USS Wahoo (SS-565)

USS Wahoo circa 1955.
History
United States
Name:	Wahoo
Namesake:	The Wahoo fish
Builder:	Portsmouth Naval Shipyard
Laid down:	24 October 1949
Launched:	16 October 1951
Commissioned:	30 May 1952
Decommissioned:	27 June 1980
Struck:	15 July 1983
Identification:	SS-565
Fate:	Sold for scrap in 1984
General characteristics
Class and type:	Tang-class submarine
Displacement:	1,560 long tons (1,585 t) surfaced 2,260 long tons (2,296 t) submerged
Length:	269 ft 2 in (82.04 m)
Beam:	27 ft 2 in (8.28 m)
Draft:	17 ft (5.2 m)
Speed:	15.5 knots (17.8 mph; 28.7 km/h) surfaced, 18.3 knots (21.1 mph; 33.9 km/h) submerged
Complement:	83 officers and men
Armament:	8 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes (6 forward, 2 aft)

USS Wahoo (SS-565), a Tang-class submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the wahoo, a dark blue food fish of Florida and the West Indies. The contract to build her was awarded to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, and her keel was laid down on 24 October 1949. She was launched on 16 October 1951 sponsored by Mrs. Harry W. Hill, and commissioned on Memorial Day, 30 May 1952 with Commander Eugene P. Wilkinson in command.

Following a shakedown cruise to the British West Indies and post-shakedown repairs at Portsmouth, Wahoo got underway for her home port, Pearl Harbor, on 1 December 1952. After a stop at New London, Connecticut, she proceeded to the Canal Zone, transited the Panama Canal, and then touched at San Diego, California, before continuing on to Oahu. The submarine spent the entire year 1953 in training and evaluation exercises conducted in the Hawaiian Islands operating area. The warship also served as a target for surface and air units practicing their own antisubmarine warfare (ASW) tactics.

In January 1954, Wahoo embarked upon her first tour of duty with the Seventh Fleet in the western Pacific. For about six months, she cruised Far Eastern waters with ships of the Seventh Fleet conducting various exercises and visiting Oriental ports. She returned to Pearl Harbor in June and underwent her first shipyard overhaul before resuming local operations in the Hawaiian Islands. In March 1955, the submarine took time from her busy training schedule to visit Tahiti. At the conclusion of that voyage, she then resumed duty at Hawaii but, in November, embarked upon her second assignment with the Seventh Fleet. The Oriental cruise brought port calls to Hong Kong; Kaohsiung, Taiwan; Apra Harbor, Guam; Yokosuka, Japan; and Manila and Subic Bay in the Philippines. Her deployment ended in May 1956 when she returned to Pearl Harbor to resume local operations and training exercises.