USS Flounder (SS-251)

History
Builder:	Electric Boat Company, Groton, Connecticut
Laid down:	5 December 1942
Launched:	22 August 1943
Sponsored by:	Mrs. Astrid H. McClellan
Commissioned:	29 November 1943
Decommissioned:	12 February 1947
Struck:	1 June 1959
Fate:	Scrapped February 1960
General characteristics
Class and type:	Gato-class diesel-electric submarine
Displacement:	1,525 long tons (1,549 t) 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 0 in (5.18 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 at 10 kn (19 km/h)
Endurance:	48 hours at 2 kn (4 km/h) submerged 75 days on patrol
Test depth:	300 ft (90 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 Flounder (SS-251), a Gato class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the flounder, a valuable food fish, many varieties of which are found in great schools along the Atlantic coast north of Cape Cod.

Her keel was laid down by the Electric Boat Company in Groton, Connecticut on 5 December 1942. She was launched on 22 August 1943 (sponsored by Mrs. Astrid H. McClellan), and commissioned on 29 November 1943 with Commander C. A. Johnson in command.

Flounder arrived at Milne Bay, New Guinea, from New London, Connecticut, on 6 March 1944, and 11 days later sailed on her first war patrol, bound for the Palau Islands. Many planes were sighted, limiting her action, and few contacts were made. She returned to Milne Bay to refit, then sailed to Manus for training, and from that base took departure 3 June on her second war patrol. In the Philippine Sea during the assault on the Mariana Islands, Flounder made a sound contact on 17 June which resulted in her sinking a 2,681-ton transport. Escorts immediately began a persistent, vigorous, but ineffective counter-attack. On 24 June, as Flounder sailed on the surface, two enemy planes suddenly dived out of the cloud cover, and dropped bombs which landed close aboard, causing some minor damage. The submarine topped off her fuel tanks at Manus 6 July, and sailed on to Brisbane, Australia, to refit.

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