USS Needlefish (SS-493)

For other ships of the same name, see USS Needlefish.
Career (United States)
Name: USS Needlefish
Namesake: The needlefish
Builder: Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine (proposed)
Laid down: Never
Fate: Construction contract cancelled 12 August 1945
General characteristics
Class and type:Tench-class diesel-electric submarine [1]
Displacement:1,570 tons (1,595 t) surfaced [1]
2,416 tons (2,455 t) submerged [1]
Length:311 ft 8 in (95.00 m) [1]
Beam:27 ft 4 in (8.33 m) [1]
Draft:17 ft 0 in (5.18 m) maximum [1]
Propulsion:4 × Fairbanks-Morse Model 38D8-⅛ 10-cylinder opposed piston diesel engines driving electrical generators[1][2]

2 × 126-cell Sargo batteries[3]
2 × low-speed direct-drive General Electric electric motors [1]
two propellers [1]
5,400 shp (4.0 MW) surfaced[1]

2,740 shp (2.0 MW) submerged[1]
Speed:20.25 knots (38 km/h) surfaced [3]
8.75 knots (16 km/h) submerged [3]
Range:11,000 nautical miles (20,000 km) surfaced at 10 knots (19 km/h) [3]
Endurance:48 hours at 2 knots (3.7 km/h) submerged [3]
75 days on patrol
Test depth:400 ft (120 m) [3]
Complement:10 officers, 71 enlisted [3]
Armament:10 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes
 (six forward, four aft)
 28 torpedoes[3]
1 × 5-inch (127 mm) / 25 caliber deck gun[3]
Bofors 40 mm and Oerlikon 20 mm cannon

USS Needlefish (SS-493), a proposed World War II Tench-class submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the needlefish, a family of voracious elongate teleost fishes resembling, but not related to, the fresh-water gars. Her construction was authorized on 26 January 1945, but the contract for her construction was cancelled on 12 August 1945 before she was laid down in the Portsmouth Navy Yard at Kittery, Maine.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 1.10 Bauer, K. Jack; Roberts, Stephen S. (1991). Register of Ships of the U.S. Navy, 1775-1990: Major Combatants. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. pp. 280–282. ISBN 0-313-26202-0.
  2. U.S. Submarines Through 1945 pp. 261–263
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 U.S. Submarines Through 1945 pp. 305–311

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.