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Photo # 19-N-35997:  USS Porpoise off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 13 October 1942

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Porpoise (SS-172), 1935-1957

USS Porpoise, first of a class of two 1310-ton submarines built by the Portsmouth Navy Yard, was commissioned in August 1935. She went to the Pacific a little more than a year later, operating along the West Coast and in Hawaiian waters until late 1939, when she was sent to the Philippines to join the Asiatic Fleet. For the next two years Porpoise took part in peacetime activities in Far Eastern waters. When Japan began the Pacific War in December 1941 she was undergoing shipyard work at Olongapo, but was quickly gotten into condition to begin her first war patrol later in that month. This cruise, off the Philippines and in the South China Sea, produced no losses to the enemy before it ended at Java late in January 1942. Porpoise's second patrol, in February and March, was conducted in the Netherlands East Indies as the Japanese moved in and conquered that vital source of strategic resources. Despite making one attack on a convoy, she sank no ships.

Temporarily operating from Fremantle, Australia, Porpoise made her third wartime cruise in April-June 1942, passing through the East Indies and then crossing the Pacific to California, where she was overhauled during the summer and early fall. The submarine returned to combat duty in November 1942, sinking one enemy cargo ship during a patrol into Japanese home waters that included an encounter with a typhoon. Porpoise's fifth and sixth war patrols took her into the central Pacific in February-April 1943 and in June-July. She sank a transport in July but developed a bad oil leak after being depth charged. Showing her age and infirmities in other ways, she was then retired from combat service and spent the rest of the Second World War on training duty at New London, Connecticut. Porpoise decommissioned in November 1945 but in May 1947 was brought back to noncommissioned service as a stationary training submarine for Naval Reservists in the vicinity of Houston, Texas. Stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in August 1956, she was sold for scrapping in May 1957.

This page features, or provides links to, all the views we have related to USS Porpoise (SS-172).

For more images concerning this submarine, see:

  • USS Porpoise (SS-172) -- in groups with other ships.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

    Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

    Photo #: NH 49968

    USS Porpoise (SS-172)


    Near New London, Connecticut, in about 1936.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 60KB; 740 x 530 pixels

     
    Photo #: 19-N-35996

    USS Porpoise (SS-172)


    Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 13 October 1942.
    Note the barrage balloons in the distance.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 68KB; 740 x 605 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: 19-N-35997

    USS Porpoise (SS-172)


    Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 13 October 1942.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 75KB; 740 x 615 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: 19-N-35999

    USS Porpoise (SS-172)


    At the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 13 October 1942.
    Barge YC-312 is alongside.
    White outlines mark recent alterations to Porpoise, among them a degaussing cable housing aft.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 114KB; 740 x 605 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: 19-N-69265

    USS Porpoise (SS-172)


    Off the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania, 20 July 1944.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 79KB; 740 x 610 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: 19-N-69267

    USS Porpoise (SS-172)


    Off the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Pennsylvania, 20 July 1944.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 34KB; 740 x 440 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: NH 42645

    USS Porpoise (SS-172)


    Commissioning ceremony, at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, 15 August 1935.
    At the head of the gangway, Captain A.W. Brown is reading commissioning orders to the new submarine's Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Commander Stuart S. Murray, and the rest of her officers and crew. A Chief Petty Officer is by the flagstaff, ready to hoist the National Ensign.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 101KB; 740 x 610 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 42646

    USS Porpoise (SS-172)


    Colors are raised as the new submarine goes into commission, during ceremonies held at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, 15 August 1935.
    Officers saluting at the head of the gangway are Captain A.W. Brown and Porpoise's Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Commander Stuart S. Murray.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 98KB; 740 x 620 pixels

     

    For more images concerning this submarine, see:

  • USS Porpoise (SS-172) -- in groups with other ships.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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    Page made 23 September 2003