For surface running, the submarines were powered by two 1,200-brake-horsepower (895 kW) Vickers diesel engines, each driving one propeller shaft.

26 was attached to the Kure Naval District and reassigned to Submarine Division 11, in both of which she remained for the rest of her active career.

26 was moored to a buoy alongside the protected cruiser Yahagi in the harbor at Kure, Japan, during a memorial service for Submarine No.

70— which had sunk in August 1923 with heavy loss of life — with the admiral commanding the Kure Naval District in attendance when she suddenly began to sink rapidly by the bow.

[3][4] She struck the buoy, then began to sink quickly by the stern, and within 20 minutes she had settled on the bottom at a depth of 8 fathoms (48 ft; 15 m) with only her periscope and wireless mast protruding above the surface.

[3] In its immediate aftermath, the sinking was attributed to flooding in a water tank,[3] but the investigation into the incident concluded that she sank when her torpedo tube doors opened accidentally.

[1] On 29 October 1925, Ro-52 sank again without loss of life while tied up at a pier because of flooding through a torpedo tube that an investigation attributed to carelessness.