USS Ronquil (SS-396)

History
United States
Name:	USS Ronquil (SS-396)
Builder:	Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine
Laid down:	9 September 1943
Launched:	27 January 1944
Commissioned:	22 April 1944
Decommissioned:	May 1952
Recommissioned:	16 January 1953
Decommissioned:	1 July 1971
Struck:	1 July 1971
Fate:	Transferred to Spain, 1 July 1971
Spain
Name:	SPS Isaac Peral (S-32)
Acquired:	1 July 1971
Decommissioned:	3 April 1984
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 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
General characteristics (Guppy IIA)
Class and type:	none
Displacement:	1,848 tons (1,878 t) surfaced 2,440 tons (2,479 t) submerged
Length:	307 ft (93.6 m)
Beam:	27 ft 4 in (8.3 m)
Draft:	17 ft (5.2 m)
Propulsion:	Snorkel added One diesel engine and generator removed Batteries upgraded to Sargo II
Speed:	Surfaced: 17.0 knots (19.6 mph; 31.5 km/h) maximum 13.5 knots (15.5 mph; 25.0 km/h) cruising Submerged: 14.1 knots (16.2 mph; 26.1 km/h) for ½ hour 8.0 knots (9.2 mph; 14.8 km/h) snorkeling 3.0 knots (3.5 mph; 5.6 km/h) cruising
Armament:	10 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes  (six forward, four aft) all guns removed

USS Ronquil (SS-396), a Balao-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy named after the ronquil, a spiny-finned fish found along the northwest coast of North America. It has a single dorsal fin and a large mouth and resembles the tropical jawfish.

Ronquil was laid down 9 September 1943 at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, in Kittery, Maine; launched 27 January 1944, sponsored by Mrs. C. M. Elder; and commissioned 22 April 1944, Lieutenant Commander Henry S. Monroe in command.

After shakedown off the New England coast, Ronquil sailed for Hawaii. She arrived at Pearl Harbor on 8 July 1944; and, after preparatory training, sailed on her first war patrol (31 July – 8 September 1944) in the northeastern Formosa-Sakishima Gunto area. On 24 August the submarine sank two attack cargo ships: Yoshida Maru No. 3 (4,646 tons) and Fukurei Maru (5,969 tons). Ronquil’s second war patrol, from 30 September to 28 November 1944, was carried out in two phases. She first operated with a coordinated submarine attack group in the Bungo Suido area, and then joined six other submarines to carry out an antipatrol ship sweep off the Bonin Islands.

On her third war patrol, from 1 January to 14 February 1945, Ronquil patrolled the Bonins and did lifeguard duty in that area for Army bombers hitting the Japanese home islands. Her fourth war patrol from 11 March to 23 April 1945, brought her no worthwhile enemy targets but resulted in the rescue of 10 Army aviators from a B-29 bomber downed between the Bonins and Japan. The submarine's fifth and last patrol from 19 May to 26 July 1945, took her into the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea.

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