USS Menhaden (SS-377)
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History | |
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Name | USS Menhaden |
Namesake | Menhaden |
Builder | Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company, Manitowoc, Wisconsin[1] |
Laid down | 21 June 1944[1] |
Launched | 20 December 1944[1] |
Commissioned | 22 June 1945[1] |
Decommissioned | 31 May 1946[1] |
Recommissioned | 7 August 1951[1] |
Decommissioned | 13 August 1952[1] |
Recommissioned | 6 March 1953[1] |
Decommissioned | 13 August 1971[1] |
Stricken | 15 August 1973[1] |
Fate | Tethered underwater target in Keyport, Washington from 1976;[2] sold for scrap, 1988[1] |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | |
Displacement | |
Length | 311 ft 9 in (95.02 m)[2] |
Beam | 27 ft 3 in (8.31 m)[2] |
Draft | 16 ft 10 in (5.13 m) maximum[2] |
Propulsion |
|
Speed | |
Range | 11,000 nautical miles (20,000 km) surfaced at 10 knots (19 km/h)[3] |
Endurance |
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Test depth | 400 ft (120 m)[3] |
Complement | 10 officers, 70–71 enlisted[3] |
Armament |
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General characteristics (Guppy IIA) | |
Class and type | none |
Displacement | |
Length | 307 ft (93.6 m)[6] |
Beam | 27 ft 4 in (8.3 m)[6] |
Draft | 17 ft (5.2 m)[6] |
Propulsion | |
Speed |
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Armament |
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The second USS Menhaden (SS-377) was United States Navy Balao-class submarine. Launched in 1944, she operated out of Pearl Harbor until 1946, then continued in use out of various ports in the Pacific until the 1970s. She was then decommissioned and re-fitted as a remotely controlled, unmanned acoustic test vehicle known as the "Yellow Submarine", until she was scrapped in 1988.
Name
Menhaden was the first submarine and second vessel of the United States Navy to be named for the menhaden, a marine fish of the herring family which is abundant off the Atlantic coast from New England southward.
Launch and deployment
Menhaden was laid down by
Menhaden was skippered by Commander McClintock and manned by sailors from
Flagship for Admiral Nimitz
On 24 November 1945 Menhaden broke the flag of
Menhaden operated out of Pearl Harbor until 2 January 1946 when she sailed for the west coast, arriving
Far East deployments
Menhaden recommissioned 6 March 1953, Lt. Comdr. William R. Werner in command. She joined
Menhaden completed six more deployments in the troubled waters of the Far East. As a unit of SubDiv 32, she cruised the western Pacific from Japan and Taiwan to the Philippines and Australia. She carried out surveillance and reconnaissance patrols off past and present areas of Cold War conflict from Korea to Vietnam.
When not deployed in the western Pacific, Menhaden maintained a schedule of intensive readiness and alert exercises. Home ported at San Diego, she participated in numerous fleet and intertype exercises. In addition, she supported sonar school operations and provided at-sea training for members of the Navy's Submarine Reserve Force.
Vietnam service and fate
Early in 1968 Menhaden returned to the western Pacific. During a 6-month deployment she concentrated her operations in the waters off Vietnam. Later in the year she returned to the west coast where she continued to prepare for future "keeping-the-peace" missions.
Menhaden was decommissioned, 13 August 1971, and struck from the
In 1976, ex-Menhaden was towed from
In 1988 she sank, due to a leaking main-ballast-tank vent-valve when she was being cut up for scrap. As the tide came in, she was not able to float fast enough to avoid being flooded through all of the holes cut through her pressure hull. The city of Everett eventually finished scrapping the abandoned hulk.
Awards
- Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal for World War IIservice
World War II Victory Medal
China Service Medal
- National Defense Service Medal with one star
Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal
- Vietnam Service Medal with two campaign stars
References
- ^ ISBN 1-55750-263-3.
- ^ ISBN 0-313-26202-0.
- ^ a b c d e f U.S. Submarines Through 1945 pp. 305-311
- ^ a b U.S. Submarines Through 1945 pp. 305–311
- ^ ISBN 1-55750-260-9.
- ^ a b c d U.S. Submarines Since 1945 pp. 242
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entries can be found here and here.
External links
- Photo gallery of Menhaden at NavSource Naval History
- USS Menhaden website Archived 2004-11-30 at the Wayback Machine