USS Pipefish (SS-388)

USS Pipefish (SS-388) at Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, ME, 12 October 1943.
History
United States
Builder:	Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine
Laid down:	31 May 1943
Launched:	12 October 1943
Sponsored by:	Mrs. George J. Bates
Commissioned:	22 January 1944
Decommissioned:	19 March 1946
Reclassified:	AGSS-388, 1 December 1962
Struck:	1 March 1967
Fate:	Sold for scrap on 4 February 1969
General characteristics
Class and type:	Balao-class diesel-electric submarine
Displacement:	1,526 tons (1,550 t) surfaced, 2,391 tons (2,429 t) submerged
Length:	311 ft 6 in (94.95 m)
Beam:	27 ft 3 in (8.31 m)
Draft:	16 ft 10 in (5.13 m) maximum
Propulsion:	4 × Fairbanks-Morse Model 38D8-⅛ 10-cylinder opposed piston diesel engines driving electrical generators 2 × 126-cell Sargo batteries 4 × high-speed Elliott electric motors with reduction gears two propellers 5,400 shp (4.0 MW) surfaced 2,740 shp (2.0 MW) submerged
Speed:	20.25 kn (37.50 km/h) surfaced, 8.75 kn (16.21 km/h) submerged
Range:	11,000 nmi (20,000 km) @ 10 kn (19 km/h) surfaced
Endurance:	48 hours @ 2 kn (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 Pipefish (SS-388/AGSS-388), a Balao-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the pipefish.

Pipefish was laid down on 31 May 1943 by the Portsmouth Navy Yard. She was launched on 12 October 1943 sponsored by Mrs. George J. Bates, and commissioned on 22 January 1944, Lieutenant Commander William Nolin Deragon in command. "No No" Deragon graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, class of 1934 and had received a Silver Star Medal for his performance as the Assistant Approach Officer aboard his previous boat, USS Seawolf (SS-197).

Following training off the East Coast, Pipefish proceeded via the Panama Canal to Pearl Harbor, where she arrived on 3 May 1944.

On her first war patrol - 24 May-16 July - Pipefish cruised west of the Mariana Islands, as a rescue submarine for pre-invasion carrier strikes on Saipan, saving one pilot on 12 June. She also cruised in the Surigao Straits to block Japanese escape from the Battle of the Philippine Sea. She moored at Majuro on 16 July.

On her second war patrol - 6 August-27 September - she patrolled off the southeastern coast of Honshū, Japan. Pipefish sank Hakutetsu Maru Number Seven on 12 September. While evading escorts after that attack, she struck bottom four times. She returned to Pearl Harbor on 27 September.

On her third war patrol - 28 October 1944 – 6 January 1945, Pipefish roamed southwest of Taiwan and off the east coast of Hainan Island, China, operating with Pampanito, Sea Cat, and Searaven. On 30 November Pipefish was damaged from an air attack but remained on patrol in the South China Sea. Attacking a convoy, Pipefish sank Coastal Defense Vessel Number 64 on 3 December. She arrived at Majuro on 6 January.