Plunger: Theodore Roosevelt’s Close Encounter with an Early U.S. Navy Submarine

Plunger may not be the most elegant name for a warship, but it was an apt label for one of the U.S. Navy’s pioneering submarines. Launched in 1902 from New Jersey’s Crescent Shipyard, the 64-foot A‑Class boat—originally designated SS-2 and later renamed A-1—represented the Navy’s earliest experiments with underwater vessels. Commissioned at the Holland yard in New Suffolk on Long Island’s north shore, Plunger became an important testbed for the new technologies and tactics that would shape the future of undersea warfare.

For two years the submarine operated out of Newport, Rhode Island, conducting trials of torpedoes and other equipment as the Navy explored the potential of submarines in fleet operations. Routine maintenance brought Plunger back to Long Island, and sea trials were scheduled for August 22, 1905, in and around Oyster Bay. The date set the stage for a memorable encounter when President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt decided to see the new craft up close.

Roosevelt’s nearby summer home at Sagamore Hill made it easy for him to visit the waterfront, and his well‑known appetite for bold, hands‑on experiences drew him to the submarine not merely as an observer but as a participant. He notified naval officials of his intent, boarded the moored sub—which lay alongside the tug Apache—and met the seven‑man crew. Roosevelt inspected the vessel, questioned the men on board, and accepted an invitation to take part in a sequence of dives that together lasted more than two hours.

Contemporary reports emphasize Roosevelt’s genuine fascination with the machine and the men who operated it. The future‑minded president admired both the “skill and bravery of the crew” and the possibilities the submarine suggested for naval strategy and defense. Reflecting his characteristic blend of courage and egalitarian leadership, Roosevelt later explained, “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.” He called the experience one of the most exciting days he ever had.

Plunger continued to serve the Navy for several years after that dramatic visit. She was taken out of service and decommissioned in 1913, having fulfilled a role as an experimental platform in the earliest era of American undersea craft. Among those who commanded the boat at one point was Ensign Chester Nimitz, an officer who would later rise to prominence as a fleet admiral during World War II. The association with figures like Nimitz highlights Plunger’s place in the lineage of the U.S. submarine force and its contribution to the training and experience of officers who shaped the Navy’s later successes.

Language itself reflected the spirit behind the vessel’s name. When the sub was christened, the term “plunger” commonly described a daring gambler or risk‑taker—someone willing to “take the plunge.” The name thus captured both the literal act of diving beneath the waves and the figurative leap into a new realm of naval technology.

More than a century later, the episode remains a vivid illustration of a moment when the White House, a nascent submarine service, and a curious, adventurous commander in chief converged on the waterfront. Roosevelt’s dive aboard Plunger symbolized a willingness to embrace innovation and to share in the risks required to understand and evaluate it—traits that left an imprint on naval culture and the public imagination.

This article originally appeared in the November 2016 issue.