USS R-12 (SS-89)

Keel laid by Fore River Shipbuilding Company, Quincy, MA, 28MAR18;
Launched: 15AUG19; Sponsored by Miss Helen Mack;
Commissioned: 23SEP19 with Lt F.S. Cunneen in command;
Decommissioned: 7DEC32;
Recommissioned: 16OCT40.

USS R-12 (SS-89) remained at the Boston Navy Yard until she headed south off the east coast of the United States, on 11 March 1920, to the United States Naval Submarine Base at New London/Groton, CT; from whence the R-boat operated until the end of May of 1920. Then the submarine continued south to Panama; transited the Panama Canal at the end of June 1920; and arrived at San Pedro, CA, during July of 1920.

During July of 1920, the designation of R-12 was changed from "Submarine Number 89" to "SS-89."

At the end of August 1920, R-12 took departure from California and set course for Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands where she arrived on 6 September 1920.

The R-boat operated in Hawaiian waters, with occasional exercises off the west coast of the United States, and off Johnston Island, until 12 December 1930. On that date, R-12 got underway for the east coast of the United States and arrived at the Connecticut submarine base on 9 February 1931.

R-12 conducted exercises with destroyer squadrons of the Scouting Force into the spring of 1931 then, following overhaul, served as a "school boat" for personnel training at the Submarine School at the submarine base at New London/Groton.

On 27 September 1932, R-12 departed the submarine base on the Thames River in Connecticut and transited to the Philadelphia Navy Yard at Philadelphia, PA, where the submarine decommissioned on 7 December 1932, and joined other R-boats berthed there in the Reserve Fleet.

Some 7 1/2 years later (on 1 July 1940), R-12 recommissioned, in ordinary, and transited to the Connecticut submarine base to complete activation.

Recommissioning, in full, on 16 October 1940, the submarine commenced a transit to Panama on 10 December 1940 and arrived in the Panama Canal Zone thirteen days later.

For the first ten months of 1941, R-12 patrolled in the approaches to the Panama Canal.

On 31 October 1941, the R-boat returned to New London/Groton and, for the next three months, operated off the New England coast.

On 7 December 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor thereby making the United States an active participant in World War II.

During February of 1942, R-12 commenced patrols to the south and, for the next year, operated primarily from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Key West, FL.

During March and April of 1943, the R-boat was back at the submarine base at New London/Groton, CT.

During May of 1943, R-12 returned to the United States Naval Station at Key West where she trained submariners. Shortly after noon on 12 June 1943, R-12, while underway on the surface while transiting from Key West to her operating area, came to her end.

While making preparations to dive for a torpedo practice approach, the Forward Battery compartment started to flood. The collision alarm was sounded and her Commanding Officer, LCdr E.E. Shelby, who was on the bridge, immediately ordered all hatches shut and to blow all main ballast tanks. But, those actions were too little and too late as the boat went down in only fifteen seconds.

The six men on the bridge, including the Commanding Officer, were the only ones rescued while forty-two others, including two Brazilian naval officers, on board to observe the torpedo firing exercise, were lost. Luckily, eighteen other crew-members had stayed in that day and were on liberty at the time the boat went down for the last time.

A Board of Inquiry concluded that the cause of the R-12's loss was not clear but was probably due to the flooding of the submarine through a forward torpedo tube, that is because of an accidental opening of both the inner and outer doors of a torpedo tube at the same time. This could never be confirmed as the R-boat sank in six hundred feet of water too deep for salvaging, or even investigation, in those days.

Compiled by SUBNET from "Dictionary of American Fighting Ships"
and "U.S. NAVAL SUBMARINE FORCE INFORMATION BOOK '97" -- J. Christley

Photos and text contributed by Royal Weaver MTCM(SS)(Ret.).