USS R-6 (SS-83) was an R-class coastal and harbor defense submarine of the United States Navy. Construction and commissioning R-6′s keel was laid down on 17 December 1917 by the Fore River Shipbuilding Company, Quincy, Massachusetts. She was launched on 1 March 1919, sponsored by Ms. Katherine Langdon Hill, and commissioned at Boston, Massachusetts, on 1 May 1919. 1919-1931 After fitting out at Boston, R-6 reported to Submarine Division 9 (SubDiv 9) of the United States Atlantic Fleet at New London, Connecticut, on 16 September 1919. In early December, while anchored alongside the submarine tender and five other submarines, she was swept away by a gale and grounded on Black Rock at the entrance to the harbor at New London. Once aground, she radioed for help and two minesweepers tried to pull her off the rocks, but to no avail. She was later freed and returned to service. R-6 got underway on 4 December 1919 for Norfolk, Virginia, and winter exercises with her division in the Gulf of Mexico from 21 January to 14 April 1920. She returned to New London on 18 May 1920 for four months of summer maneuvers before getting underway from New London on 13 September 1920 for Norfolk and overhaul. With SubDiv 9, R-6, given the hull classification symbol SS-83 on 17 July 1920, was ordered to the United States Pacific Fleet on 11 April 1921;. Under command of Lieutenant Irving W. Chambers, son of retired Captain Washington Irving Chambers, the "Father of Naval Aviation," the submarine transited the Panama Canal on 28 May 1921 and arrived on 30 June 1921 at her new base, San Pedro Submarine Base in San Pedro, California. Due to a malfunction in one of her torpedo tubes, she sank in San Pedro Harbor on 26 September 1921, but was refloated on 13 October 1921 by the submarine and the minesweeper . From 26 February to 2 March 1923, R-6 was used by Twentieth Century-Fox in making the motion picture The Eleventh Hour. R-6 was transferred on 16 July 1923 to Hawaii, where she remained for the next seven-and-a-half years engaged in training and operations with fleet units. R-6 was recalled to the Atlantic on 12 December 1930, transited the Panama Canal on 18 January 1931, and arrived on 9 February 1931 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she 'decommissioned on 4 May 1931. 1940–1946 Upon recommissioning at New London on 15