Allied Warships

Porpoise (SS-172)

Submarine of the Porpoise class

USS Porpoise prewar

Navy	The US Navy
Type	Submarine
Class	Porpoise
Pennant	172
Built by	Portsmouth Navy Yard (Kittery, Maine, U.S.A.)
Ordered
Laid down	27 Oct 1933
Launched	20 Jun 1935
Commissioned	15 Aug 1935
End service	13 Aug 1956
History	Decommissioned 15 November 1945. Laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet. Placed in service as a Naval Reserve Training Ship at Houston, Texas on 8 May 1947. Placed out of service and stricken 13 August 1956. Sold 14 May 1957 to Southern Scrap Material Co., Ltd., New Orleans, Louisiana to be broken up for scrap.

Commands listed for USS Porpoise (172)

Please note that we're still working on this section
and that we only list Commanding Officers for the duration of the Second World War.

	Commander	From	To
1	Lt.Cdr. Joseph Anthony Callaghan, USN	Jun 1939	7 Feb 1942
2	T/Lt.Cdr. John Rowland McKnight, Jr., USN	7 Feb 1942	30 May 1943
3	T/Lt.Cdr. Carter Lowe Bennett, USN	30 May 1943	Aug 1943
4	T/Lt.Cdr. Lyle Eugene Strickler, USN	Aug 1943	Sep 1944
5	James J. Madison, USN	Sep 1944	15 Nov 1945

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Notable events involving Porpoise include:

22 Dec 1941
After a refit at Olongapo in the Philippines was completed USS Porpoise (Lt.Cdr. Joseph Anthony Callaghan) left base on 22 December 1941 for her first war patrol, and was to patrol the Lingayen Gulf and in the South China Sea off French Indo-China as well.

31 Jan 1942
USS Porpoise (Lt.Cdr. J.A. Callaghan) ended her first war patrol at Surabaya, Java in the Dutch East Indies.

9 Feb 1942
USS Porpoise (Lt.Cdr. John Roland McKnight, Jr.) left Surabaya for her second war patrol, and was to patrol in the Netherlands East Indies.

30 Mar 1942
USS Porpoise (Lt.Cdr. J.R. McKnight, Jr) ended her patrol at Fremantle, Australia.

26 Apr 1942
USS Porpoise (Lt.Cdr. J.R. McKnight, Jr) left Fremantle for her third war patrol. Once again she was ordered to patrol in the Dutch East Indies.

17 Jun 1942
USS Porpoise (Lt.Cdr. J.R. McKnight, Jr) ended her third war patrol at Pearl Harbor. She was ordered to the Mare Island Navy Yard for a major overhaul.

30 Nov 1942
USS Porpoise (Lt.Cdr. J.R. McKnight, Jr) left Pearl Harbor for her fourth war patrol. She was to patrol off the coast of Honshu, Japan.

1 Jan 1943
USS Porpoise (Lt.Cdr. J.R. McKnight, Jr) scored her first kill of the war when she sank the Japanese transport Renzan Maru (4999 GRT) off the north-eastern coast of Honshu, Japan in position 39°11'N, 142°02'E.

15 Jan 1943
USS Porpoise (Lt.Cdr. J.R. McKnight, Jr) ended her fourth war patrol at Midway.

6 Feb 1943
USS Porpoise (Lt.Cdr. J.R. McKnight, Jr) left base for her fifth war patrol. She was to patrol in the Marshall Islands area.

4 Apr 1943
USS Porpoise (Lt.Cdr. J.R. McKnight, Jr) torpedoed and sank the Japanese merchant Koa Maru (2032 GRT) near Eniwetok atoll in position 13°10'N, 162°05'E.

15 Apr 1943
USS Porpoise (Lt.Cdr. J.R. McKnight, Jr) returned to Pearl Harbor for a refit.

20 Jun 1943
USS Porpoise (Lt.Cdr. Carter Lowe Bennett) left Pearl Harbor for her sixth and last war patrol, and was to patrol in the Marshall Islands area.

19 Jul 1943
USS Porpoise (Lt.Cdr. C.L. Bennett) torpedoed and sank the Japanese troop transport Mikage Maru Nr.20 (2718 GRT) south of Wake Island in position 18°45'N, 166°04'E.

28 Jul 1943
USS Porpoise (Lt.Cdr. C.L. Bennett) ended her last war patrol when she returned to Pearl Harbor. Due to the fact that the boat continued to suffer from leaking external oil tanks and the fact that more and more new fleet submarines arrived in the Pacific USS Porpoise was retired to training duties. The boat arrived at New London on the U.S. east coast in September 1943.

2 Sep 1943
USS Porpoise departed the Panama Canal Zone for New London, Connecticut.