R-8 SS 85

Ship Name and Designation History

This section lists the names and designations that the ship had during its lifetime. The list is in chronological order.

R-1 Class Submarine Keel Laid 4 March 1918 - Launched 17 April 1919 USS R-8 (Submarine) Commissioned 21 July 1919 USS R-8 SS-85 Redesignated (SS) 17 July 1920 - Decommissioned 2 May 1931 Laid up in Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Philadelphia Sank at moorings 26 February 1936 Struck from Naval Register 12 May 1936 Sunk as target 19 August 1936 off Cape Henry, VA

 

Naval Covers

This section lists active links to the pages displaying covers associated with the ship. There should be a separate set of pages for each name of the ship (for example, Bushnell AG-32 / Sumner AGS-5 are different names for the same ship so there should be one set of pages for Bushnell and one set for Sumner). Covers should be presented in chronological order (or as best as can be determined).

Since a ship may have many covers, they may be split among many pages so it doesn't take forever for the pages to load. Each page link should be accompanied by a date range for covers on that page.

1. USS R-8 SS-85 Covers Page 1     (1926)

 

Postmarks

This section lists examples of the postmarks used by the ship. There should be a separate set of postmarks for each name and/or commissioning period. Within each set, the postmarks should be listed in order of their classification type. If more than one postmark has the same classification, then they should be further sorted by date of earliest known usage.

A postmark should not be included unless accompanied by a close-up image and/or an image of a cover showing that postmark. Date ranges MUST be based ONLY ON COVERS IN THE MUSEUM and are expected to change as more covers are added.
 
>>> If you have a better example for any of the postmarks, please feel free to replace the existing example.

 

Postmark Type --- Killer Bar Text	Postmark Date	Thumbnail Link To Postmark Image	Thumbnail Link To Cover Image

 

Locy Type 3 "U.S.S.R 8 / P H T H"

1927-11-04

"From the early 1920's to 1931, the first twenty submarines of the R class were assigned to the Submarine Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The mail clerk at the Submarine Base often used the wording "U.S.S. R 1-20/P.H. T.H." and similar wording in the killers of his cancel. This does not imply that the post office was located aboard any of the boats; it merely identified the boats stationed there." USCS Postmark Catalog 5th edition. From the Paul Huber collection.

 

Locy Type 3 "LAST DAY IN / COM USS R8"

1931-05-02

"In May 1931 eleven of these submarines moved to the Philadelphia Navy Yard, where they were decommissioned and placed in reserve (the other nine boats remained active). The mail clerk of Submarine Division Fourteen, Battle Fleet produced commemorative covers for these events. The name of each submarine was given in the killer bars of the cancel. Once again, the division post office was not aboard each boat; it was located at the yard along with the staff of the division." USCS Postmark Catalog 5th edition. From the Paul Huber collection.

 

Other Information

This section lists any other information that might be relevant to this ship.

 

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If you have images or information to add to this page, then either contact the Curator or edit this page yourself and add it. See Editing Ship Pages for detailed information on editing this page.

 

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