USS Batfish (SS-310)

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Career
Batfish (SS-310), at Muskogee, Oklahoma.
Builder:	Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine ^[1]
Laid down:	27 December 1942 ^[1]
Launched:	5 May 1943 ^[1]
Commissioned:	21 August 1943 ^[1]
Decommissioned:	6 April 1946
Recommissioned:	7 March 1952
Decommissioned:	1 November 1969
Struck:	1 November 1969 ^[1]
Fate:	Museum ship in Muskogee, Oklahoma since 18 February 1972 ^[1]
General characteristics
Class and type:	Balao-class diesel-electric submarine
Displacement:	1,526 tons (1550 t) surfaced 2,424 tons (2460 t) submerged
Length:	311 ft 6 in (95.0 m) ^[1]
Beam:	27 ft 3 in (8.3 m) ^[1]
Draft:	16 ft 10 in (5.1 m) maximum ^[1]
Propulsion:	4 × Fairbanks-Morse Model 38D 8 1/8 opposed piston diesel engines, total 5,400 bhp (4.0 MW) 4 × Elliott electric motors, total 2,740 bhp (2.0 MW) two propellers ^[1]
Speed:	20.25 knots (37 km/h) surfaced 8.75 knots (16 km/h) submerged
Range:	11,000 nm (20,000 km) surfaced at 10 knots (19 km/h)
Endurance:	48 hours at 2 knots (4 km/h) submerged 75 days on patrol
Test depth:	400 ft (120 m)
Complement:	6 officers, 60 enlisted
Armament:	10 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes (six forward, four aft) 24 torpedoes 1 × 4 in (102 mm) / 50 caliber deck gun four machine guns

USS Batfish (SS/AGSS-310), a Balao-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the batfish, any of several fishes; a pediculate fish of the West Indies, the flying gurnard of the Atlantic, or a California sting ray.

Originally named Acoupa, hull SS-310 was renamed Batfish 24 September 1942; launched 6 May 1943 by Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine; sponsored by Mrs. Nellie W. Fortier; and commissioned 21 August 1943, Lieutenant Commander W. R. Merrill in command.

Batfish's war operations span a period from 11 December 1943 to 26 August 1945 during which she completed six war patrols. She is credited with having sunk nine Japanese ships totaling 10,658 tons while operating east of Japan, in the Philippine Sea, Luzon Strait, and South China Sea.

Combatant vessels sunk were: the destroyer Samidare, 26 August 1944 in 08°30′N, 134°37′E. and the submarines RO-55, 10 February 1945 in 18°56′N, 121°34′E.; RO-112, 11 February 1945 in 18°53′N, 121°50′E.; and RO-113, 13 February 1945 in 19°10′N, 121°25′E.

Batfish returned to the United States after the Japanese surrender and following completion of her pre-inactivation overhaul was placed out of commission in reserve at Mare Island Navy Yard 6 April 1946 and laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet.

On 7 March 1952 Batfish was recommissioned and on 21 April assigned to Submarine Division 122 based at Key West, Fla., to carry out training duty. She was redesignated Auxiliary Research Submarine AGSS-310, 1 July 1960.

Decommissioned for the last time, 1 November 1969, she was laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet. Batfish was struck from the Naval Register, 28 February 1972. She was transferred to the Oklahoma Maritime Advisory Board and towed up the Arkansas River to Muskogee. There, she was placed in a dry berth and opened to the public as a memorial to Oklahoma combat submariners.

Batfish received the Presidential Unit Citation for her sixth war patrol in the South China Sea during which she sank the three Japanese submarines. She was also awarded six battle stars for her World War II service.

See USS Batfish for other ships of the same name.

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j Bauer, K. Jack & Roberts, Stephen S. (1991), Register of Ships of the U.S. Navy, 1775-1990: Major Combatants, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, ISBN 0-313-26202-0