Baya
| Country | United States |
| Ship Class | Balao-class Submarine |
| Hull Number | SS-318 |
| Builder | Electric Boat Company |
| Laid Down | 8 Apr 1943 |
| Launched | 2 Jan 1944 |
| Commissioned | 20 May 1944 |
| Decommissioned | 30 Oct 1972 |
| Displacement | 1,526 tons standard; 2,424 tons submerged |
| Length | 312 feet |
| Beam | 27 feet |
| Draft | 17 feet |
| Machinery | Four General Motors Model 16-278A V16 diesel engines (5,400shp), four high-speed General Electric electric motors with reduction gears (2,740shp), two 126-cell Sargo batteries, two propellers |
| Speed | 20 knots |
| Range | 11,000nm at 10 knots surfaced, 48 hours submerged |
| Crew | 81 |
| Armament | 6x533mm forward torpedo tubes, 4x533mm aft torpedo tubes, 24 torpedoes, 1x127mm deck gun |
| Submerged Speed | 8.75 knots |
Contributor: C. Peter Chen
ww2dbaseUSS Baya was commissioned into service in mid-1944. She arrived at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, United States in Aug 1944 and embarked on her first war patrol before the end of the month. When the war ended, she had to her credit four sinkings while also sharing the sinking of another ship with USS Hawkbill. After the war, she departed Subic Bay in the Philippine Islands in Sep 1945 to return to the United States for decommissioning at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, California, United States. She was brought back to service in Feb 1948 for conversion into an electronics experimental submarine under the command of the Naval Electronics Laboratory in San Diego, California; in this role, she helped gather scientific data off western Canada, in the Bering and Chukchi Seas, and in the Hawaiian Islands. Between 1958 and 1959, she was converted at Mare Island Naval Shipyard to test the experimental long-range sonar LORAD. She would serve in this capacity until her decommissioning in 1972.
ww2dbaseSource: Wikipedia
Last Major Revision: Nov 2011
Submarine Baya (SS-318) Interactive Map
Photographs
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Baya Operational Timeline
| 8 Apr 1943 | The keel of submarine Baya was laid down. |
| 2 Jan 1944 | Submarine Baya was launched by the Electric Boat Company in Groton, Connecticut, United States, sponsored by the wife of US Navy Lieutenant Commander C. C. Kirkpatrick. |
| 20 May 1944 | USS Baya was commissioned into service with Commander A. H. Holtz in command. |
| 25 Jun 1944 | USS Baya departed New London, Connecticut, United States for Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. |
| 23 Aug 1944 | USS Baya departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for her first war patrol. Initially ordered to patrol between the Philippine Islands and the Palau Islands, her patrol area was later shifted to the South China Sea. |
| 7 Oct 1944 | USS Baya sank a Japanese transport in the South China Sea, hitting her with 2 of 6 torpedoes fired. |
| 22 Oct 1944 | USS Baya arrived at Fremantle, Australia, ending her first war patrol. |
| 19 Nov 1944 | USS Baya departed Fremantle, Australia for her second war patrol in the South China Sea. |
| 17 Dec 1944 | USS Baya fired six torpedoes at a Japanese transport in the South China Sea; all torpedoes missed. |
| 12 Jan 1945 | USS Baya arrived at Fremantle, Australia, ending her second war patrol. |
| 4 Mar 1945 | USS Baya fired six torpedoes at a Japanese convoy in the South China Sea, hitting a transport and an oil with 2 torpedoes each and sinking both. |
| 20 Mar 1945 | USS Baya claimed sinking a Japanese destroyer in the South China Sea, hitting her with 1 of 3 torpedoes fired. |
| 21 Mar 1945 | USS Baya fired three torpedoes at a Japanese transport in the South China Sea; all torpedoes missed. |
| 2 May 1945 | USS Baya fired six torpedoes at a Japanese vessel in the Gulf of Siam; all torpedoes missed. |
| 3 May 1945 | USS Baya fired six torpedoes at a Japanese oiler in the Gulf of Siam; all torpedoes missed. |
| 13 May 1945 | USS Baya attacked a Japanese convoy in the South China Sea, hitting them with 7 of 10 torpedoes fired, and claiming 3 sinkings. The only confirmed sinking would be the Yosei Maru. |
| 27 Jun 1945 | USS Baya fired six torpedoes at a Japanese vessel in the South China Sea; all torpedoes missed. |
| 30 Jun 1945 | USS Baya attacked small coastal vessels with her deck gun off Borneo in the Sulu Sea. |
| 16 Jul 1945 | USS Baya (Lieutenant Commander B. C. Jarvis, USN) detected the 945-ton Japanese coastal patrol vessel Kari in the Java Sea via her SJ radar, beraing 273 degrees at the range of 20,100 yards; she shared this report with USS Becuna. USS Becua attacked at 0210 hours, but all torpedoes with a depth setting of four feet missed the target; this information was shared with USS Baya. Beginning at 0221 hours, USS Baya fired a total of 9 torpedoes, all set at zero depth, at the range of 3,000 yards, scoring one hit. At 0426 hours, two more stern torpedoes were launched, scoring an additional hit right below the funnel. The second hit nearly disintegrated Kari at about 220 nautical miles west-southwest of Makassar of Dutch East Indies. |
| 20 Jul 1945 | USS Baya attacked a Japanese patrol craft in the South China Sea with her deck gun. |
| 24 Sep 1945 | USS Baya arrived in San Francisco, California, United States. |
| 14 May 1946 | USS Baya was decommissioned from service at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, California, United States. |
| 10 Feb 1948 | USS Baya was recommissioned into service. |
| 12 Aug 1949 | USS Baya was redesignated AGSS-318. |
| 30 Oct 1972 | USS Baya was decommissioned from service and was struck from the US Naval Register. |
| 12 Oct 1973 | Submarine Baya was sold for scrap. |
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Visitor Submitted Comments
17 Apr 2019 07:06:11 PM
My father served on the Baya, he was a cook at that time. If any served with Don Basher please reply or call me at 207-664-8155. He was proud to get his dolphins while aboard her. Fare winds and following seas shipmates.
29 May 2022 07:54:03 PM
Looking to see if anyone remembers Leslie W Brachtenbach
All visitor submitted comments are opinions of those making the submissions and do not reflect views of WW2DB.
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Thomas Dodd, late 1945
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19 Dec 2018 07:43:28 AM
I remember my father, John R. Wilson, a crew member, telling us about either sneaking through the Strait of Malacca, or was it Bungo? Our son, his grandson, is vacationing there and just sent a photo in the Strait of Malacca. This made me wonder if records show more than action? Thank you.