USS Narwhal (SS-167)

V-5 was generally similar to the preceding submarine minelayer V-4, although slightly smaller and lacking a minelaying system. The configuration of V-4, V-5, and V-6 resulted from an evolving strategic concept that increasingly emphasized the possibility of a naval war with Japan in the far western Pacific. This factor, and the implications of the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty, suggested the need for long-range submarine "cruisers", or "strategic scouts", as well as long-range minelayers, for which long endurance, not high speed, was most important. The design was possibly influenced by the German "U-cruisers" of the Type U-139 and Type U-151 U-boat classes, although V-4, V-5, and V-6 were all larger than these. A raised gun platform was provided around the conning tower, and deck stowage for spare torpedoes was included under the platform and in the superstructure. V-5 and her near-sisters V-4 () and V-6 () were initially designed with larger and more powerful MAN-designed diesel engines than the Busch-Sulzer engines that propelled earlier V-boats, which were failures. Unfortunately, the specially built engines failed to produce their design power, and some developed dangerous crankcase explosions. The engineering plant was replaced in 1942. ==Construction and commissioning==

V-5 was launched on 17 December 1929, sponsored by Mrs. Frances Adams (née Lovering), wife of Charles F. Adams, Secretary of the Navy, and commissioned on 15 May 1930, Lieutenant Commander John H. Brown Jr. in command. ==Interwar period==

in use during training – USS V-5 (SC 1) crewman A. L. Rosenkotter exits the submarine's escape hatch wearing the "Momsen Lung" emergency escape breathing device during the submarine's sea trials in July 1930. The emergency breathing device was named for its inventor, U.S. Navy submarine rescue pioneer Cdr. Charles "Swede" Momsen. The submarine V-5 was later renamed USS Narwhal (SS 167). V-5 departed Annapolis, Maryland on 11 August 1930 for a cruise to the West Indies, returning to Portsmouth on 11 September. She trained in New England waters until 31 January 1931, when she sailed for the West Coast via the Panama Canal, arriving San Diego on 4 April. On 19 February, V-5 was renamed Narwhal and on 1 July received the new hull number SS-167. After overhaul at Mare Island Navy Yard, Narwhal departed on 2 February 1932 for fleet exercises off Hawaii. She returned to San Diego on 17 March. After patrol duty along the West Coast, the submarine got underway on 12 July 1934 for a cruise with Submarine Division 12 (SubDiv 12) until her arrival at San Diego on 18 September. For the next three years, she operated as far north as Seattle, Washington and as far west as Pearl Harbor, which became her home base for operations through 1941. On a 30 day pre-war training cruise in 1941, Narwhal lost 20,000 gallons of fuel oil due leakage from her riveted fuel tanks. ==World War II==

Narwhal was one of four submarines in overhaul caught by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in the early morning of 7 December 1941. Within minutes of the first enemy bomb explosions on Ford Island, Narwhals gunners were in action to assist in the destruction of two torpedo planes. 1st–3rd Patrols and overhaul, February 1942 – April 1943 On her first war patrol – from 2 February to 28 March 1942 – Narwhal, with Lieutenant Commander Charles W. "Weary" Wilkins in command, departed Pearl Harbor to reconnoiter Wake Island on 15–16 February, then continued on to the Ryukyu Islands. On 28 February, she made her first torpedo attack of the war, heavily damaging Maju Maru. Six days later, the submarine sank Taki Maru in the East China Sea. She spent her second war patrol – from 28 May – 13 June – in defense of Midway Atoll. As Task Force 16 with the aircraft carriers , , and Task Force 17 with , prepared to meet the Japanese attack, Narwhal joined and in scouting east of Midway; during the Battle of Midway on 3–6 June, these submarines – along with 15 others – accomplished nothing as the Japanese did not move east of Midway. However, it is likely that the gunboat mentioned was too small to be considered in the official tally, and the other two sinkings are the ones that took place around this date. On 1 August, Narwhal included Meiwa Maru to her credit despite aircraft bomb and depth charge retaliation. One reference credits Narwhal with an additional sinking on 1 August (the tanker Koan Maru). She then embarked 32 evacuees, including eight women, two children, and a baby, for Darwin, Australia, and the end of her patrol. Picking up such odd assortments of passengers and secret cargo soon became routine for Narwhal. She departed on her eighth war patrol – from 25 November – 18 December – with the usual cargo and 11 Army operatives bound for Cabadbaran, on Mindanao, arriving Butuan Bay on 2 December for disembarking. With seven evacuees on board, Narwhal sailed for Majacalar Bay, arriving off Negros Island on 3 December. Taking on nine more people, she stood out of Alajacalar Bay on 5 December. Around sunrise that same day, the submarine sank Hinteno Maru in a blaze of gunfire. On 11 December, she disembarked her passengers at Port Darwin, then continued on to Fremantle, Western Australia. 9th–12th Patrols, January 1944 – July 1944 On her ninth war patrol – from 18 January to 15 February 1944 – the submarine returned to Darwin to embark observer Commander F. Kent Loomis and more stores. Following a nighttime transit of the Surigao Strait, Narwhal slipped west and north, made a submerged patrol off Naso Point, Panay, then headed for Pandan Bay to transfer cargo to sailing craft. With six new passengers, she came off Negros Island on 7 February to deposit 45 tons of supplies. Narwhal then received 28 more evacuees for the trip to Darwin, including Professor Roy Bell and family. On her tenth war patrol – from 16 February – 20 March – Narwhal delivered more ammunition to Butuan Bay on 2 March. With 28 new people on board, she departed on 3 March for Tawi-Tawi. That evening, she damaged Karatsu (the captured USS Luzon (PR-7)) and was heavily bombarded with depth charges by enemy escorts for her trouble. On the night of 5 March, two small boats – assisted by rubber boats from Narwhal – put off for shore with cargo. Three Japanese destroyers closed in later; she eluded them and transferred her passengers, now a total of 38, to Chinampa on 11 March before docking at Fremantle. Narwhal, with Commander Jack C. Titus in command, departed on her 11th war patrol – from 7 May – 9 June – for Alusan Bay, Samar, where she landed 22 men and supplies, including electric lamps, radio parts, and flour for the priests, the night of 24 May. By 1 June, the submarine was unloading 16 men and stores on the southwest coast of Mindanao. She ended this patrol at Port Darwin. The twelfth war patrol – from 10 June – 7 July – gave Narwhal a chance for some action. On 13 June, she submerged for reconnaissance of Bula, Ceram Island, an enemy fuel depot. That night, the submarine closed the shore and fired 56 rounds of 6-inch (152 mm) projectiles to destroy several gasoline storage tanks and set fires around a power house and pumping station area before she had to retreat from the salvos directed at her. Three minutes before sunset on 20 June, she rendezvoused with native boats to send her cargo ashore during a suspenseful nine and one-half hours. Within 30 minutes she had completed unloading and taking on 14 evacuees, but a submarine chaser was in her wake. Narwhal evaded him to do some shooting herself the next day at a Japanese motorized sailboat and on 22 June at the tanker Itsukushima Maru. After putting her evacuees ashore at Port Darwin on 29–30 June, she continued to Fremantle. 13th–15th Patrols, Decommissioning, and Scrapping, August 1944 – May 1945 Her 13th war patrol – from 12 August – 10 September – started at Fremantle and ended at Port Darwin. On the night of 30 August, Narwhal surfaced in Dibut Bay on the east coast of Luzon for her usual disembarking procedures, greatly speeded this time by the use of bamboo rafts built by the shore party under the direction of Major Robert Lapham and Lieutenant Commander Charles "Chick" Parsons, a liaison man in the Philippine supply and evacuation missions. Before midnight on 2 September, Narwhal sent a party and supplies ashore to a beach off the mouth of the Masanga River, and received four evacuees in return to complete the patrol. On her 14th war patrol – from 14 September – 5 October – Narwhal deposited men and stores on Cebu Island on 27 September, then took off for Siari Bay, where on 29 September she received 31 liberated prisoners-of-war (POWs) rescued from the sea after sank two Japanese transports off Sindagan Point on 7 September. However, according to a POW survivor's account, Narwhal picked up 82 POW's, survivors of the ''Shin'yō Maru incident, vice 31 at Siari, Mindanao. "Forty-one placed in the forward torpedo room and 41 in the aft torpedo room". Narwhal found herself in danger the afternoon of 30 September, when she submerged to avoid a Japanese antisubmarine patrol plane, her stern planes locked in a 20° down-angle. Forced to blow her main ballast to stop the steep dive, Narwhal'' reversed direction and popped out of the water stern first just two minutes after she went down. Luckily, the patrol plane could not maneuver fast enough to return before she again dove. After a short refit at Mios Woendi, Dutch New Guinea, Narwhal conducted her 15th and last war patrol from 11 October – 2 November, with Commander William G. Holman in command. Friday the 13th brought a near attack by a PBY Catalina. Once the submarine was recognized, the aircraft signaled "GOOD LUCK NARWHAL." The evening of 17 October she was off a Tawi Tawi beach to deliver of cargo. Two days later she unloaded the rest of her cargo and 37 men at Negros Island and took on her last passengers, 26 in all, for the trip to Brisbane, Queensland. Narwhal departed Brisbane on 6 January 1945 for the east coast via the Panama Canal, entering the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 21 February, where she was decommissioned on 23 April. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 19 May and sold for scrap. Narwhals two 6-inch (152 mm) guns are permanently enshrined at the Naval Submarine Base New London, at Groton, Connecticut. There is an oral tradition in the US submarine force that received her hull number as a deliberate re-arrangement of the older Narwhals hull number of SS-167. ==Awards==

• American Defense Service Medal with "FLEET" clasp • Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with 15 battle stars for World War II service • World War II Victory Medal Narwhal′s 15 battle stars for World War II service tied her with for the most battle stars earned by a submarine, placing them amongst the most decorated US Naval vessels of World War II. ==Memorial==

The town of Nasipit in Agusan del Norte, created a memorial in commemoration of the USS Narwhal's efforts during World War II. ==In popular culture==

A 1958 episode of the television series The Silent Service called "Narwhal's Passenger From Mindanao," detailed a rescue operation involving Narwhal under Titus's command. The opening of the movie Operation Pacific may have been inspired by the ''Narwhal's'' seventh war patrol, where 32 civilians, including 8 children and a baby, were evacuated to Australia. ==See also==