USS R-14

After a shakedown cruise off the New England coast, R-14 moved to New London, Connecticut, where she prepared for transfer to the United States Pacific Fleet. In May 1920, she headed south. Given hull classification symbol "SS-91" on 17 July 1920, she transited the Panama Canal in the same month and arrived at Pearl Harbor in the Territory of Hawaii on 6 September 1920. There, for the next nine years, she assisted in the development of submarine warfare and anti-submarine warfare tactics, and participated in search and rescue operations.

Seen here are the jury-rigged sails used to bring R-14 back to port in 1921; the mainsail rigged from the radio mast is the top sail in the photograph, and the mizzen made of eight blankets also is visible. R-14's acting commanding officer, Lieutenant Alexander Dean Douglas, USN, is at top left, without a hat.(Source: US Naval Historical Center).[note 1]

R-14 – under acting command of Lieutenant Alexander Dean Douglas – ran out of usable fuel and lost radio communications in May 1921 while on a surface search mission for the seagoing tug Conestoga about 140 nautical miles (259 km; 161 mi) southeast of the island of Hawaii.[1] Since the submarine's electric motors did not have enough battery power to propel her to Hawaii, the ship's officers and chief petty officers came up with a novel solution to the problem.[2] It was decided they should try to sail the submarine to the port of Hilo, Hawaii. A foresail was made of eight hammocks hung from a top boom made of pipe bunk frames lashed firmly together, all tied to the vertical kingpost of the torpedo loading crane forward of the submarine's superstructure. Seeing that this gave R-14 a speed of about 1 knot (1.2 mph; 1.9 km/h), as well as rudder control, a mainsail was made of six blankets, hung from the sturdy radio mast (the top sail in the photograph). This added 0.5 knots (0.6 mph; 0.9 km/h) to the speed. A mizzen was then made of eight blankets hung from another top boom made of bunk frames, all tied to the vertically placed boom of the torpedo loading crane.[3] This sail added another 0.5 knots (0.6 mph; 0.9 km/h). Around 12:30 on 12 May 1921, The crew was able to begin charging the submarine's batteries by dragging the propellers through the water while under sail. The windmill effect of these slowly turning propellers turned the generators providing a small amount of voltage that was directed to the batteries.[4] The crew worked together to solve their various problems, and the boat sailed slowly for Hilo.[5] After 64 hours under sail at slightly varying speeds, R-14 entered Hilo Harbor under battery propulsion on the morning of 15 May 1921. Douglas received a letter of commendation for the crew's innovative actions from his submarine division commander, Commander Chester W. Nimitz, USN.[6][7]

On 12 December 1930, R-14 departed Pearl Harbor for the last time and headed back to the Atlantic. Proceeding via San Diego, California, and the Panama Canal, she returned to New London on 9 February 1931, and through the end of the 1930s conducted training exercises for the Submarine School. In the spring of 1941, she moved down the East Coast of the United States to Key West, Florida, her home port as of 1 June 1941. In the fall of 1941, she returned to New London for overhaul and on 22 November 1941 resumed operations from Key West. Into April 1945, she conducted training exercises for the Sound School and patrolled the Yucatán Channel and the Florida Straits. On 29 June 1943, United States Army Coast Artillery Corps guns at Fort Zachary Taylor mistook R-14 for a German U-boat and opened fire on her while she was off Key West, but she suffered no damage.[8]

On 25 April 1945, R-14 departed Key West and headed north, and in early May 1945 she arrived at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was decommissioned on 7 May 1945, struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 19 May 1945, and sold on 28 September 1945 to Rossoff Brothers of New York City. She was later resold to the Northern Metals Company of Philadelphia and was scrapped in 1946.

• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

• Hinman, Charles R., and Douglas E. Campbell. The Submarine Has No Friends: Friendly Fire Incidents Involving U.S. Submarines During World War II. Syneca Research Group, Inc., 2019. ISBN 978-0-359-76906-3.
• Johnston, David L., and Hedman, Ric. A Good and Favorable Wind: The Unusual Story of a Submarine Under Sail and its Cautionary Lessons for the Modern Navy. Nimble Books LLC, 2022. ISBN 978-1-60888-200-7