USS G-1 (SS-19½)
G-1 in 1912
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| History | |
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 United States
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| Name: | USS G-1 (SS-19½) |
| Ordered: | 1909 |
| Builder: | Newport News Shipbuilding Company, Newport News, Virginia |
| Laid down: | 2 February 1909, as USS Seal |
| Launched: | 9 February 1911 |
| Commissioned: | 28 October 1912 |
| Decommissioned: | 6 March 1920 |
| Renamed: | USS G-1, 17 November 1911 |
| Struck: | 29 August 1921 |
| Fate: | Sunk as a target, 21 June 1921 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | G-class submarine |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 161 ft (49 m) |
| Beam: | 13 ft 1 in (3.99 m) |
| Draft: | 12 ft 2 in (3.71 m) |
| Speed: |
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| Complement: | 26 officers and men |
| Armament: | 6 × 18 inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes (4 in a trainable deck mount, 2 internally in bow), 8 torpedoes |
USS G-1 (SS-19½) was the lead ship of her class of submarine of the United States Navy. While the four G-boats were nominally all of a class, they differed enough in significant details that they are sometimes considered to be four unique boats, each in a class by herself.
G-1 was named Seal when her keel was laid down on 2 February 1909 by the Newport News Shipbuilding Company in Newport News, Virginia, under a subcontract from the Lake Torpedo Boat Company, making her the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the seal, a sea mammal valued for its skin and oil. She was launched on 9 February 1911, sponsored by Miss Margaret V. Lake, daughter of Simon Lake, the submarine pioneer. She was renamed G-1 on 17 November 1911, and commissioned in the New York Navy Yard on 28 October 1912 with Lieutenant Kenneth Whiting in command.
Seal was the first contract the Lake Torpedo Boat Company secured from the United States Government, but the contract's requirements were among the most severe ever required of a shipbuilder. The Company did not receive any payment on account during her construction and her required performances had never been approached by any other submarine in the world. G-1 met and exceeded those requirements and introduced several innovations. In addition to a pair of fixed torpedo tubes in the bow that required the vessel herself to be trained, G-1 carried four torpedo tubes in a mount on her deck that could be trained in the same manner as a deck gun on a surface vessel while the boat was submerged, thus allowing a "broadside" shot of one or more torpedoes.
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