USS Amberjack (SS-219)

The first Amberjack (SS-219) was laid down on 15 May 1941 at Groton, Conn., by the Electric Boat Co.; launched on 6 March 1942; sponsored by Mrs. Randall Jacobs, wife of Rear Adm. Randall Jacobs, the head of the Bureau of Personnel; and commissioned on 19 June 1942, Lt. Cmdr. John A. Bole, Jr., in command.

After shakedown training in waters off New London, Conn., and Newport, R.I., the submarine got underway on 20 July 1942, bound for the Pacific. She transited the Panama Canal in mid-August and reached Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the 20th. Following training exercises, Amberjack got underway for her first war patrol on 3 September. Two days later, she touched at Johnston Island to refuel and, later that day, resumed her voyage to her patrol area between the northeast coast of New Ireland and Bougainville, Solomon Islands.

On 15 September, Amberjack was patrolling off Kavieng, New Ireland. Three days later, she made contact with a large Japanese transport escorted by a destroyer and fired a spread of four torpedoes at the vessels, but none hit. While patrolling in Bougainville Strait on the 19th, the submarine fired two torpedoes at an enemy freighter. The first hit under the target's bridge, and the second broke her keel in two. Amberjack was credited with having sunk the passenger-cargo vessel Shirogane Maru.

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From the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, compiled by the Naval History and Heritage Command (Amberjack I (SS-219)). A work of the United States Government, in the public domain.