USS Croaker (SS-246)

Croaker (SS-246), underway, c. 1944–45.
History
Name:	Croaker
Namesake:	Croaker, Fish
Builder:	General Dynamics Electric Boat, Groton, Connecticut
Laid down:	1 April 1943
Launched:	19 December 1943
Commissioned:	21 April 1944
Decommissioned:	15 June 1946
Recommissioned:	7 May 1951
Decommissioned:	18 March 1953
Recommissioned:	11 December 1953
Decommissioned:	2 April 1968
Struck:	20 December 1971
Status:	Museum ship at Groton, Connecticut on 27 June 1976, then to Buffalo, New York.
Badge:
General characteristics
Class and type:	Gato-class diesel-electric submarine
Displacement:	1,525 tons (1,549 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:	17 ft (5.2 m) maximum
Propulsion:	4 × General Motors Model 16-248 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:	21 kn (39 km/h) surfaced, 9 kn (17 km/h) submerged
Range:	11,000 nmi (20,000 km) surfaced @ 10 kn (19 km/h)
Endurance:	48 hours @ 2 kn (3.7 km/h) submerged, 75 days on patrol
Test depth:	300 ft (91 m)
Complement:	6 officers, 54 enlisted
Armament:	10 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 6 forward, 4 aft 24 torpedoes 1 × 3-inch (76 mm) / 50 caliber deck gun Bofors 40 mm and Oerlikon 20 mm cannon
USS Croaker
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location	Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park, Buffalo, New York
Coordinates	42°52′42″N 78°52′54″W / 42.8782°N 78.8817°W / 42.8782; -78.8817Coordinates: 42°52′42″N 78°52′54″W / 42.8782°N 78.8817°W / 42.8782; -78.8817
NRHP Reference #	08000863
Added to NRHP	12 September 2008

USS Croaker (SS/SSK/AGSS/IXSS-246), a Gato-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the croaker, any of various fishes which make throbbing or drumming noises.

Her keel was laid down on 1 April 1943 by Electric Boat Company in Groton, Connecticut. She was launched on 19 December 1943 (sponsored by the wife of Admiral William H. P. Blandy), and commissioned on 21 April 1944, with Commander John E. Lee in command.

Croaker arrived at Pearl Harbor from New London on 26 June 1944, and on 19 July put to sea on her first war patrol, sailing to the East China and Yellow Seas. In a series of brilliantly successful attacks which won her the Navy Unit Commendation, she sank the cruiser Nagara on 7 August, and two freighters, one on 14 August and one on 17 August. During this patrol, she served as lifeguard during air strikes on the Bonin Islands. She refitted at Midway Atoll from 31 August to 23 September, when she sailed in a coordinated attack group for the same area on her second war patrol. Again successful, she sank a freighter on 9 October, and another on 23 October. She shadowed a convoy on 24 October, and sank one freighter and damaged another with her last torpedo. Tubes empty, she returned to Midway to fuel, and pushed on to Pearl Harbor, arriving for refit on 10 November.