USS Sand Lance (SS-381)

The first Sand Lance, a submarine, was laid down on 12 March 1943 by the Portsmouth (N.H.) Naval Shipyard; launched on 25 June 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Edith Burrows; and commissioned on 9 October 1943 at Portsmouth, N.H., Comdr. Malcolm E. Garrison in command.

Sand Lance conducted training exercises out of New London, Conn., until 18 December 1943 when she sailed for the Panama Canal. She transited the canal on 30 December and reached her base of operations, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 17 January 1944. On 8 February, she got underway for the first of her five war patrols. She stopped at Midway Island for fuel, then headed for the Kuril Islands.

Before entering her patrol area off Paramushiro on 24 February, she passed through two typhoons and encountered fields of slush ice and patches of drift ice. Sand Lance encountered her first victim, Kaika Maru, taking shelter from a blizzard in the lee of Paramushiro's southeast point. Her well-aimed torpedoes sent that enemy ship to the bottom. Though her number one periscope had been heavily damaged by drift ice, she pressed home attacks on a convoy on the night of 2 and 3 March, sinking the 4,521-ton cargo ship, Akashisan Maru, and damaging other ships.

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From the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, compiled by the Naval History and Heritage Command (Sand Lance I (SS-381)). A work of the United States Government, in the public domain.