USS Halibut (SS-232)

Halibut on the Piscataqua River at Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, on 3 December 1941, just after her launching. She is dressed overall.
History
Builder:	Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine
Laid down:	16 May 1941
Launched:	3 December 1941
Sponsored by:	Mrs. P. T. Blackburn
Commissioned:	10 April 1942
Decommissioned:	18 July 1945
Struck:	8 May 1946
Fate:	Sold for scrap, 9 December 1946
General characteristics
Class and type:	Gato-class diesel-electric submarine
Displacement:	1,525 long tons (1,549 t) surfaced 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 (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) surfaced 9 kn (17 km/h) submerged
Range:	11,000 nautical miles (20,000 km) surfaced at 10 kn (19 km/h)
Endurance:	48 hours at 2 kn (3.7 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 Halibut (SS-232), a Gato-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the halibut, a large species of flatfish. Her keel was laid down by the Portsmouth Navy Yard at Kittery, Maine on 16 May 1941. She was launched on 3 December 1941, sponsored by Mrs. P. T. Blackburn, and commissioned on 10 April 1942 with Commander Philip H. Ross, United States Naval Academy class of 1927, in command.

Halibut completed her outfitting and shakedown cruise 23 June 1942 and departed for the Pacific, arriving Pearl Harbor on 27 June. She departed Hawaii 9 August for the Aleutian Islands area for her first patrol. After searching Chichagof Harbor and the waters off Kiska Island, the submarine engaged in an indecisive gunnery duel with a freighter on 23 August. Finding few targets, she terminated her patrol at Dutch Harbor on 23 September.

Her second patrol was also off the Aleutians. She departed Dutch Harbor on 2 October 1942 and surfaced for a torpedo attack on what appeared to be a large freighter on 11 October. The ship, a decoy (Q-ship) equipped with concealed guns and torpedo tubes, attacked Halibut with high-explosive shells and a torpedo as the submarine took radical evasive action to escape the trap. After eluding her assailant she returned to Dutch Harbor on 23 October and Pearl Harbor on 31 October 1942.