4 Forward and 2 Aft 21-inch Torpedo Tubes (Two of her Forward Tubes are often cited as "Deck" but this is improbable.)
Deck Armament:
A 3"/50 Caliber Deck Gun, 50 and 30 Caliber Machine Guns
Keel laid:
October 24, 1933, at Electric Boat Company, Groton, CT
Launched:
May 21, 1935, and Sponsored by Ms. Ruth Ellen Lonergan (A 12-year old daughter of US Senator A. Lonergan of Connecticut.)
Commissioned:
January 25, 1936, and commanded by Lt. Charles J. Carter
Complement:
Normally; 5 Officers, 45 Enlisted Men
The 5th USS Shark, SS-174, a
submarine, operated in the North Atlantic and the Caribbean until she was
dispatched to the Pacific through the Panama Canal into San Diego,
California; arriving there March 4, 1937. The Shark
spent the next year and a half in training exercises and Army-Navy war
problems as a unit of Submarine Squadron 6 (SubRon6). Following a regular
overhaul at Mare Island Navy Yard (Vallejo, California) she got underway
from San Diego on December 16, 1938, for Pearl Harbor and reassignment to
SubRon4, with LCDR Louis Shane, Jr., in command.
Those Listed as Lost at Sea when Shark-I was placed on Eternal Patrol as well as other information
can be found on
Submarine Losses, SS174 from the Navy Department Library.
Following two years of operations in
the Hawaii area, the Shark set sail from Pearl Harbor on December 3,
1940, to join the Asiatic Fleet at Manila, Philippine Islands; and there was
engaged in fleet tactics and exercises until the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor. She departed Manila on December 9, 1941, and was at sea during the
Japanese bombing raids on Manila the next day. For the next week she
patrolled Tayabas Bay until ordered back to Manila on the 19th of December
to take Admiral Thomas C. Hart, Commander-In-Chief of the U.S. Asiatic Fleet
(ComSubAF), to Soerabaja (now named Surabaya (also where Emilia Earhart
stopped on her fated flight on Jane 25, 1937), Java, in the (then) Dutch East Indies.
After having transported Admiral Hart
and other officials to Soerabaja the Shark departed on January 5,
1942, for her second war patrol. She experienced a torpedo miss that was
fired at her by an enemy submarine.
In anticipation of an enemy attack at
Ambon (Ambiona), Maluku Province (Indonesia), ComSubAF directed the Shark
to contact Dutch submarines at the harbor entrance of that island. On
January 25, 1942, she was advised that heavy air raids on Ambon might
indicate an enemy landing force moving to that island. Two days later she
was ordered to take station as part of a submarine group reconnoitering a
major enemy move through Molukka Passage. On January 29, because another
move toward Ambon was indicated, she was ordered to cover the passage to the
east of Lifeomatalo. The next day this area was enlarged to include that
area around the Banka Passage. On February 2, the Shark reported to
Soerabaja that she had been depth charged 10 miles off of Tifore Island and
that she had missed on one torpedo attack.
Five days later the Shark
reported an empty enemy cargo ship heading northeast. In response Soerabaja
pointed out that such transmissions contained little information in
appraising the situation; and that they might very possibly reveal to the
enemy a position to avoid. No further messages were received from the
Shark. She was told, on February 8, to proceed to Makassar Strait via
the north coast and later to report information. Nothing further was heard
from the Shark and on March 7, 1942, she was reported as presumed lost.
A Japanese report of antisubmarine
attacks, now available, records at least three which might have been on the
Shark. The most likely to have terminated her was on February 11, 1942,
by depth charge from the destroyer
Yamakaze, east of Menado in the northern Celebes since she had been
ordered to this location. The exact attack, however, cannot be determined
due to the activity in the area and the lack of accurate Japanese records at
the beginning of the war.
The USS Shark (SS-174) received
one battle star for World War II service. As she was lost with all souls
onboard she is considered to be on Eternal Patrol. Although she is
not on the active list of ships she has never been decommissioned.
Shark-I operating areas; the Banda Sea, Ambon (Ambiona), East Timor;
and the Celebes Sea west of Menado where probably lost to the Japanese Destroyer Yamakaze.
