USS Cisco (SS-290)

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Cisco (SS-290), underway during her sea trials off the New England coast, 19 June 1943.
Career United States Navy ensign
Builder: Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine[1]
Laid down: 29 October 1942[1]
Launched: 24 December 1942[1]
Commissioned: 10 May 1943[1]
Fate: Sunk by Japanese aircraft west of Mindanao, 28 September 1943[2]
General characteristics
Class and type: Balao-class diesel-electric submarine[2]
Displacement: 1,526 tons (1550 t) surfaced[2]
2,414 tons (2453 t) submerged[2]
Length: 311 ftin (95.0 m)[2]
Beam: 27 ft 3 in (8.3 m)[2]
Draft: 16 ft 10 in (5.1 m) maximum[2]
Propulsion:

4 × General Motors Model 16-248 V16 diesel engines driving electrical generators[2][3]
2 × 126-cell Sargo batteries [4]
4 × high-speed General Electric electric motors with reduction gears [2]
two propellers [2]
5,400 shp (4.0 MW) surfaced[2]

2,740 shp (2.0 MW) submerged[2]
Speed: 20.25 knots (37 km/h) surfaced
8.75 knots (16 km/h) subm.[4]
Range: 11,000 nm surfaced at 10 knots (20,000 km at 19 km/h)[4]
Endurance: 48 hours at 2 knots (4 km/h) submerged[4]
75 days on patrol
Test depth: 400 ft (120 m)[4]
Complement: 10 officers, 70–71 enlisted[4]
Armament: 10 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes
 (six forward, four aft)
 24 torpedoes [4]
1 × 4-inch (102 mm) / 50 caliber deck gun [4]
four machine guns

USS Cisco (SS-290), a Balao-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the cisco, a whitefish of the Great Lakes. Her keel was laid down by the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine. She was launched on 24 December 1942 sponsored by Mrs. A. C. Bennett, through her proxy, Mrs. N. Robertson, and commissioned on 10 May 1943 with Commander James W. Coe in command.[5] She reported to the Pacific Fleet.

Cisco sailed from Panama 7 August 1943 for Brisbane, Australia, arriving 1 September to assume local patrol duties, until 18 September, when she docked at Darwin. She put out on her first war patrol 20 September, but never returned. Japanese records tell of sighting a submarine leaking oil on 28 September in an area where Cisco is known to have been the only submarine then operating. Japanese records state this submarine was sunk by bombs and depth charges. Cisco is thus presumed to have been lost in action 28 September 1943. The only survivor from the crew was Chief Radioman Howell B. Rice (USN ret.), who was taken sick in Darwin and sent ashore to the Navy hospital prior to Cisco's final voyage.

米潜水艦「シスコ」(USS Cisco SS-290,艦長J・W・コー少佐)、フィリピン沖で海軍第954航空隊(九七艦攻)、河用砲艦「唐津」の攻撃を受け沈没

Japanese Records above indicate the submarine was attacked by Type 97 "Kate" attack bombers of the 954 Naval Air Squadron and the riverboat Karatsu (originally a U.S. gunboat, USS Luzon (PR-7), captured by Japanese forces and put to work against its former owners).

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Friedman, Norman (1995). U.S. Submarines Through 1945: An Illustrated Design History. Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute, pp. 285–304. ISBN 1-55750-263-3. 
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Bauer, K. Jack; Roberts, Stephen S. (1991). Register of Ships of the U.S. Navy, 1775–1990: Major Combatants. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, pp. 275–280. ISBN 0-313-26202-0. 
  3. ^ U.S. Submarines Through 1945 pp. 261
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h U.S. Submarines Through 1945 pp. 305-311
  5. ^ SS-290, U.S.S. Cisco

[edit] External links