USS Lionfish |
|
| Career | |
|---|---|
| Builder: | Cramp Shipbuilding Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania / Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth New Hampshire (Now Kittery, Maine)[1] |
| Laid down: | 15 December 1942[1] |
| Launched: | 7 November 1943[1] |
| Commissioned: | 1 November 1944[1] |
| Decommissioned: | 16 January 1946[1] |
| Recommissioned: | 31 January 1951[1] |
| Decommissioned: | 15 December 1953[1] |
| Struck: | 20 December 1971[1] |
| Fate: | Museum ship at Battleship Cove, Fall River, Massachusetts since 30 August 1972[2] |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Balao-class diesel-electric submarine[2] |
| Displacement: | 1,526 tons (1,550 t) surfaced[2] 2,424 tons (2,460 t) submerged[2] |
| Length: | 311 ft 6 in (94.95 m) [2] |
| Beam: | 27 ft 3 in (8.31 m) [2] |
| Draft: | 16 ft 10 in (5.13 m) maximum[2] |
| Propulsion: |
4 × Fairbanks-Morse Model 38D8-⅛ 9-cylinder opposed piston diesel engines driving electrical generators[2][3] |
| Speed: | 20.25 knots (37 km/h) surfaced[4] 8.75 knots (16 km/h) submerged[4] |
| Range: | 11,000 nm (20,000 km) surfaced at 10 knots (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 × 5-inch (127 mm) / 25 caliber deck gun [4] Bofors 40 mm and Oerlikon 20 mm cannon |
USS Lionfish (SS-298), a Balao-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy named for the lionfish, a scorpaenid fish found in the West Indies and the tropical Pacific.
Contents |
Lionfish was laid down on 15 December 1942; launched on 7 November 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Harold C. Train; and commissioned on 1 November 1944. Her first captain was Lieutenant Commander Edward D. Spruance, son of World War II admiral Raymond Spruance.
After completing her shakedown cruise off New England, she began her first war patrol in Japanese waters on 1 April 1945. Ten days later, she avoided two torpedoes fired by a Japanese submarine. On 1 May Lionfish destroyed a Japanese schooner with her deck guns. After a rendezvous with the submarine USS Ray, she transported B-29 survivors to Saipan and then made her way to Midway Island for replenishment.
On 2 June she started her second war patrol, and on 10 July fired torpedoes at a surfaced Japanese submarine, after which Lionfish's crew heard explosions and observed smoke through their periscope {The Submarine I 162 was undamaged}. She subsequently fired on two more Japanese submarines. Lionfish ended her second and last war patrol performing lifeguard duty (the rescue of downed fliers) off the coast of Japan. When World War II ended on 15 August she headed for San Francisco and was decommissioned at Mare Island Navy Yard on 16 January 1946.
Lionfish was recommissioned on 31 January 1951, and headed for the East Coast for training cruises. After participating in NATO exercises and a Mediterranean cruise, she returned to the East Coast and was decommissioned at the Boston Navy Yard on 15 December 1953.
In 1960, the submarine was recommissioned a second time, this time serving as a reserve training submarine at Providence, Rhode Island.
In 1971, she was stricken from the Navy Register. In 1973, she began permanent display as a memorial at Battleship Cove, where she is one of the museum’s most popular exhibits.
The submarine is also featured on the DVD case of the 2007 Ubisoft game Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific.
Media related to [//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:USS_Lionfish_(SS-298) USS Lionfish (SS-298)] at Wikimedia Commons
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