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Snapper sliding down the ways at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, August 24, 1937. Behind her on the left is a Farragut-class destroyer. Once Snapper is fully waterborne, the wooden launch cradle will float free and be recovered for reuse.

U.S. Navy photo.

Snapper underway in the Pacific off Oahu, Hawaii in 1939 or 1940. The bulwark rail around the aft end of the conning tower fairwater was higher with less taper to it than the Electric Boat design. On the Government design it ran back almost level with the bridge.

Photo contributed by David T. Lotz.

Snapper underway in San Francisco Bay following her last wartime overhaul, February 24, 1945. By this time she had received a full suite of external modifications that made her appearance the rough equivalent of a Mod 3 Gato-class boat. She has also received new, larger water-cooled mufflers for her main engines, requiring raised covers over them on the aft deck. She has also been refitted with a 4"/50 caliber Mk 9 gun on the forward mount, a weapon likely taken from an old S-class boat.

Photo NH 99097 courtesy of NHHC.

Snapper viewed from the air, likely in the spring of 1945, location unknown. There is a shadow over the middle part of the boat, indicating that this may have been taken from the Golden Gate Bridge as the boat left San Francisco. She would not return to the war zone, Instead, with large numbers of more capable Gato, Balao, and now Tench-class boats in service or building she served the remainder of the war providing valuable training service in San Diego and Groton, CT.

Photo provided by John Bourdage, whose father EM 2c Elmer Bourdage, served aboard her from 1943 to 1945. Elmer Bourdage was also a member of the decommissioning crew.

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