History | |
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Builder: | Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine |
Laid down: | 14 July 1941 |
Launched: | 5 January 1942 |
Sponsored by: | Mrs. Ray Spear |
Commissioned: | 4 May 1942 |
Fate: | Sunk by Japanese shore defense batteries on Matua Island, 1 June 1944 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type: | Gato-class diesel-electric submarine |
Displacement: |
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Length: | 311 ft 9 in (95.02 m) |
Beam: | 27 ft 3 in (8.31 m) |
Draft: | 17 ft (5.2 m) maximum |
Propulsion: |
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Speed: |
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Range: | 11,000 nmi (20,000 km) surfaced at 10 kn (19 km/h) |
Endurance: |
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Test depth: | 300 ft (90 m) |
Complement: | 6 officers, 54 enlisted |
Armament: |
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USS Herring (SS-233), a Gato-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the herring, a type of small oily fish found in the temperate, shallow waters of the North Atlantic.
Her keel was laid down 14 July 1941 by the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine. She was launched on 15 January 1942 (sponsored by Mrs. Ray Spear, wife of Rear Admiral Ray Spear, Chief of the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts), and commissioned on 4 May 1942 with Lieutenant Commander Raymond W. Johnson (Class of 1930) in command.
After shakedown, the new submarine was one of five sent to the Mediterranean Sea to take station off the North African coast prior to Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa. Reaching her position off Casablanca on 5 November 1942, Herring remained there, spotting but not attacking several targets. On the morning of 8 November as the invasion was launched, the patient sub had her chance, sinking the 5,700 ton cargo ship Ville du Havre. Herring returned to Rosneath, Scotland, on 25 November and departed for her second war patrol 16 December, but targets were scarce. The fourth war patrol, an antisubmarine sweep in Icelandic waters, and fifth patrol, which took her back to the United States on 26 July 1943, netted Herring no more kills.