USS Permit ( SS - 178 ) USS " Permit " ( SS - 178 ) , a " Porpoise " - class submarine , was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the permit . Her keel was laid on 6 June 1935 by the Electric Boat Company , Groton , Connecticut ; launched on 5 October 1936 sponsored by Mrs . Harold G . Bowen , and commissioned on 17 March 1937 , Lieutenant Charles O . Humphreys in command . Service history . Inter - War Period . Following shakedown , " Permit " operated out of Portsmouth , New Hampshire , until 29 November 1937 , when she got underway for the Pacific . Transiting the Panama Canal on 10 December , she continued up the West Coast , and arrived at San Diego , California on 18 December to join Submarine Squadron 6 ( SubRon 6 ) . For the next 22 months , she cruised the Eastern Pacific , ranging from southern California to the Aleutian Islands and Hawaiian Islands . In October 1939 , she got underway for the Philippines to join the Asiatic Fleet . World War II . " Permit " s first cruises were conducted in Philippine waters during 1940 - 1941 . The two - year period of peace time activity gave the submarine ' s crew valuable training for later war activity . The ship - commanded by Lieutenant Commander Adrian M . Hurst - conducted her first war patrol off the west coast of Luzon from 11 – 20 December 1941 . From 22 – 27 December , she made a second patrol in the area . " Permit " embarked members of Admiral Thomas C . Hart ' s staff at Mariveles Harbor on 28 December and evacuated them to the Netherlands ' Submarine Base , Surabaya , Java , arriving on 6 February 1942 . " En route " , she completed a third war patrol , scouting in waters of the southern Philippines . The submarine departed Surabaya for her fourth war patrol on 22 February , as the Japan ese began to close on Java . On 19 February , got through to Corregidor , which was still holding out against the Japanese . On 13 March , " Permit " sank the scuttled " PT - 32 " of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three . It was now " Permit " s turn to penetrate the blockade to the " Rock . " She rendezvoused off Corregidor on the night of 15 – 16 March , took on board 40 officers and enlisted men ( including 36 precious cryptanalysts from the intelligence station , ) , and landed her ammunition . She headed for repairs at her new base , Fremantle , Western Australia , after minor damage suffered eluding three enemy destroyer s on 18 March . " Permit " departed Fremantle on 5 May , and until 11 June was engaged in her fifth war patrol off Makassar , Celebes Island and in the enemy shipping route stretching towards Balikpapan , Borneo . She made her sixth war patrol " en route " to Pearl Harbor - from 12 July - 30 August - and shortly departed for the United States , entering Mare Island Navy Yard on 9 September for overhaul . She conducted her seventh war patrol off Honshū , Japan from 5 February - 16 March 1943 . Towards sunset on 8 March , she attacked a nine - ship convoy with two escorts . Two hits sent " Hisashima Maru " to the bottom . " Permit " departed Midway Island on 6 April for her eighth war patrol in the shipping lanes from the Mariana Islands to Truk Atoll , Caroline Islands , and after several encounters , returned to Pearl Harbor on 25 May . On 7 July , " Permit " launched two torpedoes which sank " Banshu Maru Number 33 " . Just after midnight , she spotted a two - ship convoy headed for the Korean coast , and with a salvo of two torpedoes sank " Showa Maru " in five minutes . SS - 178 also sank the Soviet small seine / oceanographic vessel " No . 20 " 7 July On 20 July , she joined and at Midway for the first wartime penetration into the Sea of Japan , to attack shipping carrying raw materials from Manchuria and Korea . After this highly successful patrol , " Permit " made her way " via " Dutch Harbor , Alaska , to Pearl Harbor , arriving on 27 July . On 23 August , she departed for photographic reconnaissance of several atolls in the Marshall Islands . Off Kwajalein , she evaded aerial bombs on 3 September and depth charges on 9 September . She made attacks on enemy vessels , damaging several , before returning to Pearl Harbor on 24 September . Her next war patrol was in the Caroline Islands , held from early - January - mid - March 1944 . Her 12th war patrol was in the same region , on lifeguard duty in support of the air strikes on Truk . She remained on station from 7 May – 1 June . " Permit " commenced her 13th patrol with her departure from Majuro Atoll on 30 June , and ended it with her arrival at Brisbane , Australia on 13 August . On 21 September , she departed to relieve on lifeguard duty off Truk , and on 11 November ended her 14th and last war patrol at Pearl Harbor . After refit , she sailed for the United States on 29 January 1945 , and entered the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 23 February . In mid - May , she sailed to the Submarine Base , New London , Connecticut , to serve as a schoolship until 30 October , when she entered Boston Naval Shipyard for inactivation . " Permit " decommissioned on 15 November 1945 . Her name was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 26 July 1956 ; her hulk was sold for scrap to A . G . Schoonmaker , Inc . , New York City on 28 June 1958 . Awards . " Permit " received ten battle star s for her World War II service .