[3] Extensive material damage added to the difficulty of rescue operations, but three men were extracted from the compartment, one of whom died of his injuries before medical help arrived.

[3] After completing Fleet Problem IV, her division remained in the Caribbean until early April 1924, when it again passed through the Panama Canal to return to the Pacific Ocean.

[3] On 26 September 1924, the ships arrived at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and on 4 November 1924 they reached Manila Bay on the coast of Luzon in the Philippines.

[3] During most of that time, they worked as a division, spending the fall and winter months in the Philippines and deploying to the China coast for spring and summer exercises.

[3] During the late 1930s, however, hostilities increased in East Asia with the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in July 1937, and the Asiatic Fleet's S-boat schedule was altered to include more individual exercises and cruises.

[3] The submarines ranged throughout the Philippines and Netherlands East Indies, and they made shorter deployments to the China coast.

[3] In 1940, the China deployments ended, and the submarines intensified their exercises and patrols in the Philippines and participated in joint United States Army-U.S. Navy war games.

[3] On 8 January, new orders arrived, and she set a course for Soerabaja, the Dutch naval base on the northeast coast of Java.

[3] On 11 January 1942, Japanese forces moved on territory of the Netherlands East Indies, landing at Tarakan on Borneo and at Manado on Celebes.

[3] At 1813, S-37 sighted the masts and upper works of three Japanese destroyers in column at a distance 5 nautical miles (9250 m) , estimated speed 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph).

[3] By 2010, however, the destroyers had increased speed to maintain cover for the transports as the formation turned and crossed ahead of the submarine at 4,000 yards (3,700 m).

[3] Thirty seconds after firing the third torpedo, she observed a hit between the stacks of the third and, as black smoke rose, it buckled in the middle and formed a vee approximately 20 ft (6.1 m) above the bow and stern.

[3] Her lack of speed precluded several attacks and, on 11 February 1942, faulty mechanisms in her old Mark 10 torpedoes caused them to sink before reaching their target.

[3] Astern of S-37, an obvious oil slick – the result of her going aground in the Lombok Strait[7] – extended some 2,000 yards (2,000 m) in a glassy sea, but she remained undetected.

So, too, was the sub command situation; S-37 lost her skipper to USS Spearfish, replaced by James R. Reynolds,[8] and on 26 February, S-37 was ordered out.

Equipment and parts in the navy yard shops were recalled, stores from the limited supplies at the base were taken on and, after the return of two air compressor coolers, she got underway on the port main engine, as the ship's force completed reassembly of the starboard.

Electrical steering failures, breakdowns in the coolers, and a change of orders delayed her departure; but, on the afternoon of 27 February, she moved out and headed north to patrol between Bawean Island and the western channel into Soerabaja Roads.

That night, the Battle of the Java Sea raged over the horizon, and, early on the morning of 28 February, the S-boat closed a Japanese formation of two cruisers and three destroyers retiring victoriously from the scene.

At mid-day, she sighted a 50-foot (15-metre) open boat from Dutch light cruiser De Ruyter, carrying sixty[9] Allied survivors; although unable to accommodate all of them, she approached to take on casualties.

Finding none, S-37 took on the two[9] American sailors among them, transferred provisions, dispatched enciphered messages on the boat's location to ABDA headquarters, and resumed her patrol.

That afternoon, she again attempted to attack an enemy formation, but was sighted and underwent a combined depth charging and aerial bombing.

[3] Depth charge and aerial attacks were frequent, each one aggravating the condition of worn parts and equipment and resulting in mechanical and electrical failures and in leaks through disintegrating manhole and hatch gaskets.

[3] S-37 left a misleading oil slick toward Lombok Strait, then moved farther east before turning south.

[3] In April 1942, S-37 continued on to Brisbane, Australia,[3] where she joined Task Force 42 and, after a desperately needed six-week overhaul,[10] departed for her fifth war patrol.

[3] From 14 July, when a fire in the starboard main motor was quickly extinguished, she was plagued by mechanical and electrical failures.

[3] On 5 November 1942, after a fire in her port main motor added to problems of tank trouble, fuel shortage, and mechanical failures, she headed for Pearl Harbor.

[3] Salvagers unsuccessfully tried to retrieve the wreck of S-37 for its scrap value, but lost her again off Imperial Beach, California, in 20 to 30 feet (6.1 to 9.1 m) of water at 32°36.2541′N 117°08.2334′W / 32.6042350°N 117.1372233°W / 32.6042350; -117.1372233 (USS S-37), where she remains to this day.