USS Tambor (SS-198)

USS Tambor (SS-198)

USS Tambor (SS-198), the lead ship of her class of submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the tambor.

Her keel was laid down on 16 January 1939 by the Electric Boat Company in Groton, Connecticut. She was launched on 20 December 1939 sponsored by Miss Lucia Ellis, and commissioned on 3 June 1940 with Lieutenant Commander John M. Murphy, Jr. (Class of 1925), in command.

After fitting out at New London, Tambor got underway on 6 August 1940 for her shakedown cruise which took her to New York City, Washington, D.C., Morehead City, North Carolina, and Houston, Texas. Following further training off Colón, Panama, the submarine returned to New London, Connecticut, before holding her acceptance trials and undergoing a post-shakedown overhaul at the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine. After conducting live-fire trials on the effectiveness of depth charges, the first of their kind in the U.S. Navy, Tambor reported in May 1941 to the Submarine Force, Pacific Fleet, and the command of Rear Admiral Thomas W. Withers, Jr. .

Tambor began a routine peacetime patrol of Wake Island in late November 1941 and, when World War II broke out, she began her first war patrol. However, she was forced to return to Pearl Harbor with one engine out of commission. Routed back to Mare Island, where the damage was repaired, the submarine returned to Pearl Harbor in March 1942.