USS Spadefish (SS-411)

History
Builder:	Mare Island Naval Shipyard
Laid down:	27 May 1943
Launched:	8 January 1944
Commissioned:	9 March 1944
Decommissioned:	3 May 1946
Struck:	1 April 1967
Fate:	Sold for scrap, 17 October 1969
General characteristics
Class and type:	Balao class diesel-electric submarine
Displacement:	1,526 tons (1,550 t) surfaced 2,424 tons (2,463 t) submerged
Length:	311 ft 10 in (95.05 m)
Beam:	27 ft 4 in (8.33 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 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 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

USS Spadefish (SS/AGSS-411), a Balao-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the spadefish. Although she was commissioned late in the war and spent only one year in the Pacific war zone, she was to run up a record of 88,091 tons in 21 ships and numerous trawlers sunk.

The first Spadefish was laid down on 27 May 1943 by the Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, Calif.; launched on 8 January 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Francis W. Scanland; and commissioned on 9 March 1944, Commander Gordon W. Underwood in command.

Following shakedown training along the coast of California, Spadefish departed San Francisco on 14 June and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 22 June. On 23 July, she got underway from Pearl Harbor for her maiden war patrol, as a member of a coordinated attack group with Picuda (SS-382) and Redfish (SS-395).

On 19 August, while patrolling in Philippine waters off the northwest coast of Luzon, Spadefish torpedoed and sank her first enemy target the 9,589-ton, passenger-cargo ship Tamatsu Maru. Three days later, she trailed three large tankers through Babuyan Channel along the northern Luzon coast; closed range; and fired two spreads of torpedoes, sinking the 10,023-ton tanker Hakko Maru No. 2, and damaging a second tanker that, protected by a destroyer, limped back to a shallow cove off Luzon.

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Wikipedia