High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! USS K-3 (SS-34) was an K-class submarine, of the United States Navy. Her keel was laid down by Union Iron Works in San Francisco, California, as Orca, making her the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the orca, another name for the grampus or killer whale, but on 17 November 1911, during construction, she was renamed K-3. She was launched on 14 March 1914 sponsored by Mrs. Clarence Meigs Oddie, and commissioned on 30 October 1914 with Lieutenant F. T. Chew in command.