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Photo # 19-N-40145:  USS Permit off the Mare Island Navy Yard, 13 January 1943

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

USS Permit (SS-178), 1937-1958

USS Permit, a 1330-ton Perch class submarine built at Groton, Connecticut, was commissioned in March 1937. Beginning late in that year she was based on the West Coast, operating in that area and in Alaskan and Hawaiian waters for nearly two years. Permit was sent to the Philippines in October 1939. In December 1941, immediately after war began with Japan, she made two war patrols off western Luzon, the second including an unsuccessful attempt to disrupt enemy landings in Lingayen Gulf. Her third wartime cruise, starting near the end of the year, took her to the southern Philippines and then to the Dutch East Indies. Permit attacked a formation of Japanese warships at the beginning of March, during her fourth patrol, but her torpedoes missed their target. She then went back to the Philippines with a load of ammunition and evacuated critical personnel from Corregidor to Australia, receiving a depth charging on the way. During May-August 1942 Permit operated from Australia, making two patrols, one in the East Indies and the other en route to Hawaii.

After being overhauled on the West Coast, Permit began to take a toll of enemy shipping during the course of three cruises into Japanese-held waters in February-August 1943. She torpedoed one freighter on her seventh patrol, in March, and two more on her ninth cruise, which included a daring penetration of the Sea of Japan in July. Her tenth patrol took her into the Marshall Islands, where she photographed possible invasion targets and attacked several ships. Following another overhaul she went to the Carolines in January-March 1944, made several attempts to torpedo Japanese warships and merchantmen off Truk, and endured a number of depth charge counter-attacks. Another patrol, her twelfth of the war, took her back to Truk during May and June. This was followed by a cruise that ended at Brisbane, Australia, in August.

Permit began her fourteenth war patrol from Brisbane in September 1944, voyaging to Truk to provide lifeguard services for aircraft raiding that enemy base. She arrived at Pearl Harbor in November and was retired from combat. Sent to the East Coast in January 1945, she was refitted and then assigned to training service at New London, Connecticut. This duty ended a few months after Japan's surrender. Decommissioned in mid-November 1945, USS Permit spent more than a decade in the Reserve Fleet before being stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in July 1956. She was sold for scrapping in June 1958.

This page features, and provides links to, all the views we have concerning USS Permit (SS-178).

For additional views related to this submarine, see:

  • USS Permit (SS-178) -- Construction and Miscellaneous Views.


    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 42701

    USS Permit
    (SS-178)

    Underway on 11 August 1937, during her shakedown period.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 61KB; 740 x 580 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 44003

    USS Permit
    (SS-178)

    Underway soon after completion, circa 1937.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 67KB; 740 x 610 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 99627

    USS Permit
    (SS-178)

    Underway, circa 1937.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 54KB; 740 x 500 pixels

     
    Photo #: 19-N-40145

    USS Permit
    (SS-178)

    Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, on 13 January 1943, following overhaul.
    Note that she has been refitted with an external torpedo tube on each side of her bow.

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

    Online Image: 73KB; 740 x 595 pixels

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

     
    Photo #: 19-N-40139

    USS Permit
    (SS-178)

    Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, on 13 January 1943, following overhaul.

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

    Online Image: 80KB; 740 x 605 pixels

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

     
    Photo #: NH 44004

    USS Permit
    (SS-178)

    Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 12 January 1943.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 82KB; 740 x 585 pixels

     
    Photo #: 19-N-40140

    USS Permit
    (SS-178)

    Plan view, looking forward along her starboard side, taken at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, on 12 January 1943, following overhaul.
    Note radar antennas for SJ surface search radar (by the periscope at left) and SD aircraft detection radar (bar atop the pole in center).
    White outlines mark recent alterations.
    Barges YF-239 (outboard) and YF-200 are in the right distance.

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

    Online Image: 133KB; 740 x 610 pixels

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

     
    Photo #: 19-N-40141

    USS Permit
    (SS-178)

    Plan view, looking aft along her starboard side, taken at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, on 12 January 1943, following overhaul.
    Note crewmembers unpacking provisions at right, among them a crate of "Sunkist" oranges.
    Barge YC-293 is alongside Permit.

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

    Online Image: 120KB; 740 x 610 pixels

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

     


    In addition to the images presented on these pages, the National Archives appears to hold at least one other view of USS Permit (SS-178). The following list features this image:

    The image listed below is NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections.
    DO NOT try to obtain it using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."



  • Photo #: 80-G-458687
    USS Permit (SS-178) underway in San Diego harbor, California, 17 February 1938.
    Starboard broadside surface view. The submarine's fairwater is marked "P7".
    Note: Photo # 80-G-463610 is an identical photograph, but appears to have Permit's extreme stern cropped out of the view's left side.


    Reproductions of this image should be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system for pictures not held by the Naval Historical Center.

    The image listed in this box if NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections. DO NOT try to obtain it using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


  • For additional views related to this submarine, see:

  • USS Permit (SS-178) -- Construction and Miscellaneous Views.


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


    Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

    Page made 24 October 2004