USS Sea Poacher (SS-406)

History
United States
Name:	USS Sea Poacher
Builder:	Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine
Laid down:	23 February 1944
Launched:	20 May 1944
Commissioned:	31 July 1944
Decommissioned:	15 November 1969
Struck:	15 August 1973
Identification:	SS-406
Fate:	Transferred to Peru, 1 July 1974
Peru
Name:	Initially BAP Pabellón de Pica, changed a few weeks later to La Pedrera
Acquired:	1 July 1974
Decommissioned:	1995
Identification:	S49
General characteristics
Class and type:	Balao-class diesel-electric submarine
Displacement:	1,526 tons (1,550 t) surfaced 2,401 tons (2,440 t) submerged
Length:	311 ft 8 in (95.00 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 10-cylinder opposed piston diesel engines driving electrical generators 2 × 126-cell Sargo batteries 4 × high-speed Elliott 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 (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, 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
General characteristics (Guppy IA)
Class and type:	none
Displacement:	1,830 tons (1,859 t) surfaced 2,440 tons (2,479 t) submerged
Length:	307 ft 7 in (93.75 m)
Beam:	27 ft 4 in (8.33 m)
Draft:	17 ft (5.2 m)
Propulsion:	Snorkel added Batteries upgraded to Sargo II
Speed:	Surfaced: 17.3 knots (32.0 km/h) maximum 12.5 knots (23.2 km/h) cruising Submerged: 15.0 knots (27.8 km/h) for ½ hour 7.5 knots (13.9 km/h) snorkeling 3.0 knots (5.6 km/h) cruising
Range:	17,000 nautical miles (31,000 km) surfaced at 11 knots (20 km/h)
Endurance:	36 hours at 3 knots (6 km/h) submerged
Complement:	10 officers 5 petty officers 64–69 enlisted men
Armament:	10 × 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes  (six forward, four aft) all guns removed

USS Sea Poacher (SS/AGSS-406), a Balao-class submarine, was a vessel of the United States Navy named for the sea poacher, a slender, mailed fish of the North Atlantic.

Sea Poacher (SS-406) was built by the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine; launched on 20 May 1944; sponsored by Mrs. J. H. Spiller, wife of Commander Spiller, hull superintendent at the Navy Yard; and commissioned on 31 July 1944, Commander Francis M. Gambacorta in command.

Following underway trials, training, and shakedown in the Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and New London, Connecticut, areas, Sea Poacher transited the Panama Canal and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 25 October 1944. Although her first two war patrols were unproductive, during the third, conducted in the Kuril Islands area, Sea Poacher torpedoed and sank a Japanese trawler and, four days later, sent two fishing boats to the bottom in a surface attack. During the latter action, three crewmen were injured when the 20 millimeter gun exploded. Due to the seriousness of their injuries, the patrol was terminated ahead of schedule, and the submarine returned to Midway.

After conducting her fourth war patrol off the eastern coast of Honshū and Hokkaidō, Sea Poacher was undergoing refitting at Pearl Harbor when the war ended on 15 August 1945.

From 1946 to 1949, Sea Poacher was based at Balboa, Canal Zone, as a unit of Submarine Squadron 6 (SubRon 6) engaging in fleet exercises and antisubmarine training, and, on 1 June 1949, was transferred to Key West, Florida, as a unit of SubRon 4. In 1951, the submarine became the first GUPPY IA conversion performed at the Charleston Naval Shipyard.

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