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Photo # NH 78922:  USS S-38 underway, circa the later 1930s

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

USS S-38 (SS-143), 1923-1945

USS S-38, a 1062-ton S-1 class submarine, was built at San Francisco, California. Commissioned in May 1923, she operated in the Alaskan waters in June and July and was under repair into the following year. In September 1924, the submarine crossed the Pacific to the Philippines and began service with the Asiatic Fleet that lasted into the early months of World War II. Her peacetime operations involved regular cruises to China, Indo-China and the Netherlands East Indies as well as service in Philippine waters.

After Japan began the Pacific War in December 1941 S-38 took part in anti-invasion patrols in Lingayen Gulf, sinking one enemy cargo ship and enduring several anti-submarine attacks. From mid-January into March 1942 she took part in the defense of the East Indies. In addition to normal submarine wartime activities, she used her deck gun to bombard Japanese facilities ashore and rescued survivors of the sunken British destroyer Electra. During March-September S-38 operated out of Brisbane, Australia, making war patrols into the waters off New Guinea, and later off New Ireland and New Britain. On 8 August 1942, in the wake of the Allied invasion of Guadalcanal and Tulagi, she intercepted and sank the Japanese transport Meiyo Maru, thus thwarting the enemy's first attempt to reinforce their ground forces on Guadalcanal. Her final patrol out from Brisbane took place in September and October 1942, during which she unsuccessfully attacked a Japanese tanker in the Gilbert Islands.

S-38 was under overhaul from November 1942 into April 1943. She then went to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, for further combat service. A war patrol through the Marshall Islands in June and July was completed in the south Pacific, where she stayed until late August 1944. Inactivated following her return to the U.S. west coast after that deployment, S-38 was decommissioned in mid-December 1944 and sunk as a target in February 1945.

This page features all the views we have concerning USS S-38 (SS-143).


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 78922

USS S-38 (SS-143)


Underway, circa the later 1930s.

Courtesy of the Submarine Force Library and Museum, Groton, Connecticut, 1972.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 99KB; 740 x 595 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 104940

USS Canopus
(AS-9)

In Apra Harbor, Guam, 29 October 1924, with all six members of Submarine Division 17 alongside.
The division consisted of:
USS S-36 (SS-141);
USS S-37 (SS-142);
USS S-38 (SS-143);
USS S-39 (SS-144);
USS S-40 (SS-145); and
USS S-41 (SS-146).

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 76KB; 740 x 625 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 55048

USS Canopus
(AS-9)

In Apra Harbor, Guam, with Submarine Division 17 alongside, 29 October 1924.
Submarine Division 17's members were:
USS S-36 (SS-141);
USS S-37 (SS-142);
USS S-38 (SS-143);
USS S-39 (SS-144);
USS S-40 (SS-145); and
USS S-41 (SS-146).

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 85KB; 740 x 600 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 59969

Submarine Division Seventeen (SubDiv 17)


Boats of SubDiv 17, Asiatic Fleet, moored alongside USS Canopus (AS-9) at Tsingtao, China, in 1930.
Submarines in the foreground include (from left to right):
USS S-40 (SS-145);
USS S-38 (SS-143); and
USS S-41 (SS-146).

Another submarine is approaching, in the center distance.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 86KB; 740 x 595 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 51833

USS S-38 (SS-143)


Nested between sister submarines S-40 (SS-145), at left, and S-41 (SS-146), at right, alongside USS Canopus (AS-9) off Tsingtao, China, in 1930.
Note these submarines' 4"/50 deck guns.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 127KB; 740 x 595 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 51831

USS S-38 (SS-143)


Nested between sister submarines S-41 (SS-146), at left, and S-40 (SS-145), at right, alongside USS Canopus (AS-9) at Tsingtao, China, in 1930.
Note awnings spread aft on these submarines.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 117KB; 740 x 600 pixels

 
Photo #: 80-G-1014615

USS Canopus (AS-9)


With the Asiatic Fleet's Submarine Squadron Five alongside, during the 1930s.
The submarines present include (from left to right): S-37 (SS-142); S-40 (SS-145); S-36 (SS-141); S-38 (SS-143); S-41 (SS-146); S-39 (SS-144).

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the 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 #: 80-CF-22672-1

USS Jason
(AV-2)

In the Dewey Drydock, at Olongapo, Philippine Islands, on 9 March 1932.
USS Canopus (AS-9) is in the upper right, with four submarines moored alongside. The outboard submarine is S-38 (SS-143).

Photograph from Department of the Navy collections in the U.S. National Archives.

Online Image: 105KB; 740 x 605 pixels

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

 
Photo #: NH 80142

Submarine Squadron Five (SubRon 5)


Boats of SubRon 5 at Olongapo, Philippine Islands, circa 1933-1934.
Submarines present are S-37 (SS-142), S-38 (SS-143), S-39 (SS-144) and S-40 (SS-145).

Courtesy of Captain G.K. Bishop, USAF, 1974.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 64KB; 740 x 470 pixels

 
Photo #: 80-G-77065

Submarine Squadron FIVE (SubRon 5)


A Chief Torpedoman paints another "hashmark" on the Torpedo Shop scoreboard of Japanese ships claimed sunk by SubRon 5's "S-Boats", operating out of Brisbane, Australia, during April-November 1942.
Photographed on board USS Griffin (AS-13), tender to the squadron. Submarines listed on the scoreboard include S-37 (SS-142), S-38 (SS-143), S-39 (SS-144), S-40 (SS-145), S-41 (SS-146), S-42 (SS-153), S-43 (SS-154), S-44 (SS-155), S-45 (SS-156), S-46 (SS-157), and S-47 (SS-158).
The original caption dates the photo on 7 January 1943, but it may have been taken earlier, as Griffin left Australia in November 1942.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Online Image: 104KB; 585 x 765 pixels

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

 
Photo #: NH 97960

USS S-38 (SS-143)


Fitting out at the Bethlehem Steel Company shipyard, San Francisco, California, 29 March 1923.

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

Online Image: 103KB; 740 x 610 pixels

 


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


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Page made 15 February 2002
New images added 28 August 2007