 Spikefish (SS-404) underway. | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Builder | Portsmouth Naval Shipyard,Kittery, Maine[1] |
| Laid down | 29 January 1944[1] |
| Launched | 26 April 1944[1] |
| Commissioned | 30 June 1944[1] |
| Decommissioned | 2 April 1963[1] |
| Stricken | 1 May 1963[1] |
| Fate | Sunk as a target offLong Island, 4 August 1964[2] |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Balao classdiesel-electricsubmarine[2] |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 311 ft 6 in (94.95 m)[2] |
| Beam | 27 ft 3 in (8.31 m)[2] |
| Draft | 16 ft 10 in (5.13 m) maximum[2] |
| Propulsion |
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| Speed | |
| Range | |
| Endurance |
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| Test depth | 400 ft (120 m)[6] |
| Complement | 10 officers, 70–71 enlisted[6] |
| Armament |
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USSSpikefish (SS/AGSS-404), aBalao-classsubmarine, was a ship of theUnited States Navy, named for thespikefish. She was the first United States submarine to record 10,000 dives.[citation needed]
Spikefish was laid down on 29 January 1944 by thePortsmouth Navy Yard inKittery, Maine;launched on 26 April 1944, sponsored by Mrs. Harvey W. Moore, andcommissioned on 30 June 1944.
She outfitted there until 31 July when she moved to thePortsmouth-New London area for training. The submarine departed Portsmouth on 16 September and proceeded via thePanama Canal to theHawaiian Islands. Upon arriving atPearl Harbor on 23 October, she began preparation for her first war patrol.
Spikefish got underway on 15 November 1944 for theKuril Islands and theSea of Okhotsk. She encountered no enemy shipping during the patrol which ended atMidway Island on 1 January 1945. On 26 January, she sailed for theRyukyus and began patrolling westward of that group.
On 24 February, the submarine made a submerged attack on aconvoy of six cargo ships with four escorts. She fired six torpedoes at two of the freighters, three of which were heard to hit, but results were not observed asSpikefish was forced to go deep and weather out a four-hour attack of about 80 depth charges. She sighted another convoy on 5 March and expended six torpedoes in a fruitless attack which led to another pounding by escorts.Spikefish was ordered to terminate her patrol on 6 March, and she returned to Pearl Harbor on 19 March.
One month later,Spikefish, under Cdr. Robert R. Managhan,[7] sailed withDragonet (SS-293) forGuam, topped off with fuel, and proceeded independently, on 3 May, toward an area off the east coast ofFormosa where she assumedlifeguard station duties. She made no rescues during this period and sighted only one enemy ship. That occurred on the night of 14 May, and all four torpedoes that she fired missed the target. On 29 May,Spikefish was ordered to take station offSakishima Gunto and act as lifeguard forcarrier planes in the area. On 5 June, she bombardedMiyara airstrip onIshigaki Jima with her 5-inch (130 mm) gun. Two days later, the submarine rescued a downed pilot whose plane had crashed after taking off fromescort carrier,Sargent Bay (CVE-83). She returned to Guam on 13 June.
Spikefish began her last war patrol on 8 July with an uneventful patrol in theYellow Sea and lifeguard duty offShanghai. On 24 July, she bombardedSurveyor Island, off theChina coast, in an attempt to destroy an enemyradar station. Shortly after midnight on 11 August, she located a smallJapanese cargo ship near her lifeguard station but could not make positive identification at night. The ship was dead in the water, soSpikefish waited until morning, identified it as enemy and sank it with gunfire. Three survivors were brought on board. On the night of 13 August about 190 nmi (350 km) southeast ofShanghai, she made radar contact with a surfaced submarine. After tracking it for about an hour, the submarine submerged and disappeared fromSpikefish's scope. At 00:07, contact was regained and the submarine was tracked until morning, when she was sighted on the surface. Her silhouette proved her to be Japanese.Spikefish fired six torpedoes. Two hit the target, which sank in a cloud of smoke at29°02′N123°53′E / 29.033°N 123.883°E /29.033; 123.883 (Japanese submarine I-373).[8]The sole survivor who was taken prisoner identified the submarine asI-373; she was the last Japanese submarine sunk in the war.[9]
On 15 August, an order was received to cease all attacks, as Japan had agreed to surrender. The submarine delivered her prisoners toSaipan on 21 August and proceeded to Pearl Harbor, On 6 September, she andHoe (SS-258) sailed for the east coast of the United States.Spikefish transited the Panama Canal on 23 September and arrived atNew London, Conn. on 29 September. She was indrydock at the Portsmouth Navy Yard from 1 November 1945 to 15 February 1946. Upon her return to New London, her home port, she was assigned toSubmarine Squadron 2 and trained personnel of the submarine school.
Her training duty was interrupted by an overhaul from 7 April to 22 September 1947; a cruise toBermuda from 25 September to 2 October 1947; and another overhaul atPhiladelphia Naval Shipyard from 16 May to 8 July 1948.Spikefish operated from New London making training cruises along the east coast from Bermuda toNova Scotia until 30 April 1955. On that day, she andPiper (SS-409) sailed for theMediterranean and deployment with the6th Fleet.Spikefish returned to New London on 8 October 1955 and resumed her normal training duties until early 1963. On 18 March 1960,Spikefish became the first United States submarine to record 10,000 dives.[citation needed]
Spikefish was redesignated an Auxiliary Research Submarine and renumberedAGSS-404 (auxiliary, submarine) in 1962. She was decommissioned at Key West, Florida on 2 April 1963 and was stricken from theNavy list on 1 May 1963. She was subsequently sunk as a target in August 1964 offLong Island,New York.
Spikefish received threebattle stars forWorld War II service.
This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entries can be foundhere andhere.Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 1964 | |
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