USS Torsk (SS-423)
French Version ( Bientot )
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The now docked at the Baltimore Maritime Museum Inner Harbor along with the Coast Guard Cutter Taney, and the lightship Chesapeake.
Now we found only 2 survivors of this submarines family Tench Class in USA . The other is USS Requin SS481 in Pittsburgh, PA. Several other submarines of the class were sold to foreign countries, and may (though not likely) still be in service. Nicknamed the "Galloping Ghost of the Japanese Coast," the vessel is the only ship of the United States Navy to be named Torsk or Cod, a food fish of the North Atlantic.
Tench Class Submarines
The submarines of the Tench class were an improvement over the previous Gato and Balao classes due to better interior machinery and ballast tank arrangements with only about 35 to 40 tons larger, but more strongly built and with a slightly improved internal layout Initial plans called for 146 to be built, but 115 were cancelled. 29 were completed for the US Navy during, or immediately following WW2, though most never made a war patrol
History
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| SS423 in 1945 (Internet ) |
He was laid down on June 7th 1944 at the Portsmouth Navy Yard. launched on September 6th 1944 and commissioned on December 16th 1944
Completed on the last day of 1944,USS Torsk trained out of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Newport, Rhode Island, and New London, Connecticut, until February 11th 1945, when she headed for Florida. On February 16th he arrived at Port Everglades, Florida, where she provided services for antisubmarine research and after he arrive in Hawaii on March 23rd 1945 after the transit by Panama Canal,
He make his first war patrol on patrol area off the northeastern coast of Honshu on May 11th He arrived on 13 May and, for two days, attempted to contact other members of the wolf pack, "Lewellen's Looters." On May 16th he made rendezvous with submarines Sand Lance (SS-381) and Cero (SS-225).
On June 2nd 1945 , while patrolling between Honshū and Hokkaidō, USS Torsk fire six torpedoes upon a small coastal minelayer follow 2 days later by a fire of 4 torpedoes on a 700-ton freighter
During this mission only two small ships were attacked but were not sunken .
On June 11th he arrive on Midway Island and returned to Pearl Harbor on 16 June
After refitting and the installation of new equipment, the submarine got underway for her second war patrol on 17 July. She spent the first two days of August at Guam and set her course for the Sea of Japan.
She passed through the minefields of Tsushima Strait on 10 August and, and on August 11th he rescued seven Japanese merchant seamen who had survived the sinking of her ship some four days before. H
Uss Torsk torpedoed and sank a small cargo ship, the Kaiho Maru. The following day, 14 August, she completed her wartime career by sinking two more small ships, Coast Defense Vessel Kaibokan-class No. 13 and Coast Defense Vessel Kaibokan-class No. 47 with the new experimental Mark 28 torpedoes. This action earned UU Torsk the distinction of firing the last torpedo and sinking the last Japanese combatant ships of WW 2 The combined tonnage of the three ships sunk was of 2,473 tons. coastal freighter.
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| SS423 in 1945 (Internet ) |
SS423 in 1945 (Internet ) |
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| SS423 in 1945 (Internet ) |
SS423 in 1945 (Internet ) |
USS Torsk received word of the cessation of hostilities and he continued her patrol in the Sea of Japan, conducting visual and photo surveillance and destroying floating mines.
He arrive in Guam on 9 September, successfully completing her second war patrol. After a little passage in Pearl Harbour he arrive in USA in October 1945 at New London Connecticut
For the next ten tears Torsk was assigned to the Submarine Squadron 8 at the Submarine School in New London, where he trained officers and enlisted men for submarine duty. This assignment earned her the title of the “divingest” submarine in the U.S. Navy as she made dives several times a day in the course of her training activities. He operated in the Mediterranean briefly from 9 September to 14 November 1950, and again from 26 August to 27 November 1952. During these periods, she participated in joint training exercises with the British, Italian, French, and Turkish navies. Sea.
In 1951 he return to New London Connecticut. in the fall for fleet exercises a, extended her operations into the Caribbean Sea.
The Fleet Snorkel boats were simply fleet boats These modifications were intended as an austere and less expensive alternative to GUPPY The snorkel became a standard fixture of all diesel-electric submarines. Developed in its modern form by Germany in World War II, it was widely adopted and improved after the war. Basically, the snorkel connects a submerged submarine's diesels to the atmosphere through a pair of tubes, one for air intake, one for exhaust. A key feature is the head-valve on top of the air-intake mast that prevents water from entering. Before the snorkel, submarines had to surface to run their air-breathing diesel engines, but snorkel-equipped submarines can remain submerged, with only the tip of a mast exposed above the water for the required air.
On November 6th 1951, he completed his conversion to a Fleet Snorkel submarine at Portsmouth Navy Yard The submarine receive added snorkel induction and exhaust piping and masts. They also had their deck guns removed and sonar electronics installed where the gun magazine had been,. The snorkel, developed by the German Kriegmarine to counter the Allied radar threat and Air power .Germans perfected a Dutch device known as the snorkel. Using a snorkel a submarine could run its diesel engines and recharge its batteries while operating just below the surface .It is a long tube that can be extended above the submarine allowing her to take in fresh air for the diesel engines. This means he can run submerged on diesel power making greater speed than if he used the batteries to run her electric motors. he can also charge his batteries while submerged, thus extending her time below the surface from approximately 24 hours to several days. Within two years of the end of the war, the U.S. Navy had a functional snorkel mast on an operational, high speed submarine- USS Irex SS 482
As part of the conversion, she received a streamlined “sail” that contains the snorkel intake and exhaust masts, as well as the periscopes and various radar and radio antennae. He was deployed again to the Mediterranean that summer. Returning on 27 November, he continued operations out of New London ranging from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Havana, Cuba, as he trained prospective submarine personnel and laid exercise mine fields.
On July 1st 1955 USS Torsk joined Submarine Squadron 6 based at Norfolk, Virginia where he continued her training activities by providing services to anti-submarine forces developing new ASW techniques.
He was involte in the program Regulus Missile
. Regulus was a jet powered, radio controlled pilotless aircraft that could carry a conventional or nuclear warhead. It could be carried on surface ships such as cruisers, and in specially designed hangers aboard submarines. The submarines would surface to launch the missile from rails on their main deck. In addition to several submarines outfitted as launch boats, additional units of the Atlantic and Pacific fleet were selected as guidance boats for the Regulus system. These boats would be positioned along the flight path of the Regulus missile, and would control the missile’s flight while it was in their designated area.
USS Torsk was one of the Atlantic submarines assigned to this duty, and entered the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in late 1955 for modifications and equipment upgrades to allow him to control the missiles. He participated in various training exercises over the next few years, until the Regulus system was discontinued in the early 1960’s.
In 1959 he took part in the ceremonies marking the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway through the Great Lakes to Milwaukee, Chicago, and Buffalo.
In the early 1960s, he made Mediterranean deployments; joined Commonwealth countries in Exercise "New Broom X", and continued her duties in training antisubmarine forces in the Atlantic.
During the Cuban Missile Crisis he patrolled in support of the blockade of that Caribbean island.
On March 4th 1968 he decommissioned and assigned to the Washington Navy Yard for use in training reserves.
On September 26th 1972, he was turned over to the state of Maryland to be used as a museum ship in the Inner Harbor at Baltimore, Maryland. It is currently part of the Baltimore Maritime Museum
Specifications
Diesel Electric Submarine
Displacement: 1,570 ton surfaced 2,455–2468 t submerged
Complement: 10 officers, 71 enlisted
Length 95 m
Beam 8.3 m
Draft 5.2 m
Propulsion
4 × Diesel Engines drivingelectrical generators Fairbanks-Morse or GM
2 × 126 Batteries
2 × low-speed electric motors
two propellers
Speed: 20.25 Knots (38 Km/h) surfaced 8.75 knots (16 km/h) submerged
Range: 11,000 nauticals miles (20,000 kms) surfaced at 10 knots (19 km/h)
Endurance: 48 hours at 2 knots (3.7 km/h) submerged
Depth 120 m
Armament
Torpedo tubes 10 × 21-inch (533 mm) (six forward, four aft)
28 torpedoes
In 1945 1 × 5-inch (127 mm) deck gun
four machine guns
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