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USS Blackfin
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USS Blackfin
USS Blackfin (SS-322), a Balao-class submarine in commission from 1944 to 1948 and from 1951 to 1972, was a ship of the United States Navy named for the blackfin cisco, a food fish of the Great Lakes.
During World War II, Blackfin completed five war patrols in the Philippine Islands, South China Sea, and Yellow Sea. She sank the Japanese destroyer Shigure, which until then was known for her legendary luck, surviving for most of the war and a number of important Japanese naval operations. Blackfin also sank a Japanese cargo ship. After World War II, Blackfin served in the United States Pacific Fleet, and saw service in the Vietnam War.
Blackfin′s keel was laid on 10 June 1943 by the Electric Boat Company at Groton, Connecticut. She was launched on 12 March 1944, sponsored by Mrs. Phyllis Irwin Lockwood, wife of Rear Admiral Charles A. Lockwood, and commissioned on 4 July 1944 with Lieutenant Commander George H. Laird Jr., in command.
After shakedown training in the waters off New London, Connecticut, Blackfin got underway to join the war in the Pacific on 14 August 1944. She transited the Panama Canal on 29 August and arrived at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 11 September 1944. She spent the rest of September 1944 undergoing repairs and engaged in training in the waters of the Hawaiian Islands.
On 30 September 1944, Blackfin set out from Pearl Harbor on her first war patrol. She topped off her fuel tanks at Saipan in the Mariana Islands on 10 October 1944 and then continued on her way to her patrol area in the northern approaches to the Palawan Passage in the Philippine Islands.
Blackfin operated in Philippine waters as the Philippines campaign of 1944–1945 began with the U.S. invasion of Leyte on 20 October 1944, which led to the Battle of Leyte Gulf of 23–26 October 1944. She made her first contact with Japanese ships on 26 October and began an approach, but one of the Japanese ships began racing toward her and forced her to dive to evade an attack.
On the morning of 1 November 1944, Blackfin′s lookouts spotted smoke on the horizon. Shortly thereafter, a Japanese merchant ship — the 2,745-gross register ton cargo ship No. 12 Unkai Maru — with four escorts appeared on the horizon. Blackfin fired six torpedoes at No. 12 Unkai Maru and sent her to the bottom. On 3 November, Blackfin sighted a lighted Japanese ship but soon positively identified her as a hospital ship, and therefore immune from attack. On 7 November 1944, Blackfin sighted a large Japanese tanker with three escorts and attacked, observing two torpedoes hit the tanker, which was only damaged.
Blackfin continued her patrol uneventfully until she received orders on 18 November 1944 to conduct a special mission. Accordingly, on 24 November she rendezvoused off Mindoro′s northern coast with a United States Army commando team which had captured a small Japanese patrol boat carrying many current Japanese ciphers and codebooks. She picked up three bags of the classified material and proceeded south toward Morotai. Off Point Anna, she transferred the bags to the Royal Australian Navy corvette HMAS Kiama.
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USS Blackfin
USS Blackfin (SS-322), a Balao-class submarine in commission from 1944 to 1948 and from 1951 to 1972, was a ship of the United States Navy named for the blackfin cisco, a food fish of the Great Lakes.
During World War II, Blackfin completed five war patrols in the Philippine Islands, South China Sea, and Yellow Sea. She sank the Japanese destroyer Shigure, which until then was known for her legendary luck, surviving for most of the war and a number of important Japanese naval operations. Blackfin also sank a Japanese cargo ship. After World War II, Blackfin served in the United States Pacific Fleet, and saw service in the Vietnam War.
Blackfin′s keel was laid on 10 June 1943 by the Electric Boat Company at Groton, Connecticut. She was launched on 12 March 1944, sponsored by Mrs. Phyllis Irwin Lockwood, wife of Rear Admiral Charles A. Lockwood, and commissioned on 4 July 1944 with Lieutenant Commander George H. Laird Jr., in command.
After shakedown training in the waters off New London, Connecticut, Blackfin got underway to join the war in the Pacific on 14 August 1944. She transited the Panama Canal on 29 August and arrived at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 11 September 1944. She spent the rest of September 1944 undergoing repairs and engaged in training in the waters of the Hawaiian Islands.
On 30 September 1944, Blackfin set out from Pearl Harbor on her first war patrol. She topped off her fuel tanks at Saipan in the Mariana Islands on 10 October 1944 and then continued on her way to her patrol area in the northern approaches to the Palawan Passage in the Philippine Islands.
Blackfin operated in Philippine waters as the Philippines campaign of 1944–1945 began with the U.S. invasion of Leyte on 20 October 1944, which led to the Battle of Leyte Gulf of 23–26 October 1944. She made her first contact with Japanese ships on 26 October and began an approach, but one of the Japanese ships began racing toward her and forced her to dive to evade an attack.
On the morning of 1 November 1944, Blackfin′s lookouts spotted smoke on the horizon. Shortly thereafter, a Japanese merchant ship — the 2,745-gross register ton cargo ship No. 12 Unkai Maru — with four escorts appeared on the horizon. Blackfin fired six torpedoes at No. 12 Unkai Maru and sent her to the bottom. On 3 November, Blackfin sighted a lighted Japanese ship but soon positively identified her as a hospital ship, and therefore immune from attack. On 7 November 1944, Blackfin sighted a large Japanese tanker with three escorts and attacked, observing two torpedoes hit the tanker, which was only damaged.
Blackfin continued her patrol uneventfully until she received orders on 18 November 1944 to conduct a special mission. Accordingly, on 24 November she rendezvoused off Mindoro′s northern coast with a United States Army commando team which had captured a small Japanese patrol boat carrying many current Japanese ciphers and codebooks. She picked up three bags of the classified material and proceeded south toward Morotai. Off Point Anna, she transferred the bags to the Royal Australian Navy corvette HMAS Kiama.
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