USS Cubera (SS-347)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cubera (SS-347), after GUPPY modernization.
Career (US) United States Navy ensign
Name: USS Cubera (SS-347)
Builder: Electric Boat Company, Groton, Connecticut[1]
Laid down: 11 May 1944[1]
Launched: 17 June 1945[1]
Commissioned: 19 December 1945[1]
Decommissioned: 5 January 1972[1]
Struck: 5 January 1972[2]
Fate: Transferred to Venezuela, 5 January 1972[1]
Career (Venezuela) Venezuelan Navy Ensign
Name: ARV Tiburon (S-12)
Acquired: 1972
Fate: Scrapped, 1989
General characteristics
Class and type: Balao class diesel-electric submarine[2]
Displacement: 1,526 tons (1,550 t) surfaced[2]
2,424 tons (2,463 t) submerged[2]
Length: 311 ft 9 in (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 16-278A 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 (38 km/h) surfaced[4]
8.75 knots (16 km/h) submerged[4]
Range: 11,000 nautical miles (20,000 km) surfaced at 10 knots (19 km/h)[4]
Endurance: 48 hours at 2 knots (3.7 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 × 5-inch (127 mm) / 25 caliber deck gun [4]
four machine guns
General characteristics (Guppy II)
Displacement:

1,870 tons (1,900 t) surfaced[5]

2,440 tons (2,480 t) submerged[5]
Length: 307 ft (93.6 m)[6]
Beam: 27 ft 4 in (7.4 m)[6]
Draft: 17 ft (5.2 m)[6]
Propulsion:

Snorkel added[5]
Batteries upgraded to GUPPY type, capacity expanded to 504 cells (1 × 184 cell, 1 × 68 cell, and 2 × 126 cell batteries)[5]

4 × high-speed electric motors replaced with 2 × low-speed direct drive electric motors[5]
Speed:

Surfaced:

  • 18.0 knots (20.7 mph/33.3 km/h) maximum
  • 13.5 knots (15.5 mph/25.0 km/h) cruising

Submerged:

  • 16.0 knots (18.4 mph/29.6 km/h) for ½ hour
  • 9.0 knots (10.4 mph/16.7 km/h) snorkeling
  • 3.5 knots (4.0 mph/6.5 km/h) cruising[5]
Range: 15,000 nm (28,000 km) surfaced at 11 knots (13 mph/20 km/h)[6]
Endurance: 48 hours at 4 knots (5 mph/7 km/h) submerged[6]
Complement: 9–10 officers
5 petty officers
70 enlisted men[6]
Sensors and
processing systems:
WFA active sonar
JT passive sonar
Mk 106 torpedo fire control system[6]
Armament:

10 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes
 (six forward, four aft)[6]

all guns removed[5]

USS Cubera (SS-347), a Balao-class submarine, was a ship of the United States Navy named for the cubera, a large fish of the snapper family found in the West Indies.

Cubera (SS-347) was launched 17 June 1945 by Electric Boat Co., Groton, Conn.; sponsored by Mrs. J. Taber; commissioned 19 December 1945, Lieutenant Commander R. W. Paine, Jr., in command; and reported to the Atlantic Fleet.

Contents


After shakedown training off New London, Cubera arrived at Key West, Fla., 19 March 1946. She tested sonar equipment, provided services to experimental antisubmarine warfare development projects in the Florida Straits, and joined in fleet exercises until 4 July 1947 when she sailed to Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for an extensive GUPPY II modernization.

Returning to Key West 9 March 1948 Cubera continued to operate locally out of this port, as well as taking part in fleet exercises in the Caribbean and Atlantic until 3 July 1952 when she arrived at Norfolk, her new home port.

Cubera appeared in Ray Harryhausen's It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955), playing an "atomic sub" used to dispatch the film's giant octopus.

Through 1957 Cubera conducted local operations, and participated in fleet exercises in the Caribbean, as well as cruising to Sydney, Nova Scotia, in June 1955. During 1959 and 1960, she was assigned to Task Force Alfa, a force conducting constant experiments to improve antisubmarine warfare techniques. With this group she cruised the western Atlantic from Nova Scotia to Bermuda.

[edit] ARV Tiburon (S-12)

Cubera was decommissioned and sold under the Security Assistance Program to Venezuela 5 January 1972. The Venezuelan Navy renamed her ARV Tiburon (S-12) ("Tiburon" means shark in Spanish). She was subsequently scrapped by Venezuela in 1989.

[edit] See also


[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e f 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 i U.S. Submarines Through 1945 pp. 305-311
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Friedman, Norman (1994). U.S. Submarines Since 1945: An Illustrated Design History. Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute, pp. 11-43. ISBN 1-55750-260-9. 
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h U.S. Submarines Since 1945 pp. 242

[edit] External links

Languages