Stories From the US Submarine Force
She slipped beneath the waves with purpose and silence — a steel hunter in a sea of shadows. The USS Pickerel (SS-177) was no ordinary predator. She was a Porpoise-class submarine, forged in peacetime but baptized by war. And in the spring of 1943, she became the first U.S. submarine lost in the Central Pacific — vanishing without a trace in the cold, contested waters off Japan’s northern coast.
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March 18, 1960, was just another day in the long service history of USS Spikefish (SS-404), or so it seemed. The sea, indifferent to records and human milestones, stretched endlessly around her. But for the men aboard, and for the United States Navy, that dive was anything but ordinary. On that day, Spikefish became the first American submarine to achieve 10,000 successful dives—a milestone that underscored not only her longevity but the very evolution of submarine warfare and technology in the postwar era. She had already earned her place in history with three battle stars during World War II, but this feat set her apart in the annals of undersea service.
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The loss of USS Grampus (SS-207) on (or about) March 5, 1943 is one of those stories that still haunts the depths of the Pacific. She was a tough, battle-tested submarine, having already sunk thousands of tons of enemy shipping, and her crew knew their mission inside and out. But in the shadowy waters near the Solomon Islands, something happened—something final. No distress calls, no survivors, no wreck found. Just a disappearance that left 71 American submariners lost to the sea. Continue reading “USS Grampus SS-207”
Patrol Reports 