USS Robalo (SS-273)

History
Name:	Robalo
Builder:	Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company, Manitowoc, Wisconsin
Laid down:	24 October 1942
Launched:	9 May 1943
Commissioned:	28 September 1943
Struck:	16 September 1944
Fate:	Mined west of Palawan, 26 July 1944. 4 of the 81 crew survived, died as POW's
General characteristics
Class and type:	Gato-class diesel-electric submarine
Displacement:	1,525 tons (1,549 t) surfaced 2,424 tons (2,460 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 × General Motors Model 16-248 V16 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 nmi (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 Robalo (SS-273), a Gato-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the róbalo or common snook. Her keel was laid down on 24 October 1942 by the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company at Manitowoc, Wisconsin. She was launched on 9 May 1943, sponsored by Mrs. E.S. Root, and commissioned on 28 September 1943.

After passage by inland waterways and being floated down the Mississippi River, Robalo deployed to the Pacific. On her first war patrol (under the leadership of Commander Stephen Ambruster, Annapolis Class of 1928), she sortied from Pearl Harbor, hunting Japanese ships west of the Philippines. On 12 February 1944 Armbruster reported seeing a large 2 masted sailboat. There, en route to her new station in Fremantle submarine base, Western Australia, she had an encounter with enemy vessels: on 13 February 1944 east of the Verde Island Passage the Rabalo had come across a convoy of two large ships escorted by a minesweeper which dropped 13 depth charges and fired twice at the submarine with a deck gun; although USS Robalo is "credited" with damaging a large freighter, firing four torpedoes at 3,100 yards (2,800 m) in fact the attack was unsuccessful and no enemy vessels were damaged or sunk. She spent 36 of her 57-day mission submerged. When she arrived, her commanding officer was summarily relieved by Admiral Christie and replaced with Manning Kimmel (Class of 1935).

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