USS Lionfish (SS-298)

USS Lionfish (SS-298)

USS Lionfish
History
United States
Name:	Lionfish
Namesake:	Lionfish
Builder:	Cramp Shipbuilding Company, Philadelphia / Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine
Laid down:	15 December 1942
Launched:	7 November 1943
Sponsored by:	Mrs. Harold C. Train
Commissioned:	1 November 1944
Decommissioned:	16 January 1946
Recommissioned:	31 January 1951
Decommissioned:	15 December 1953
Struck:	20 December 1971
Status:	Museum ship at Battleship Cove, Fall River, Massachusetts since 30 August 1972
General characteristics
Class and type:	Balao-class submarine
Displacement:	1,526 long tons (1,550 t) surfaced 2,424 long tons (2,463 t) submerged
Length:	311 ft 6 in (94.95 m)
Beam:	27 ft 3 in (8.31 m)
Draft:	16 ft 10 in (5.13 m) maximum
Propulsion:	4 × Fairbanks-Morse Model 38D8-⅛ 9-cylinder opposed piston 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:	20.25 knots (37.50 km/h; 23.30 mph) surfaced 8.75 knots (16.21 km/h; 10.07 mph) submerged
Range:	11,000 nmi (20,000 km; 13,000 mi) surfaced at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Endurance:	48 hours at 2 knots (3.7 km/h; 2.3 mph) submerged 75 days on patrol
Test depth:	400 ft (120 m)
Complement:	10 officers, 70–71 enlisted
Armament:	10 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 6 forward, 4 aft 24 torpedoes 1 × 5-inch (127 mm) / 25 caliber deck gun Bofors 40 mm and Oerlikon 20 mm cannon
USS Lionfish (SS-298)
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Location	Fall River, Massachusetts
Coordinates	41°42′22″N 71°09′47″W / 41.70611°N 71.16306°W / 41.70611; -71.16306Coordinates: 41°42′22″N 71°09′47″W / 41.70611°N 71.16306°W / 41.70611; -71.16306
Built	1943
Architectural style	Other
NRHP Reference #	76002270
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	30 September 1976
Designated NHL	14 January 1986

USS Lionfish (SS-298), a Balao-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy named for the lionfish, a scorpaenid fish native to the Pacific and an invasive species found around the Caribbean. She was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986, and is now on display at Battleship Cove in Fall River, Massachusetts.

Lionfish was laid down on 15 December 1942; launched on 7 November 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Harold C. Train; and commissioned on 1 November 1944. Her first captain was Lieutenant Commander Edward D. Spruance, son of World War II admiral Raymond Spruance.

After completing her shakedown cruise off New England, she began her first war patrol in Japanese waters on 1 April 1945. Ten days later, she avoided two torpedoes fired by a Japanese submarine. On 1 May Lionfish destroyed a Japanese schooner with her deck guns. After a rendezvous with the submarine USS Ray, she transported B-29 survivors to Saipan and then made her way to Midway Island for replenishment.

On 2 June she started her second war patrol, and on 10 July fired torpedoes at a surfaced Japanese submarine, after which Lionfish's crew heard explosions and observed smoke through their periscope (the Submarine I-162 was undamaged). She subsequently fired on two more Japanese submarines. Lionfish ended her second and last war patrol performing lifeguard duty (the rescue of downed fliers) off the coast of Japan. When World War II ended on 15 August she headed for San Francisco and was decommissioned at Mare Island Navy Yard on 16 January 1946.