USS Tarpon, a 238-ton Octopus ("C") class submarine, was built at Quincy, Massachusetts. After commissioning in November 1909 she operated along the U.S. East Coast for more than three years. Tarpon was renamed C-3 in November 1911, as the U.S. Navy replaced "fish" names for its submarines with alpha-numeric ones. During much of 1913 she was based at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and was transferred to the Panama Canal Zone near the end of the year. C-3 remained in the Panama area for the rest of her career, except for the summer of 1918, when she was employed on patrol service off Florida. Laid up at Coco Solo, Canal Zone, in August 1919, USS C-3 was decommissioned in December and sold in April 1920.