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Photo # 19-N-6787:  USS Shark underway with members of her crew on deck, circa 1903-1907

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Shark (Submarine # 8, later SS-8), 1903-1922.
Later renamed A-7

USS Shark, a 107-ton Plunger (later A-1) class submarine built at Elizabethport, New Jersey, was commissioned in September 1903. She served between then and early 1907 at the Naval Torpedo Station at Newport, Rhode Island, and subsequently at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. In April 1908 Shark was loaded on board the collier Caesar for transportation to Manila, where she arrived in July. Renamed A-7 in November 1911, the submarine was employed for the rest of her active career as part of the defenses of the Philippine Islands. During World War I she conducted patrols in the entrance to Manila Bay. On 24 July 1917, while so engaged, she suffered an internal gasoline explosion and fire that took the lives of her Commanding Officer, Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Arnold Marcus, and several other crewmembers. USS A-7 was decommissioned in December 1919, though she had apparently been inactive since April 1918. Given the hull number SS-8 in July 1920, she had no further commissioned service. Later used as a target, she was striken from the Navy list in January 1922.

This page features, or provides links to, all the views we have related to USS Shark, which was renamed A-7 in 1911.

For other images of this submarine, see:

  • Shark (Submarine # 8, later SS-8). Renamed A-7 in 1911 -- Views taken in 1908 and later.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

    Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

    Photo #: 19-N-6787

    USS Shark
    (Submarine # 8)

    Underway with members of her crew on deck, circa 1903-1907.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 64KB; 740 x 550 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: NH 41903

    USS Shark
    (Submarine # 8)

    With other submarine torpedo boats of her class, while fitting out in 1902, probably at New Suffolk, Long Island, New York.

    Courtesy of Howard I. Chapelle, Smithsonian Institution.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 124KB; 740 x 595 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 42621

    USS Plunger
    (Submarine # 2)
    outboard of
    USS Shark (Submarine # 8)

    At the Electric Boat Company facility, New Suffolk, Long Island, New York, in 1902.
    Note the surface navigation lights of these two submarines, and their differing superstructure arrangements.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 100KB; 740 x 600 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 45937

    Electric Boat Company/Holland Torpedo Boat Company facility, New Suffolk, Long Island, New York


    Submarines in the facility basin, circa 1903.
    Boats in the front group are (from left to right):
    USS Plunger (Submarine # 2);
    USS Porpoise (Submarine # 7); and
    USS Adder (Submarine # 3).
    In the background, by the breakwater are (left-right):
    USS Shark (Submarine # 8) and
    USS Moccasin (Submarine # 5).
    Photographed by Legendre & Levick, New York.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 107KB; 740 x 580 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 85827

    USS Shark
    (Submarine # 8)

    With her crew on deck, while moored between a torpedo boat (at left) and another submarine, circa 1903-1907.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 108KB; 740 x 440 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 98835-KN (color)

    USS Shark (Submarine # 8), at left,
    and
    USS Porpoise (Submarine # 7)

    On cradles at the New York Navy Yard, circa 1905.
    Photograph by Enrique Muller, published on a contemporary postal card by the American Colortype Company.

    Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation. Collection of Commander Theodore G. Ellyson, USN.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 138KB; 740 x 495 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 101199-KN (color)

    USS Shark (Submarine # 8), at left,
    and
    USS Porpoise (Submarine # 7)

    On cradles at the New York Navy Yard, circa 1905.
    Photograph by Enrique Muller, published on a contemporary postal card by Edward H. Mitchell, San Francisco, California. It was mailed on 8 July 1908 as an advertisement for Alfred S. Witter, photographer with offices at Seattle, Waterville and Bridgeport, Washington.

    Donation of Staff Sergeant and Mrs. Ralph Massee, USAF (Retired), via Captain Otto Finley, USN (Retired), 1986.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 114KB; 740 x 485 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 70936

    USS Shark
    (Submarine # 8), at left,
    and
    USS Porpoise (Submarine # 7)

    On cradles, with crewmen posing on deck, circa 1905.
    Photograph by Enrique Muller, published on a contemporary postal card.
    Though the original postcard states that the view was taken at the Newport Training Station, Rhode Island, it was actually photographed at the New York Navy Yard.

    Courtesy Charles L. Price, Jr., Alexandria, Virginia, 1970.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 125KB; 740 x 500 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 85772

    USS Shark
    (Submarine # 8), at left,
    and
    USS Porpoise (Submarine # 7)

    On cradles with crewmen posed on deck, at the New York Navy Yard, circa 1905.
    Photograph by Enrique Muller, published on a contemporary postal card.

    Courtesy Commander Donald J. Robinson, USN (Retired), 1977.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 120KB; 740 x 580 pixels

     

    For other images of this submarine, see:

  • Shark (Submarine # 8, later SS-8). Renamed A-7 in 1911 -- Views taken in 1908 and later.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


    Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

    Page made 8 October 2003
    New image added 16 October 2003