USS L-2 (SS-41), also known as "Submarine No. 41", was an L-class submarine of the United States Navy. She and her sister boats worked on submarine tactics in the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, and East Coast, prior to sailing to the Azores, and later stationed in Ireland, during WWI.
Design The L-class boats designed by Electric Boat (L-1 to L-4 and L-9 to L-11) were built to slightly different specifications from the other L boats, which were designed by Lake Torpedo Boat, and are sometimes considered a separate class. The Electric Boat submarines had a length of overall, a beam of and a mean draft of . They displaced on the surface and submerged. The L-class submarines had a crew of 28 officers and enlisted men. They had a diving depth of .
For surface running, the Electric Boat submarines were powered by two diesel engines, each driving one propeller shaft. When submerged each propeller was driven by a electric motor. They could reach on the surface and underwater. On the surface, the boats had a range of at and at submerged.
The boats were armed with four 18-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes in the bow. They carried four reloads, for a total of eight torpedoes. The Electric Boat submarines were initially not fitted with a deck gun; a single /23 caliber on a disappearing mount was added during the war.
Construction L-2s keel was laid down on 19 March 1914, by the Fore River Shipbuilding Company, in Quincy, Massachusetts. She was launched on 11 February 1915, sponsored by Mrs. Russel Gray, and commissioned on 29 September 1916.
Service history 1916 Upon being commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard, on 29 September 1916, L-2 reported for duty with Division Five, Submarine Flotilla, Atlantic Fleet, on 2 October 1916. She continued fitting out and training out of Boston, until 26 October, after which she then proceeded to the Torpedo Station, at Newport, Rhode Island, to take on her torpedo outfit, from 26–28 October. She then continued her shakedown training in the waters off New England, and in Long Island Sound, until 30 November. After taking a sick sailor to Newport, she set a course southward on 1 December, and after a pause off the Delaware Breakwater, from 5–7 December, L-2 continued on to the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia, and Key West, Florida, undergoing overhaul at the latter, before arriving at Havana, Cuba, for liberty on 30 December.
1917 L-2 spent the New Year's holidays in port before departing Havana, on 2 January 1917, arriving at Key West, later that same day. She remained until 22 January, before departing for the Dry Tortugas, Florida, enroute to Pensacola, Florida. Reaching her destination on 28 January, she remained there until 17 February, when she shifted to Mobile, Alabama, from 17–21 February, before returning to Pensacola, on February 21.
While the submarine was at Pensacola, tensions with Imperial Germany increased with that nation's resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare on 1 February. As a result, the annual Atlantic Fleet winter exercises in the waters off Cuba were cut short. After initial consolidation in Cuba's Guacanayabo Bay, the fleet relocated to the sheltered waters of lower Chesapeake Bay, by 31 March.
On 9 March, L-2 got underway for Force Exercise 7B, and operated with ex-monitor, turned submarine tender, , and the protected cruiser , in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. With the fleet consolidating, L-2 departed Pensacola, on 27 March. Transiting via Key West, she reached Hampton Roads, Virginia, Base No. 3, on 5 April.
The following day, 6 April 1917, the US declared war on Germany and L-2 shifted to the Norfolk Navy Yard. On 13 April, L-2 was alongside , at Norfolk, engaged in minor structural work and repairs by the crew. She received orders to mobilize that same day. The submarine spent the remainder of the month undergoing modifications to engage in operations and conducted training. She shifted to the York River, at Yorktown, Virginia, Base No. 2, on 16 April. A fortnight later, L-2 cleared Yorktown, at 08:00, on 30 April, and proceeded with submarine tender , and her sister boats , and , in formation to join the fleet's battleships at Tangier Sound, Virginia, Base No. 1. L-2 departed York Spit, Virginia, on 4 May, bound for the Philadelphia Navy Yard, in company with Bushnell, L-1, L-3, and . All arrived without incident on 6 May.
In June 1917, Vice Admiral William S. Sims, Commander, US Naval Forces in European Waters, in June 1917, cited British success in using submarines as submarine hunter-killers in antisubmarine warfare (ASW). The Allied submarines, with their lower profiles, could approach U-boats more stealthily than larger surface patrol vessels. On 2 July, Admiral William S. Benson, Chief of Naval Operations, ordered the twelve most suitable submarines on the Atlantic coast be fitted out for duty in European waters. L-2 underwent extensive overhaul at Philadelphia, to prepare her for distant service. With that work completed, she conducted exercises to test equipment on 14 November. As a result of the tests all unsatisfactory work was rectified, 15–17 November, in advance of deployment.
L-2, in tow of , in company with L-1, L-3, L-4, , , and , along with E-class submarine , and the submarine tenders Bushnell, with Captain Thomas C. Hart, Commander, Submarine Flotilla embarked, and , cleared Philadelphia, on 18 November 1917, and proceeded to New London, Base No. 22, via Montauk Point, New York, and arrived on 20 November. She shifted to the Torpedo Station, at Newport, on 22 November, and then returned that same day to New London. She conducted exercises in Long Island Sound, with a simulated attack on the fleet tug .
They departed on November 27, bound for Melville, Rhode Island, where they received lubricating and fuel oil and provisions. Clearing Melville, on 4 December, Hart charted a direct course to the Azores, but his force ran into a gale which scattered the units and required them to pause and re-assemble at Bermuda, Base No. 24, on 13 December. L-2 continued on and reached Fayal Island, Azores, on December 17. She then proceeded into Ponta Delgada, Base No. 13, Azores, the next day.
After provisioning, refueling, and conducting overhaul until 30 December, she stood out of the harbor and patrolled in relief of L-10 on December 31. Though there were reports of U-boats having sunk a ship around the Azores, she conducted the patrol without incident.
1918 After conducting several patrols amidst the islands of the Azores archipelago in January 1918, L-2 and the other units of Division Five departed Ponta Delgada, on 19 January and proceeded to Ireland.
In order to differentiate them from the British L-class submarine, the US submarines were re-designated with the prefix “A” (American) and that letter was painted onto the fairwaters of the US boats.
L-2 arrived at Queenstown, now known as Cobh, Base No. 6, Ireland, on 27 January 1918, escorted by US destroyers. She anchored that evening and then went alongside Bushnell, the next day. Though under the nominal command of Vice Admiral Sims, Hart's US submarines in Ireland, came under Vice Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly, RN, Commander-in-Chief, Coast of Ireland, and his submarine commander, Captain Sir Martin E. Nasmith, later Dunbar-Nasmith, RN. Bayly initially ordered Hart to deploy only one of his submarines at a time at sea, and that Royal Navy officers were to always be informed of departures and returns. Their patrol area was also to be limited to seaward of the Fastnet Lighthouse, so as to keep clear of British patrols and to avoid potentially fatal friendly-fire incidents.
The base at Queenstown, proved unsatisfactory for Lieutenant Commander Harold M. Bemis' Division Five, as it was also serving as the headquarters for the surface patrol forces. As a result, the US submarines were relocated to a base at Castletownbere (Berehaven), Bantry Bay.
In the ensuing days, 6–16 February, the division trained in Bantry Bay, conducting dives and tactical maneuvers under the charge of the commander of the Royal Navy's Submarine Flotilla also based at Berehaven. US submarine officers also trained with a “submarine attack war game” apparatus on board the submarine depot ship .
The US submarines' patrols were to be based on eight-day rotations, there would be eight days on patrol and eight days in port for overhaul, re-provision, and rest in preparation for the next eight-day patrol.
AL-2, in company with AL-4 and escorted by the sloop , proceeded to Queenstown, on 2 March. She then stood out of Base No. 6, on 18 March, to conduct an ASW patrol. She continued to rotate in patrol duty, typically for eight days, with the other boats of the division in the succeeding months.
AL-2 got underway in Bantry Bay, on 25 May 1918. After initially exercising with AL-11, she continued on to her patrol billet QB. While enroute on 26 May, she sighted a ship resembling an enemy submarine on the surface bearing 300º about distant. She raised speed and headed for the vessel and confirmed that she was a German U-boat. She then submerged and made her approach, but was unable to hear anything on her C-tube or see her in the periscope. She then surfaced at 09:05, with negative contact. She then continued into her patrol sector. When at the western edge, she again sighted a conning tower at 15:42, distant. She again submerged and made her approach. Having sighted it again through the periscope and heard it faintly through the C-tube, she could not confirm that it was an enemy submarine. She then surfaced and having encountered two merchantmen, she hoisted her colors. Shortly thereafter, she again sighted a vessel dead ahead. Believing it to be a submarine she submerged to make her approach. Observing the vessel through the periscope, there was a consensus that it was an enemy submarine. The torpedo tubes were flooded, but as the identity of the target could not be confirmed they did not engage though they did maneuver to close range on a firing course. In the end, AL-2 broke contact and then surfaced to charge her batteries. A week later, while on patrol, she was sighted by a surface patrol craft, which immediately maneuvered for an attack. The submarine fired a night grenade and then there was an exchange of recognition signals that forestalled an attack. Later that day, a British seaplane passed above and the submarine again deployed a recognition signal in order to forestall taking friendly fire. Continuing on patrol, a submarine was detected surfacing and AL-2 maneuvered accordingly, but no further positive contact was gained.