USS Puffer (SS-268)

History
Builder:	Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company, Manitowoc, Wisconsin
Laid down:	16 February 1942
Launched:	21 November 1942
Commissioned:	27 April 1943
Decommissioned:	28 June 1946
Struck:	1 July 1960
Fate:	Sold for scrap, 3 December 1960
General characteristics
Class and type:	Gato-class diesel-electric submarine
Displacement:	1,525 tons (1,549 t) surfaced 2,424 tons (2,460 t) submerged
Length:	311 ft 9 in (95.02 m)
Beam:	27 ft 3 in (8.31 m)
Draft:	17 ft 0 in (5.18 m) maximum
Propulsion:	4 × General Motors Model 16-248 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:	21 knots (39 km/h) surfaced 9 knots (17 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:	300 ft (90 m)
Complement:	6 officers, 54 enlisted
Armament:	10 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 6 forward, 4 aft 24 torpedoes 1 × 3-inch (76 mm) / 50 caliber deck gun Bofors 40 mm and Oerlikon 20 mm cannon
Shark's mouth painting on the bow

USS Puffer (SS-268), a Gato-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the puffer, a fish which inflates its body with air.

Puffer (SS-268) was laid down by the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co., Manitowoc, Wisconsin, 16 February 1942; launched 21 November 1942; sponsored by Mrs. Ruth B. Lyons (granddaughter of the oldest employee at Manitowoc, Christ. Jacobson, Sr.); and commissioned 27 April 1943, Lt. Comdr. M. J. Jensen in command.

Puffer was transported down the Mississippi to New Orleans on a special floating drydock, having periscopes installed en route. After receiving torpedoes and ammunition, she exercised off Panama for a month, and then headed across the Pacific to Australia. Puffer arrived there in early September 1943.

Her first war patrol, to intercept Japanese commerce in the Makassar Strait–Celebes Sea area, 7 September to 17 October, resulted in several damaged ships but no sinkings. On October 9, after damaging a merchantman, she endured a nearly 38-hour depth charging from 2 Japanese sub chasers and was slightly damaged. On 24 November Puffer sailed on her 2nd patrol, in the Sulu Sea and the approaches to Manila. On 13 December, she made a successful attack on freighter Teiko Maru (ex-Vichy French steamship D'Artagnan). On 20 December she sank 820-ton destroyer Fuyō, and on 1 January 1944, 6,707-ton freighter Ryuyo Maru, before putting in to Fremantle for refit 12 January.