The two submarines were not identical. The design called for diesel-electric submarines for use as coastal defence. However, the Electric Boat Company employed two separate designs with the same internal machinery for the submarines. "CC-1" was built to the design 19E and "CC-2" was built to design 19B. The layout of the torpedo tubes within the boats led to different hull forms. "CC-1" was armed with five torpedo tubes, four forward and one astern. This gave the submarine a bluff bow shape. "CC-2" was armed with three torpedo tubes of the same size, two forward and one astern. This gave "CC-2" a tapered bow. Both ships used Whitehead Mk IV torpedoes that had a range of at . The only source for these torpedoes in Canada was 's stock and it took some time before they were shipped to the submarines.