USS Gato (SS-212)

History
Builder:	Electric Boat Company, Groton, Connecticut
Laid down:	5 October 1940
Launched:	21 August 1941
Commissioned:	31 December 1941
Decommissioned:	16 March 1946
Struck:	1 March 1960
Fate:	Sold for scrap, 25 July 1960
General characteristics
Class and type:	Gato-class diesel-electric submarine
Displacement:	1,525 tons (1,549 t) surfaced 2,424 tons (2,460 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 knots (39 km/h) surfaced 9 knots (17 km/h) submerged
Range:	11,000 nm (20,000 km) surfaced at 10 knots (19 km/h)
Endurance:	48 hours at 2 knots (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 × 4-inch (102 mm) / 50 caliber deck gun Bofors 40 mm and Oerlikon 20 mm cannon

USS Gato (SS-212) was the lead ship of her class of submarine in the United States Navy. She was the first Navy ship named for the gato, a species of small catshark found in waters along the west coast of Mexico.

Her keel was laid down 5 October 1940, by the Electric Boat Company of Groton, Connecticut. She was launched 21 August 1941 sponsored by Mrs. Louise Ingersoll, wife of Admiral Royal E. Ingersoll, and commissioned 31 December 1941 with Lieutenant Commander William Girard Myers (Class of 1926) in command.

After shakedown at New London, Connecticut, Gato departed 16 February 1942, for Pearl Harbor via the Panama Canal and San Francisco. On her first war patrol from Pearl Harbor (20 April – 10 June 1942), she unsuccessfully attacked a converted aircraft carrier 3 May before being driven away by the fierce depth charging of four destroyers off the Marshall Islands. On 24 May she was ordered to patrol the western approaches to Midway, taking station 280 miles (450 km) westward during the Battle of Midway.

On her second war patrol (2 July – 29 August 1942), she patrolled east of the Kurile Islands toward the Aleutian chain. She obtained four torpedo hits with unconfirmed damage to a ship 15 August 1942, and terminated her patrol at Dutch Harbor, Alaska. Her third patrol (4 September – 23 December 1942) included operations off Kiska; then she steamed via Midway and Pearl Harbor to Truk atoll, where her attack 6 December on a convoy was broken off by aerial bombs and a severe depth charge attack by three destroyers. This patrol terminated at Brisbane, Australia, 23 December 1942.

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Wikipedia