USS S-30 (SS-135) was an S-class submarine of the United States Navy during World War II.
Construction and commissioning
S-30 was laid down on 1 April 1918 by the Union Iron Works at San Francisco, California. She was launched on 21 November 1918, sponsored by Mrs. Edward S. Stalnaker, and commissioned on 29 October 1920.
Service history
1920–1941
Based at San Pedro, California, with her home yard at Mare Island, California, S-30 conducted tests and exercises off the California coast until the summer of 1921. Then, on 15 August 1921, she was placed in ordinary. Returned to full commmission on 14 February 1922, she was ordered to New London, Connecticut, where she was placed in ordinary again on 21 June 1922 for engine alterations by the prime contractor for her construction, the Electric Boat Company.
Trials and exercises off the southern New England coast followed her return to full commission on 21 November 1922. In January 1923, she moved south to the Caribbean Sea to participate in winter maneuvers and Fleet Problem I, conducted to test the defenses of the Panama Canal Zone. In April 1923, she returned to California and resumed operations off the coast of California with her division, Submarine Division 16. During the winter of 1924, she again participated in fleet exercises and Fleet Problems in the Panama Canal Zone area and in the Caribbean.
During the winter of 1925, S-30 prepared for transfer to the United States Asiatic Fleet. She departed Mare Island with her division in mid-April 1925. During May 1925, she conducted exercises and underwent upkeep in the Hawaiian Islands, and, on 16 June 1925 she got underway for the Philippines. On 12 July 1925, she arrived at the Submarine Base, Cavite, Luzon. In the years that followed, her division rotated between exercises and patrols in the Philippines during the winter and operations off the China coast during the summer.
In 1932, S-30′s division was ordered back to the eastern Pacific Ocean, and, on 2 May 1932, she departed Manila bound for Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, which became her new home port.
Transferred back to the United States East Coast, S-30 departed Pearl Harbor on 19 May 1937 and arrived at New London on 8 August 1937. She then trained along the U.S. East Coast until May 1939, when she was placed in commission, in reserve. On 1 September 1940, she returned to full commission. With World War II raging in Europe and German U-boats raiding shipping in the western Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean, S-boats like S-30 were assigned to Submarines, Patrol Force (known as Submarines, Atlantic Fleet after February 1941) and conducted training and the development of tactical skills. From New London, she operated along the mid-Atlantic and northeastern coasts of the United States into the spring of 1941. She then served briefly in the Bermuda area before returning to New London.
In early July 1941, S-30 proceeded to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for overhaul. In September 1941, she emerged from the shipyard, returned to New England, and resumed submarine and antisubmarine warfare training operations in the Long Island Sound, Narragansett Bay, Casco Bay, and Placentia Bay areas.
World War II
First, second, and third (defensive) war patrols
The United States entered World War II on 7 December 1941 with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and S-30′s division, Submarine Division 52, soon was reassigned to the Panama Canal Zone for defensive patrol dutues. Departing New London on 31 January 1942, she hunted for enemy submarines along her route which took her via Bermuda and Mona Passage into the Caribbean Sea. On 16 February 1942, she arrived at Coco Solo, Panama, from which she conducted two more defensive patrols in the western approaches to the Panama Canal, from 10 to 31 March 1942 and from 14 April to 13 May 1942, before she was ordered to California to prepare for service in the Aleutian Islands. She underwent repairs at San Diego, California, then, inmid-July 1942, she started for the Territory of Alaska. While en route, engine trouble forced her into Mare Island for repairs, but on 1 August 1942 she resumed her northward voyage.