USS Darter (SS-227)

Darter (SS-227), "Down the Ways," 6 June 1943.
History
United States
Name:	USS Darter
Builder:	Electric Boat Company, Groton, Connecticut
Laid down:	20 October 1942
Launched:	6 June 1943
Sponsored by:	Mrs. E. B. Wheeler
Commissioned:	7 September 1943
Fate:	Grounded in the Palawan Strait and scuttled on 24 October 1944
General characteristics
Class and type:	Gato-class diesel-electric submarine
Displacement:	1,525 long tons (1,549 t) surfaced, 2,424 long tons (2,463 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 (24 mph; 39 km/h) surfaced, 9 kn (10 mph; 17 km/h) submerged
Range:	11,000 nmi (13,000 mi; 20,000 km) surfaced @ 10 kn (12 mph; 19 km/h)
Endurance:	48 hours @ 2 kn (2.3 mph; 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 Darter (SS-227), a Gato-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the darter fish.

Her keel was laid down on 20 October 1942 by the Electric Boat Company of Groton, Connecticut. She was launched on 6 June 1943 (sponsored by Mrs. E. B. Wheeler, wife of Edwin B. Wheeler, Shipbuilding Manager of Electric Boat Company, Groton, Connecticut), and commissioned on 7 September 1943, Commander William S. "Gin" Stovall, Jr. in command.

Darter put out from New London, Connecticut on 31 October 1943 for Pearl Harbor, arriving on 26 November.

On 21 December 1943, she cleared harbor on her first war patrol, bound for the heavily traveled shipping lanes south and west of Truk. This patrol was twice interrupted for repairs, at Pearl Harbor from 29 December 1943 – 3 January 1944, and at Tulagi and Milne Bay from 30 January–8 February. She performed a reconnaissance of Eniwetok on 12 January, and the next day scored a torpedo hit on a large ship, only to receive a severe depth-charging from her target’s escorts. She stood by on patrol during the carrier air strikes on Truk of 16–17 February, then fueled at Milne Bay on her way to refit at Brisbane from 29 February-17 March. She suffered her only casualty of the war during this refit when Motor Machinist's Mate, Second Class Robert Richard Gould, Jr. was electrocuted.

On her way to her second war patrol north of Western New Guinea and south of Davao, Darter topped off fuel at Milne Bay on 21–22 March 1944. On 30 March, she sank a cargo ship, then patrolled off New Guinea during Allied landings on its coast. She put into Darwin to refuel on 29–30 April, then returned to her patrol area until 23 May, when she arrived at Manus Island.