USS Ray (SS-271)

History
Builder:	Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company, Manitowoc, Wisconsin
Laid down:	20 July 1942
Launched:	28 February 1943
Commissioned:	27 July 1943
Decommissioned:	12 February 1947
Recommissioned:	13 August 1952
Decommissioned:	30 September 1958
Struck:	1 April 1960
Fate:	Sold for scrap, 18 December 1960
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 0 in (5.18 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:	21 knots (39 km/h) surfaced 9 knots (17 km/h) submerged
Range:	11,000 nautical miles (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 × 3-inch (76 mm) / 50 caliber deck gun Bofors 40 mm and Oerlikon 20 mm cannon

USS Ray (SS/SSR-271), a Gato-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the ray, a fish characterized by a flat body, large pectoral fins, and a whiplike tail.

The first Ray (SS-271), an attack submarine, was laid down 20 July 1942; launched 28 February 1943 by Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co., Manitowoc, Wisconsin; sponsored by Mrs. S. C. Loomis; and commissioned 27 July 1943, Lt. Comdr. B. J. Harral in command.

After training in Lake Michigan until 15 August, Ray arrived Coco Solo, C.Z., via New Orleans on 31 August for intensive training. Departing Panama on 5 October, she reached Brisbane on 30 October.

Departing Milne Bay, New Guinea, on 13 November for her first war patrol, Ray searched the area north of the Bismarck Archipelago. On the New Hanover-Truk shipping lane, she made radar contact with a three-ship convoy, escorted by three patrol craft. Attacking just before dawn she scored three hits on one of the freighters. Then, after evading the escorts' countermeasures, she followed the convoy and sank the converted gunboat Nikkai Maru with a spread of torpedoes. Before ending her patrol in December, Ray twice unsuccessfully attacked another convoy.

Ray's second patrol, 11 December 1943 to 12 January 1944 was in the Celebes-Ambon-Timor area. Near midnight on 26 December she sighted an unescorted tanker standing out from Tioro Strait. When the enemy ship reached open water, Ray fired a spread of torpedoes which stopped Kyoko Maru dead in the water and sent a huge mushroom of flame into the night sky as the target disintegrated.

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Wikipedia