Her keel was laid down by Fore River Shipbuilding Company in Quincy, Massachusetts, under a subcontract from Electric Boat Company of Groton, Connecticut, as Narwhal, making her the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the narwhal, a gray and white arctic whale which averages 20 feet in length, the male of which has a long, twisted ivory tusk of commercial value.

These pioneer submarines operated very actively in diving grounds in Cape Cod and Narragansett Bay, Long Island Sound and Block Island Sound, and Chesapeake Bay, and off Norfolk, Virginia; on target ranges proving torpedoes; experimental operations; and cruises along the East Coast.

During World War I, D-1 trained crews and classes of officers and served in experiments in the Third Naval District.

The New York World quoted Lt. Chester Nimitz, in command of Narwhal in August 1911, with regards to an encounter with whales that the submarine had.

[1] This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.