Assigned to the First Submarine Flotilla in March 1907, Shark was stationed at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland in the spring of 1907.

Loaded onto the collier Caesar, Shark and her sister ship Porpoise comprised the auxiliary's deck cargo as she proceeded, via the Suez Canal, to the Philippines.

Over the next several years, the submarine torpedo boat operated out of Cavite, interspersing training with periodic upkeep and repair work.

On 24 July 1917, shortly after her engine had been overhauled, gasoline fumes ignited and caused an explosion and fire while in the course of a patrol in Manila Bay.

The last man to emerge from the interior of the crippled submersible, Marcus sent up distress signals to the nearby monitor Monadnock and then took the helm himself in an attempt to beach the ship.