USS S-39, a 1062-ton S-1 class submarine built at San Francisco, California, was commissioned in September 1923. A year after entering service and following exercises off the west coast and in the Caribbean, she deployed to the Asiatic Fleet by way of Pearl Harbor and Guam. For the next decade and a half, S-39 conducted peacetime operations in the Philippines and China areas. She remained in the Far East during the early 1940s, as relations with Japan deteriorated.

When the Pacific War began on 8 December 1942, S-39 undertook combat patrols against Japanese minelaying efforts and logistics ships, but without success. She was sent south to the Dutch East Indies in January 1942 and conducted another war patrol in the South China and Java Seas, sinking the Japanese Navy oiler Erimo on 4 March. S-39 conducted her next two war patrols out of Australian bases, operating in the vicinity of the Luisiade and Solomon Islands. During the night of 13-14 August 1942, while off Rossel Island in the Louisiades, she accidently grounded. Unable to break free and pounded by heavy surf, S-39 had to be abandoned. Her crewmen were all rescued by the Australian minesweeper Katoomba.