USS Snook (SS-279)

History
Builder:	Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine
Laid down:	17 April 1942
Launched:	15 August 1942
Commissioned:	24 October 1942
Fate:	Missing since 8 April 1945 east of Taiwan
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 0 in (5.18 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 knots (39 km/h) surfaced 9 knots (17 km/h) submerged
Range:	11,000 nautical miles (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 × 4-inch (102 mm) / 50 caliber deck gun Bofors 40 mm and Oerlikon 20 mm cannon

USS Snook (SS-279), a Gato-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the common snook, an Atlantic marine fish that is bluish-gray above and silvery below a black lateral line.

Snook's keel was laid down by the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine on 17 April 1942. She was launched on 15 August 1942 sponsored by Mrs. Audrey Emanuel Dempsey, wife of Lieutenant James C. Dempsey who had been awarded the Navy Cross for heroism as commanding officer of the submarine S-27, and commissioned on 24 October 1942 with Lieutenant Commander C.O. Triebel in command.

After shakedown training off the New England coast, Snook departed New London on 3 March 1943 and set sail for the Pacific. Following a 12-day stopover at Pearl Harbor, the submarine put to sea on 11 April and headed for the Yellow Sea and East China Sea for her first war patrol. Upon completion of mine planting in the Shanghai area, Snook continued on up the coast of China to the Yellow Sea. On the afternoon of 5 May, she sighted two freighters standing out of Dairen and took up the chase. She trailed both until after nightfall, then fired a spread of three torpedoes that quickly sank Kinko Maru. The lead freighter continued, unaware of the attack, until someone on the sinking ship sounded a whistle. At that point, the freighter began a series of frantic maneuvers to dodge two of Snook's torpedoes, then opened fire with her guns, forcing the submarine to withdraw out of range, returning shortly after and firing three torpedoes, one of which hit Daifuku Maru amidships and sank her. Snook then resumed patrol.

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