Departing Pearl Harbor on 30 December 1941, "Thresher" headed for the Marshall and Mariana Islands. Reconnoitering Majuro, Arno, and Mili atolls from 9 to 13 January 1942, she shifted to waters off Japanese-held Guam in the early morning darkness of 4 February. A little before daybreak, a small freighter was sighted north of Agana Harbor and "Thresher" closed for the attack. She loosed a three-torpedo spread, holing the ship and sending it down by the bow and dead in the water. "Thresher" then fired another spread of torpedoes, but all missed. Upon returning to the scene one-half-hour later the ship was gone and "Thresher" thought she had scored a kill; postwar accounting did not substantiate it.