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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
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Photo # 19-N-80171:  USS Snapper off the Mare Island Navy Yard, 24 February 1945

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

USS Snapper (SS-185), 1937-1948

USS Snapper 1449-ton Salmon class submarine built at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, was commissioned in December 1937. Her shakedown cruise, in May-July 1938, took her down the west coast of South America to visit Peru and Chile. During the next three years Snapper operated off Panama, the U.S. Pacific Coast and Hawaii. Transferred to the Philippines in the fall of 1941, she began her first war patrol in December of that year, after Japan began hostilities. This cruise, in the waters off Hong Kong, the Philippines and the East Indies, was unproductive, as was typical for Asiatic Fleet submarines in the first months of the Pacific War.

In March and April 1942 Snapper's second patrol, made from Fremantle, Australia, took her back to the East Indies, then to the Philippines, where she delivered ammunition and evacuated personnel. On her return trip she provided a tow to the disabled submarine Searaven. Based in Australia into 1943, she made four more cruises in the Indies, South China Sea and Solomon Islands. Sent east to Pearl Harbor Snapper sank the freighter Tokai Maru of Guam, receiving partial credit for the ship as it had already been damaged by another submarine. On 2 September 1943, she sank the escort ship Mutsure, which had only entered service two weeks previously.

Snapper conducted her eighth through eleventh war patrols between October 1943 and October 1944, sinking two more merchantmen and the minelayer Ajiro. While on lifeguard duty off Truk in June 1944 she was damaged by an air attack, losing one crewman killed and others injured. Following overhaul, in March 1945 Snapper began service as a training submarine, initially based at San Diego, California. She went back to the East Coast in May and thereafter operated out of New London, Connecticut, as part of the Navy's Submarine School. USS Snapper was decommissioned in November 1945, two and a half months after the end of World War II. She was sold for scrapping in May 1948.

This page features, and provides links to, all the views we have related to USS Snapper (SS-185).

For additional views concerning this submarine, see:

  • USS Snapper (SS-185) -- Booklet of General Plans.


    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 99096

    USS Snapper
    (SS-185)

    Photographed during the later 1930s.

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

    Online Image: 72KB; 740 x 535 pixels

     
    Photo #: 19-N-80171

    USS Snapper
    (SS-185)

    Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 24 February 1945.

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

    Online Image: 78KB; 740 x 610 pixels

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

     
    Photo #: NH 99097

    USS Snapper
    (SS-185)

    Underway off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 24 February 1945.

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

    Online Image: 66KB; 740 x 560 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 99098

    USS Snapper
    (SS-185)

    Seen from ahead, while underway off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 24 February 1945.

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

    Online Image: 71KB; 740 x 625 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 99099

    USS Snapper
    (SS-185)

    Seen from astern, while underway off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 24 February 1945.

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

    Online Image: 70KB; 740 x 620 pixels

     
    Photo #: 19-N-80176

    USS Snapper
    (SS-185)

    Plan view, looking aft, taken at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 26 February 1945.
    White outlines mark recent alterations to the submarine.
    Note ready service ammunition lockers built into the superstructure; radar antennas and radio-direction finding loop atop the periscope sheers.
    Barge YF-465 is in the left distance.

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

    Online Image: 112KB; 740 x 615 pixels

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

    Note:
    The security notice in the upper left of this image appears in reproductions from the Naval Historical Center's collection, but not in those from the National Archives.

     
    Photo #: NH 68479

    Submarines in San Diego harbor, California, 1940


    Moored alongside USS Holland (AS-3), from which the photograph was taken, the submarines are (from left to right): Salmon (SS-182); Seal (SS-183); Pickerel (SS-177); Plunger (SS-179); Snapper (SS-185) and Permit (SS-178).
    Note the small motor boats, of the type carried by fleet submarines prior to World War II.
    One of the men standing on Salmon's deck is Yeoman Clayton Johnson, who in 1969 was a Commander serving at the Naval History Division.
    USS Enterprise (CV-6) is in the distance, tied up at Naval Air Station, North Island.

    Courtesy of the U.S. Naval Institute. James C. Fahey Collection.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 103KB; 740 x 565 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 68481

    USS Holland (AS-3)


    Panoramic photograph of the ship moored at Bouy 19, San Diego harbor, California, in 1940, with eleven submarines alongside. Submarines are (from left to right): Salmon (SS-182); Seal (SS-183); Stingray (SS-186); Perch (SS-176); Pollack (SS-180); Cachalot (SS-170); Cuttlefish (SS-171); Skipjack (SS-184); Sturgeon (SS-187); Snapper (SS-185) and Sargo (SS-188). SS-182 through SS-187 were members of Submarine Division 15, commanded by R.W. Christie.
    USS Richmond (CL-9), flagship of the Submarine Force, is in the right distance.

    Courtesy of the U.S. Naval Institute. James C. Fahey Collection.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 53KB; 900 x 310 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 99100

    Mrs. Harold R. Stark
    ,
    Sponsor of USS Snapper (SS-185)

    Holds the Sponsor's bouquet during the submarine's launching ceremonies, at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, 24 August 1937.

    Collection of Admiral Harold R. Stark, USN.

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

    Online Image: 93KB; 585 x 765 pixels

     


    In addition to the images presented above, the National Archives appears to hold at least one other view of USS Snapper (SS-185). 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-313886
    USS Snapper (SS-185) going astern, 5 April 1945. Photographed from a blimp of squadron ZP-31.
    Aerial view from ahead (and somewhat to port), with Snapper generating a modest backing wake.

    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 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."


  • For additional views concerning this submarine, see:

  • USS Snapper (SS-185) -- Booklet of General Plans.


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


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    Page made 28 January 2004