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Photo # 19-N-51811:  USS Swordfish off San Francisco, California, 13 June 1943

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

USS Swordfish (SS-193), 1939-1945

USS Swordfish, a 1450-ton Sargo class submarine, was built at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California. Commissioned in July 1939, she was based on the West Coast and at Pearl Harbor until November 1941, when she crossed the Pacific to take station in the Philippines. Between December 1941, when Japan went to war with the United States, and March 1942 Swordfish conducted two combat patrols, sinking two enemy cargo ships and helping to evacuate important personnel, among them President Quezon of the Philippines, from Manila Bay to safer locations. Her third patrol, out of Fremantle, Australia, was an attempt to take supplies to beseiged Corregidor, which surrendered before she arrived. Swordfish made four more cruises into enemy waters while based in Australia, sinking three ships.

In February 1943 the submarine proceeded to West Coast for a shipyard overhaul, then began her eighth war patrol in late July. This cost the Japanese logistics system two more freighters. Following a brief cruise that was terminated due to mechanical problems, Swordfish made a very successful tenth patrol during December 1943 - February 1944, sinking a passenger-cargo ship, the "q-ship" Delhi Maru and a salvage ship despite constant materiel difficulties, a depth charge counterattack by the Japanese, and a fire on board.

Swordfish conducted two more patrols out of Pearl Harbor in March-June 1944. The second of these sent the destroyer Matsukaze and another freighter to the bottom of the Pacific. Six months later, in December 1944, the submarine left Hawaii to begin her thirteenth combat cruise, which was to include a photographic reconnaissance of possible invasion beaches in Okinawa. She was seen on 12 January 1945 by USS Kete (SS-369), which was also operating in the Okinawa area. USS Swordfish was not heard of again, and was presumably sunk by an enemy minefield or a depth charge attack on or soon after that date. Eighty-nine men were lost with the veteran submarine.

This page features all our views of USS Swordfish (SS-193).


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 #: 19-N-51811

USS Swordfish (SS-193)


Underway off San Francisco, California, 13 June 1943.
Photographed by the Mare Island Navy Yard, California.

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 98514

USS Swordfish (SS-193)


Off San Francisco, California, 13 June 1943.
Photographed by the Mare Island Navy Yard, California.

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

Online Image: 95KB; 740 x 620 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 98515

USS Swordfish (SS-193)


At San Francisco, California, 13 June 1943, at the conclusion of an overhaul.
Photographed by the Mare Island Navy Yard, California.
Circles mark recent alterations, including a 3"/50 deck gun, platform and mounting for a 20mm gun, radio direction finder loop, signal lamp, radar antenna, and spreaders for a radio antenna.

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

Online Image: 117KB; 740 x 620 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 98516

USS Swordfish (SS-193)


At San Francisco, California, 13 June 1943, at the conclusion of an overhaul.
Photographed by the Mare Island Navy Yard, California.
Circles mark recent alterations, among them a mounting for a 20mm gun, and spreaders for radio antennas.
Note that the submarine's hull number is outlined on the side of her conning tower.

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

Online Image: 145KB; 740 x 620 pixels

 
Photo #: 80-G-K-13791 (Color)

USS Swordfish (SS-193)

Ready for launching, at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, on 1 April 1939.
This is the earliest known color Official Navy Photograph that can be precisely dated.

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

Online Image: 163KB; 740 x 505 pixels

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

 
Photo #: 80-G-K-13792 (Color)

USS Swordfish (SS-193)

Afloat immediately after launching, off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, on 1 April 1939.
Note the tug assisting from alongside her port bow.

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

Online Image: 76KB; 740 x 505 pixels

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

 
Photo #: NH 42077

Memorial to USS Swordfish (SS-193)


At St. Paul, Minnesota, January 1967. It features a torpedo and has plaques on either side, one in memory of Swordfish crewmen lost with their submarine off Okinawa in January 1945. The other plaque memorializes the fifty-one other U.S. Navy submarines lost during World War II.
The memorial was financed and built by the City Council, Minnesota Building Tradesmen and the Minnesota Viking Squadron of the U.S. Submarine Veterans of World War II.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 142KB; 740 x 615 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 1 June 2003