USS Shad (SS-235)

Sliding down the launching ways, Shad, backs into the waters of the Portsmouth Navy Yard.
History
Builder:	Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine
Laid down:	24 October 1941
Launched:	15 April 1942
Sponsored by:	Priscilla Alden Dudley
Commissioned:	12 June 1942
Decommissioned:	1947
Struck:	1 April 1960
Fate:	sold for scrap 11 July 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 (5.2 m) maximum
Propulsion:	4 × Fairbanks-Morse Model 38D8- 1⁄8 9-cylinder opposed-piston diesel engines driving electrical generators 2 × 126-cell Sargo batteries 4 × high-speed Elliott electric motors with reduction gears 2 × propellers 5,400 shp (4.0 MW) surfaced 2,740 shp (2.04 MW) submerged
Speed:	21 kn (39 km/h) surfaced 9 knots (17 km/h) submerged
Range:	11,000 nmi (20,000 km) surfaced at 10 kn (19 km/h)
Endurance:	48 hours at 2 kn (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 Shad (SS-235), a Gato-class submarine, was the first submarine and second vessel of the United States Navy to be named for the shad, a fish of the herring family, common along coasts of the United States.

The second Shad was laid down by the Portsmouth Navy Yard (in Kittery, Maine) on 24 October 1941. She was launched on 15 April 1942 (sponsored by Miss Priscilla Alden Dudley), and commissioned on 12 June 1942, with Lieutenant Commander Edgar J. MacGregor III (Class of 1930) in command.

Following shakedown off the New England coast, Shad departed on a special patrol as a unit of Submarine Squadron (SubRon) 50 to a point off the coast of Mehdiya, French Morocco, to conduct reconnaissance in preparation for Operation Torch, the Allied occupation of North Africa. Upon completion, she sailed to Roseneath, Scotland, for repairs and further training.

Shad's second war patrol was conducted in the Bay of Biscay and Spanish coastal waters with other units of SubRon 50 under British command. Although the majority of the vessels she sighted were neutral Spanish ships, the submarine sank an enemy trawler, a barge, and severely damaged a destroyer escort before she returned to Roseneath for refit on 12 February 1943.