USS Trout (SS-202) Ship's Log 



Report a Historic Event
YearDateHistorical Events
1939Aug 29Keel laid down at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, ME.
1940May 21Launched.
 Nov 15Commissioned.
 Nov 15Recommissioned.
1941Jul 2Trout and Triton (SS-201) departed New York, bound for the Pacific.
 Aug 4After transiting the Panama Canal and stopping at San Diego, the submarines arrived at Pearl Harbor, HI.
 Nov 29She stood out of Pearl Harbor to conduct a simulated war patrol off northern Midway. On the morning of 7 December, she received word of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
 Dec 20Trout returned to Pearl Harbor, HI.
1942Jan 12Trout stood out of Pearl Harbor with 3,500 rounds of ammunition to be delivered to the besieged American forces on Corregidor.
 Jan 16Topped of with fuel at Midway Island.
 Jan 27She sighted a light off her port bow, closed to 1,500 yards, and fired a torpedo which missed. She closed to 600 yards, discovered that her target was a submarine chaser. She had been warned to avoid small ships, resumed her course for the Philippines.
 Feb 3Trout rendezvoused with a boat off Corregidor and was escorted to South Dock. She unloaded the ammunition; refueled; loaded two torpedoes.She was given 20 tons of gold bars and silver pesos to be evacuated from the Philippines.
 Feb 10Trout entered the East China Sea. That afternoon she fired 3 torpedoes and sank the Japanese freighter Chuwa Maru. That night she sank a small 200 ton patrol ship.
 Mar 3Arrived at Pearl Harbor, HI. and transferred her valuable ballast to a cruiser.
 Mar 24Departed on her 4th war patrol to Japanese home waters.
 Apr 9She sighted two small cargo ships. She fired two torpedoes at each target, but all missed.
 Apr 10She fired one torpedo at a small steamer and missed again.
 Apr 11She attacked a large freighter with two torpedoes. One hit the target but did not sink it.
 Apr 24Trout hit a 10,000-ton tanker with two torpedoes off the coast of Shiono, and it headed for the beach. Fired 2 torpedoes at an escort cargo ship which hit with a tremendous explosion. When last seen, the cargo ship, too, was heading for shallow water.
 Apr 28Trout attacked a 1,000-ton patrol vessel or minesweeper with a torpedo which sank it in two minutes.
 Apr 30Trout attacked two ships off Shimo Misaki but missed both.
 May 2Trout sank the 5,014-ton cargo ship Uzan Maru.
 May 4Trout fired a spread of two torpedoes at what was thought to be a freighter. The first torpedo missed, but the second hit forward of the bridge, sinking the converted gunboat Kongosan Maru.Trout was then subjected to a six-hour depth charge attack.
 May 17Trout returned to Pearl Harbor, HI.
 May 21Trout stood out of Pearl Harbor as a unit of Task Group 7.1, the Midway Patrol Group which consisted of 12 submarines. Her station was south of the island as nine of the submarines were positioned fan-like to the west of Midway.
 Jun 4Trout sighted a Japanese fighter plane preparing to attack from astern. She went deep and heard a series of light explosions.
 Jun 9Trout passed through a large oil slick and some debris before rescuing two Japanese from a large wooden hatch cover.
 Jun 14Trout returned to Pearl Harbor without firing a torpedo.
 Aug 27Trout proceeded via the Marshalls to the Caroline Islands and began patrolling off Truk.
 Aug 27Trout, on her 5th war patrol, proceeded via the Marshalls to the Caroline Islands and began patrolling off Truk.
 Sep 21Troutfired three stern torpedoes at a naval auxiliary. The first torpedo broke the ship in half, and the next two hit the aft section. The victim was subsequently identified as Koei Maru, a converted net tender.
 Sep 28Trout picked up a carrier group consisting of a light aircraft carrier, two cruisers, and two destroyers. She fired five torpedoes. She heard two timed explosions and saw the carrier Taigo (Otaka) slow, with smoke pouring out of her starboard side.
 Oct 3Trout experienced a violent explosion which put both periscopes out of commission. Trout headed for Australia.
 Oct 13Trout arrived at Brisbane, Australia.
 Oct 26Trout's sixth war patrol took her to waters around the New Georgia Islands.
 Nov 13Trout was patrolling 80 miles north of Indispensable Strait when she saw a Kongo-class battleship accompanied by destroyers and six aircraft. She fired a spread of five torpedoes with a depth setting of 25 feet. All missed and she cleared the area.
 Nov 23Trout returned to Brisbane, Australia.
 Dec 29Trout stood out to sea to patrol off North Borneo on her 7th war patrol.
1943Jan 11Trout contacted a large tanker off Miri and fired three torpedoes. The first two hit the target amidships, but the third exploded prematurely. Postwar examination of Japanese records shows no sinking. The damaged ship must have limped back to port.
 Jan 21Trout fired two torpedoes at a cargo ship from 700 yards and watched as the unidentified ship sank immediately.
 Jan 29Trout fired three torpedoes at a destroyer and watched each run true to the target. However, all proved to be duds.
 Feb 7Trout sighted tanker Misshin Maru moored off Lutong. She made a submerged approach, fired two torpedoes at the target, heard one explosion, and observed smoke rise from the stern of the tanker. However, no sinking upon this occasion was confirmed.
 Feb 14Trout fired two torpedoes at what she thought to be a tanker. The first torpedo blew off the target's bow. Trout surfaced and opened fire, but soon seven of her men were wounded by enemy machine gun fire. Another torpedo sank Hirotama Maru.
 Feb 25Trout arrived at Fremantle, Australia.
 Mar 22On her 8th war patrol, Trout was ordered to plant mines in Api Passage.
 Apr 4While en route from Balaboc Strait to Miri, fired a spread of three torpedoes at a naval auxiliary. One hit the target amidships, raising a 20 foot plume of water into the air, but the warhead did not explode.
 Apr 7Trout planted 23 mines in Api Passage on 7 and 8 April and then began patrolling the Singapore trade route.
 Apr 19Trout fired four torpedoes at a freighter but scored no hits. Later in the day, she fired a spread of three torpedoes at a tanker and missed.
 Apr 23Trout sighted two trawlers and battle surfaced. Her deck guns soon stopped the first ship dead in the water and set it on fire. They then turned the second one into a burning wreck.
 May 3Arrived at Fremantle, Australia.
 May 27Departed Fremantle,Australia on her 9th war patrol and performed a special mission.
 Jun 9Trout missed a transport with three torpedoes. She then landed a five-man Army team at Labangan, Mindanao.
 Jun 15Troutfired a three-torpedo spread which destroyed the tanker, Sanraku Maru.
 Jun 26She contacted three small coastal steamers and sank two of them with her deck guns.
 Jul 1She sank Luzu Maru with four torpedoes.
 Jul 9Trout picked up a party of five American officers off the south coast of Mindanao and headed for Fremantle.
 Jul 15Arrived at Fremantle, Australia.
 Aug 12Trout stood out to sea on her 10th war patrol to patrol the Surigao and San Bernardino straits.
 Aug 25She battled a cargo-fisherman with her deck guns, then sent a boarding party on board the vessel. After they had returned to the submarine with the prize's crew, papers, charts, and other material for study by intelligence officers, she sank the vessel.
 Sep 9Trout sank the Japanese submarine I-182
 Sep 22One of the remaining Japanese prisoners died of self-imposed starvation and was buried at sea.
 Sep 23Sighted two ships with an escort. One was a freighter with a deck load of planes, and the other was a passenger-cargo. Trout fired a spread of three torpedoes at each of the targets. Sank the Ryotoku Maru and Yamashiro Maru.
 Oct 4Arrived at Pearl Harbor, HI. The submarine was then routed back to the United States for a prolonged overhaul at the Mare Island Navy Yard.
1944Jan 31Arrived back in Pearl Harbor from the States.
 Feb 8Trout began her 11th and final war patrol.
 Feb 16Trout topped off with fuel at Midway and was never heard from again. Japanese records indicate that one of their convoys was attacked by a submarine on 29 February 1944 in the area assigned to Trout. Possibly one of the convoy's escorts sank the Trout.
 Feb 29Decommissioned.
 Apr 17Trout was declared presumed lost. Trout received 11 battle stars for World War II service and the Presidential Unit Citation for her second, third, and fifth patrols.