USS S-33 (SS-138) - Early Years

Early Years

Commissioned as crankshaft modifications were ordered for her class, S-33 proceeded from her homeport, San Pedro, California, to New London, Connecticut, where she was decommissioned on 15 June and turned over to the prime contractor, the Electric Boat Company, for the alterations. She was recommissioned on 21 December 1922, and assigned, temporarily, to Submarine Division 11 for winter maneuvers. In January 1923, she moved south to the Caribbean Sea. During February, she participated in Fleet Problem I, which tested the defenses of the Panama Canal. Then, in late March, she rejoined the boats of her own division, Division 16, and headed back to San Pedro. The following January, 1924, she returned to the Panama Canal Zone and the Caribbean Sea for further fleet problems and exercises and then operated primarily off southern California into 1926. The previous year, 1925, Division 16 had been transferred to the Asiatic Fleet, and, in November 1926, S-33 moved west to join her sister ships at Cavite. On 22 December, she arrived at that Luzon submarine base and, for the next five years, operated as a unit of the Asiatic Fleet. During the fall and winter months, local exercises and annual overhauls kept her in the Philippines. Each spring, she deployed to the China coast for division and fleet exercises out of her summer base at Tsingtao.

In 1932, Division 16 was transferred to Pearl Harbor; and, in May, S-33 retraced her route across the Pacific. She operated in Hawaiian waters for five years. Then, ordered inactivated, she departed Pearl Harbor for the United States East Coast on 14 June 1937. Two months later, she arrived at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On 1 December, she was decommissioned and, until 1940, was berthed at League Island.