USS Steelhead (SS-280)

(Image retouched by wartime censors to remove radar antennas atop periscope sheers.)
History
Builder:	Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine
Laid down:	1 June 1942
Launched:	11 September 1942
Commissioned:	7 December 1942
Decommissioned:	29 June 1946
Struck:	1 April 1960
Fate:	Sold for scrap, 21 December 1960
General characteristics
Class and type:	Gato-class diesel-electric submarine
Displacement:	1,525 tons (1,549 t) surfaced 2,424 tons (2,460 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 NM (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:	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 Steelhead (SS-280), a Gato-class submarine, was a ship of the United States Navy named for the steelhead, a North American trout found from California to Alaska.

Steelhead (SS-280) was laid down on 1 June 1942 by the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine; launched on 11 September 1942; sponsored by Mrs. Marguerite Brown; and commissioned on 7 December 1942, Lt. Comdr. David L. Whelchel in command.

Steelhead held her shakedown off Long Island in December 1942 and January 1943. In February, she sailed for the Pacific and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 8 April. After intensive training, she sailed for Midway Island; topped off her fuel there on 25 April, and began her first war patrol. She planted 12 mines off the Japanese mainland near Erimo Saki and then bombarded a steel plant and iron foundry near Muroran, Hokkaidō. She fired no torpedoes, and the submarine returned to Midway in early June.

On her second patrol, 30 June to 6 August, Steelhead fired 10 torpedoes at a Japanese task force on 10 July. Explosions were heard, but specific damage could not be ascertained. After refitting at Pearl Harbor, the ship sailed on 13 September for the Gilbert Islands where she operated as a lifeguard submarine off Tarawa during bombardment by Army aircraft.

She called at Johnston Island for fuel and provisions and departed on 25 September to resume her patrol which took her into the Palau Islands. On 6 October off the Carolines, she damaged tanker Kazalhaya, which Tinosa (SS-283) sank later that day. All her torpedoes expended, Steelhead sighted a large convoy which she trailed, while sending information to other submarines in the area.