USS S-47

USS S-47 (SS-158) was a third-group (S-42) S-class submarine of the United States Navy.

S-47′s keel was laid down on 26 February 1921 by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation's Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts. She was launched on 5 January 1924 sponsored by Mrs. Morris D. Gilmore, and commissioned on 16 September 1925.

Following commissioning and fitting out, S-47 conducted engineering and torpedo tests off the southern New England coast. However, with the new year, 1926, she departed New England and moved south to join Submarine Division (SubDiv) 19 in the Panama Canal Zone.

She arrived at Coco Solo on 19 January and, for the next year and one-half, conducted local operations in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea. During this period, her routine was broken by joint United States Army-United States Navy exercises testing the defenses of the canal; by Fleet Problem VI (February 1926) and VII (March 1927); and by extended training cruises in the Caribbean (June 1926 and April 1927). Transferred to San Diego, California, with her division in June 1927, she continued to participate in individual, division, fleet, and joint Army-Navy exercises into 1932. At that time, a period of inactivity in rotating reserve status was added to S-boat employment schedules.

In 1936, S-47, now in SubDiv 11, was transferred back to Coco Solo, where she was based through the end of the decade. In the summer of 1941, she returned to New London, Connecticut, and commenced operations off the southern New England coast. During September, she patrolled in the Bermuda area; and, in October, she returned to New London. The following month, she moved north to NS Argentia to participate in exercises to test S-boat capabilities in arctic and sub-arctic waters. By mid-December, she was back at New London, and, by January 1942, she was back in the Panama Canal Zone.

Defensive operations in the approaches to the canal took S-47 into March. On 5 March, she moved west with SubDiv 53 to join TF 42 at Brisbane, Queensland. She arrived in mid-April, and, on 22 April, she got underway to conduct her first offensive war patrol in the New Britain-New Ireland area.

On 27 April, she commenced submerged operations during daylight hours. On the morning of 29 April, she passed Bougainville, and on the night of 30 April, she arrived off New Britain. The next evening, she attempted to close an enemy submarine but lost contact with the target. That night, she transited St. George Channel; and, on the morning of 2 May, she closed Blanche Bay. Despite numerous enemy patrol craft both surface and air, off the Crater Peninsula, she moved toward Simpson Harbor in an attempt to score on an oiler accompanied by a destroyer. Her quarry, however, reached safety before S-47 could close the range.

S-47 waited outside the harbor. Four hours later, two destroyers entered the harbor, and, a short while after that, a cruiser was sighted on the same course. S-47 increased her speed and maneuvered to attack. But, before she was ready, a short in the electrical firing circuit fired number-four tube. The cruiser continued into the harbor. The electrical firing circuit in S-47 was disconnected.