ARA Santa Fe (S-21)

USS Catfish sailing on surface
History
Argentina
Name:	ARA Santa Fe
Builder:	Electric Boat Company, Groton, Connecticut
Laid down:	6 January 1944
Launched:	19 November 1944
Acquired:	1 July 1971 from the United States Navy
Fate:	Disabled and captured by British forces on 25 April 1982 at South Georgia Island during Falklands War and later scuttled
General characteristics (Guppy II)
Class and type:	Balao-class submarine
Displacement:	1,870 tons (1,900 t) surfaced 2,440 tons (2,480 t) submerged
Length:	307 ft (94 m)
Beam:	27 ft 4 in (8.33 m)
Draft:	17 ft (5.2 m)
Propulsion:	4 × diesel engines with a snorkel, driving electrical generators GUPPY type batteries, 504 cells (1 × 184 cell, 1 × 68 cell, and 2 × 126 cell batteries) 2 × low-speed direct drive electric motors two propellers
Speed:	Surfaced: 18 knots (33 km/h) maximum 13.5 knots (25.0 km/h) cruising Submerged: 16 knots (30 km/h) for ½ hour 9 knots (17 km/h) snorkeling 3.5 knots (6.5 km/h) cruising
Range:	15,000 nautical miles (28,000 km) surfaced at 11 knots (20 km/h)
Endurance:	48 hours at 4 knots (7.4 km/h) submerged
Complement:	9–10 officers 5 petty officers 70 enlisted men
Sensors and processing systems:	WFA active sonar JT passive sonar Mk 106 torpedo fire control system
Armament:	10 × 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes  (six forward, four aft)

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 (SS-339) 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 and was launched on 19 November 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 Seventh Fleet in the Pacific Ocean seeing service in the Korean War. After this period, the boat was given a Guppy II conversion.

In 1971, Catfish was decommissioned and sold to Argentina, where she was renamed ARA Santa Fe.

In 1982, Santa Fe took part in the Falklands War (Spanish: Guerra de las Malvinas/Guerra del Atlántico Sur) alongside San Luis, the only two operative submarines in the Argentine Navy. Santa Fe supported the Argentine invasion by landing tactical divers at 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 naval submarine base at the city of Mar del Plata as a large British task force approached the South Atlantic.