Name USS S-25 Commissioned 9 July 1923 Name ORP Jastrząb Launched 29 May 1922 Beam 6.3 m | Laid down 26 October 1918 Decommissioned 4 November 1941 Construction started 26 October 1918 Length 67 m Builder Fore River Shipyard | |
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Fate Transferred to the UK under Lend-lease, loaned to the Polish government-in-exile | ||
USS S-25 (SS-130) was a first-group (S-1 or "Holland") S-class submarine of the United States Navy.
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S-25 was laid down on 26 October 1918 by the Fore River Shipbuilding Corporation in Quincy, Massachusetts. She was launched on 29 May 1922 sponsored by Mrs. Ross P. Schlabach, and commissioned on 9 July 1923 with Lieutenant Commander George H. Fort in command.
US Navy service
Operating from New London, Connecticut, in 1923, S-25 participated in winter maneuvers in the Caribbean Sea and Panama Canal Zone area from January into April 1924. Then transferred to the West Coast, she operated primarily in the waters off southern California into 1931. Fleet problems and division exercises during that period took her back to Panama from March into May 1927 and in February 1929 and to Hawaii in 1927, 1928, and 1930. Transferred again, she sailed from San Diego, California, on 15 April 1931; arrived at Pearl Harbor on 25 April; and from then into 1939 operated in Hawaiian waters.
S-25 cleared Pearl Harbor to return to the Atlantic Ocean on 16 June of that year and arrived at New London on 25 August. Voyage repairs followed and in February 1940, she was assigned to a test and evaluation division there. In December, she was detached and ordered to Key West, Florida, where she provided training services into May 1941, then returned to New London to prepare for transfer under the terms of the lend-lease agreement.
Polish Navy service
S-25 was decommissioned on 4 November 1941 and simultaneously transferred to Great Britain where she was renamed HMS P551. She was then loaned to the government of Poland in exile, accepted by Lieutenant Commander B. Romanowski of the Polish Navy, and commissioned as ORP Jastrząb.
While traveling in an Allied convoy near Norway, Jastrzab strayed some 100 miles (160 km) off her proper course, and on 2 May 1942 was sunk by friendly fire by the destroyer HMS St. Albans (ex-USS Thomas) and the minesweeper HMS Seagull.