World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseInitially laid down as the passenger liner SS Santa Luisa, later renamed SS Santa Leonora, for W. R. Grace and Company, the ship was taken over by the United States Navy in Jul 1919 to transport troops across the Atlantic Ocean. In Sep 1919, USS Santa Leonora was transferred to the United States Army. In Nov 1921, it was transferred to the US Navy once again, converted into a submarine tender, and was recommissioned under the new name USS Canopus. She tended boats of Submarine Division 9 at San Pedro, California, United States until Jul 1923, then tended boats of Submarine Division 17 of the Battle Force at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii until mid 1924. In Sep 1924, she was assigned to the US Navy Asiatic Fleet in Sep 1924, and arrived in the Philippine Islands in Nov 1924. She visited a number of Chinese, Japanese, and British and French colonial ports while based in the Philippines. When the United States entered WW2 in Dec 1941, she was located at Cavite Navy Yard near Manila as the tender to Submarine Squadron 20. When US Army troops fell back into Manila, USS Canopus sailed to Mariveles Bay at the southern tip of Bataan peninsula on the opposite side of Manila Bay. She suffered a hit by a 500-pound armor-piercing bomb on 29 Dec 1941, which penetrated all decks and detonated on the propeller shaft housing, killing six sailors. Her crew placed smoke pots around the ship in an attempt to make her look like an abandoned wreck, while repair crews busily repaired the ship; she also continued to tend to submarines after dark. In the final days of Dec 1941, all submarines left Mariveles Bay, but the damaged USS Canopus remained behind to tend to various smaller craft. On 1 Jan 1942, she was struck by a fragmentation bomb, damaging her and killing 16 gun crew members. As the number of smaller craft dwindled at Mariveles Bay, a number of USS Canopus's crew members joined the naval battalion to fight as naval infantrymen on land, while others manned improvised gunboats created out of USS Canopus's launches. On 28 Feb 1942, 221 crew members of USS Canopus were evacuated from Bataan Peninsula to Corregidor Island, where they would serve alongside the US Marines. Another group of 327 crew members were evacuated to Corregidor shortly after, also joining the US Marines. As Japanese troops approached, she was backed off into deep water and scuttled on 10 Apr 1942 to prevent capture. A large number of the crew members of USS Canopus survived the Japanese conquest of Corregidor and were captured as prisoners of war. In 1944, Japanese salvage ships Kamikaze Maru No. 7 and Kamikaze Maru No. 5 unsuccessfully tried to raise the sunken USS Canopus. A number of men from USS Canopus were killed during the Palawan massacre of 14 Dec 1944.

Canopus (AS-9) Interactive Map

Photographs

Canopus Operational Timeline

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