USS Gar (SS-206)

History
Builder:	Electric Boat Company, Groton, Connecticut
Laid down:	27 December 1939
Launched:	27 November 1940
Commissioned:	14 April 1941
Decommissioned:	11 December 1945
Struck:	1 August 1959
Fate:	Sold for scrap, 11 December 1959
General characteristics
Class and type:	Tambor class diesel-electric submarine
Displacement:	1,475 long tons (1,499 t) standard, surfaced 2,370 long tons (2,410 t) submerged
Length:	307 ft 2 in (93.62 m)
Beam:	27 ft 3 in (8.31 m)
Draft:	14 ft 7 1⁄2 in (4.458 m)
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:	20.4 knots (38 km/h) surfaced 8.75 knots (16 km/h) submerged
Range:	11,000 nautical miles (20,000 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h)
Endurance:	48 hours at 2 knots (3.7 km/h) submerged
Test depth:	250 ft (76 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 Gar (SS-206), a Tambor-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the gar, a fish of the Lepisosteidae family.

Her keel was laid down by the Electric Boat Company in Groton, Connecticut. She was launched on 7 November 1940 sponsored by Mrs. Pettengill, wife of Rear Admiral George T. Pettengill, and commissioned at New London on 14 April 1941 with Lieutenant D. McGregor in command.

During 1941, Gar along with Trout and Tambor, was used as a target in the study of the effectiveness of depth charges. She was submerged to periscope depth and subjected to explosions of 300lbs of TNT set at various distances from the submarine. The data generated by these tests influenced the design of shock proofing in later submarines.

After shakedown training along the New England seaboard from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and New London, Connecticut, Gar departed New London 24 November and transited the Panama Canal on 3 December 1941 en route to San Diego, California, where she arrived three days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. She prepared for combat in the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, then departed San Francisco, California, on 15 January 1942 for Pearl Harbor. Her maiden patrol, from 2 February to 28 March, was conducted around Nagoya and the Kii Channel entrance to the Inland Sea of Japan. She torpedoed and sank the 1520-ton cargo ship Chichiubu Maru on 13 March.

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Wikipedia