Channel, Muskegon Lake-Lake Michigan, Fulton and Bluff Streets
Muskegon, Muskegon County

Designation and Designation Date

• National Historic Landmark, listed January 14, 1986
• National Register, listed October 18, 1972

Architect, Builder, or Designer(s)

• Mare Island Naval Yard, Vallejo, California, builder

Significant Date(s), Notes

• 1941, the USS Silversides was launched at Mare Island Naval Yard, Vallejo, California, August 26
• 1941, commissioned on December 15

Significance Statement

USS Silversides (SS-236) was launched at Mare Island Naval Yard, California, on August 26, 1941. She is a fleet-type submarine (built to maintain fleet speeds averaging 17 knots) of the Gato (Drum) class.

In the conflict against Japan in World War II, the role and importance of the submarine forces of the United States cannot be overestimated. American submarines sank more than 600,000 tons of enemy warships and more than 5,000,000 tons of merchant shipping, thus destroying much of Japan's ocean commerce. This was accomplished by a force that never numbered more than two percent of naval personnel engaged in the war. The American submarine war against Japan created a blockade that denied her the oil, iron ore, food, and other raw materials she needed to continue to fight. By 1945 this submarine war made it impossible for any Japanese ship to sail the ocean. Without this commerce and the raw materials it supplied to her war effort, Japan found it impossible to continue the war outside of the homeland. No other WWII submarine remains that sank more ships than the USS Silversides.

For information about any of the programs described on this site, write the Michigan State Historic Preservation Office, Michigan Historical Center, P.O. Box 30740, 702 W. Kalamazoo St., Lansing, MI 48909-8240, or call us at (517) 373-1630.