[1] For surface running, the boats were powered by two 600-brake-horsepower (447 kW) diesel engines, each driving one propeller shaft.

[2] L-5's keel was laid down on 14 May 1914 by Lake Torpedo Boat Company in Bridgeport, Connecticut, launched on 1 May 1916, sponsored by Mrs. Rosalind Robinson, and commissioned on 17 February 1918.

After exercises along the Atlantic coast, L-5 departed Charleston, South Carolina, on 15 October 1918 with Submarine Division 6 and reached the Azores on 7 November.

She participated in exercises in the Caribbean Sea before steaming on to San Pedro, California, where she arrived 13 February 1919.

L-5 departed San Pedro on 25 July 1922, and, after visits in Mexico, Nicaragua, and the Panama Canal Zone, she arrived Hampton Roads, Virginia, on 28 September.