USS Pollack (SS-180)

The first Pollack (SS-180) was laid down 1 October 1935 by the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Portsmouth, N.H.; launched 15 September 1936; sponsored by Miss Anne Carter Lauman; and commissioned 15 January 1937, Lt. Clarence E. Aldrich in command.

Pollack stood out of the Portsmouth Navy Yard 7 June 1937 for a Caribbean shakedown training cruise. She returned from this cruise to Portsmouth 4 September and was underway 29 November for the west coast of the United States. She reached her new base at San Diego, Calif., 19 December and spent the next 11 months in a rigorous schedule of maneuvers along the western seaboard with Submarine Division 13, Scouting Force. Pollack shifted to base at Pearl Harbor 28 October 1939. Except for periods of overhaul in the Mare Island Navy Yard, she remained in Hawaiian waters until the outbreak of World War II She was en route from Mare Island to Hawaii when the Japanese attacked 7 December, and she entered Pearl Harbor two days later.

Pollack, Gudgeon (SS-211) and Plunger (SS-179) departed Pearl Harbor 13 December and were off the coast of Honshu, Japan, a few hours before midnight 31 December, the first American submarines to reach Japanese waters in World War II. Pollack damaged 2,700-ton cargo ship Heijo Maru 5 January 1942 and two days later sent 2,250-ton cargo ship Unkai Maru No. 1 to the bottom, the first officially confirmed victim of the Pacific Fleet Submarine Force. On 9 January she sank 5,387-ton freighter Teian Maru by a night surface attack, and ended her first war patrol at Pearl Harbor 21 January.

Continue to the full service history →About 993 words

From the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, compiled by the Naval History and Heritage Command (Pollack I (SS-180)). A work of the United States Government, in the public domain.