USS Scorpion (SS-278)

USS Scorpion (SS-278) stern view off Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine c. July 1942 – February 1943.
History
Name:	USS Scorpion
Builder:	Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine
Laid down:	20 March 1942
Launched:	20 July 1942
Sponsored by:	Ms. Elizabeth T. Monagle
Commissioned:	1 October 1942
Honors and awards:	3 Battle Stars
Fate:	Probably mined in the Yellow Sea after 5 January 1944
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 (5.2 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 kn (24 mph; 39 km/h) surfaced 9 kn (10 mph; 17 km/h) submerged
Range:	11,000 nmi (13,000 mi; 20,000 km) surfaced at 10 kn (12 mph; 19 km/h)
Endurance:	48 hours at 2 kn (2.3 mph; 3.7 km/h) submerged 75 days on patrol
Test depth:	300 ft (91 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 Scorpion (SS-278) — a Gato-class submarine — was the fifth ship of the United States Navy to be named for the scorpion, an arachnid having an elongated body and a narrow segmented tail bearing a venomous sting at the tip.

Her keel was laid down by Portsmouth Naval Shipyard of Kittery, Maine, on 20 March 1942. She was launched on 20 July 1942 sponsored by Ms. Elizabeth T. Monagle, and commissioned on 1 October 1942, Lieutenant Commander William N. Wylie in command.

Following further yard work and fitting out, Scorpion conducted shakedown operations off the southern New England coast in January 1943 and sailed for Panama in late February. In mid-March she transited the Panama Canal, arriving at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 24 March. There she underwent modifications which included the installation of a bathythermograph, a then-new oceanographic instrument to enable her to locate and hide in thermal layers that minimized the effectiveness of sonar equipment.

On 5 April, Scorpion departed Pearl Harbor for her first war patrol, a hunting and mining mission off the east coast of Honshū. On 19 April, she reached the mining area near Nakaminato. During the afternoon she reconnoitered the coast and in the evening she laid her naval mines, then retired to deep water. On 20 April, she sank her first enemy ship – a 1,934 long tons (1,965 t) converted gunboat, Meiji Maru No.1. On 21 April, prior to 01:00, she fired on and destroyed her first sampan in surface action, then moved up the coast to observe the fishing grounds, shipping lanes, and coastline of the Shioya Saki area. On the night of 22 April, she destroyed three more sampans with gunfire and continued north toward Kinkasan To.