dives, thus the lengthy dive process was not seen as a liability. At this point in their corporate history, Electric Boat was a design and engineering firm only. They did not have their own shipyard and thus sub-contracted out the construction of all their boats. The Plunger class was built at two different locations on both coasts of the United States. Five were built at Crescent Shipyards, while two more were built at Union Iron Works in San Francisco. Service The five East Coast boats were based at Holland Torpedo Boat Station at New Suffolk, New York from 1903 until 1905, allowing New Suffolk to claim to be the first submarine base in the United States. The squadron moved from New Suffolk to Newport, Rhode Island in 1905 where they were used to test torpedoes and develop submarine tactics. In 1908 the A-2, A-4, A-6 and A-7 were moved on ships to Subic Bay in the Philippine Islands, where they served through the First World War. They were joined in 1915 by A-3 and A-5. After the initial deficiencies were worked out these boats served the Navy quite well for their entire service lives. They were considered pathfinders in submarine technology, and the design drew great interest from foreign navies. A slightly modified design, EB 7P, formed the basis for the first submarines of the British Royal Navy, and the navies of Japan, the Netherlands, and Imperial Russia. However, the rapidly advancing military technology of the early 20th century quickly made these boats obsolescent, and by the end of World War I they were completely outmoded. The class was given alphanumeric hull classification symbols (SS-2, SS-3, etc.) on 17 July 1920, after all but Grampus (SS-4) and Pike (SS-6) had been decommissioned. All of the Plunger-class boats were decommissioned by 1921, and all except Plunger used as targets. They were stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 16 January 1922 and sold for scrap. Boats in class See also Holland-class submarine (British Royal Navy version) References Bibliography External links Navsource.org early submarines page Pigboats.com A-boat page SS-2 A-1 Plunger page on globalsecurity.org Submarine classes Plunger