Perch (Porpoise-class)
Country | United States |
Ship Class | Porpoise-class Submarine |
Hull Number | SS-176 |
Builder | Electric Boat Company |
Laid Down | 25 Feb 1935 |
Launched | 9 May 1936 |
Commissioned | 19 Nov 1936 |
Sunk | 3 Mar 1942 |
Displacement | 1,370 tons standard; 2,029 tons submerged |
Length | 300 feet |
Beam | 26 feet |
Draft | 15 feet |
Machinery | Four Winton Model 16-201A 16-cylinder two-cycle diesel engines rated at 1,300hp, 120-cell Gould AMTX33HB batteries, eight General Electric motors rated at 538hp each |
Bunkerage | 351,290 liters |
Speed | 19 knots |
Range | 11,000nm at 10 knots on surface, 10 hours at 5 knots submerged, 36 hours at minimum speed submerged |
Crew | 50 |
Armament | 4x533mm forward torpedo tubes, 2x533mm aft torpedo tubes, 16 torpedoes, 1x102mm 50cal deck gun, 2x2x7.62mm 0.3 cal machine guns |
Submerged Speed | 8.75 knots |
Contributor: C. Peter Chen
ww2dbasePerch was launched in 1936, sponsored by Mrs. Thomas Withers, and commissioned into service later that year with Lieutenant Commander George C. Crawford in command. After her shakedown cruise in the North Atlantic, she joined the Submarine Squadron 6 of the Pacific Fleet in Nov 1937. In the spring of 1938, she participated in the annual fleet problem, during which she also surveyed the Aleutian Islands, entering the Bering Sea on 28 Feb. In the spring of 1939, she operated with other ships on a cruise to the east coast of the United States. In Oct 1939, she departed San Diego, California, United States for Manila, Philippine Islands where she would be made a submarine division flagship. In the summer of 1940, she made a cruise to China, making port call at Qingdao and Shanghai.
ww2dbaseIn early Dec 1941, Perch rendezvoused with and then escorted two transports off Shanghai, China, which transported the 4th Marine Regiment to the Philippine Islands. When Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, United States, Perch was at the Cavite Navy Yard, Luzon, Philippine Islands. On 10 Dec, she departed the yard just in time to avoid destruction by Japanese aircraft; that evening, she patrolled waters between Luzon and Taiwan, but failed to find targets. Off Hong Kong, she detected a Japanese merchant ship during the night of 25 Dec and fired a spread of four torpedoes, but none of them hit. Before the year ended, she fired a torpedo at a merchant ship and scored a hit, but attacks from Japanese escort vessels prevented her from confirming the kill. En route to Darwin, Australia, she attacked several targets, but did not score any kills. Her next patrol took her to Celebes, where she scouted the harbor and made several unsuccessful attempts to get through the narrow entrance into the harbor. During a night attack on a large merchant ship off of the eastern coast of Celebes, she was hit in the superstructure by a high explosive round, blowing away the bridge deck and damaged her radio antenna; she remained on the surface during the night for repairs, and was not found by Japanese ships.
ww2dbaseOn the evening of 1 Mar, Perch surfaced 30 miles northwest of Surabaya, Java and began to move toward a Japanese convoy landing troops on the Java coast. She was detected the Japanese, and two destroyers approached her. As she dove, depth charges were dropped, disabling the starboard motors and causing flooding. She surfaced at 0200 hours on 2 Mar, only to be discovered again and forced to dive; as her lost oil and air reached the surface, the Japanese thought she had already broken apart and moved on. In the early morning of 3 Mar, after emergency repairs, she made a test dive that almost destroyed her; as repairs continued, two Japanese cruisers and three Japanese destroyers found her and began firing. Without the ability to dive, the commanding officer David A. Hurt ordered his crew to abandon the submarine. The entire crew of 59 was captured by the Japanese; only 6 of them survived the prisoner of war camp.
ww2dbaseSource: Wikipedia.
Last Major Revision: Aug 2010
Photographs
Perch (Porpoise-class) Operational Timeline
19 Nov 1936 | Perch (Porpoise-class) was commissioned into service. |
28 Feb 1938 | USS Perch entered the Bering Sea. |
1 Mar 1942 | USS Perch was depth charged by two Japanese destroyers 30 miles northwest of Surabaya, Java; her starboard motors were damaged and she took on flood waters. |
2 Mar 1942 | USS Perch surfaced at 0200 hours, only to be forced to dive by Japanese destroyers. Her leaking oil and air made the Japanese destroyer to believe she had already broken up, and the Japanese destroyers departed the area. |
3 Mar 1942 | After emergency repairs, USS Perch attempted to make a test dive, but it failed without almost disastrous results. As repairs continued, she was discovered by two Japanese cruisers and three Japanese destroyers. Commanding officer David A. Hurt gave the abandon ship order, sinking the ship and giving up himself and his crew, totaling 59 men, to the Japanese. |
24 Jun 1942 | USS Perch was struck from the Naval Vessel Register of the US Navy. |
23 Nov 2006 | The wreck of USS Perch was located by accident by an international team of divers off the coast of Java; they were actually in search of the wreck of HMS Exeter. |
Did you enjoy this article or find this article helpful? If so, please consider supporting us on Patreon. Even $1 per month will go a long way! Thank you. Share this article with your friends: Stay updated with WW2DB: |
Visitor Submitted Comments
All visitor submitted comments are opinions of those making the submissions and do not reflect views of WW2DB.
» Perch (Porpoise-class) Submarine Operations Research Group Attack Data
- » 1,150 biographies
- » 337 events
- » 43,917 timeline entries
- » 1,241 ships
- » 350 aircraft models
- » 207 vehicle models
- » 375 weapon models
- » 123 historical documents
- » 260 facilities
- » 470 book reviews
- » 28,547 photos
- » 432 maps
Winston Churchill
Please consider supporting us on Patreon. Even $1 a month will go a long way. Thank you!
Or, please support us by purchasing some WW2DB merchandise at TeeSpring, Thank you!
2 Feb 2011 04:54:09 PM
Served on USS Rock AGSS 274, was on board when USS Rock hit the USS Diodon port side of USS Nereus AS-17, late 60's. Have the orginal plaques from USS Rasher and USS Thresher.