USS Drum (SS-228)

USS Drum (SS-228)

History
United States
Namesake:	Drum, Fish
Ordered:	12 June 1940
Builder:	Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine
Laid down:	11 September 1940
Launched:	12 May 1941
Sponsored by:	Mrs. Thomas Holcomb
Commissioned:	1 November 1941
Decommissioned:	16 February 1946
Struck:	30 June 1968
Status:	Museum ship at Mobile, Alabama
Badge:
General characteristics
Class and type:	Gato-class diesel-electric submarine
Displacement:	1,490 long tons (1,510 t) surfaced 2,060 long tons (2,090 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 × Fairbanks-Morse Model 38D8- 1⁄8 9-cylinder opposed-piston diesel engines driving electrical generators 2 × 126-cell Sargo batteries 4 × high-speed Elliott electric motors with reduction gears 2 × propellers 5,400 shp (4.0 MW) surfaced 2,740 shp (2.04 MW) submerged
Speed:	21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph) surfaced 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph) submerged
Range:	11,000 nmi (20,000 km; 13,000 mi) surfaced at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Endurance:	48 hours at 2 knots (3.7 km/h; 2.3 mph) submerged, 75 days on patrol
Test depth:	300 ft (91 m)
Complement:	8 officers, 75 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 Drum (submarine)
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
The helm of USS Drum
Location	Mobile, Alabama
Coordinates	30°40′52″N 88°1′0″W / 30.68111°N 88.01667°W / 30.68111; -88.01667Coordinates: 30°40′52″N 88°1′0″W / 30.68111°N 88.01667°W / 30.68111; -88.01667
Built	1941
Architect	Portsmouth Naval Shipyard
NRHP Reference #	86000086
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	14 January 1986
Designated NHL	14 January 1986

USS Drum (SS-228) is a Gato-class submarine of the United States Navy, the first Navy ship named after the drum, any of various types of fish capable of making a drumming sound. Drum is on display as a museum ship in Mobile, Alabama, at Battleship Memorial Park.

Drum was laid down on 11 September 1940 at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine. She was launched on 12 May 1941, sponsored by Mrs. Beatrice M. Holcomb, wife of Major General Thomas Holcomb, Commandant of the United States Marine Corps. The boat was commissioned on 1 November 1941, with Commander Robert H. Rice in command.

Drum was the twelfth of the Gato class but was the first completed and the first to enter combat in World War II. She is the oldest of her class still in existence.

Drum arrived at Pearl Harbor from the East Coast on 1 April 1942, and after a voyage to Midway Atoll, cleared Pearl Harbor on 14 April on her first war patrol. Cruising off the coast of Japan, she sank the Japanese seaplane tender Mizuho on 2 May and afterwards endured a 16-hour depth charge attack consisting of 31 depth charges. Later that month she sank three cargo ships before returning to Pearl Harbor on 12 June to refit.