First Patrol: December 1941
Sturgeon was moored in Mariveles Naval Section Base on December 7, 1941 during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. She put to sea the next afternoon to patrol an area between the Pescadores Islands and Formosa. A small tanker was sighted the afternoon of December 9, but it remained out of torpedo range.
The submarine found a convoy of five merchantmen accompanied by a cruiser and several destroyers on December 18. As she came to periscope depth within attack range of the cruiser, she was sighted by one of the escorts approximately 250 yards (230 m) away. She started going deep but had only reached a depth of 65 feet (20 m) when the first depth charge exploded, breaking numerous light bulbs but causing no serious damage. Sturgeon began silent running and evaded the escorts.
On the evening of December 21, she sighted a darkened ship believed to be a large cargo carrier. A torpedo spread was fired from the stern tubes, but they all passed ahead of the ship due to an error in her estimated speed. The ship ended her first war patrol when she returned to Mariveles Bay on December 25.
Read more about this topic: USS Sturgeon (SS-187)
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