4 Men Lost

• H Class Submarine
• Keel laid: Laid down, as Seawolf, March 22, 1911, at Union Iron Works, San Francisco, CA.; Renamed H-1, November 17, 1911
• Launched: May 6, 1913
• Commissioned: December 1, 1913
• Displacement: 358 tons surfaced; 467 tons submerged
• Length: 150′ 4″
• Beam: 15′ 10″
• Depth limit: 200′
• Complement: 2 officers, 23 enlisted
• Armament: four 18″ torpedo tubes, eight torpedoes

H-1 sailed for San Pedro, California, on January 6, 1920, transiting the Panama Canal on February 20th via Norfolk, Virginia, Key West, Florida, and Havana, Cuba. On March 12, 1920, as H-1 made her way up the coast of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, the submarine went aground on a tricky shoal off Santa Margarita Island.

The submarine was underway in the early morning darkness. Thinking that the vessel was near the entrance to the bay, her Captain ordered a turn to starborad, and the boat quickly ran aground in the huge breakers.

Four men, including the commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander James R. Webb, died as they tried to reach shore. Vestal (AR-4), a repair ship, pulled H-1 off the rocks in the morning of March 24th, only to have her sink 45 minutes later in some 50 feet of water. Salvage was abandoned. Her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on April 12, 1920. Her hulk sold for salvage scrap in June 1920, but was never recovered.

The wreck of H-1 was found again in 1992.

Naval Historical Center

Commander Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet

H-1 (SS-28) off the Naval Submarine Base New London, Groton, Connecticut, with her crew on deck, circa 1919.