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The USS Shark, just after being launched on 21 May 1935.
Career
Ordered:
Laid down:	24 October 1933
Launched:	21 May 1935
Commissioned:	25 January 1936
Fate:	11 February 1942 sunk by Japanese
Stricken:	24 June 1942
General characteristics
Displacement:	Surfaced: 1,310 tons (1330 Mg), submerged: 1,934 tons (1917 m³)
Length:	287 ft (87.5 m) waterline, 298 ft (90.8 m) overall
Beam:	25ft (7.6 m)
Draft:	13 ft 1 in (4.2 m)
Propulsion:	diesel-electric drive, 16cyl Winton Engine Co. Type 201 diesel engines (2/shaft), 4300 hp (3210 kW); Elliott Motor electric motors (2/shaft), 2085 hp (1555 kW), 240-cell Exide battery, two shafts
Fuel capacity:	86637US gal (327,490 L, 347 tons) oil fuel
Speed:	Surfaced 19.5 knots (36km/h), submerged 8.25 knots (15 km/h)
Test depth:	250 ft (75 m)
Complement:	5 officers, 45 enlisted
Armament:	6 x 21 in (53cm) torpedo tubes (four forward, two aft, 18 torpedoes) 1 x4in (102mm)/50 caliber antiaircraft deck gun, 2 x .50" (12.7mm) & 2 x .30" (7.62mm) machineguns

USS Shark (SS-174) was a Porpoise-class submarine, the fifth ship of the United States Navy to be named for the shark. Her keel was laid down by the Electric Boat Company in Groton, Connecticut, on 24 October 1933. She was launched on 21 May 1935 sponsored by Miss Ruth Ellen Lonergan, 12-year-old daughter of United States Senator Augustine Lonergan of Connecticut, and commissioned on 25 January 1936, Lieutenant C.J. Carter in command. Shark (SS-174) received one battle star for World War II service.

Following shakedown in the North Atlantic and the Caribbean Sea, Shark transited the Panama Canal and arrived at San Diego, California, on 4 March 1937. She spent the next year and one-half in training exercises and Army-Navy war problems as a unit of Submarine Squadron 6 (SubRon 6). Following a regular overhaul at Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, California, Shark got underway from San Diego, California, on 16 December 1938 bound for Pearl Harbor and reassignment to SubRon 4.

Following two years of operations in the Hawaii area, Shark set sail from Pearl Harbor on 3 December 1940 to join the Asiatic Fleet based at Manila, Philippine Islands, where she engaged in fleet tactics and exercises until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Departing Manila on 9 December 1941, under Louis Shane, Jr. (Class of 1926), she was at sea during the Japanese bombing raids on Manila the next day. For the next week, Shark patrolled Tayabas Bay until ordered back to Manila on 19 December to embark Admiral Thomas C. Hart, Commander-in-Chief, Asiatic Fleet, for transportation to Soerabaja, Java.

On 6 January 1942, Shark was almost hit with a torpedo from a Imperial Japanese Navy submarine. A few days later, she was ordered to Ambon Island, where an enemy invasion was expected. On 27 January, she was directed to join the submarines patrolling in Strait of Malacca, then to cover the passage east of Lifamatola and Bangka Strait. On 2 February, Shark reported to her base at Soerabaja that she had been depth-charged ten miles off Tifore Island and had failed to sink a Japanese ship during a torpedo attack. Five days later, she reported chasing an empty cargo ship headed northwest. No further messages were received from Shark. On 8 February, she was told to proceed to Makassar Strait and later was told to report information. Nothing was heard and, on 7 March, Shark was reported as presumed lost, the victim of unknown causes. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 24 June.

Post-war Japanese records showed numerous attacks on unidentified submarines in Shark's area at plausible times. At 01:37 on 11 February, the Japanese destroyer Yamakaze opened fire with her five-inch guns and sank a surfaced submarine. Voices were heard in the water, but no attempt was made to rescue possible survivors.

Shark (SS-174) received one battle star for World War II service.

See USS Shark for other ships of the same name.

This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.