USS Medregal (SS-480)

History
Builder:	Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine
Laid down:	21 August 1944
Launched:	15 December 1944
Commissioned:	14 April 1945
Decommissioned:	1 August 1970
Struck:	1 August 1970
Fate:	Sold for scrap, 13 June 1972
General characteristics
Class and type:	Tench-class diesel-electric submarine
Displacement:	1,570 tons (1,595 t) surfaced 2,414 tons (2,453 t) submerged
Length:	311 ft 8 in (95.00 m)
Beam:	27 ft 4 in (8.33 m)
Draft:	17 ft (5.2 m) maximum
Propulsion:	4 × Fairbanks-Morse Model 38D8-⅛ 10-cylinder opposed piston diesel engines driving electrical generators 2 × 126-cell Sargo batteries 2 × low-speed direct-drive Elliott electric motors two propellers 5,400 shp (4.0 MW) surfaced 2,740 shp (2.0 MW) submerged
Speed:	20.25 knots (38 km/h) surfaced 8.75 knots (16 km/h) submerged
Range:	11,000 nautical miles (20,000 km) surfaced at 10 knots (19 km/h)
Endurance:	48 hours at 2 knots (3.7 km/h) submerged 75 days on patrol
Test depth:	400 ft (120 m)
Complement:	10 officers, 71 enlisted
Armament:	10 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 6 forward, 4 aft) 28 torpedoes 1 × 5-inch (127 mm) / 25 caliber deck gun Bofors 40 mm and Oerlikon 20 mm cannon

USS Medregal (SS-480/AGSS-480), a Tench-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the medregal, a streamlined, fast-swimming, bluish-colored fish of the jack family which abounds in waters of the West Indies and in the Atlantic as far north as the Carolinas.

Medregal's keel was laid down by the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on 21 August 1944. She was launched on 15 December 1944, sponsored by Mrs. A. H. Taylor, and was commissioned on 14 April 1945, Commander William M. Wright in command with E. C. Linden as Exec (executive officer). Medregal departed Portsmouth in April 1945. A collision with a U.S. destroyer escort off the north coast of Panama while submerged caused major damage to the periscope shears and radar, requiring a return to Portsmouth just at the time that Germany surrendered. After repairs and Air/Sea Rescue modifications, Medregal departed New London, Connecticut, on 16 June, and steamed to participate in final operations in the Pacific against the Japanese. The surrender of Japan halted her long Pacific voyage and she returned to the Canal Zone, thence to Key West, Florida, for operations with Submarine Squadron 4.

From late 1945 to mid-1957 Medregal operated out of Key West, training Reserves, supporting activities of the Fleet Sonar School, and taking part in antisubmarine warfare exercises. Her cruises sent her along the east coast from Florida to Virginia, into the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, and to operating areas in the western Atlantic. Periodically she deployed to Guantanamo Bay and Havana, Cuba, as well us to Puerto Rico and islands of the West Indies. From March to November 1952 she underwent conversion to a Fleet Snorkel submarine at Charleston, South Carolina.

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