USS O-12

Nautilus in Bergen
History
United States
Name	USS O-12
Ordered	3 March 1916
Builder	Lake Torpedo Boat Company, Bridgeport, Connecticut
Laid down	6 March 1916
Launched	29 September 1917
Commissioned	19 October 1918
Decommissioned	17 June 1924
Renamed	Nautilus, 24 March 1931
Stricken	29 May 1930
Fate	Scuttled, 20 November 1931
General characteristics
Type	O-class submarine
Displacement	491 long tons (499 t) surfaced 566 long tons (575 t) submerged
Length	175 ft (53 m)
Beam	16 ft 7 in (5.05 m)
Draft	13 ft 11 in (4.24 m)
Propulsion	Diesel-electric 2 × 500 hp (373 kW) Busch Sulzer diesel engines 2 × 400 hp (298 kW) Diehl electric motors 1 shaft 18,588 US gallons (70,360 L; 15,478 imp gal) fuel
Speed	14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) surfaced 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph) submerged
Test depth	200 ft (61 m)
Complement	2 officers, 27 men
Armament	4 × 18-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes, 8 torpedoes 1 × 3"/50 caliber deck gun

USS O-12 (SS-73) was an O-class submarine of the United States Navy. These later O-boats, O-11 through O-16, were designed by Lake Torpedo Boat to different specifications than the earlier Electric Boat designs. They performed poorly as compared to the Electric Boat units, and are sometimes considered a separate class. The ship was launched in 1917 and entered service with the Navy in 1918 in the Panama Canal Zone.

Taken out of service by the US Navy in 1924, the submarine was leased for use in Arctic exploration in 1930 sponsored by William Randolph Hearst. Renamed Nautilus, the submarine suffered significant damage while exploring the Arctic in 1931 and having recorded significant data while there, Hearst considered the venture a failure. Having returned to Norway to repair the damage, the submarine was returned to the United States Navy there, and they had the submarine towed down a fjord and scuttled in November 1931.