USS Croaker
This article needs to be divided into sections. (March 2008) |
History | |
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Builder | Electric Boat Company, Groton, Connecticut[1] |
Laid down | 1 April 1943[1] |
Launched | 19 December 1943[1] |
Commissioned | 21 April 1944[1] |
Decommissioned | 15 June 1946[1] |
Recommissioned | 7 May 1951[1] |
Decommissioned | 18 March 1953[1] |
Recommissioned | 11 December 1953[1] |
Decommissioned | 2 April 1968[1] |
Stricken | 20 December 1971[1] |
Fate | Museum ship at Groton, Connecticut, 27 June 1976,[2] then to Buffalo, New York.[1] |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Gato-class diesel-electric submarine[2] |
Displacement | list error: <br /> list (help) 1,525 tons (1,549 t) surfaced[2] 2,424 tons (2,460 t) submerged[2] |
Length | 311 ft 9 in (95.02 m)[2] |
Beam | 27 ft 3 in (8.31 m)[2] |
Draft | 17 ft 0 in (5.18 m) maximum[2] |
Propulsion |
|
Speed | list error: <br /> list (help) 21 knots (39 km/h) surfaced[3] 9 knots (17 km/h) submerged[3] |
Range | 11,000 nmi (20,000 km) surfaced at 10 knots (19 km/h)[3] |
Endurance | list error: <br /> list (help) 48 hours at 2 knots (4 km/h) submerged[3] 75 days on patrol |
Test depth | 300 ft (90 m)[3] |
Complement | 6 officers, 54 enlisted[3] |
Armament |
|
USS Croaker | |
NRHP reference No. | 08000863 |
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Added to NRHP | September 12, 2008[1] |
USS Croaker (SS/SSK/AGSS/IXSS-246), a Gato-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the croaker, any of various fishes which make croaking noises.
Croaker (SS-246) was launched 19 December 1942 by Electric Boat Co., Groton, Conn.; sponsored by Mrs. W. H. P. Blandy; and commissioned 21 April 1944, Commander J. E. Lee in command.
Croaker arrived at Pearl Harbor from New London 26 June 1944, and on 19 July put to sea on her first war patrol, sailing to the East China and Yellow Seas. In a series of brilliantly successful attacks which won her the Navy Unit Commendation, she sank the cruiser Nagara on 7 August, and two freighters, one on 14 August and one on 17 August. During this patrol, she served as lifeguard during air strikes on the Bonin Islands. She refitted at Midway Atoll between 31 August and 23 September, when she sailed in a wolfpack for the same area on her second war patrol. Again successful, she sank a freighter on 9 October, and another on 23 October. She shadowed a convoy on 24 October, and sank one freighter and damaged another with her last torpedo. Tubes empty, she returned to Midway to fuel, and pushed on to Pearl Harbor, arriving for refit 10 November.
Croaker's third war patrol, in the Luzon Straits and South China Sea from 13 December 1944 to 12 February 1945, found her making no contacts with enemy shipping, but providing essential lifeguard service during strikes on Luzon preparatory to the invasion landings in Lingayen Gulf. She refitted at Fremantle, Australia, and on 12 March sailed for a patrol off the coast of Indo-China twice interrupted by the need to return to Australia for repairs. She refitted at Subic Bay, P.I., between 22 April and 15 May, then sailed for her fifth war patrol, in the Java Sea. On 30 May she attacked a convoy of three small oilers guarded by an escort, with unconfirmed results, and 5 June returned to Fremantle. Her sixth and final war patrol, between 1 July and 13 August, found her assigned to lifeguard duties in the South China Sea and off Hong Kong as the final series of air attacks on Japan were carried out.
Returning to Subic Bay, Croaker sailed for Saipan and continued on to Galveston, Tex., and New London, where she was decommissioned and placed in reserve 15 May 1946 in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet.
Recommissioned 7 May 1951, she served as schoolship out of New London until 18 March 1953, when she was again decommissioned at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard for conversion to a hunter-killer submarine. She was reclassified SSK-246 on 9 April 1953, and was recommissioned 11 December 1953. Returning to active duty in February 1954, she operated along the East Coast and in the Caribbean, visiting ports in England while taking part in NATO exercises in 1957 and 1958.
Croaker was reclassified SS-246 again in August 1959. Special submarine exercises took her to England once more in February 1960, after which she resumed local operations out of New London. In September 1960, Croaker departed on a cruise which saw her sailing through the Mediterranean and Suez Canal to call at various Near Eastern ports and Karachi, Pakistan. She returned to New London in mid-December, retracing her outward track.
She was reclassified Auxiliary Submarine AGSS-246 in May 1967. Decommissioned for the last time on 2 April 1968, Croaker was struck from the Naval Vessel Register, 20 December 1971 and reclassified Miscellaneous Unclassified Submarine IXSS-246 in December 1971. Since 1988, Croaker has served as a museum ship at the Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park in Buffalo, New York.
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U.S.S. Croaker at the Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park
Along with the Navy United Commendation, Croaker received three battle stars for those of her war patrols designated as "successful", the first, second, and fifth of her six. She is credited with having sunk 19,710 tons of shipping.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Friedman, Norman (1995). U.S. Submarines Through 1945: An Illustrated Design History. Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute. pp. pp. 285-304. ISBN 1-55750-263-3.
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(help) - ^ a b c d e f g Bauer, K. Jack (1991). Register of Ships of the U.S. Navy, 1775-1990: Major Combatants. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. pp. pp. 271–273. ISBN 0-313-26202-0.
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suggested) (help) - ^ a b c d e f U.S. Submarines Through 1945 pp. 305-311
- ^ a b c d e Bauer, K. Jack; Roberts, Stephen S. (1991). Register of Ships of the U.S. Navy, 1775–1990: Major Combatants. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. pp. 270–280. ISBN 978-0-313-26202-9. OCLC 24010356.
- ^ U.S. Submarines Through 1945 p. 261
- ^ a b c U.S. Submarines Through 1945 pp. 305–311
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
External links
- navsource.org: USS Croaker
- Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park
- Sinkings by boat: USS Croaker
- HNSA Web Page: USS Croaker
- Articles needing sections from March 2008
- Articles covered by WikiProject Wikify from March 2008
- Gato class submarines
- World War II submarines of the United States
- Cold War submarines of the United States
- Maritime museums and museum ships in New York
- United States Navy Buffalo-related ships
- Registered Historic Places in New York
- Ships on the National Register of Historic Places
- Ships built in Connecticut