PORPOISE SS 172

Ship Name and Designation History

This section lists the names and designations that the ship had during its lifetime. The list is in chronological order.

USS PORPOISE SS-172
Commissioned 15 August 1935 - Decommissioned 15 November 1945
PORPOISE SS-172
Placed In Service 8 May 1947 as Naval Reserve Training Ship at Houston, TX
Placed Out of Service 13 August 1956

Struck from Naval Register 13 August 1956
Sold 14 May 1957 for scrap

Naval Covers

This section lists active links to the pages displaying covers associated with the ship. There should be a separate set of pages for each incarnation of the ship (ie, for each entry in the "Ship Name and Designation History" section). Covers should be presented in chronological order (or as best as can be determined).

Since a ship may have many covers, they may be split among many pages so it doesn't take forever for the pages to load. Each page link should be accompanied by a date range for covers on that page.

USS Porpoise SS-172 Covers Page 1 (1935-43)

Postmarks

This section lists examples of the postmarks used by the ship. There should be a separate set of postmarks for each incarnation of the ship (ie, for each entry in the "Ship Name and Designation History" section). Within each set, the postmarks should be listed in order of their classification type. If more than one postmark has the same classification, then they should be further sorted by date of earliest known usage.

A postmark should not be included unless accompanied by a close-up image and/or an image of a cover showing that postmark. Date ranges MUST be based ONLY ON COVERS IN THE MUSEUM and are expected to change as more covers are added.

>>> If you have a better example for any of the postmarks, please feel free to replace the existing example.

Postmark Type --- Killer Bar Text	Postmark Date	Thumbnail Link To Postmark Image	Thumbnail Link To Cover Image

Post Office Established November 1 1935 - Post Office Disestablished May 12 1945

Locy Type
FDPS F Oct 22, 1935

"FIRST DAY /
POSTAL SERVICE"

USCS Postmark
Catalog Illus. CD-2

1935-10-22

First Day of Postal Service. Add-on cachet by Alton M (Budd) Arrington

Locy Type
3 (AC-TBB)

"FIRST DAY /
POSTAL"

1935-10-22

R/S marking on back from John C. Von Losberg. This cover has been backdated to reflect the First Day of Postal Service. The ship's Type 3 postmark device was received and first used on November 28 1935 with "THANKSGIVING/DAY" in the killers. (USCS Postmark Catalog)

Locy Type
2z

1943-05-25

Censored wartime (WWII) use

Locy Type
3 (AC-TBB)

"THANKSGIVING /
DAY"

1935-11-28

Thanksgiving Day. Add-on cachet by Alton M (Budd) Arrington

Locy Type
9v

1938-05-30

Note:

Locy Type
SLK

1938-02-01

Deep Dive, cachet by P.J. (PeeJay) Ickeringill

Other Information

USS PORPOISE earned the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal w/ 5 battle stars and the WWII Victory Medal for her Naval service

Credited with sinking...
The 4999-ton Japanese Transport RENZEN MARU, January 1 1943 off Honshu
The 2032-ton Japanese Merchant Ship KOA MARU, April 4 1943 off Eniwetok
The 2718-ton Japanese Troop Transport MIKAGE MARU No.20, July 19 1943 off Wake Island

NAMESAKE - Any of several small gregarious toothed whales.

The ships sponsor was Miss Eva Croft.

If you have images or information to add to this page, then either contact the Curator or edit this page yourself and add it. See Editing Ship Pages for detailed information on editing this page.