]], late August or early September 1915. Note that the submarine is upside down in the drydock, in the position she was found on the ocean bottom.]]
{{multiple image
| align = right
|direction = vertical
| image1 = US Navy F-Class Plans-1 1910.jpg
| width1 = 200
| alt1 = 
| caption1 = 
| image2 = US Navy F-Class Plans-2 1910.jpg
| width2 = 225
| alt2 = 
| caption2 = 
| footer = Plans for the F-class submarine
}}
[[File:Francis Hughson Naval Portrait.jpg|thumb|Francis Hughson, Crew Member]]

'''USS ''F-4'' (SS-23)''' was a [[United States Navy]] [[United States F-class submarine|F-class]] [[submarine]]. Her [[keel]] was laid down by the [[Moran Company]] of [[Seattle, Washington]],  sponsored by Mrs. Manson Franklin Backus, wife of a successful Seattle business man and banker.<ref>{{Cite web |title=USS F-4 (SS-23) |url=https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/our-collections/photography/us-navy-ships/alphabetical-listing/f/uss-f-4--ss-23-0.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240517222903/https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/us-navy-ships/alphabetical-listing/f/uss-f-4--ss-23-0.html |archive-date=May 17, 2024 |access-date=2024-05-17 |website=Naval History and Heritage Command |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=29 September 1933 |title=Washington Mutual Congratulated on 44th Anniversary |url=https://washingtondigitalnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=CATHNWP19330929.2.54 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240517225842/https://washingtondigitalnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=CATHNWP19330929.2.54&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN------- |archive-date=May 17, 2024 |access-date=May 17, 2024 |work=The Catholic Northwest Progress |at=At page 3, column 5.}}</ref> The submarine was originally named ''Skate'', making her the first ship of the [[United States Navy]] named for the [[skate (fish)|skate]]. She was renamed ''F-4'' on 17 November 1911, [[ship naming and launching|launched]] on 6 January 1912 and [[ship commissioning|commissioned]] on 3 May 1913.

==Service history==
Joining the First Submarine Group, Pacific Torpedo Flotilla, ''F-4'' participated in the development operations of that group along the west coast in 1913 and into 1914. In August 1914, all four F-class boats were transferred to duty in [[Hawaii]], the first submarines to operate from that territory. The facilities in Pearl Harbor were still under construction so the submarines were based at rented pier space in [[Honolulu, Hawaii|Honolulu]].<ref>[https://pigboats.com/index.php?title=F-class PigBoats.COM F-class Notes section.]</ref>

During training maneuvers off the entrance to Honolulu Harbor on 25 March 1915, ''F-4'' suffered a casualty and sank to the bottom at a depth of {{convert|306|ft|m|abbr=on}}, {{convert|1.5|mi|km|abbr=on}} from the harbor. Upon noticing that ''F-4'' had failed to return on time, valiant efforts by the Honolulu naval authorities were made to locate the missing boat. One diver from sister submarine [[USS F-1|''F-1'']], Chief [[Gunner's Mate|Gunner's Mate]] [https://pigboats.com/index.php?title=F-4_salvage#Search_for_the_Lost_Boat John Agraz], made numerous deep dives during the search phase, without a diving suit or weights, with just a diving helmet and breast plate perched on his shoulders. Eventually the boat was located on the bottom and it was determined that the hull had [[Implosion (mechanical process)|imploded]], flooding the boat and killing her crew. All 21 aboard perished. One member of the ''F-4'''s crew, [[Electrician's Mate]] 3rd Class James Morton Hoggett, was left ashore when the boat got underway, standing duty as a pier watchman. His responsibility was to receive any important news that occurred ashore while the ship was at sea and relay it to the captain on the ship's return. This was commonly done before ships had radios. He was also to look after the boat's supplies and gear that had been left on the pier. He was the only survivor.<ref>[https://pigboats.com/index.php?title=Hoggett PigBoats.COM Photo Features page, James Morton Hoggett]</ref> ''F-4'' was the first commissioned submarine of the U.S. Navy to be lost at sea.

== Salvage and recovery ==
The Navy determined that the submarine needed to be raised so that the crew could be recovered and the boat examined to determine a cause. An ambitious and technologically challenging diving and engineering effort laid ahead, setting a new precedent in deep water salvage.<ref>[https://pigboats.com/index.php?title=Notable_Submarine_Accidents#F-4_(Submarine_No._23),_Hull_failure_during_a_test_dive,_March_25,_1915 PigBoats.COM F-4 accident page</ref> Divers assisted in slinging lifting chains under the hull, with the chains attached to six specially built lifting pontoons. Naval Constructor Lieutenant Commander [[Julius A. Furer]], [[Rear Admiral]] [[Charles Brainard Taylor Moore|C.B.T. Moore]], and [[Lieutenant]] Charles Smith led the demanding effort.<ref>Gates, p. 156 & 177</ref> Navy diving expert [[Warrant officer (United States)#Navy|Chief Gunner]] George D. Stillson surveyed the wreck and found the superstructure caved in and the hull filled with water.<ref name=NYTimes>{{cite news|author=staff|date=16 April 1915 |title=Water in Hull of ''F-4''.; Diver Also Reports That Superstructure of Submarine Has Caved In |journal=[[NY Times]] |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1915/04/16/100150424.pdf |access-date=2011-08-24}}</ref>  (Note: the cited newspaper article was technically incorrect, it was actually the pressure hull that was caved in.)<ref>[https://pigboats.com/index.php?title=F-4_salvage#In_Drydock PigBoats.COM F-4 Salvage page, In Drydock section]</ref> One of the divers involved in the salvage operation was [[John Henry Turpin]], who was probably the first African-American to qualify as a U.S. Navy Master Diver. After five and a half months of effort the submarine was raised and returned back to [[Dry dock|dry dock]] in Honolulu on August 29, 1915. Only four of the dead could be identified; the 17 others were buried in [[Arlington National Cemetery]].<ref>{{cite web |author=Honolulu Star-Bulletin |title=The United States Submarine ''F-4'' March 25, 1915 |publisher=Arlington National Cemetery |year=2000 |url=http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/sub-f4.htm |access-date=2009-04-15}}</ref>

The investigating board subsequently conjectured that gradual leakage of battery acid onto the steel pressure hull below the forward battery well had weakened the hull and the [[Rivet|rivets]] that held the hull together. This permitted sea water enter the battery compartment under submerged pressure. Subsequent post-salvage examination showed that the bilge suction valves in the battery tank had been accidentally fouled by [[Tar|tar]] pitch used to seal the battery well, rendering the crew unable to pump out the flooding seawater. This flooding in the forward battery well caused the crew to lose buoyancy control, and the boat sank quickly below its [[Submarine depth ratings|crush depth]], with the hull imploding in the torpedo room.<ref>[https://pigboats.com/index.php?title=Notable_Submarine_Accidents#F-4_(Submarine_No._23),_Hull_failure_during_a_test_dive,_March_25,_1915 PigBoats.COM F-4 accident page]</ref> Others believe that the bypassing of an unreliable magnetic reducer closed a [[Kingston valve]] in the forward [[ballast tank]] resulting in a delay.<ref name=searle>{{cite journal |author=[[Willard Franklyn Searle|Searle Jr, Willard F]]; Curtis Jr, Thomas G |title=The loss and salvage of ''F-4'', a historic milestone |journal=Undersea Warfare |year=2006 |volume=7 |issue=6 |publisher=Navy |url=http://www.public.navy.mil/subfor/underseawarfaremagazine/Issues/Archives/issue_29/f4.html |access-date=2016-04-07 |archive-date=2016-05-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160509180339/http://www.public.navy.mil/subfor/underseawarfaremagazine/Issues/Archives/issue_29/f4.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Based on other reported issues, there may also have been problems with the air lines supplying the ballast tank.<ref name=searle/>

After the completion of the investigation any remaining useful equipment was stripped from the wreck and ''F-4'' was stricken from the [[Naval Vessel Register]] on 31 August 1915. She was removed from the dry dock in Honolulu Harbor in early September 1915 so the other three F-class submarines could be dry docked for repairs, as they had been accidentally rammed and lightly damaged by the navy supply ship {{USS|Supply|1872}}. The ''F-4'' was moved, still hanging from the pontoons, up the coast to Pearl Harbor until she bottomed in the shallow waters of the then unused Magazine Loch on or about 25 November 1915. She was then disconnected from the pontoons and allowed to settle into the mud at the bottom of the loch. She remained there until 1940 when she was found to be in the way of expansion of the Submarine Base pier facilities. The hulk of ''F-4'' was moved a few yards to the west and re-buried in a trench dug in the loch bottom near Submarine Base mooring S14, [[Pearl Harbor]]. Her hulk remains there to this day.<ref>[https://pigboats.com/index.php?title=F-4_salvage#Post_Salvage PigBoats.COM F-4 Salvage page, Post Salvage section]</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DANFS|https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/f/f-4.html}}
{{commons category|USS F-4 (SS-23)}}
==Bibliography==
* Gates, John Humboldt ''Before the Dolphins Guild''. Moonstone Publishing, 2022. {{ISBN|978-1-878136-03-9}}

==External links==
*[https://pigboats.com/index.php?title=F-class PigBoats.COM F-class page]
*[https://pigboats.com/index.php?title=F-4 PigBoats.COM F-4 page]
*[https://pigboats.com/index.php?title=Notable_Submarine_Accidents#F-4_(Submarine_No._23),_Hull_failure_during_a_test_dive,_March_25,_1915 PigBoats.COM F-4 accident page]
*[https://www.navsource.org/archives/08/08023.htm NavSource Online Submarine Photo Archive: Skate / F-4 (SS-23)] [https://archive.today/20130503075608/http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/08023.htm Archived here.]
*[http://www.oneternalpatrol.com/uss-f-4-23.htm On Eternal Patrol: USS ''F-4''] [https://archive.today/20130130174320/http://www.oneternalpatrol.com/uss-f-4-23.htm Archived here.]
*[http://arlingtoncemetery.net/sub-f4.htm The crew's final resting place] [https://archive.today/20120719160018/http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/sub-f4.htm Archived here.]

{{F class submarine}}
{{March 1915 shipwrecks}}
{{Coord|21.3581|-157.9418|display=title}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:F-4}}
[[Category:United States F-class submarines]]
[[Category:United States submarine accidents]]
[[Category:Lost submarines of the United States]]
[[Category:Shipwrecks in the Pacific Ocean]]
[[Category:Shipwrecks of Hawaii]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in 1915]]
[[Category:Ships built in Seattle]]
[[Category:1912 ships]]
[[Category:1915 in Hawaii]]