and, on 28 April 1924 she continued to Mare Island. There the submarines of her division, having been transferred to the United States Asiatic Fleet, prepared to cross the Pacific. On 17 September 1924, SubDiv 17, accompanied by the submarine tender , departed San Francisco. 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. They operated from Cavite, Luzon, for 16 years. 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. 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. The submarines ranged throughout the Philippines and Netherlands East Indies, and they made shorter deployments to the China coast. 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. In 1941, S-37 remained in the Philippines, operating in the Luzon area into the spring, in the Visayan Islands and Sulu Archipelago into the summer, and back in the Luzon area during the fall. World War II 1941 On 8 December 1941 — which across the International Date Line in Hawaii was 7 December 1941, the day the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II — S-37 was in Manila Bay. With receipt of the news of the Japanese attack, S-37, commanded by James C. Dempsey, prepared for her first war patrol. On the night of 9 December 1941, she cleared the Corregidor outer minefield, moved into the Verde Island Passage, and took station at Puerta Galera, Mindoro, where she remained on lookout duty until 17 December 1941. She then returned to Manila, replenished and refueled, and, on 19 December, headed back toward the Mindoro coast. On 20 December, she assumed patrol duties in Calavite Passage. On 21 December 1941, she shifted to the Verde Island Passage. On 27 December 1941, she reconnoitered Batangas Bay to investigate the detonation of fuel oil tanks and found only Filipino and American forces destroying the fuel oil supplies before they could be captured by