abstract
| - USS S-31 (SS-136) was a first-group (S-1 or "Holland") S-class submarine of the United States Navy. Her keel was laid down on 13 April 1918 by the Union Iron Works in San Francisco, California. She was launched on 28 December 1918 sponsored by Mrs. George A. Walker, and commissioned on 11 May 1922 with Lieutenant William A. Heard in command. Commissioned as improved engines were being developed for her class, S-31 was ordered to New London, Connecticut, toward the end of the summer for alterations to her main propulsion machinery by the prime contractor, the Electric Boat Company. Decommissioned at New London on 4 October 1922, she remained in the company's yards through the winter and was recommissioned on 8 March 1923. In April, she moved south; conducted exercises in the Caribbean Sea; then transited the Panama Canal to return to California. She remained on the West Coast through 1924, conducting exercises off the California coast with her division, Submarine Division (SubDiv) 16. She ranged into the Aleutian Islands for exercises during June and July 1923 and into the Panama Canal area and the Caribbean for fleet problems during the winter of 1924.
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