USS Boarfish (SS-327)

View from the bow of Boarfish (SS-327) in the Chukchi Sea in 1947
History
United States
Name:	USS Boarfish (SS-327)
Builder:	Electric Boat Company, Groton, Connecticut
Laid down:	12 August 1943
Launched:	21 May 1944
Commissioned:	23 September 1944
Decommissioned:	23 May 1948
Struck:	28 May 1948
Fate:	Transferred to Turkey, 23 May 1948
Turkey
Name:	TCG Sakarya (S-332)
Acquired:	23 August 1948
Out of service:	1972
Fate:	Returned to US custody for scrapping, 1 January 1974
General characteristics
Class and type:	Balao class diesel-electric submarine
Displacement:	1,526 long tons (1,550 t) surfaced 2,424 long tons (2,463 t) submerged
Length:	311 ft 9 in (95.02 m)
Beam:	27 ft 3 in (8.31 m)
Draft:	16 ft 10 in (5.13 m) maximum
Propulsion:	4 × General Motors Model 16-278A V16 diesel engines driving electrical generators 2 × 126-cell Sargo batteries 4 × high-speed General Electric electric motors with reduction gears two propellers 5,400 shp (4.0 MW) surfaced 2,740 shp (2.0 MW) submerged
Speed:	20.25 knots (38 km/h) surfaced 8.75 knots (16 km/h) submerged
Range:	11,000 nautical miles (20,000 km) surfaced at 10 knots (19 km/h)
Endurance:	48 hours at 2 knots (3.7 km/h) submerged 75 days on patrol
Test depth:	400 ft (120 m)
Complement:	10 officers, 70–71 enlisted
Armament:	10 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 6 forward, 4 aft 24 torpedoes 1 × 5-inch (127 mm) / 25 caliber deck gun Bofors 40 mm and Oerlikon 20 mm cannon

USS Boarfish (SS-327), a Balao-class submarine, was a ship of the United States Navy named for the , a fish having a projecting hog-like snout.

Boarfish (SS-327) was laid down on 12 August 1943; launched on 21 May 1944 by Electric Boat Co., Groton, Conn., sponsored by Miss Barbara Walsh, daughter of Senator Arthur Walsh of New Jersey; and commissioned on 23 September 1944, Commander Royce L. Gross in command.

Following shakedown training off the coast of New England, the submarine departed New London, Conn. on 29 October 1944 for Panama. After a week of intensive training in Panamanian waters, Boarfish transited the Panama Canal on 21 November and set out for Pearl Harbor where she arrived on 2 December. Another three weeks of training in Hawaii followed, and then Boarfish stood out of Pearl Harbor on 24 December bound for the western Pacific. She refueled and took on provisions at Saipan before embarking upon her first war patrol on 5 January 1945.

Boarfish sailed to the South China Sea to patrol the coast of French Indochina. Early on 21 January, the submarine's radar picked up a small convoy of five or six small ships. Boarfish closed the convoy three times in three hours, firing 16 torpedoes, all of which apparently passed under the targets. She broke off the attack at daybreak and did not regain contact. On 31 January, the boat made another radar contact on two cargo ships under escort. During Boarfish’s initial approach, an escort sighted the submarine and chased her away. The boat then fired her torpedoes at periscope depth and scored hits on both ships. When Boarfish submerged to avoid the escorts, she left Enki Maru (6,968 tons) sinking and Taietsu Maru (6,890 tons) burning fiercely and beached nearby. Even while avoiding depth charges, Boarfish tried to close the beach to finish the job. She abandoned the attempt after 36 hours because fire had so ravaged the cargo ship that she seemed unsalvageable. Taietsu Maru was destroyed completely by American planes of the 14th Air Force later that same day, and Boarfish received partial credit for the sinking. The submarine ended her first patrol on 15 February when she pulled into Fremantle, Australia, for refit alongside submarine tender Euryale (AS-22).