 Perch off Groton Connecticut in the fall of 1936 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Builder | General Dynamics Electric Boat,Groton, Connecticut[1] |
| Laid down | 25 February 1935[1] |
| Launched | 9 May 1936[1] |
| Sponsored by | Mrs. Thomas Withers |
| Commissioned | 19 November 1936[1] |
| Stricken | 24 June 1942 |
| Fate | Scuttled in theJava Sea on 3 March 1942 after being damaged by Japanesedestroyers;[2] wreck illegally scrapped. |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Porpoise-classdiesel-electricsubmarine[2] |
| Displacement | 1,350 long tons (1,372 t) standard, surfaced,[3] 1,997 long tons (2,029 t) submerged[3] |
| Length | 298 ft (91 m) (waterline),[4] 300 ft 6 in (91.59 m) (overall)[5] |
| Beam | 26 ft (7.9 m)[3] |
| Draft | 15 ft (4.6 m)[3] |
| Propulsion | 4 ×Winton Model 16-201A16-cylindertwo-cycle[6]diesel engines, 1,300 hp (0.97 MW) each,[7] drivingelectrical generators throughreduction gears,[2][8] 2 × 120-cellGould AMTX33HBbatteries,[9] 8 ×General Electricelectric motors, 538 hp (401 kW) each,[9] 2 ×General Motors six-cylinderfour-cycle 6-241 auxiliary diesels[7] |
| Speed | 19.25 kn (35.65 km/h) surfaced,[3] 8.75 kn (16.21 km/h) submerged[3] |
| Range | 11,000 nmi (20,000 km) @ 10 kn (19 km/h),[3] (bunkerage 92,801 US gal (351,290 L))[10] |
| Endurance | 10 hours @ 5 kn (9.3 km/h), 36 hours @ minimum speed submerged[3] |
| Test depth | 250 ft (76 m)[3] |
| Complement | |
| Armament | 6 ×21 inch (533 mm)torpedo tubes (four forward, two aft; 16torpedoes),[3] 1 ×4 in (100 mm)/50caliber deck gun,[5] 4 × 0.3 cal (7.62 mm) machineguns (2x2)[5] |
USSPerch (SS-176), aPorpoise-classsubmarine, was the first ship of theUnited States Navy to be named for theperch.Perch spent the first months of WW2 protecting the Philippines and Dutch East Indies from Japanese invasion, successfully sinking the transport shipNojima Maru, and seeing several more instances of action. However, fate caught up to the submarine as after the fall of the Dutch East Indies,Perch attempted to intercept the Java Sea invasion convoy, only to be crippled by the destroyersAmatsukaze andHatsukaze, then finished off by the destroyersUshio andSazanami. All 59 of her crew survived the sinking; 54 of which survived to the end of the war.
Perch′skeel waslaid down on 25 February 1935 by theElectric Boat Company, inGroton, Connecticut. She waslaunched on 9 May 1936,sponsored by Mrs. Helen Lorena Withers (née LaBar), wife ofCaptain (later Admiral)Thomas Withers, Jr., then assigned toNaval Submarine Base New London at Groton, She wascommissioned on 19 November 1936.
Aftershakedown in the North Atlantic Ocean,Perch became a unit of theUnited States Pacific Fleet when she joined SubmarineSquadron 6 (SubRon 6) in November 1937. The following spring she was engaged in the annualfleet problem and did some work on asurvey of theAleutian Islands, entering theBering Sea on 28 February. In the spring of 1939,Perch operated with the fleet on its cruise to theUnited States East Coast.
In October 1939,Perch departed San Diego, California, forManila where she became adivisionflagship and made a summer cruise in 1940 toTsingtao and Shanghai. She spent the year precedingWorld War II in operations around thePhilippines. A week beforeJapan'sattack on Pearl Harbor,Perch rendezvoused with twotransports off Shanghai and escorted the4th Marine Regiment from China to the Philippines.
At the outbreak of hostilities on 8 December 1941 (7 December in Hawaii on the other side of theInternational Date Line),Perch, commanded byDavid A. Hurt, was inCavite Navy Yard. She took part in the rush to clear the navy yard on 10 December and watched, at close range, the destruction ofCavite by Japanesebombers. That night,Perch slipped through theCorregidor minefields and scouted betweenLuzon and Formosa (nowTaiwan) in search of targets. Failing to detect any, she shifted to an area off Hong Kong, and on the evening of 25 December 1941 launched fourtorpedoes at a largemerchant ship, all missing. A few days later, she torpedoed and sank the Japanese cargo shipNojima Maru. Japanese escorts preventedPerch from observing the kill.
Perch proceeded south toDarwin, Australia, to repair damage, making several unsuccessful attacksen route. She next made a patrol toKendari, Celebes (nowSulawesi), where she scouted the harbor and made several attempts to get through the narrow entrance to an attack position.
.jpg)
After a week of close contact with the Japanese while obtaining information,Perch headed south, searching for targets. In a night attack on a large merchant ship off the eastern coast of Celebes,Perch was hit in the superstructure, forward of thepressure hull of theconning tower, by ahigh-explosive round which blew away thebridge deck, punctured theantenna trunk and temporarily put her radio out of commission. Her crew made repairs on deck at night in waters heavily patrolled by the Japanese, andPerch headed for theJava Sea.
.jpg)
On the evening of 1 March 1942,Perch surfaced 30nautical miles (56 km; 35 mi) northwest ofSurabaya,Java, and started in for an attack on a Japaneseconvoy landing troops to the west of Surabaya. However, before this could be done,Perch just so happened to run into a pair of Japanese destroyers, theAmatsukaze andHatsukaze. Spotters onAmatsukaze located the submarine and fired off 32 5-inch (127 mm) shells, forcingPerch to crash dive, and seemed to do so successfully, swerving into firing range for a potential kill, observing the enemy destroyers waiting for the right time to unleash the torpedoes, but upon a final inspection through the periscope, the destroyers were preparing a depth charge attack. Hoping to score a kill before the reverse happened,Perch climbed to around 90 feet deep, but it was too late,Amatsukaze andHatsukaze were right on top of her and together dropped 12 depth charges. The first patterned missed their mark, but a second pattern of four depth charges gougedPerch and inflicted considerable damage. The entire pressure hull and a section of the conning tower were dented up to 2 feet (61 cm) inwards, likely damaging her hull beyond repair, and several ventilation valves were jammed shut, major leaking occurred through the ship's doors and gaskets, and around 90% of the ship's instruments and gauges were broken or destroyed.Amatsukaze andHatsukaze assumed their target had perished and continued on, butPerch had enough integrity to remain under water, surfacing after 2 hours in the early morning of the 2nd and began sailing for repairs. Upon surfacing, the crew discovered practically every window was shattered, both periscope tubes were flooded, and only half the main engines were operable.Perch has survived her encounter, but still suffered critical damage, yet still continued in hopes of attacking Japanese ships.[11][12][13][14]
Because of this, two hours later just before sunrise,Perch was spotted yet again by the Japanese destroyersUshio andSazanami, prompting the submarine to immediately dive to 200 feet, but it was too late.Ushio andSazanami dropped a depth charge attack, and the damage inflicted toPerch went from bad to worse.Perch attempted to maneuver away, but her crew discovered the propulsion system to be completely inoperable asUshio andSazanami further depth charged their enemy.Perch lay motionless underwater, and when sunrise broke,Ushio andSazanami launched a final depth charge attack which caused the most critical damage of all before leaving the area, concluding they had sunk their target.[11][15][16]
Perch was forced to surface, and ifAmatsukaze andHatsukaze had mortally wounded her,Ushio andSazanami had left her bordering on the line of sinking. Upon resurfacing, seawater flooded the pressure hull, leaked in heat and humidity made the ship's interior unbearable, and the ship was completely dead in the water. Damage control efforts eventually got just one of her four engines up and running, limitingPerch to just 5 knots. An attempt to dive was made, but it almost sank the ship then and there, and meaning the crew found out the hard wayPerch was completely incapable of underwater travel and resurfaced for the last time.[11]
By the evening of the 3rd, the idea to simply scuttlePerch was brought up, but her crew held off the order as the crippled submarine desperately limped to repairs. While the crew was attempting to repair the watertight hatches on the deck, However, theUshio andSazanami were still on patrol duty, and happened to run into the submarine yet again.Sazanami chose not to attack, butUshio fired her main battery, and as soon as the first shell hit the conning tower, several hull valves were opened in an attempt to scuttle the boat followed by her crew members jumping into the water one by one.Perch made her last dive as she slipped beneath the waves, followed by the destroyer ceasing fire.Perch's entire crew of 59 men escaped the ship and were struggling in the water whenUshio came to their rescue. All of the men were rescued byUshio, which transported them to prison camps in the freshly capturedDutch East Indies. Besides 5 that died from malnutrition, all of them returned to their families onV-J Day.[11][17][18][19]
On 23 November 2006,Thanksgiving Day in the United States, the wreck ofPerch was unexpectedly located by an international team of divers aboard MVEmpress while searching for the wreck of the Britishheavy cruiserHMS Exeter northwest ofBawean Island in the Java Sea.[20][21] The expedition had hoped to locate and photograph the wreck ofExeter, sunk in the same area on 1 March 1942.[22] The wreck ofPerch was illegallysalvaged sometime between 2006 and 2016 and no longer exists.[23] Unlike the Dutch and British ships near her, which also were scavenged illegally,Perch was not awar grave, as she had been abandoned by her crew without fatalities.
Lieutenant Kenneth G. Schacht was awarded aNavy Cross for assisting in the scuttling ofPerch and therefore preventing the Japanese from capturingclassifiedcode books, materials, and equipment.[24]
Perch is the subject of an episode of thesyndicated televisionanthology seriesThe Silent Service, which aired in the United States during the 1957–1958 television season.
This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.6°30′S113°50′E / 6.500°S 113.833°E /-6.500; 113.833
