USS Albacore (SS-218)

	USS Albacore in Measure 9 camouflage (dull black) off Groton, Connecticut, on 9 May 1942.
History
United States
Name	USS Albacore
Namesake	Albacore
Builder	General Dynamics Electric Boat, Groton, Connecticut
Laid down	21 April 1941
Launched	17 February 1942
Sponsored by	Mrs. Elwin F. Cutts
Commissioned	1 June 1942
Fate	Presumably mined off of northern Hokkaidō, 7 November 1944
General characteristics
Class and type	Gato-class diesel-electric submarine
Displacement	1,525 long tons (1,549 t) surfaced, 2,424 long tons (2,463 t) submerged
Length	311 ft 9 in (95.02 m)
Beam	27 ft 3 in (8.31 m)
Draft	17 ft (5.2 m) maximum
Propulsion	4 × General Motors Model 16-248 V16 Diesel engines driving electric generators; 2 × 126-cell Sargo batteries; 4 × high-speed General Electric electric motors with reduction gears; two propellers ; 5,400 shp (4.0 MW) surfaced; 2,740 shp (2.0 MW) submerged;
Speed	21 knots (39 km/h) surfaced; 9 kn (17 km/h) submerged
Range	11,000 nautical miles (20,000 km) surfaced @ 10 kn (19 km/h)
Endurance	48 hours at 2 kn (4 km/h) submerged, 75 days on patrol
Test depth	300 ft (90 m)
Complement	6 officers, 54 enlisted
Armament	10 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes; 6 forward, 4 aft; 24 torpedoes; 1 × 3-inch (76 mm) / 50 caliber deck gun; Bofors 40 mm and Oerlikon 20 mm cannon;

USS Albacore (SS-218) was a Gato-class submarine which served in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II, winning the Presidential Unit Citation and nine battle stars for her service. During the war, she was credited with sinking 13 Japanese ships (including two destroyers, the light cruiser Tenryū and the aircraft carrier Taihō) and damaging another five; not all of these credits were confirmed by postwar Joint Army–Navy Assessment Committee (JANAC) accounting. She also holds the distinction of sinking the highest warship tonnage of any U.S. submarine. She was lost in 1944, probably sunk by a mine off northern Hokkaidō on 7 November.

Albacore was the second vessel of the United States Navy to be named for the albacore.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.