USS Flying Fish (SS-229)
 |
|
| History | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Builder: | Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine |
| Laid down: | 6 December 1940 |
| Launched: | 9 July 1941 |
| Sponsored by: | Mrs. Husband E. Kimmel |
| Commissioned: | 10 December 1941 |
| Decommissioned: | 28 May 1954 |
| Struck: | 1 August 1958 |
| Fate: | Sold for scrap, 1 May 1959 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Gato-class diesel-electric submarine |
| Displacement: |
|
| Length: | 311 ft 9 in (95.02 m) |
| Beam: | 27 ft 3 in (8.31 m) |
| Draft: | 17 ft (5.2 m) maximum |
| Propulsion: |
|
| Speed: |
|
| Range: | 11,000 nautical miles (20,000 km) surfaced at 10 kn (19 km/h) |
| Endurance: |
|
| Test depth: | 300 ft (90 m) |
| Complement: | 6 officers, 54 enlisted |
| Armament: |
|
USS Flying Fish (SS/AGSS-229), a Gato-class submarine, was the first submarine and second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the flying fish, a family of fishes of tropic and warm temperate seas whose long winglike fins make it possible for them to move some distance through the air.
The keel of Flying Fish (SS-229) was laid down on 6 December 1940 by Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine. She was launched 9 July 1941 and sponsored by Mrs. Dorothy K. Kimmel, wife Husband E. Kimmel, Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet). The boat was commissioned 10 December 1941, Lieutenant Commander Glynn "Donc" Donaho (Class of 1927) in command.
Flying Fish is credited with having sunk a total of 58,306 tons of Japanese shipping and received 12 battle stars for World War II service.
Flying Fish arrived at Pearl Harbor for final training 2 May 1942, and 15 days later was ordered out to patrol west of Midway, which was threatened by an expected Japanese attack. During the Battle of Midway 4 – 6 June, she and her sisters fanned out to scout and screen the island, at which she refitted from 9 – 11 June. Continuing her first full war patrol, she searched major shipping lanes in Empire waters (the seas around Japan) and scored a hit on a Japanese destroyer off Taiwan during the night of 3 July. She returned to Midway to refit on 25 July.
On 15 August 1942, she sailed on her second war patrol, bound for a station north of Truk. On 28 August, only three days after arriving on station, Flying Fish sighted the masts of a Japanese battleship (now known to be Yamato), guarded by two destroyers and air cover. She launched four torpedoes at this prime target, and two hits were detected by sonar. Immediately the counterattack began, and as Flying Fish prepared to launch torpedoes at one of the destroyers, rapidly closing to starboard, her commanding officer was blinded by a geyser of water thrown up by a bomb. Flying Fish went deep for cover. A barrage of 36 depth charges followed. When Flying Fish daringly came up to periscope depth 2 hours later, she found the two destroyers still searching, aided by two harbor submarine chasers and five aircraft. A great cloud of black smoke hung over the scene, persisting through the remaining hours of daylight. As Flying Fish upped periscope again a little later, a float plane dropped bombs directly astern, and the alert destroyers closed in. A salvo of torpedoes at one of the destroyers missed, and Flying Fish went deep again to endure another depth charging. Surfacing after dark, she once more attracted the enemy through excessive smoke from one of her engines, and again she was forced down by depth charges. Early in the morning of 29 August, she at last cleared the area to surface and charge her batteries. Possibly the torpedo explosions were premature; Japanese records show no warships lost on 28 August 1942.
...
Wikipedia