A large part of the Asiatic Fleet submarine force on December 7, 1942 were old S-boats. Many of these boats had been allocated by Congress during the First World War and were built during and after that war. The lean years of the Great Depression kept them in service beyond their life expectations. Some had been stored at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and when things began to heat up in the Pacific the Navy brought them back into service.

One incident in 1936 limited the number of obsolete S-Boats making up the American submarine force at the outbreak of World War Two. A first-hand account by Dale A. Danielsen as printed in the April, 2000 issue of Polaris gives us an interesting perspective of the S-Boat readiness for a global conflict.

S-10 was one of several S-Boats stationed at Coco Solo during the 1930s to act as deterrents to an attack on the Panama Canal. In the summer of 1936 the Navy conducted maneuvers on the Pacific side of the Canal which necessitated the S-10 to transit the canal in order to participate. The Navy may have told the Army about the maneuvers, but the communication never reached the Army's coastal defense battery commanders who had orders to shoot at anything looking suspicious.

During the course of the maneuvers off the Pacific coast of the Canal Zone, S-10 pulled off the operational area to test its mushroom anchor which was seldom used. Its purpose was to allow a submarine to anchor while submerged and in doing so to keep a position without regard to current or neutral buoyancy. By holding slight positive buoyancy with a reasonable fore-aft trim the boat could sit comfortably off the bottom provided the sea floor was not too deep.

It took a bit of doing, but the crew managed to release the anchor. In all the ups and downs of doing so the periscope bounced above the surface many times. The coastal defense people took action and fired a 16 inch shell at the location of the periscope. Although the S-10 was submerged it was badly rocked by the nearby explosion. To all in the crew, the submarine seemed to be unaffected, but soon the boat began to sink by the stern.

It gradually came to rest on the sea floor at a depth of 140 feet. On the surface the Navy ships were alarmed by the explosion and then mystified by the disappearance of S-10. The boat could not communicate with those on the surface. Deck plates in the after room were torn up and a substantial leak was found in the after trim tank. Water spilled from the rupture into the bilge. A pressure was put in the boat to stem the flow and men worked to throw a patch over the leaky tank. Pressure in the boat was increased and 100 pounds of air was put into the tank as the repair party watched with fingers crossed.

Gradually the tank emptied and the stern lifted off the bottom. The ballast tanks were again blown and the boat rose slowly to the surface. When the men on the surface ships saw the boat rising above the surface they cheered and whistled. The S-boat's captain was taking no chances. He ordered all hands on deck, but when the torpedo room hatch was opened the pressure in the boat nearly blew a few of the men out of the boat. When it was determined safe to proceed, S-10 started its engines and moved slowly through the Canal to Coco Solo where repairs were made to the tank.

The Navy determined that all was well and that S-10 could now return to full operational status including conducting dives. The skipper was appalled and told his crew that he would honor any requests for transfer. None applied because of their loyalty to their commanding officer. They did send letters home saying that they would probably never see their parents again. They explained what had happened. Several family members wrote to their congressmen and a few even sued the Navy. Legal action never rose above the complaint level, because the Navy decided to take a closer look at the boat. In the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard the S-10 was put into dry-dock. Paint scrapers easily punched holes in the pressure hull. It was a wonder the men of S-10 had survived their corroded boat.

With the clear evidence that S-10 was a death trap and with several actions being taken through Congress the Navy decommissioned the S-10 and sold it for scrap. But other S-Boats, those with higher hull numbers were kept in service or placed in storage to await the Second World War.

This was the status of our submarine force in December of 1941. We had over a hundred Fleet Type submarines being built, but in the meantime it would be up to the front line submariners in the western Pacific to go to sea in leaky S-Boats to do what they could to slow the Japanese advance.