 USSSawfish (SS-276), probably offHunter's Point Shipyard nearSan Francisco,California, following an overhaul in late 1943–early 1944. | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | Sawfish |
| Namesake | Sawfish |
| Builder | Portsmouth Naval Shipyard,Kittery, Maine[1] |
| Laid down | 20 January 1942[1] |
| Launched | 23 June 1942[1] |
| Sponsored by | Hattie Wyatt Caraway |
| Commissioned | 26 August 1942[1] |
| Decommissioned | 20 June 1946[1] |
| Stricken | 1 April 1960[1] |
| Fate | Sold for scrap, 2 December 1960[1] |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Gato-classdiesel-electricsubmarine[2] |
| Displacement | |
| 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 | |
| Range | 11,000 NM (20,000 km) surfaced at 10 knots (19 km/h)[6] |
| Endurance |
|
| Test depth | 300 ft (90 m)[6] |
| Complement | 6 officers, 54 enlisted[6] |
| Armament |
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USSSawfish (SS-276), aGato-classsubmarine, was a ship of theUnited States Navy named for thesawfish, aviviparousray which has a long flat snout with a row of toothlike structures along each edge. It is found principally in the mouths of tropical American and African rivers.
Sawfish waslaid down on 20 January 1942 by thePortsmouth Navy Yard atKittery,Maine; launched on 23 June 1942; sponsored byHattie Wyatt Caraway, the first woman to be elected to theUnited States Senate; andcommissioned on 26 August 1942.
Aftershakedown offPortsmouth,New Hampshire, inNarragansett Bay, and en route to thePanama Canal,Sawfish arrived atPearl Harbor,Hawaii, on 21 January 1943. Ten days later, she got underway for the first of her 10 war patrols.
Sawfish proceeded to waters off southwesternJapan where she attacked several targets and concluded that she had sunk or damaged some. However, it turned out that she had mistakenly sunk two neutralSoviet cargo ships on thePacific Route,Kola on 16 February 1943 andIlmen on 17 February.[7] A careful study of Japanese and American records after the war did not confirm any other sinkings onSawfish's first war patrol, which ended when she reachedMidway Atoll in theNorthwestern Hawaiian Islands on 25 March 1943.
The submarine departed Midway on 15 April and headed for Japan. On 5 May off the coast ofHonshū, she sank the convertedgunboat,Hakkai Maru. A fortnight later, she stalked an enemy task force but lost her quarry in heavy swells. She returned to Pearl Harbor on 6 June.
Underway again on the last day of the month,Sawfish set course for theEast China Sea. On the night of 21 July, she attackedconvoy Hi-3 of nine ships and concluded that she had scored several hits. However, postwar assessment of records was unable to confirm any kills during this attack or during her operations for the next five days.
Finally, early on the morning of 27 July, her luck changed when she attacked a convoy escorted by a 720-ton minelayer. Comdr. Sands fired a spread of fourtorpedoes from a range of only 750 yards (690 m). He went deep as soon as the "fish" were clear and, in less than half a minute, the submarine was jolted by a violent explosion. Fearing that the detonation had been premature, Sands remained deep for over an hour. When he ascended toperiscope depth, the convoy had escaped, but the escort, coastal minelayer,Hirashima, was sinking.Sawfish returned to Pearl Harbor on 10 August.
During her fourth patrol, 10 September to 16 October, defective torpedoes frustrated the seven attacks which she made in theSea of Japan before she returned to Midway. She got underway for theBonins and her fifth patrol on 1 November. On 8 December, she sank 3,267-ton passenger-cargo ship,Sansei Maru, and returned to Midway on 19 December. She soon proceeded toHunter's Point Navy Yard,San Francisco, California, for overhaul.
Back in top trim, the submarine returned to Pearl Harbor early in the spring. On 8 April 1944, she got underway for Japanese waters and her sixth war patrol. However, she only encountered two targets: a cargo ship which she attacked on 25 April and a second vessel which she sighted four days later—too fast and too far away for the submarine to attack. Although the submarine reported scoring two hits on the cargo ship, Japanese records contain no evidence of any sinking in the vicinity of the attack.
During her seventh war patrol,Sawfish joinedRock andTilefish forwolfpack operations. The submarines sortied fromMajuro on 22 June and headed for thePhilippines. On 18 July, she damaged atanker and, on 26 July, fired a spread of four torpedoes at surfaced Japanese submarineI-29 (one of only sixAxis powers submarines to attempt trans-oceanicYanagi missions), which exploded and sank. After a fruitless chase of a large Japanese convoy, the wolfpack ended the patrol at Pearl Harbor on 15 August.
DuringSawfish's eighth war patrol, her commanding officer, Comdr.Alan B. Banister, led a wolfpack which includedDrum,Icefish and from time to time other submarines. The pack departed Pearl Harbor on 9 September and headed for waters south ofFormosa where the submarines took a heavy toll on enemy shipping.Sawfish, herself, accounted for a 6,521-ton tanker,Tachibana Maru, on 9 October and a 6,838-tonseaplane tender,Kimikawa Maru, on 23 October.
During the patrol,Sawfish also served on lifeguard station off Formosa in support ofcarrier raids. On 16 October, she rescued a pilot fromVF-15 ofUSS Essex) who had survived four and one-half days at sea in a small rubber boat without food, water, or sunshade. The wolfpack returned toMajuro on 8 November.
Sawfish got underway on 17 December 1944 and returned to waters off Formosa where she spent her entire ninth war patrol on lifeguard station. She rescued a pilot on 21 January 1945 before heading towardGuam. She reachedApra Harbor on 4 February for refit.
Sawfish sailed on 10 March for her 10th and last war patrol, which she spent on lifeguard station offNansei Shoto supporting air strikes preparing for and covering theconquest of Okinawa. She returned to Pearl Harbor on 26 April and soon proceeded to San Francisco for overhaul in theBethlehem Steel Company yard there.
Sawfish was heading toward Hawaii on 15 August 1945 when hostilities ended. She reached Pearl Harbor on 22 August but soon headed back to the west coast for duty as a training ship for the West Coast Fleet Sound School. She returned to Hawaii early in 1946 but was back at San Francisco on 22 March for inactivation. She was decommissioned on 26 June 1946 and remained in reserve atMare Island Naval Shipyard until May 1947 when she proceeded to the naval base atTerminal Island,Los Angeles for duty as a Naval Reserve training ship. On 1 April 1960,Sawfish was stricken from theNavy List and scrapped.
Sawfish received eightbattle stars for service duringWorld War II.
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Thanks in large part to Terminal Island's proximity toHollywood,Sawfish enjoyed an extensive television career in the 1950s. The submarine was used as a filming location for TV specials such asThe Pharmacist's Mate (1951),[8]The Making of a Submariner (1955),[9]City at Night (1956),[10]Stand by to Dive (1956),[11] and the "Solar Sub" episode ofAdventures ofTom Swift (1959).[12]Sawfish's most prominent role was as the primary filming location for the 1957NBC TV seriesThe Silent Service, whereSawfish portrayed numerous other submarines across the show's 78 episodes.Sawfish's final role was as the fictional submarine USSMoray in the Season 3 Episode 23 episode ofPerry Mason, "The Case of the Slandered Submarine" (1960).[13]
The name "USSSawfish" was also used for a fictional nuclear-powered submarine in the 1959 filmOn the Beach, where it was portrayed byHMS Andrew, aRoyal Navydiesel-electric submarine.
This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in February 1943 | |
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| Other incidents |
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