her success, Sand Lance underwent a 16-hour, 100-depth charge pounding from the accompanying destroyers. Finally, she was able to head home. She arrived in Pearl Harbor on 23 April 1944. The successes of her maiden war patrol brought Sand Lance a Presidential Unit Citation. Second war patrol Sand Lance spent her second war patrol in the vicinity of the Marianas Islands and terminated it on the eve of the American invasion of those islands. She contributed to the success of that campaign by depriving the defending Japanese of the war material carried by five ships. On 3 May 1944, just north of Saipan, she torpedoed and sank the 3129-ton cargo ship Kenan Maru. Eight days later, she damaged Mitakesan Maru, a 4441-ton passenger cargo ship, while evading the bombs from an attacking enemy plane. Sand Lance sent the 4291-ton freighter Koho Maru to the bottom on 14 May off Apra Harbor, Guam, and found two more targets off Saipan on 17 May. This last attack, the sinking of Taikoku Maru and Fukko Maru, exhausted her supply of torpedoes, and she headed south to Fremantle, Australia, arriving on 5 June 1944. Third war patrol Sand Lance put to sea on 3 July to patrol the Molucca Sea and Celebes Sea. She sank the converted gunboat Taiko Maru on 14 July and damaged another ship in the same attack. Four days later, she received a good shaking from fast patrol craft while trying to press an attack on a large transport in the Sulu Islands. Sand Lance did not find another target until 1 August when she damaged a freighter south of Lombok Island. Two days later, she barely escaped the bombs of a plane which almost caught her in the shallow waters of Amoesang Bay. She sped back through the entrance to the bay and the safety of deeper water. More bombs exploded astern on the morning of 6 August as she stalked some small freighters along the coast of Celebes. The force of the explosion lifted her several feet and damaged her port shaft. Soon, Sand Lance had two additional problems, enemy escorts bearing down on her and a torpedo running hot in one of her stern tubes. Sand Lance came up to and fired the torpedo. Eight seconds later, it exploded prematurely, adding to the damage to her stern. Fortunately, the explosion apparently convinced the Japanese that they had