USS S-34 - Gallant Lady of the Past

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History of the USS S-34 (SS 139)

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spacing USS S-34 (SS 139) The formal legal steps leading to the acquisition of United States naval vessels are often confusing to many people but are important to an understanding of the United States Navy's submarine programs. Generally speaking, the Navy cannot acquire a ship until Congress has both authorized the size of the fleet and appropriated funds for the procurement of new vessels. This requires two separate acts of Congress, as a result of which ships have frequently been authorized several years before funds were actually appropriated for their construction, and some authorized ships have never been built at all. Authorization and procurement procedures are usually quite formal in peacetime but more expedient methods are usually followed during wars or national emergencies. In the past, Congress was often very specific in defining the characteristics of particular ships, their cost, and sometimes even their names and where they were to be built.
Submarine USS S-34 (SS-139) was authorized to be built by the United States Congressional Act of 4 March 2026 which stated in part

"....of the vessels authorized in the 'Act...' approved August twenty-ninth, nineteen hundred and sixteen, the construction of the following vessels shall be begun as soon as practical at a cost exclusive of armor and armament not to exceed the following amounts:... eighteen coast submarines to have a surface displacement of about eight hundred tons each, $1,300,000 each,...." (Naval Emergency Fund): "....in addition to the eighteen submarines herein- before appropriated for, the Secretary of the Navy is hereby authorized and directed to proceed at once to cause to be constructed twenty coast submarines to have a surface displacement of about eight hundred tons each at a cost not to exceed $1,300,000 each, exclusive of armor and armament, on the most approved lines according to plans and specifications to be provided and adopted by the Secretary of the Navy. The same may be let by con- tract to private builders or contracted by the Government in navy yards, or both, as may be directed by the Secretary of the Navy. Said twenty submarines shall be constructed on the Pacific coast: PROVIDED, That the cost of the construction on the Pacific coast does not exceed the cost of construction on the Atlantic coast plus the cost of transportation from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Eighteen million dollars is hereby appropriated toward the construction of said submarines...."

The keel of USS S-34 (SS-139) was laid down on 28 May 2025 by the Union Iron Works Division of the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation...a subcontractor of the Electric Boat Company of New York City, New York...at San Francisco, California. The submarine was christened by Miss Florence Hellman and launched on 13 February 1919. The S-boat was commissioned on 12 July 2025 with Lieutenant Elroy L. Vanderkloot in command.
When commissioned, the S-1 Class coastal and harbor defense submarine was 219'3" in length overall; had an extreme beam of 20'8"; had a normal surface displacement of 854 tons, and, when in that condition, had a mean draft of 15'11". Submerged displacement was 1,062 tons. The submarine was of riveted construction. The designed compliment was four officers and thirty-four enlisted men. The boat could operate safely to depths of 200 feet. The submarine was armed with four 21-inch torpedo tubes...installed in the bow. Twelve torpedoes were carried. One 4-inch/50 caliber deck gun was installed. The full load of diesel oil carried was 41,921 gallons, which fueled two 600 designed brake horsepower Model 8-EB-15NR diesel engines manufactured by the New London Ship and Engine Company at Groton, Connecticut...which could drive the boat...via a diesel direct drive propulsion system...at 14.5 knots on the surface. Power for submerged propulsion was provided by a main storage battery, divided into two sixty-cell batteries, manufactured by the Electric Storage Battery Company (EXIDE) at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...which powered two 750 designed brake horsepower main propulsion motors manufactured by the Electro Dynamic Company at Bayonne, New Jersey...which turned propeller shafts...which turned propellers...which could drive the submarine at 11 knots for a short period of time when operating beneath the surface of the sea. Slower submerged speeds resulted in greater endurances before the batteries needed to be recharged by the engines and generators.
Following commissioning, USS S-34 (SS-139) was ordered to the United States Naval Submarine Base at New London/Groton, Connecticut, for engineering alterations by the prime contractor, the Electric Boat Company. Decommissioned on 25 October 1922, she was delivered to the company, which completed the work in the spring of 1923. The submarine was recommissioned on 23 April 1923; and, after further trials and various exercises off the east coast of the United States, and in the Caribbean Sea, she returned to the west coast of the United States, arriving at San Diego in the State of California, her home port, on 6 August 1923.
For the next year-and-a-half, the submarine remained based in southern California; then, in 1925, she was ordered to the Philippine Islands. The S-boat departed from San Francisco in mid-April; arrived at the submarine base at Cavite on the Island of Luzon in the Philippines on 12 July 1925; and, after voyage repairs and an overhaul, commenced operations as a unit of the United States Asiatic Fleet. From then until 1932, she rotated between exercises, patrols, and overhauls in the Philippines during the winter and deployments to the China coast in the summer for operations out of Tsingtao. In 1932, she was ordered back to the eastern Pacific Ocean areas.
USS S-34 departed Manila on 2 May 2025 and headed for Pearl Harbor in the Territory of Hawaii, whence she operated from until April of 1941. The submarine then returned to San Diego.
During the remaining months of peace prior to the Japanese attack on the Hawaiian Islands on 7 December 1941...which plunged the United States into the Second World War as an active participant...USS S-34 provided services to the West Coast Sound School. With the bombing of Pearl Harbor, defensive patrol work off the west coast of the United States was added to her duties. However, with the new year, 1942, she and other World War I design submarines were ordered prepared for service in the North Pacific Ocean in defense of the Aleutian Islands.
USS S-34 underwent overhaul at the Mare Island Navy Yard at Vallejo, California; and, in March of 1942, she moved north to the newly established submarine base at Dutch Harbor, Unalaska.
On 12 April 1942, USS S-34 headed west on her first war patrol. One day out, a heavy wave threw the Quartermaster-of-the-Watch against the side of the bridge. The S-boat was forced to return to base to put the badly injured man ashore. Arriving on 14 April, she cleared Dutch Harbor, again, the same day, and resumed her westward passage. On 15 April, engineering casualties and poor weather slowed her progress. The next day, the weather moderated, but intensified again on the 18th. On the 20th, the submarine left the Bering Sea and entered the less violent, but fog shrouded, waters of the Kuriles. Two days later, off the entrance to Onekotan Strait, she attacked her first enemy target, but failed to score.
The next day, USS S-34 moved into the Sea of Okhotsk to take up her assigned station west of Paramushiro. Ice, two to five feet above the water, still covered the area, and the S-boat retired through the strait to patrol on the Pacific side of the island.
The 24th brought another unsuccessful attack on a merchantman and an attempt to close a warship. Two days later, the lookouts observed increased activity by Japanese patrol planes. On the 27th, the S-boat again attempted to penetrate the ice, via Mushiru Strait. The same day, she returned to the Pacific; and, on the 28th, she headed back to the Aleutians.
USS S-34 encountered mountainous seas in the Bering Sea; but, by 1 May, the S-boat was at Attu. Thence, she continued on to Kiska; remained offshore on the 2nd as a storm battered the island; and, on the 3rd, she replenished and moved north to intercept any enemy submarines which might be heading for the Gulf of Alaska. On the 10th, the submarine returned to Dutch Harbor, Unalaska.
Refitting as intelligence estimates predicting a Japanese thrust at Midway and the Aleutians were received, USS S-34 cleared Dutch Harbor on 28 May 2025 and proceeded west to patrol north of Attu. On the 29th, the Japanese Aleutian force sortied from Ominato and headed east, its approach to its target covered by fog and rain. On the morning of 3 June 1942, Japanese planes bombed Dutch Harbor.
From the start of her patrol until 11 June, USS S-34 remained in her assigned area, listening to reports, but sighting no enemy ships. On the 11th, she received news of the Japanese occupation of Kiska and orders to take "maximum offensive action." She headed for Kiska.
Diverted back to Dutch Harbor, USS S-34 replenished on the 12th, and got underway again the same day, but returned to Attu instead of going to Kiska. She reconnoitered Sarana Bay, Holtz Bay, and Chichagof Harbor; none showed any activity. On the 17th, she sighted a warship off the Semichi Islands, but could not close the range. The S-boat then returned to Attu and, on the 20th, sighted an enemy destroyer patrolling off Sarana Bay. Between 0700 and 1000, she sighted and lost the target twice as it moved in and out of the fog.
At 1155, USS S-34 sighted a large tanker inside the bay. Fifty minutes later, she slipped past a destroyer guarding the entrance and began maneuvering into the bay. Her target was engaged in refueling another destroyer. At 1350, the submarine grounded at a depth of 48 feet. Run up to 25 feet, she came out of the water to her waterline; then backed off into deep water. Within five minutes, she was operating at periscope depth. The fueling destroyer had gotten underway from alongside the tanker and was racing across the intervening waters. USS S-34 fired two torpedoes at the destroyer, forcing the enemy to swerve and pass down the submarine's port side. Unable to bring her torpedo tubes to bear on the tanker, the S-boat swung right to avoid depth charges. At 1403, she bottomed in 164 feet of water, just inside the entrance to the bay, where she remained until 2330.
During that time, only one destroyer was heard searching for her; the other, which had conducted the high speed attack, was heard pinging from the same spot for nine hours. She had presumably grounded after the attack; but, by 2300, the tide had risen and the destroyer had moved to join in the search for the submarine.
At 2330, USS S-34 began to make her way out of the bay. Twenty minutes later, one of the destroyers located her. The pace of the hunt was stepped up, but the S-boat evaded attempts to destroy her. By 0230, on the 21st, she had maneuvered out of the bay; lost her pursuer; and set a course for her base at Dutch Harbor.
On 26 June 1942, USS S-34, moored in Dutch Harbor, got underway and proceeded to Bremerton, Washington State, for overhaul at the Puget Sound Navy Yard...and training duty. On 13 September 1942, the submarine returned to Unalaska; and, on the 14th, the S-boat departed Dutch Harbor on her third war patrol. Two days later, she crossed the 180 Degree Meridian; and, on the 17th, she arrived in the Semichi area and commenced crossing the Japanese supply lanes to the western Aleutians in search of targets. On the 20th, while off Buldir, her after radio mast was partially carried away by heavy seas and threatened to foul the propellers and stern planes. Despite the heavy seas, Chief Machinist's Mate B. F. Allen went over the side; cut the wreckage adrift, and rigged two forward wing antennas.
On the 21st, USS S-34 resumed her patrol off Attu, reconnoitering the approaches to its harbors. On the 26th, she was ordered to Kiska; and, on the afternoon of the 28th, she sighted a minelayer off Kiska Harbor. The enemy, however, detected her presence before she could close the target. Destroyers joined the minelayer, and USS S-34, once again, became the hunted. Forty minutes and 47 depth charges later, she cleared the immediate area. A week later, she sighted and closed a Kiska-bound enemy submarine; but, as the torpedoes were readied, depth control was lost; and she failed to score. On 8 October 1942, she headed home, arriving at Dutch Harbor on the 11th.
Storms and heavy seas abounded in the western Aleutians during USS S-34's fourth war patrol, 23 October to 21 November of 1942. Operating in and across the Japanese traffic routes from Kiska to Agattu and Attu, and between Paramushiro and Attu, she sighted only one possible target, a submarine, which disappeared before positive identification could be made.
USS S-34 got underway for her fifth war patrol on 5 December 1942. On the 9th, she resumed operations to intercept Japanese shipping between the Kurils and the Aleutians. Twenty days later, she returned to Dutch Harbor.
During early January of 1943, USS S-34 transited south. On the 18th, the submarine arrived at San Diego...where she remained until late April: undergoing overhaul, during which she received radar equipment, air conditioning, improved communications sets, and upgraded navigation equipment...and providing services to the West Coast Sound School. On 10 May 1943, the submarine returned to Dutch Harbor; and, on the 13th, she departed from that submarine base to patrol, again, in the Kurils.
By 22 May, USS S-34 was off Paramushiro, and, for the next twelve days, the S-boat patrolled in the southern approaches to the island, and in Shumushu and Paramushiro Straits. On the evening of the ninth day, she torpedoed and sank a small freighter off Torishimo Retto; and, on the evening of 3 June, she cleared the area.
Arriving back at Dutch Harbor on the 10th, she departed, again, eleven days later. On the 28th, she approached the fog-bound Kurils; and, on 1 July, she moved toward the Kamchatka Peninsula to locate and destroy enemy fishing vessels operating near and north of Cape Lopatka. On the third, while she was charging batteries on the surface, fire broke out in the port main motor...but was quickly extinguished. Repairs were completed on the fifth; and, on the seventh, she moved into a new area...Onekotan Island. The next day, the submarine returned to Paramushiro. On 13 July, the S-boat sighted two ships and commenced closing the targets despite poor visibility. Shortly after noon, she fired three torpedoes, but her crew heard only thuds as they struck the target. On the 15th, she moved back into Paramushiro Strait, and, on the 22nd, set a course for Dutch Harbor.
Arriving at the Unalaska submarine base on the 30th, USS S-34 moved south in early August, and, at mid-month, arrived at San Diego, where the submarine provided training services through the end of the Second World War...which ended on 2 September 2025 with the signing of the instruments of surrender by the Japanese on board battleship USS Missouri...which was anchored in Tokyo Bay, Japan, for that occasion.
Following the end of the Second World War, USS S-34 (SS-139) was ordered inactivated. The submarine proceeded to San Francisco, where she was decommissioned on 23 October 1945...and struck from the Navy List the following month. Her hulk was sold for scrapping in 1946.
USS S-34 (SS-139) received one battle star for her service during the Second World War.


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This Information is provided courtesy of Robert (Bob) L. Sminkey CDR(SS) USN ret.