USS Pickerel (SS-177)

Coordinates: 41°3′N 141°58′E / 41.050°N 141.967°E / 41.050; 141.967
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other ships with the same name, see USS Pickerel.
USS Pickerel (SS-177)
History
United States
BuilderGeneral Dynamics Electric Boat, Groton, Connecticut[1]
Laid down25 March 1935[1]
Launched7 July 1936[1]
Commissioned26 January 1937[1]
Stricken19 August 1943
FateSunk by Japanese vessels north of
Honshū on 3 April 1943[2]
General characteristics
Class and type
diesel-electric submarine[2]
Displacement1,350 tons (1,372 t) standard, surfaced,[3] 1,997 tons (2,029 t) submerged[3]
Length298 ft (91 m) (waterline),[9] 300 ft 6 in (91.59 m) (overall)[10]
Beam25 ft 7⁄8 in (7.6 m)[3]
Draft15 ft (4.6 m)[3]
Propulsion4 ×
batteries,[8] 8 × General Electric electric motors, 538 hp (401 kW) each,[8] 2 × General Motors six-cylinder four-cycle 6-241 auxiliary diesels[6]
Speed19.25 kn (35.65 km/h) surfaced,[3] 8.75 kn (16.21 km/h) submerged[3]
Range11,000 nmi (20,000 km) @ 10 kn (19 km/h),[3] (bunkerage 92,801 US gallons (351,290 L)[4]
Endurance10 hours @ 5 kn (9.3 km/h), 36 hours @ minimum speed submerged[3]
Test depth250 ft (76 m)[3]
Complement5 officers, 45 enlisted[3]
Armament6 ×
4 in (100 mm)/50 cal deck gun,[10] 4 × 0.3 cal (7.62 mm) machine guns (2x2)[10]

USS Pickerel (SS-177), a

Porpoise-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy
to be named for the pickerel, species of freshwater fish native to the eastern United States and Canada.

Her

William Standley, acting Secretary of the Navy. She was commissioned on 26 January 1937, Lieutenant
Leon J. Huffman in command.

Service history

Inter-War Period

After her

San Diego, California, along the West Coast, and in Hawaiian waters. Subsequently, transferred to the Asiatic Fleet, she prepared for war with a vigorous training schedule in the Philippines
.

World War II

Upon receiving word of

Tourane Harbor. She tracked a Japanese submarine and a destroyer but lost them in haze and rain squalls before they came in torpedo range. On 19 December, she also missed a small Japanese patrol craft with five torpedoes
, before returning to Manila Bay on 29 December.

On her second patrol (31 December 1941–29 January 1942), conducted between

Malay Barrier, and her fourth (15 April–6 June), in the Philippines
, she failed to score.

Pickerel's fifth war patrol (10 July–26 August), was a voyage from Brisbane, Australia, to Pearl Harbor for refit, with a short patrol in the Mariana Islands en route, during which she damaged a freighter. During the refit, LCDR Bacon was detached and Pickerel's executive officer, Lieutenant Commander Augustus H. Alston, Jr., became her new CO.

On her sixth war patrol (22 January–3 March 1943), she searched among the

Kurile Islands on the Tokyo-Kiska traffic lanes. In sixteen attacks, she sank Tateyama Maru and two 35-ton sampans
.

She departed Pearl Harbor on 18 March 1943 and, after topping off with fuel and provisions at

Honshū, Japan and was never heard from again. Pickerel was the first submarine to be lost in the Central Pacific area. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register
on 19 August 1943.

Post-war analysis of Japanese records give conflicting suggestions about Pickerel's fate. The Japanese officially credit her with sinking Submarine Chaser Number 13 on 3 April and Fukuei Maru on 7 April, and give no official report of her destruction. Those records also describe an action off

ASW ships to believe their target was sunk. It is likely Pickerel's fuel oil bunkers leaked. Since there were several other ASW operations in the area in that period,[12]
and Pickerel was the only American submarine in that area, one of these other attacks, sometime after 7 April, probably claimed her.

Awards

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 1-55750-263-3
    .
  2. ^
    ISBN 0-313-26202-0
    .
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k U.S. Submarines Through 1945 pp. 305–311
  4. ^ a b Alden, p.62.
  5. ^ Alden, John D., Commander, USN (retired). The Fleet Submarine in the U.S. Navy (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1979), p.210.
  6. ^ a b Alden, p.210.
  7. ^ U.S. Submarines Through 1945 pp.261–263
  8. ^ a b Alden, p.211.
  9. ^ Lenton, H. T. American Submarines (New York: Doubleday, 1973), p.45.
  10. ^ a b c Lenton, p.45.
  11. ^ Combined IJN Fleet gives date as 4 April 1943
  12. ^ Clay Blair, Jr., Silent Victory (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1975), p. 409.

Sources

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entries can be found here and here.

External links

41°3′N 141°58′E / 41.050°N 141.967°E / 41.050; 141.967

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