USS Barbero (SSG-317)

Barbero after conversion to guided missile submarine in 1955
History
United States
Builder:	General Dynamics Electric Boat, Groton, Connecticut
Laid down:	25 March 1943
Launched:	12 December 1943
Commissioned:	29 April 1944
Decommissioned:	30 June 1950
Recommissioned:	28 October 1955
Decommissioned:	30 June 1964
Struck:	1 July 1964
Fate:	Sunk as a target off Pearl Harbor on 7 October 1964
General characteristics
Class and type:	Balao-class diesel-electric submarine
Displacement:	1,526 tons (1,550 t) surfaced, 2,424 tons (2,460 t) submerged
Length:	311 ft 9 in (95.02 m)
Beam:	27 ft 3 in (8.31 m)
Draft:	16 ft 10 in (5.13 m)maximum
Propulsion:	4 × General Motors Model 16-278A V16 diesel engines driving electrical generators 2 × 126-cell Sargo batteries 4 × high-speed General Electric electric motors with reduction gears two propellers 5,400 shp (4.0 MW) surfaced 2,740 shp (2.0 MW) submerged
Speed:	20.25 kn (37.50 km/h) surfaced, 8.75 kn (16.21 km/h) submerged
Range:	11,000 nmi (20,000 km) @ 10 kn (19 km/h)
Endurance:	48 hours @ 2 kn (3.7 km/h) submerged, 75 days on patrol
Test depth:	400 ft (120 m)
Complement:	10 officers, 70–71 enlisted
Armament:	As built: 10 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 6 forward, 4 aft 24 torpedoes 1 × 5-inch (127 mm) / 25 caliber deck gun Bofors 40 mm and Oerlikon 20 mm cannon As Regulus missile submarine 1955-64: 1 × Regulus missile hangar and launcher 2 × Regulus I missiles 6 × 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes (forward) 14 torpedoes

USS Barbero (SS/SSA/SSG-317) was a Balao-class submarine of the United States Navy, named for a family of fishes commonly called surgeon fish.

Barbero was laid by the Electric Boat Company of Groton, Connecticut on 25 March 1943. She was launched on 12 December 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Katherine R. Keating, and commissioned on 29 April 1944, Lieutenant Commander Irvin S. Hartman in command.

Barbero's war operations span the period from 9 August 1944– 2 January 1945, during which she completed two war patrols. She is credited with sinking three Japanese merchant ships totaling 9,126 tons while patrolling in the Java and South China Seas.

Barbero embarked on her first war patrol from Pearl Harbor on 9 August 1944. She reached her patrol area, located east of the central Philippines off San Bernardino Strait, on 24 August. Though she had been stationed there to report and to interdict any attempt by the Japanese to use the strait to contest the Allied invasion of the Palau Islands, they tried no such move. Moreover, during the 31 days that she spent in the area, she encountered no large target. The high point of the patrol came when Barbero lobbed 25 rounds at a radar station on Batag Island with her 5 in (127 mm) deck gun. Though she obtained no definite results, her failure to detect radar activity the following night prompted her claim to have neutralized the station. The submarine cleared the area on 24 September 1944 and headed for western Australia, concluding a disappointing 56-day patrol at Fremantle on 4 October.