Qualla: USS Shark (SS-174)

USS Shark (SS-174): Introduction

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Her last transmission was on 7 February 1942: she was chasing an empty cargo ship headed northwest. The Asiatic Fleet submarine commander, Captain John E. Wilkes, reprimanded her skipper for the pursuit. Then silence. USS Shark (SS-174) never answered another radio call. She was declared presumed lost on 7 March 1942, and her crew -- every sailor aboard -- went with her into the waters of the Molucca Sea. She may have been the first American submarine destroyed by enemy antisubmarine forces in World War II, though the exact circumstances of her loss remained uncertain for years.

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USS Shark (SS-174): From Connecticut to the Pacific

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Shark's keel was laid at the Electric Boat Company in Groton, Connecticut, on 24 October 1933. She was a Porpoise-class submarine, one of the boats designed to extend American undersea reach across the vast Pacific. Launched on 21 May 1935 and sponsored by twelve-year-old Ruth El...

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USS Shark (SS-174): War Comes Fast

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Shark was at sea when the Japanese bombed Manila on 10 December 1941, one day after she departed. For the next week she patrolled Tayabas Bay before returning to Manila to embark Admiral Thomas C. Hart, Commander-in-Chief of the Asiatic Fleet, for transport to Soerabaja, Java. Th...

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USS Shark (SS-174): The Last Messages

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On 2 February 1942, Shark reported to Soerabaja that she had been depth-charged ten nautical miles off Tifore Island and had failed to sink a Japanese vessel during a torpedo attack. Five days later came the message about the cargo ship. Captain Wilkes admonished the skipper. On ...

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USS Shark (SS-174): Voices in the Water

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

After the war, Japanese records offered fragments that may explain Shark's fate. On 11 February 1942, at 1:37 in the morning, the Japanese destroyer Yamakaze opened fire with her five-inch guns on a surfaced submarine in the area where Shark was operating. The submarine sank. Yam...

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