Qualla: USS S-36

USS S-36: Introduction

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On 18 January 1942, the crew of USS S-36 noted something remarkable in the submarine's log: it was their first day since 8 January with no major part of the engineering plant out of commission. By the standards of what they had endured over the previous two weeks, a single day without catastrophic mechanical failure counted as good news. S-36 was an old boat fighting a new war, and she was losing the fight against her own machinery as surely as she was fighting the Japanese.

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USS S-36: A Boat Born Between Wars

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

S-36's keel was laid down on 10 December 1918, just weeks after the Armistice ended World War I, at the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation yard in San Francisco. She was launched on 3 June 1919 and commissioned on 4 April 1923. After trials and operations along the West Coast, sh...

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USS S-36: The War Arrives

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On 2 December 1941, S-36's scheduled overhaul was cancelled. She was ordered north on patrol, loading water, stores, and torpedoes before departing Cavite at one in the morning on 3 December. She reached Bolinao harbor and waited. On 8 December, word came: the Japanese had attack...

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USS S-36: Running South Through Breaking Systems

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Patched together, S-36 cleared Mariveles Bay on 30 December and began working south toward the Dutch East Indies. On New Year's Day 1942, she fired a torpedo at a Japanese transport at Calapan, Mindoro, claiming a sinking that Japanese records never confirmed. Then the machinery ...

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USS S-36: The Reef at Makassar Strait

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

S-36 continued south through Makassar Strait, her machinery failing and reigniting in an exhausting cycle. Fire broke out in the main motor circulating pump on the 16th. Both shafts went out of commission on the 17th. A crewman collapsed from the heat. At 0404 on 20 January, the ...

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