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Photo # 19-N-21879:  USS Searaven running trials, 13 May 1940

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

USS Searaven (SS-196), 1939-1948

USS Searaven, a 1450-ton Sargo class submarine, was built by the Portsmouth Navy Yard at Kittery, Maine. She was commissioned in early October 1939 and went to the Far East late in the following year. Soon after war with Japan began in December 1941, Searaven began the first of her thirteen war patrols. The initial pair were made in the waters off Formosa and Indochina, and in defense of the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies. She apparently sank no enemy ships, though a Japanese destroyer was claimed. In early April 1942, during her third patrol, the submarine rescued more than thirty Australian Air Force men from the island of Timor, then suffered a serious fire and had to be towed back to port.

Her next three war patrols were made from Australian ports, beginning in June 1942. Searaven sank a Japanese freighter in January 1943, during her sixth cruise, which ended at Pearl Harbor in February. Overhauled on the West Coast during the next three months, Searaven went into the central and western Pacific for her seventh through eleventh patrols, during which she sank a tanker, rescued downed aviators and collected intelligence on Japanese-held islands.

Searaven's twelfth war patrol took her to the northern Pacific in the late summer and early fall of 1944. She sank another freighter and several smaller craft during this cruise. In November the submarine operated in the South China Sea, making several attacks but was denied credit for any sinkings during post-war evaluations. That war patrol, her thirteenth and last, was followed by training and target service. After the war's end Searaven was employed as an atomic bomb target in Operation "Crossroads" tests at Bikini Atoll. Undamaged by the two nuclear blasts in July 1946, she was placed out of commission late in that year. USS Searaven was sunk as a target in September 1948.

This page features all the pre-World War II views we have concerning USS Searaven (SS-196), and provides links to images of later date.

For more images related to this submarine, see:

  • USS Searaven (SS-196) -- Views taken in 1942-1944; and
  • USS Searaven (SS-196) -- Views taken in 1945 and later.


    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-21877

    USS Searaven
    (SS-196)

    Making full speed while running trials off Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 13 May 1940.

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

    Online Image: 56KB; 740 x 610 pixels

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

     
    Photo #: 19-N-21878

    USS Searaven
    (SS-196)

    Running trials at full speed, off Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on 13 May 1940.

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

    Online Image: 63KB; 740 x 610 pixels

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

     
    Photo #: 19-N-21879

    USS Searaven
    (SS-196)

    Running trials off Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on 13 May 1940.

    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-21882

    USS Searaven
    (SS-196)

    Off Portsmouth, New Hampshire, during her trials, 13 May 1940.

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

    Online Image: 52KB; 740 x 610 pixels

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

     
    Photo #: 19-N-21881

    USS Searaven
    (SS-196)

    Off Portsmouth, New Hampshire, during her trials, 13 May 1940.

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

    Online Image: 54KB; 740 x 590 pixels

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

     
    Photo #: 19-N-21880

    USS Searaven
    (SS-196)

    Off Portsmouth, New Hampshire, during her trials, 13 May 1940.

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

    Online Image: 55KB; 740 x 610 pixels

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

     
    Photo #: 19-N-43047

    USS Searaven
    (SS-196)

    Ready for launching, at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, 21 June 1939.

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

    Online Image: 116KB; 740 x 615 pixels

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

     
    Photo #: 19-N-43049

    USS Searaven
    (SS-196)

    Enters the water during her launching at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, 21 June 1939.

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

    Online Image: 86KB; 740 x 610 pixels

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

     


    For more images related to this submarine, see:

  • USS Searaven (SS-196) -- Views taken in 1942-1944; and
  • USS Searaven (SS-196) -- Views taken in 1945 and later.


    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 25 August 2006