USS Cusk (SS-348)

History
Builder:	Electric Boat Company, Groton, Connecticut
Laid down:	25 May 1944
Launched:	28 July 1945
Commissioned:	5 February 1946
Decommissioned:	24 September 1969
Struck:	24 September 1969
Fate:	Sold for scrap, 26 June 1972
General characteristics
Class and type:	Balao class diesel-electric submarine
Displacement:	1,526 tons (1,550 t) surfaced 2,424 tons (2,463 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 knots (38 km/h) surfaced 8.75 knots (16 km/h) submerged
Range:	11,000 nautical miles (20,000 km) surfaced at 10 knots (19 km/h)
Endurance:	48 hours at 2 knots (3.7 km/h) submerged 75 days on patrol
Test depth:	400 ft (120 m)
Complement:	10 officers, 70–71 enlisted
Armament:	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
Cusk (SSG-348) firing a KGW-1 Loon (V-1) missile, 1951.

USS Cusk (SS/SSG/AGSS-348), a Balao-class submarine, was a ship of the United States Navy named for the cusk, a large food fish related to the cod.

Cusk was launched 28 July 1945 by Electric Boat, Groton, Conn.; cosponsored by Mrs. C. S. Gillette, and Mrs. W. G. Reed; and commissioned 5 February 1946, Commander Paul E. Summers in command.

Departing New London 24 April 1946, Cusk made an extended cruise through the Caribbean Sea, and arrived at San Diego 6 June 1946. She sailed to Alaska and northern waters between 16 July and 20 August, then carried out local operations out of San Diego. A pioneer in the missile field, Cusk was fitted with a missile hangar and launching ramp just aft of her sail in 1947. She was designated SSG-348, 20 January 1948 and was the first submarine to launch a guided missile (a Republic-Ford JB-2 Loon, derived from the German V-1 flying bomb) from her own deck, a forerunner of the cruise missile and ballistic missile submarines of the future.

She entered Mare Island Naval Shipyard for a "Fleet Snorkel" conversion and modernization in 1954, but remained in the Regulus missile program because of her special guidance equipment, although redesignated SS-348 on 1 July 1954.

Cusk arrived at Pearl Harbor, her new home port, 13 May 1957. Continuing her missile guidance duties with consorts Tunny (SSG-282), and Carbonero (SS-337) she operated in Hawaiian waters with a cruise to San Diego in 1957 and duty in the Far East in 1958 and 1960.