USS Rock (SS-274)
History of the USS Rock Submarine
The USS Rock (SS-274) was ordered for the U.S. Navy during World War II. Her keel was laid down by the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company of Wisconsin on December 23, 1942. She was launched on June 20, 1943 and commissioned on October 26, 1943 under the command of Commander John Jay Flachsenhar.
The USS Rock was floated down the Mississippi River from Wisconsin to New Orleans, Louisiana before she proceeded to Pearl Harbor. She departed Pearl Harbor for her first war patrol of the Ryukyu Islands on February 8, 1944. On February 29, she was damaged by enemy gunfire and depth charges, forcing her to end her patrol early. She returned to Pearl Harbor on March 13 for repairs and refitting.
On April 4, the USS Rock headed out for her second war patrol off Honshu. This uneventful patrol ended on May 28 at Majuro without any enemy contacts.
After refitting at Majuro, the USS Rock sailed for her third war patrol on June 22 in Luzon Strait as a member of a small wolf pack. She fired 10 torpedoes at a large Japanese convoy on July 19, but she had to dive to avoid the resulting depth charge attack before she could verify whether or not she caused any damage. The submarine fired four more torpedoes at another convoy two days later, but was unable to assess the damage again. She weathered a typhoon before returning to Pearl Harbor on August 12.
The USS Rock got underway for her fourth war patrol on September 9 in the South China Sea. On October 26, her torpedoes sank the Japanese merchant tanker Takasago Maru No. 7. This patrol ended on November 8 at Fremantle.
Her fifth war patrol commenced on December 14, and the USS Rock was ordered to the South China Sea. While conducting lifeguard duty, she rescued one downed aviator from the USS Lexington. She returned to Fremantle on Valentine’s Day 1945.
On March 7, the USS Rock began her sixth patrol. Two days later, she rescued 15 survivors of the American merchant ship Peter Silvester that had been sunk over a month earlier by the German submarine U-862 southwest of Australia. When her patrol ended at Saipan on April 29, she was ordered to Hunters Point Navy Yard in California for overhaul.
The USS Rock was headed back to Pearl Harbor on August 7, but the war ended before she could arrive, and she was ordered to New London, Connecticut. She was decommissioned on May 1, 1946 and joined the Atlantic Reserve Fleet.
The USS Rock was converted to a radar picket submarine in 1951. She was reclassified as SSR-274 on July 18, 1952 and recommissioned on October 12, 1953. After training on the East Coast, the submarine was transferred to San Diego, California to join Submarine Squadron 5. She made several Western Pacific deployments before the Navy decided that it no longer needed radar picket submarines at the end of 1959.
On December 31, 1959, the USS Rock was redesignated as an auxiliary general submarine, AGSS-274. She spent the next decade operating off the West Coast and making a number of trips to the Western Pacific. The submarine was decommissioned and struck from the Naval Vessel Register on September 13, 1969. She was sold for scrap on August 17, 1972. The USS Rock received four battle stars 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
