USS O-3 (SS-64)

USS O-3 (SS-64), an O-class submarine of the United States Navy. Her keel was laid down on 2 December 1916 by Fore River Shipbuilding Company in Quincy, Massachusetts. She was launched on 27 September 1917, and commissioned on 13 June 1918 with Lieutenant G. L. Dickson in command.

Service history


The new submarine joined the Atlantic coastal patrol and kept watch for U-boats from Cape Cod to Key West, Florida. In November, she joined a 20-submarine contingent that departed Newport, Rhode Island, on 3 November for service in European waters. However, before the ships had reached the Azores, the Armistice with Germany ended the fighting.

After the war that had proved the worth of subs, O-3 sailed to New London, Connecticut, to train Submarine School students. Reclassified as a second line submarine on 25 July 1924 while at Coco Solo, Panama Canal Zone, and reverting to a first liner on 6 June 1928, the vessel remained at New London until she moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to decommission on 6 June 1931.

As American involvement in World War II became imminent, O-3 recommissioned at Philadelphia on 3 February 1941 and sailed to New London in June to train submarine personnel at the submarine school there until war's end. She then steamed to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to decommission on 11 September 1945. She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 11 October 1945 and sold to John J. Duane Company, for scrapping on 4 September 1946.