USS Tirante (SS-420)

Tirante (SS-420) at her launch from Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.
History
United States
Name:	USS Tirante
Builder:	Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine
Laid down:	28 April 1944
Launched:	9 August 1944
Commissioned:	6 November 1944
Decommissioned:	20 July 1946
Recommissioned:	26 November 1952
Decommissioned:	1 October 1973
Struck:	1 October 1973
Fate:	Sold for scrap, 21 March 1974
General characteristics As completed
Class and type:	Tench-class diesel-electric submarine
Displacement:	1,570 long tons (1,600 t) surfaced 2,416 long tons (2,455 t) submerged
Length:	311 ft 8 in (95.00 m)
Beam:	27 ft 4 in (8.33 m)
Draft:	17 ft 0 in (5.18 m) maximum
Propulsion:	4 × Fairbanks-Morse Model 38D8-⅛ 10-cylinder opposed piston diesel engines driving electrical generators 2 × 126-cell Sargo batteries 2 × low-speed direct-drive General Electric electric motors 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, 71 enlisted
Armament:	10 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 6 forward, 4 aft) 28 torpedoes 1 × 5-inch (127 mm) / 25 caliber deck gun Bofors 40 mm and Oerlikon 20 mm cannon
General characteristics (Guppy IIA)
Displacement:	1,848 tons (1,878 t) surfaced 2,440 tons (2,479 t) submerged
Length:	307 ft (94 m)
Beam:	27 ft 4 in (8.33 m)
Draft:	17 ft (5.2 m)
Propulsion:	Snorkel added One diesel engine and generator removed Batteries upgraded to Sargo II
Speed:	Surfaced: 17.0 knots (31.5 km/h) maximum 13.5 knots (25.0 km/h) cruising Submerged: 14.1 knots (26.1 km/h) for ½ hour 8.0 knots (14.8 km/h) snorkeling 3.0 knots (5.6 km/h) cruising
Armament:	10 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes  (six forward, four aft) all guns removed

USS Tirante (SS-420), a Tench-class submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the tirante, a silvery, elongated "cutlass fish" found in waters off Cuba. Her keel was laid down on 28 April 1944 by the Portsmouth Navy Yard of Kittery, Maine. She was launched on 9 August 1944 sponsored by Mrs. William B. Sieglaff, wife of Commander Sieglaff, and commissioned on 6 November 1944 with Lieutenant Commander George L. Street III in command.

Following shakedown training in Long Island Sound, and the waters off Panama and Oahu, Tirante departed Pearl Harbor for Japan on 3 March 1945. The submarine patrolled the approaches to Nagasaki. There she sank the 703-ton tanker Fuji Maru on 25 March and followed with the sinking of the 1218-ton freighter Nase Maru three days later. After the latter attack, Japanese escorts kept Tirante down for seven hours, before she slipped away unscathed.

On 31 March, Tirante shelled and sank a 70-ton lugger with five-inch (127 mm)and 40-millimeter gunfire and,on 1 April,missed an LST-type vessel with a spread of three torpedoes. The submarine soon shifted to waters off the south coast of Korea, near the Strait of Tsushima. At twilight on 6 April, she battle-surfaced and captured a small Japanese fishing vessel and took its three crewmen prisoner before sinking it.

The following day, Tirante torpedoed a 2800-ton cargo freighter loaded with a deck cargo of oil drums. The submarine surfaced and directed a nearby Korean fishing craft to pick up two survivors. Although observers on the submarine reported witnessing the Maru's sinking, post-war examination of Japanese records failed to confirm it.