USS Beaver (AS-5) - 1930's

1930's

Before steaming to China in 1930, Beaver led SubDiv 16 on a cruise through the southern Philippine Islands. Following port visits to Iloilo on Panay and Zamboanga on Mindanao, the submarine division then visited the Sultan of Sulu at Jolo, an island in the Sulu archipelago. On its return to Manila from China late that year, the division surveyed the unfamiliar waters off the east coast of Formosa. Beaver departed Manila on 1 May 1932, in company with six S-boats from SubDiv 9, and sailed for Hawaii, arriving in Pearl Harbor on the 30th. There, while submarines S-30, S-31, S-32, S-33, S-34, and S-35 were placed in reserve commission, Beaver was reassigned to Submarine Squadron 4 (SubRon 4).

For the next seven years, Beaver remained in Hawaiian waters, tending submarines during local operations and steaming occasionally to Wake Island, Midway, and French Frigate Shoals for deployment exercises. The tender also participated in every fleet exercise held in Hawaiian waters during the 1930s. She missed the last fleet problem in 1940, however, as the tender was in San Diego during February for a major overhaul. Intended to improve her capability to support submarines overseas, Beaver's modernization also included the installation of new repair equipment and the latest communications gear.

The tender sailed for the east coast in November 1940, passing through the Panama Canal and arriving at her new home port of New London, Connecticut, at the end of that month. There, she joined the growing numbers of warships in the Atlantic following the September 1940 "destroyers-for-bases" deal between the United States and Britain. The agreement, which transferred 50 "overage" destroyers to the Royal Navy in exchange for 99-year leases on bases in the Western Hemisphere, allowed American forces to move into particularly important islands in the West Indies. Over the next year, naval engineers and civilian contractors set up a network of seaplane and naval bases to protect the approaches to the Panama Canal.

During 1940, Beaver helped establish a submarine base at Gregerie Channel in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, and operated at the seaplane base near Hamilton, Bermuda. She also served as temporary flagship for Atlantic Fleet submarines before becoming the tender for SubRon 7 based at New London in April. Following American entry into World War II on 7 December 1941, Beaver led 11 R-boats to the seaplane base in Bermuda, arriving there on the 10th. For the next nine months, the tender alternated between Bermuda and New London, supporting submarine patrols along the Caribbean-Bermuda-New England shipping lanes and assisting antisubmarine training for American destroyers.