Following the loss of USS Milwaukee and the successful rescue of her crew, the Navy reconsidered its December 1916 decision to reject the bids of private contractors to salvage the stranded submarine H-3. The Mercer-Fraser company, a local construction firm, had offered to do the job for just $18,000, an amount originally thought unrealistically low. On 17 January 1917 this bid was accepted. Work began about a month later, progressing simultaneously with Mercer-Fraser's construction of a pier connecting Milwaukee's wreck with the shore.
During the last half of February and the first three weeks of March, Mercer-Fraser employees ran cables under the H-3, built wooden crib work by her sides, and raised her 350 ton hull free of the sand. Late in March she was moved inland to get her out of the surf zone, then turned toward Humboldt Bay, on the opposite side of the Samoa Beach sandspit from the Pacific shore. With two huge tree trunks lashed to her sides, and a timber supporting structure built underneath, during April the submarine was rolled along wooden tracks toward the bay, some three-quarters of a mile distant. She was relaunched on 20 April. After inspection showed that she was still seaworthy, she was towed by USS Iroquois to the Mare Island Navy Yard. Refurbished, USS H-3 served actively until 1922, and was not disposed of until 1931.
This page features views concerning preparations for the successful salvage of USS H-3 (Submarine # 30) during February and March 1917.
For more pictures of the salvage of USS H-3, see:
For views related to the stranding of this submarine in
December 1916, see:
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the Online Library's digital images, see: How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions. |
Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.
For more pictures of the salvage of USS H-3, see:
For views related to the stranding of this submarine in
December 1916, see:
If you want higher resolution reproductions than the Online Library's digital images, see: How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions. |
Page made 31 May 2004
Text added 14 June 2004