USS Shark (SS-314)

USS Shark being launched at Electric Boat Company
History
Builder:	Electric Boat Company, Groton, Connecticut
Laid down:	28 January 1943
Launched:	17 October 1943
Sponsored by:	Mrs. Albert Thomas
Commissioned:	14 February 1944
Fate:	Sunk by Japanese destroyer Harukaze off Taiwan, 24 October 1944 - all 87 people on board died.
Status:	Wreck
General characteristics
Class and type:	Balao-class diesel-electric submarine
Displacement:	1,526 long tons (1,550 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:	16 ft 10 in (5.13 m) maximum
Propulsion:	4 × General Motors Model 16-278A 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:	20.25 kn (37.5 km/h) surfaced 8.75 kn (16.2 km/h) submerged
Range:	11,000 nautical miles (20,000 km) surfaced at 10 kn (19 km/h)
Endurance:	48 hours at 2 kn (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

USS Shark (SS-314), a Balao-class submarine, was the sixth ship of the United States Navy to be named for the shark, a large marine predator.

Construction began in 1943 and commissioning occurred in 1944. Following shake down the Shark was deployed to the Pacific where she attacked ships and rescued downed airmen. The Shark was sunk on its third patrol by a Japanese destroyer on 24 October 1944. In the engagement in which it was sunk, Shark torpedoed and sank the Japanese freighter Arisan Maru. The Arisan Maru was transporting captured Americans but carried no markings or flag indicating this. The Americans had no way of recognizing the Arisan was a prison ship. The sinking of the Arisan Maru is the greatest loss of American life in a single military sinking.

Her keel was laid down by the Electric Boat Company in Groton, Connecticut, on 28 January 1943. She was launched on 17 October 1943 (sponsored by Mrs. Albert Thomas, the wife of Albert Thomas, the United States Congressman from the Eighth District of Texas), and commissioned on 14 February 1944 with Commander Edward Noe Blakely in command.

Following shakedown off New London, Connecticut, Shark transited the Panama Canal and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 24 April 1944 for final training in the Hawaiian area. Her first war patrol commenced on 16 May 1944 and was conducted in waters west of the Mariana Islands as part of a coordinated attack group with submarines Pintado (SS-387) and Pilotfish (SS-386). Early on the morning of 2 June, Shark submerged ahead of an enemy convoy and fired a spread of torpedoes at a Japanese tanker. Although all missed the original target, the torpedoes continued on to hit and sink another enemy vessel, the 4,700-ton cargo ship, Chiyo Maru. After evading an ensuing depth charge attack, the submarine continued her patrol.