USS Plunger ( SS - 2 ) USS " Plunger " SS - 2 was one of the earliest submarine s of the United States Navy . She was the lead ship of the her class and was later renamed A - 1 when she was designated an A - type submarine . Early service . " Plunger " was originally laid down on 21 May 1901 at Elizabethport , New Jersey , at Lewis Nixon ' s Crescent Shipyard . Arthur Leopold Busch supervised the construction of the A - Class submarines built there . The prototype Fulton experimental craft was laid down at Isaac Rice ' s Electric Boat Company prior to these first " A " - class submarines . She was launched on 1 February 1902 , and commissioned at the Holland Torpedo Boat Company yard at New Suffolk , New York on 19 September 1903 . Assigned to the Naval Torpedo Station at Newport , Rhode Island for experimental torpedo work , " Plunger " operated locally from that facility for the next two years , a period of time broken only by an overhaul at the Holland yard at New Suffolk from March – November 1904 . Besides testing machinery , armament and tactics , the submarine torpedo boat also served as a training ship for the crews of new submersibles emerging from the builder ' s yards . In August 1905 , " Plunger " underwent two weeks of upkeep before leaving the yard on 22 August . She was towed by the tug to New York , where " Plunger " conducted trials near the home of President Theodore Roosevelt . Upon the submarine ' s arrival that afternoon , she moored alongside the tug and prepared for a visit from President Theodore Roosevelt . President Roosevelt ' s visit . The following morning , " Plunger " charged her batteries and made a series of five short dives before returning alongside " Apache " to recharge . Later that afternoon , Roosevelt boarded the " Plunger " and stayed aboard for almost two hours while she made another series of dives before returning to moor alongside the tug . Roosevelt spent almost another hour on board the submarine before he left . Roosevelt ' s novel voyage prompted significant interest . On 6 September , Roosevelt wrote from Oyster Bay to Hermann Speck von Steinberg : " I myself am both amused and interested as to what you say about the interest excited about my trip in the " Plunger " . I went down in it chiefly because I did not like to have the officers and enlisted men think I wanted them to try things I was reluctant to try myself . I believe a good deal can be done with these submarines , although there is always the danger of people getting carried away with the idea and thinking that they can be of more use than they possibly could be . " To another correspondent he declared that never in his life had he experienced " such a diverting day . . . nor so much enjoyment in so few hours . " Later service . Decommissioned on 3 November 1905 , " Plunger " remained inactive until she was recommissioned on 23 February 1907 . On 3 May 1909 , Ensign Chester Nimitz , the future fleet admiral who would say he considered the submarines of the time " a cross between a Jules Verne fantasy and a humpbacked whale " , assumed command of " Plunger " . That September , the submarine torpedo boat visited New York City to take part in the Hudson - Fulton celebrations . Reassigned to the Charleston Navy Yard , " Plunger " reached that port on 24 October and moored alongside the gunboat , the parent ship for the Atlantic Submarine Fleet . Shortly thereafter , " Castine " s medical officer , Assistant Surgeon Micajah Boland , inspected " Plunger " and two other submarine torpedo boats . His report graphically described living conditions on these boats . He found " their sanitary condition to be far from satisfactory , notwithstanding the fact that they had been at sea only about forty - five hours . " " Plunger " was renamed " A - 1 " on 17 November 1911 . She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 24 February 1913 . By 1916 , " A - 1 " had been authorized for use as an " experimental target , designated ' Target E ' " . She was ultimately hoisted on board the hulk of the former monitor and authorized for sale in 1921 , on an " as is , where is " basis . She was sold for scrapping on 26 January 1922 .