Even before U.S. involvement in World War I, the U.S. Navy had become interested in a large, long-range submarine capable of keeping up with the battle fleet on the surface. Enlarging on prior U.S. designs, the initial attempt, the T-class, was a failure, but the first three units of the V series—authorized in 1918 as SF (for Submarine, Fleet) 4-6—incorporated British experience with steam-powered K-boats and intelligence about the large German cruiser submarines. Ordered in May 1920 to a Navy design from the Portsmouth Navy Yard in New Hampshire, the V-1, V-2, and V-3 were commissioned in 1924 through 1926. Their propulsion plants used two 2,250 brake horsepower diesels aft driving generators to produce 4,000 shaft horsepower for surface running at 21 knots (the Navy had wanted 24-25 knots). Two 1,000 brake horsepower diesels mounted forward were used to charge the 120-cell battery set, which provided enough power to the propulsion motors to run the boat at up to 9 knots submerged. More than twice as large as any submarine built for the U.S. Navy to that point (341.5-feet long, 2,119 tons surfaced/2,506 tons submerged), the V-1s proved disappointing as seaboats on the surface, and their Busch-Sulzer diesels were unreliable. The three had very similar operational careers; initially assigned to the Atlantic Fleet, they were transferred late in 1927 to the Pacific Fleet, where they operated from California to as far away as the Hawaiian Islands and into the Caribbean until placed in rotating reserve in 1932. On 9 March 1931, they were given the names Barracuda, Bass, and Bonita (becoming the B class), and they were numbered SS-163 through SS-165, respectively, on 1 July of that year. The boats were returned to the Atlantic Fleet in 1936 and were laid up at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in 1937.
On 5 September 1940, the three submarines were recommissioned and subsequently stationed in the Canal Zone, from where they each made from four to six unproductive war patrols through the summer of 1942. The Bass suffered a fire in the after battery space on 17 August 1942, losing 25 enlisted personnel. The trio then was sent to Philadelphia for overhaul and conversion to transport submarines, with the main propulsion diesels aft removed to provide a cargo hold; henceforth, the boats were powered solely by the forward battery-charging diesels, limiting their surfaced speeds. Trials with the Bass in December 1943 proved the concept a failure, and the boats spent the rest of their service training submariners out of New London, Connecticut. They were decommissioned on 3 March 1945; the Bass was expended as a target nine days later, and the other two were sold for scrap.
The Bonita (SS-165, ex-V-3), here off the U.S. East Coast in September 1944, had been reconfigured as a cargo submarine but used only for training. The deck gun was removed and provision was made for two 20-mm antiaircraft guns on platforms fore and aft on the sail, which was reduced in length to provide upperdeck access to the cargo hold.
The V-1 (later Barracuda, SS-163) in the late 1920s carried a 5-inch/51-caliber deck gun forward of the sail; torpedo armament was four 21-inch tubes forward and two aft, each with only one reload.
This view of the Bass (SS-164, ex-V-2) in dry dock at Mare Island, California, in 1933 shows the bow torpedo tubes, mounted very low within the bulbous bow forefoot to improve surface running- The deck gun on this boat and the Bonita was a 3-inch/23-caliber mounting.