ARA Santa Fe sailing on surface |
|
| Career | |
|---|---|
| Builder: | Electric Boat Company, Groton, Connecticut[1] |
| Laid down: | 6 January 1944[1] |
| Launched: | 19 November 1944[1] |
| Acquired: | 1 July 1971 from the United States Navy[1] |
| Fate: | Disabled and captured by British forces during Falklands War and later scuttled |
| General characteristics (Guppy II) | |
| Displacement: |
1,870 tons (1,900 t) surfaced[2] |
| Length: | 307 ft (94 m) [3] |
| Beam: | 27 ft 4 in (8.33 m) [3] |
| Draft: | 17 ft (5.2 m) [3] |
| Propulsion: |
4 × diesel engines with a snorkel, driving electrical generators[2] |
| Speed: |
Surfaced:
Submerged:
|
| Range: | 15,000 nm (28,000 km) surfaced at 11 knots (20 km/h)[3] |
| Endurance: | 48 hours at 4 knots (7.4 km/h) submerged[3] |
| Complement: | 9–10 officers 5 petty officers 70 enlisted men[3] |
| Sensors and processing systems: |
WFA active sonar JT passive sonar Mk 106 torpedo fire control system[3] |
| Armament: |
10 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes |
The ARA Santa Fe was an Argentine Balao-class submarine which was lost during the Falklands War. Built during the Second World War, the submarine served in United States Navy as USS Catfish before being commissioned into the Argentine Navy in 1971. She served until 1982 when she was captured by the British at South Georgia after being seriously damaged and subsequently sank along a pier, with just her sail visible above the waterline. The submarine was raised, towed out of the bay and scuttled in deep waters in 1985.
The submarine was built during the Second World War by the Electric Boat Company of Groton, Connecticut, USA and was launched on November 19, 1944. Commissioned into the US Navy as USS Catfish, the submarine entered service in March 1945. As Catfish the submarine took part in the closing stages of the Pacific war against Japan. Afterwards she served in the US 7th fleet in the Pacific Ocean seeing service in the Korean War. After this period the boat was given a Guppy III conversion.
In 1971, Catfish was decommissioned and sold to Argentina where she was renamed ARA Santa Fe.
In 1982, the Santa Fe took part in the Falklands War (Spanish: Guerra de las Malvinas/Guerra del Atlántico Sur) alongside the ARA San Luis, the only two operative submarines in the Argentine Navy. The Santa Fe supported the Argentine invasion by landing tactical divers on Yorke Bay, who marked the beach for the main amphibious force and seized the lighthouse. Later she departed from the islands and stayed on station in the nearby area as a large British task force approached the South Atlantic.
On April 12, the Santa Fe was ordered to ferry a party of marines based at Puerto Belgrano and supplies to Grytviken, in South Georgia. She departed from Mar del Plata on the first hours of April 17.[4]
On April 23 the Royal Navy ships, HMS Brilliant; HMS Antrim; HMS Plymouth; and the ice patrol boat HMS Endurance were sent to retake the island of South Georgia with a detachment of Royal Marines and Special Boat Service commandos. The threat of Santa Fe forced the British ships to keep a distance as they landed troops on the island.
The Santa Fe accomplished the resupply mission and landed the marine troops on April 25. Members of the Argentine garrison had salvaged a crippled BAS launch, which was used to download the cargo.[5] Some hours later, after leaving Grytviken, Santa Fe was detected on radar by Lieutenant Chris Parry, the observer of the Westland Wessex HAS.3 anti-submarine helicopter from HMS Antrim, and attacked with depth charges. This attack caused extensive internal damage, including the splitting of a ballast tank, the dismounting of electrical components and shocks to the machinery. As the submarine struggled to return to Grytviken on the surface, HMS Plymouth launched a Westland Wasp HAS.1 helicopter, and HMS Brilliant launched a Westland Lynx HAS.2. The Lynx dropped a Mk 46 torpedo, which failed to strike home, but strafed the submarine with its pintle-mounted 7.62 mm L7 General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG). The Wessex also fired on the Santa Fe with its GPMG. The Wasp from HMS Plymouth as well as two other Wasps launched from HMS Endurance fired AS-12 air-to-surface anti-ship missiles at the submarine scoring hits. Santa Fe's men and the marines onshore attempted to fight off the attack by firing their rifles, machine guns and an old Bantam antitank missile on the aircraft, but the Argentine boat was damaged badly enough to prevent her from submerging or even from sailing away. The crew abandoned the listing submarine at the jetty at King Edward Point on South Georgia and surrendered, along with the Argentine garrison, to the British forces.[6][7]
Whilst under guard on the submarine by a British Royal Marine, Argentine Navy Petty Officer Felix Artuso, was mistakenly shot dead on April 26 while a Prisoner of war and is buried at Grytviken Cemetery.[8][9]. He was shot in the belief he was trying to sabotage the vessel[6] According to some members of her crew, in the middle of the confusion that followed the incident, a number of valves and hatchways were left open, the submarine flooded and sank alongside the pier, with only her combat-damaged conning tower showing above the surface.[10][11]
After the conflict had ended, the Santa Fe was considered to be worthless as a war prize because she was non-standard, obsolete, badly damaged and too expensive to repair. As a result, the submarine was temporarily raised by the British, towed into deep water and scuttled on February 10, 1985.
