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Photo # 19-N-67722:  USS Saury off the Mare Island Navy Yard, 28 May 1944

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

USS Saury (SS-189), 1939-1947

USS Saury, a 1450-ton Sargo class submarine built at Groton, Connecticut, was commissioned in early April 1939. She spent most of the remainder of that year conducting tests off the East Coast, making a shakedown cruise to Venezuela and the Panama Canal Zone and undergoing post-shakedown overhaul. Late in 1939 Saury went to the Pacific, where in April 1940 she participated in Fleet Problem XXI, a large exercise held in Hawaiian waters. The submarine was based at Pearl Harbor until October 1941, when she was sent west to reinforce the defenses of the Philippine Islands. When Japan began the Pacific War on 8 December (local time), she was sent to conduct anti-invasion patrols north of Lingayen Gulf. On 22 December 1941 she made an unsuccessful attack on an enemy destroyer and escaped several depth-charge counter attacks. Saury later operated in the Dutch East Indies and ended her first war patrol at Soerabaja at the end of January 1942. Her next combat cruise, part of the futile effort to defend the East Indies against the conquering Japanese, was completed in mid-March at Fremantle, Australia.

Saury was based in Australia for her next three war patrols, conducted between April and December 1942. In July she fired Mark XIV torpedoes in tests that demonstrated that these weapons ran much deeper than expected, one of a series of serious technical deficiencies that crippled U.S. Navy submarine operations during the Pacific war's first year and a half. Saury sank a Japanese aircraft ferry in September, but other attacks were spoiled by premature torpedo warhead detonations.

Following overhaul at the Mare Island Navy Yard, in May 1943 the submarine began operating from Pearl Harbor. Her sixth war patrol was very successful, costing the Japanese a tanker and three freighters in late May. Engine troubles (Saury was built with H.O.R. diesels, which proved to be very troublesome), a damaging collision with a Japanese destroyer, bad weather and a serious flooding incident helped keep her scoreless on her seventh, eighth and ninth patrols. In March-May 1944 Saury was again overhauled at Mare Island, work that included installation of new engines. Even so, she had further machinery casualties during her tenth war patrol, off the Philippines in June-August. In September-November 1944 Saury made an eleventh cruise. Operating in the vicinity of Japan, she damaged one enemy ship and rescued a U.S. Navy fighter pilot who had crashed at sea during the mid-October carrier raids on Okinawa.

This was the now-ageing submarine's last voyage into hostile territory. For the rest of World War II Saury was employed on training and target duties in Hawaiian waters. She spent the last months of 1945 and the first half of 1946 preparing for inactivation. Formally decommissioned in June 1946, she was stricken from the list of Navy ships in mid-July and, in May 1947, was sold for scrapping.

This page features all the views we have concerning USS Saury (SS-189).


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 103490

USS Saury
(SS-189)

Underway off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 4 April 1943.

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

Online Image: 72KB; 740 x 615 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 103491

USS Saury
(SS-189)

Seen from astern, while underway off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 4 April 1943.

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

Online Image: 71KB; 740 x 625 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 103492

USS Saury
(SS-189)

Plan view, forward, taken at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 6 April 1943.
White outlines mark recent alterations to the submarine.
Note the small gasoline truck on the wharf, at right. The truck parked beyond it is marked "Photographic Dept."

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

Online Image: 98KB; 740 x 625 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 103493

USS Saury
(SS-189)

Plan view, aft, taken at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 6 April 1943.
White outlines mark recent alterations to the submarine.
Several landing craft, tank, are in the right background, one wearing pattern camouflage. The two outboard LCTs are LCT-394 (seen bow-on) and LCT-395 (seen from astern).
Note the wooden fender platforms floating at left.

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

Online Image: 95KB; 740 x 625 pixels

 
Photo #: 19-N-67722

USS Saury
(SS-189)

Underway off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 28 May 1944.

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

Online Image: 69KB; 740 x 600 pixels

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

 
Photo #: NH 103494

USS Saury
(SS-189)

Underway off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 28 May 1944.

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

Online Image: 53KB; 740 x 620 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 103495

USS Saury
(SS-189)

Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 28 May 1944.

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

Online Image: 53KB; 740 x 620 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 103496

USS Saury
(SS-189)

Seen from ahead, while underway off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 28 May 1944.

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

Online Image: 48KB; 740 x 625 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 103497

USS Saury
(SS-189)

Seen from astern, while underway off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 28 May 1944.

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

Online Image: 57KB; 740 x 615 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 103498

USS Saury
(SS-189)

At the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 3 June 1944.
White outlines mark recent alterations to the submarine.
Note the two-armed overhead travelling crane in the background.

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

Online Image: 127KB; 740 x 615 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 103499

USS Saury
(SS-189)

Plan view, aft, taken at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 3 June 1944.
White outlines mark recent alterations to the submarine.

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

Online Image: 119KB; 740 x 620 pixels

 
Photo #: 80-G-451131

Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii


Aerial view, looking west, with the supply depot in upper center, 13 October 1941. Part of the Submarine Base is at lower left; the Navy Yard is in the upper left; and Ford Island is in the top right.
See Photo # 80-G-451131 (complete caption) for identification of some of the ships present.

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

Online Image: 128KB; 740 x 615 pixels

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

 


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


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Page made 26 February 2006