Wreck of USS Extractor (ARS-15)

 Second World War 1939-1945, military, shipwreck, United States Navy

USS Extractor was a Anchor Class Rescue and Salvage Ship laid down at the Colberg Boat Works at Stockton, CA in June 1943 and commissioned into US Navy service in March 1944. After training in the San Francisco Bay area through May, Extractor and her crew departed the mainland for Pearl Harbor where she began operations as a member of Service Squadron 2 in late May 1944.

Operating between Pearl Harbor, Eniwetok and Ulithi Atolls providing repair, diving, towing and salvage operations during the summer and fall of 1944, the Extractor and her crew serviced the myriad of vessels operating in the island hopping campaigns against Japan. Assigned to Service Squadron 12 in December, the Extractor reported to the recently recaptured island of Guam and resumed her much in-demand services for the next two months.

As US Forces fought for both land and sea areas in the Philippine Islands while suffering heavy losses in men and material, the Extractor was ordered to report to Leyte to assist with salvage and repair efforts to the US Fleet. After fueling, provisioning and loading supplies bound for Leyte, the Extractor and her crew departed Guam on January 21st for an unescorted transit across the Philippine Sea.

Three days out of Guam the Extractor was steaming through choppy seas in the early morning of the 24th when she crossed the path of the USS Guardfish (SS-217), an American Submarine returning to Guam at the end of an unsuccessful patrol. The Guardfish's Captain identified the low-freeboard and superstructure of the Extractor as the silhouette of a Japanese I Class Submarine, and quickly ordered his torpedo tubes loaded as he moved his boat into attack position. Shortly before 0400hrs Guardfish's Captain made his last observations of his target, lined up his shot and fired a single torpedo out of his Bow tube into the path of oncoming "Submarine".

Aboard Extractor, sonar operators picked up the unmistakable sound of a torpedo in the water and sounded the General Quarters alarm, however her lookouts could not sight the torpedo in the darkness and rough seas until it was too late. Guardfish's torpedo slammed into the Extractor's Starboard side and detonated in her engine room, killing or injuring every man in the compartment, knocking out power aboard ship and opening a large hole in her hull. As her crew scrambled to their damage control stations and brought her auxiliary power online, the Extractor sent a coded distress message which was picked up by the crew of the Guardfish, which had surfaced to shell its supposed Japanese target. Within three minutes of being torpedoed, the severely damaged Extractor was listing heavily to Starboard and threatening to roll over, prompting her Captain to order the abandon ship. As the last of her surviving crew jumped clear of the ship, the Extractor rolled onto her Starboard side and sank at this location on January 24th, 1945 with six members of her crew still aboard.

To the surprise of the men in the water, the USS Guardfish suddenly appeared and began a rescue effort, eventually saving all 73 of the men she had put into the water in a case of mistaken identity.

www.navsource.org/archives/09/37/3715.htm