USS Perch (SS-176)
History of the USS Perch Submarine
The USS Perch (SS-176) was ordered for the U.S. Navy in between World War I and World War II. Her keel was laid down by the Electric Boat Company in Connecticut on February 25, 1935. She was launched on May 9, 1936 and commissioned on November 19, 1936 under the command of Lieutenant Commander George C. Crawford.
The USS Perch joined Submarine Squadron 6 in November 1937. In her early career, she participated in the annual Fleet Problems, surveyed the Aleutian Islands, and made a cruise to the East Coast. She headed to Manila in October 1939, the flagship for a cruise to Tsingtao and Shanghai. The submarine spent many months in the Philippines. One week before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, she helped escort two transports carrying the Fourth Marines from Shanghai to the Philippines.
When the United States entered World War II following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the USS Perch was at Cavite Navy Yard in the Philippines. She managed to clear the yard before it was destroyed by bombers on December 10. So began her first war patrol, searching for enemy targets between Luzon and Formosa before shifting to the waters off Hong Kong. On Christmas Day, she fired four torpedoes at an enemy merchant ship, but she missed her target. Two days later, her torpedoes damaged the Japanese supply ship Noshima. She was damaged in the resulting depth charge attack and had to put in at Darwin for repairs in January 1942.
The USS Perch began her second war patrol in February in the waters off Celebes. During an attempted attack on a Japanese merchant ship, she was hit by a depth charge that blew away her bridge deck and took out her radio. The crew was able to make repairs and move on to the Java Sea. On March 1, she attacked an enemy convoy and sustained heavy damage by the resulting depth charge attack. When she surfaced after making quick repairs to her starboard motors, she was forced to dive again by the enemy destroyers. The Japanese believed that the submarine was breaking up, so they sailed away and allowed her to escape.
Crew members continued to work on repairs for the next two days, as the USS Perch had only one engine working and extensive flood damage. After a test dive on March 3 did not go well, she surfaced to continue making repairs. Unfortunately, two Japanese cruisers and three destroyers were within range, and they commenced firing on her. The skipper made the order to “Abandon ship, scuttle the boat,” and the submarine was sent to the bottom with all hull openings open. Her entire crew was captured by one of the destroyers, and they remained prisoners of war (POWs) for three years. All but six of the 59 crew members survived to return home after the war ended.
The USS Perch was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on June 24, 1942. Her wreckage was discovered in the Java Sea on Thanksgiving Day, November 23, 2006, by an international team of divers. The submarine was awarded one battle star for her service in World War II.
The use of asbestos was common in shipbuilding components for much of the 20th Century because of its resistance to heat, fire, water and corrosion. Because of their asbestos exposure onboard ship and in the shipyards, seaman, shipyard workers and longshoreman are at risk for developing asbestos-related diseases like mesothelioma
Sources include:
Asbestos and Ship-Building: Fatal Consequences, by John Hedley-Whyte and Debra R Milamed
