Lost Subs - USS Grayback (SS-208)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Compiled July 2, 2008, by David Barth.
USS S-44 (SS-155) was a third-group (S-42) S-class submarine of the United States Navy.
Her keel was laid down on 19 February 1921 by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation in Quincy, Massachusetts. She was
launched on 27 October 1923 sponsored by Mrs. H.E. Grieshaber, and commissioned on 16 February 1925 with Lieutenant A.
H. Bateman in command.
S-44 operated off the New England coast into the summer of 1925. In late August, she departed New London, Connecticut,
for Panama and, on 5 September, arrived at Coco Solo to join Submarine Division (SubDiv) 19. With that division, she
conducted training exercises, participated in fleet exercises and joint Army-Navy maneuvers, and made good will visits
to various Caribbean and Pacific, Latin American ports until the spring of 1927. From that time to December 1930, she
operated out of San Diego, California, with her division, interrupting exercises off southern California twice for
fleet problems in Hawaiian waters.
In December 1930, the S-boat was transferred to Hawaii where her division, now SubDiv 11, was home ported for four
years. The boats then returned to San Diego, California; and, in 1937, they were shifted back to Coco Solo.
In the spring of 1941, as American involvement in World War II increased, the Panama S-boats were ordered back to the
east coast for overhaul. With sister ships S-42 and S-46, S-44 proceeded to New London, Connecticut, and thence, in
November, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where the work was done.
Trials took S-44 into the new year, 1942, and on 7 January, she got underway to return to Panama. Arriving on 16
January, she departed Balboa on 24 January with S-21, S-26, and S-28 to conduct a security patrol in the western
approaches to the canal. Within a few hours, however, she was engaged in rescue operations for S-26 which had been
rammed and sunk by submarine chaser PC-460.
From Panama, the division, now SubDiv 53, was ordered to the southwest Pacific. Starting across the Pacific in early
March, the boats reached Brisbane in mid-April, and within ten days, S-44 was underway on her first war patrol. She
cleared Moreton Bay on 24 April. Three days later, her port engine went out of commission, but, 36 hours of hard work
and ingenuity put it back in operation. On 29 April, she began running submerged during the day and surfacing at night
to recharge batteries and allow fresh air into the unairconditioned boat. By 2 May, she was in her patrol area, New
Britain-New Ireland waters. Six days later, she sighted a ship through a haze of rain, fired two torpedoes, missed,
and attempted to close for another attempt. The surface ship soon outdistanced her. The next afternoon, she attempted
to close a destroyer, east of Adler Bay, but was again easily outrun. On 10 May 1942, off Cape St. George, she closed
another target but was sighted and attacked.
In late afternoon of 12 May, 15 miles (24 km) from the cape, she sighted a merchantman and a trawler escort. For the
first time, the weather, her position, and the target's course were in her favor. She fired four torpedoes, scored
with two, then submerged. Shoei Maru, a salvage vessel of over 5000 tons went under. Her escort went after S-44 and
delivered sixteen or more depth charges, none of which was close. On 14 May, S-44 headed home, arriving at Brisbane
on 23 May.
Overhaul followed, and, on 7 June 1942, she again moved out of Moreton Bay on a course for the Solomon Islands. Within the
week, she was on patrol off Guadalcanal, operating from that island to Savo and to Florida Island. A few days later,
she shifted south of Guadalcanal and on 21 June, sent the converted gunboat, Keijo Maru, to the bottom. The force of
the explosion, the rain of debris, and the appearance and attack of a Japanese ASW plane forced S-44 down. At 1415,
S-44 fired her torpedoes at the gunboat. At 1418, the enemy plane dropped a bomb which exploded close enough to bend
the holding latch to the conning tower, allowing in 30 gallons of sea water, damaging the depth gauges, gyrocompass,
and ice machine, and starting leaks. Her number-one periscope was thought to be damaged; but, when the submarine
surfaced for repairs, a Japanese seaman's coat was found wrapped around its head.
Three days later, S-44 was in Lunga Roads. On 26 June, poor weather set in and blanketed the area until the S-boat
turned for home. She departed her patrol area on 29 June and arrived back in Moreton Bay on 5 July.
S-44 departed Brisbane again on 24 July. Cloudy weather, with squalls, set in. On 31 July, she commenced patrolling
in the Rabaul-Tulagi shipping lanes. The next day, she sighted a convoy off Cape St. George, but heavy swells hindered
depth control and speed, and precluded her attacking the convoy. From Cape St. George, S-44 moved up the east coast
of New Ireland to North Cape and Kavieng, where she waited.
On 7 August, the Allied offensive opened with landings on the beaches of Guadalcanal, Tulagi, Gavutu, and Florida
Island. On 9 August, off Savo Island, Cruiser Division 6 of the Imperial Japanese Navy inflicted one of the worst
defeats of the war on Allied surface ships. The next morning, the victorious cruisers neared Kavieng.
At 0750, S-44 sighted the formation, four heavy cruisers, their track less than 900 yards (800 m) away. At 0806, she
fired four torpedoes at the rear ship, only 700 yards (600 m) away. By 0808, all four torpedoes had exploded; heavy
cruiser Kako {right} was sinking, and S-44 had begun her escape. By 0812, Japanese destroyers had started depth
charging, without success.
Three days later, S-44 was again fighting heavy swells. Her damaged bow planes required three hours to rig, after
which they remained out. On 23 August, she moored at Brisbane.
On 17 September 1942, S-44 began her fourth war patrol. The following day, a hydrogen fire blazed in her forward battery
compartment, but was extinguished in three minutes. On 22 September, she began surfacing only at night, and, two days
later, she assumed patrol operations off New Georgia to intercept Japan's Faisi-Guadalcanal supply line. During the
patrol, her hunting was hindered by Japanese aerial and surface antisubmarine patrols and her own operational
capabilities, which were further limited by material defects and damage inflicted during depth chargings.
On the morning of 4 October, she damaged a destroyer, then survived an intensive depth charge attack with seemingly
minor damage. The next day, however when she submerged, the submarine began taking on water. She surfaced, made
repairs on the high induction valves, then submerged to 50 feet (15 m). Leaks were found in her motor room and
torpedo room flappers. The latter were jacked shut, but the former continued spraying water onto both motors.
Within an hour, four Japanese destroyers had moved into the area. S-44 went to 70 feet (21 m). The leak worsened.
The motors were covered in canvas and sheet rubber and the crew waited for the destroyers to pass over her position.
As they disappeared, S-44 moved up to 55 feet (17 m) and repairs were made on the flapper. That night, further repairs
were made while the ship was surfaced off Santa Isabel Island; and, by midnight, the S-boat was en route back to her
patrol area. On 7 October, bad weather set in; and, on 8 October, she departed the area, arriving in Moreton Bay on
14 October 1942.
A month later, S-44 departed Brisbane and headed back to the United States. In early January 1943, she transited the
Panama Canal, then moved across the Caribbean Sea and up the Atlantic seaboard to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There,
from April to June, she underwent overhaul; and, in July, she retransited the Canal en route to San Diego, California,
and the Aleutian Islands.
She arrived at Dutch Harbor on 16 September 1943. On 26 September, she departed Attu on her fifth and last war patrol.
One day out,
while en route to her operating area in the northern Kuril Islands, she was spotted and attacked by a Japanese patrol
plane. Suffering no damage, she continued west. On the night of 7 October 1943, she made radar contact with a "small
merchantman" and closed in for a surface attack. Several hundred yards from the target, her deck gun fired and was
answered by a salvo. The "small merchantman" was the Shimushu-class escort Ishigaki. A crash dive was ordered, but
S-44 failed to submerge. She took several hits, in the control room, in the forward battery room, and elsewhere.
S-44 was ordered abandoned. A pillow case was put up from the forward battery room hatch as a flag of surrender, but
the shelling continued.
Only two men escaped from the submarine as she went down. Chief Torpedoman's Mate Ernest A. Duva and Radioman Third
Class William F. Whitemore were picked up by the destroyer. Taken initially to Paramushiro, then to the Naval
Interrogation Camp at Ofuna, the two submariners spent the last year of World War II working in the Ashio
copper mines. They were repatriated by the Allies at the end of the war.
S-44 earned two battle stars during World War II.
Ishigaki, S-44’s bane, was sunk by Herring (SS-233) on 31 May 1944.