USS Shark (SS-174)
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| Career | |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | |
| Laid down: | 24 October 1933 |
| Launched: | 21 May 1935 |
| Commissioned: | 25 January 1936 |
| Fate: | sunk by Japanese |
| Stricken: | 24 June 1942 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 1316 tons surfaced, 1968 tons submerged |
| Length: | 298 ft 8 in (91 m) |
| Beam: | 21 ft 1 in (6.4 m) |
| Draft: | 13 ft 10 in (4.2 m) |
| Speed: | 19.5 knots (36 km/h) surfaced, 8.25 knots (15 km/h) submerged |
| Complement: | 50 officers and men |
| Armament: | 1 x 3 in (76 mm) gun, 6 x 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes |
USS Shark (SS-174), a Porpoise-class submarine, was the fifth ship of the United States Navy to be named for the shark, a large, marine predator. Her keel was laid down by the Electric Boat Company in Groton, Connecticut, on 24 October 1933. She was launched on 21 May 1935 sponsored by Miss Ruth Ellen Lonergan, 12-year-old daughter of United States Senator Augustine Lonergan of Connecticut, and commissioned on 25 January 1936, Lieutenant C.J. Carter in command.
Following shakedown in the North Atlantic and the Caribbean Sea, Shark transited the Panama Canal and arrived at San Diego, California, on 4 March 1937. The submarine spent the next year and one-half in training exercises and Army-Navy war problems as a unit of Submarine Squadron (SubRon) 6. Following a regular overhaul at Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, California, Shark got underway from San Diego, California, on 16 December 1938 bound for Pearl Harbor and reassignment as a unit of SubRon 4.
Following two years of operations in the Hawaii area, Shark set sail from Pearl Harbor on 3 December 1940 to join the Asiatic Fleet based at Manila, Philippine Islands, where she engaged in fleet tactics and exercises until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Departing Manila on 9 December 1941, the submarine was at sea during the Japanese bombing raids on Manila the next day. For the next week, Shark patrolled Tayabas Bay until ordered back to Manila on 19 December to embark Admiral Thomas C. Hart, Commander-in-Chief of the United States Asiatic Fleet, for transportation to Soerabaja, Java.
On 6 January 1942, Shark was barely missed by a torpedo from a Japanese submarine. A few days later, she was ordered to Ambon Island, where an enemy invasion was expected. On 27 January, she was directed to join the submarines patrolling in Molucca Passage, then to cover the passage east of Lifamatola and Bangka Strait. On 2 February, Shark reported to her base at Soerabaja that she had been depth-charged ten miles off Tifore Island and had failed to sink a Japanese ship during a torpedo attack. Five days later, she reported chasing an empty cargo ship headed northwest. No further messages were received from Shark. On 8 February, she was told to proceed to Makassar Strait and later was told to report information. Nothing was heard and, on 7 March, Shark was reported as presumed lost, the victim of unknown causes. She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 24 June.
Post-war Japanese records showed numerous attacks on unidentified submarines in Shark's area at plausible times. At 0137 hours on 11 February, the Japanese destroyer Yamakaze opened fire with her five-inch guns and sank a surfaced submarine. Voices were heard in the water, but no attempt was made to rescue possible survivors.
Shark (SS-174) received one battle star for World War II service.
See USS Shark for other ships of the same name.
References
This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
| Porpoise-class submarine |
| P-1 Type |
| Porpoise | Pike |
| P-3 Type |
| Shark | Tarpon |
| P-5 Type |
| Perch | Pickerel | Permit | Plunger | Pollack | Pompano |
|
List of submarines of the United States Navy |