The vessel was damaged by an explosion while undergoing sea trials off the coast of France, killing two aboard and wounding several others.

Based at Brest at the onset of the Second World War, Persée joined in the search for the German merchant fleet still at sea.

Persée was part of a semi-homogenous class of thirty-one submarines designed for oceangoing patrols and entering service between 1931 and 1939.

At the start of the Second World War she, Ajax, Archimède and Poncelet[4] formed the 6th submarine division, based at Brest.

From 26 to 29 August Persée escorted the cable-laying ship Alsace, which had been sent to repair the cable between Casablanca and Dakar, which the British had cut off Cap Juby.

However, British destroyers continued to hunt her and - unable to dive due to shoals - she was seriously damaged and set on fire.