Qualla: USS F-4 https://qualla.com/uss-f-4 en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:09 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/8/7/z/9/uss-f-4-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: USS F-4 https://qualla.com/uss-f-4 USS F-4: Introduction https://qualla.com/uss-f-4/ Photo credit Bain, Public domain. On the morning of March 25, 1915, the submarine USS F-4 submerged during a routine training exercise off the entrance to Honolulu Harbor and never came back up. She settled on the ocean floor at a depth of 306 feet -- 51 fathoms -- becoming the first commissioned submarine of the United States Navy to be lost at sea. All 21 men aboard perished. The effort to raise her would push the boundaries of what was then possible in deep-water salvage, and the wreck itself still lies buried in the mud of Pearl Harbor's Magazine Loch today, one of the harbor's oldest and least-known graves.

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Image: Bain | Public domain

]]> Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/8/7/z/9/uss-f-4-wp/87z9-uss-f-4-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full USS F-4: Hawaii's First Submarines https://qualla.com/uss-f-4/ Photo credit Public domain. F-4 began life as USS Skate, her keel laid down in August 1909 at the Moran Company shipyard in Seattle. Renamed before her January 1912 launch, she was commissioned in May 1913 and joined the First Submarine Group of the Pacific Torpedo Flotilla. The F-class boats were small: a ...

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Image: Public domain

]]> Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/8/7/z/9/uss-f-4-wp/87z9-uss-f-4-hawaiis-first-submarines.mp3 0:06 2 full USS F-4: The Only Survivor Stayed Ashore https://qualla.com/uss-f-4/ Photo credit Public domain. The morning F-4 went down, Electrician's Mate 3rd Class James Morton Hoggett was standing duty as a pier watchman. His job was to receive any news that arrived while the submarine was at sea and relay it to the commanding officer upon return -- a common assignment in the era befo...

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]]> Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/8/7/z/9/uss-f-4-wp/87z9-uss-f-4-the-only-survivor-stayed-ashore.mp3 0:06 3 full USS F-4: Raising the Dead https://qualla.com/uss-f-4/ Photo credit Pkiler, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Navy resolved to raise F-4 to recover her crew and investigate the cause of loss. What followed was a five-and-a-half-month engineering effort that set new precedents in deep-water salvage. Divers slung lifting chains under the wreck and attached them to six specially built p...

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Image: Pkiler | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/8/7/z/9/uss-f-4-wp/87z9-uss-f-4-raising-the-dead.mp3 0:06 4 full USS F-4: Battery Acid and Tar Pitch https://qualla.com/uss-f-4/ Photo credit Public domain. Investigators pieced together a grim chain of failures. Battery acid had gradually leaked onto the steel pressure hull beneath the forward battery well, weakening the plating and the rivets that held it together. Seawater forced its way in under submerged pressure. When the crew ...

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Image: Public domain

]]> Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/8/7/z/9/uss-f-4-wp/87z9-uss-f-4-battery-acid-and-tar-pitch.mp3 0:06 5 full