[2] For surface running, the boats were powered by two 440-brake-horsepower (328 kW) NELSECO diesel engines, each driving one propeller shaft.

During the final months of World War I, O-5 operated along the Atlantic coast and patrolled from Cape Cod to Key West, Florida.

On October 6, 1918 O-5 was at the Brooklyn Navy Yard when Lieutenant (Junior Grade) William J. Sharkey noticed that the submarine's batteries were giving off toxic gas.

[3] O-5 departed Newport, Rhode Island on 3 November 1918 with a 20-submarine contingent bound for European waters; however, hostilities had ceased before the vessels reached the Azores.

On 28 October, as O-5 entered Bahía Limón, preparatory to transiting the Panama Canal, she was rammed by the United Fruit Company steamer Abangarez and sank in less than a minute.

Three men died;[4] 16 others escaped[5][6] Two crewmembers, Henry Breault and Lawrence Brown, were trapped in the forward torpedo room, which they sealed against the flooding of the submarine.

Local engineers and divers were able to rig cranes and other equipment and lift O-5 far enough off the bottom that the bow broke the surface, exposing a hatch which led to the compartment where the two men were trapped, allowing them to be freed.

Struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 28 April 1924, she was raised and later sold as a hulk to R.K. Morris in Balboa, Panama, on 12 December 1924.

At approximately 0630, O-5, under the command of Lieutenant Harrison Avery, was underway across Bahía Limón toward the entrance to the Panama Canal.

Through a series of maneuvering errors and miscommunication, the SS Abangarez collided with the O-5 and struck the submarine on the starboard side of the control room, opening a hole some ten feet long and penetrating the number one main ballast tank.

To search for trapped personnel, they hammered on the hull near the aft end of the ship and worked forward.

The excavation shifted into high gear and by 2:00pm on the afternoon of the sinking, the crane barge Ajax squeezed through and was on its way to the O-5 site.

Sheppard J. Shreaves, supervisor of the Panama Canal's salvage crew and himself a qualified diver, had been working continuously throughout the night to dig the tunnel, snake the cable under the submarine, and hook it to Ajax’s hoist.

As noon on the 29th approached, the crane was ready for another lift, this time with buoyancy being added by blowing water out of the flooded Engine Room.

Men from the salvage force quickly opened the torpedo room hatch, and Breault and Brown emerged into the fresh air.

Breault played a kind of tune with his hammer, indicating to the diver that we were in good shape and cheerful.