![USS Seahorse file photo [17829] USS Seahorse file photo [17829]](/images/ship_seahorse1.jpg)



Seahorse
Country | United States |
Ship Class | Balao-class Submarine |
Hull Number | SS-304 |
Builder | Mare Island Navy Yard |
Laid Down | 1 Jul 1942 |
Launched | 9 Jan 1943 |
Commissioned | 31 Mar 1943 |
Decommissioned | 2 Mar 1946 |
Displacement | 1,550 tons standard; 2,424 tons submerged |
Length | 312 feet |
Beam | 27 feet |
Draft | 17 feet |
Machinery | Four Fairbanks-Morse Model 38D8-1/8 9-cyl diesel engines (5,400shp), four Elliott electric motors (2,740shp), two 126-cell Sargo batteries, two propellers |
Speed | 20 knots |
Range | 11,000nm at 10 knots surfaced, 48 hours at 2 knots 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 Seahorse was commissioned into service in Mar 1943. After shakedown and training cruises, she departed the west coast of the United States for Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii, from where she would embark on her first war patrol in Aug 1943. She would make a total of eight war patrols, most of which saw her sinking Japanese vessels ranking from small sail boats to large cargo ships; on 20 Apr 1944, she encountered a warship, Japanese submarine RO-45, and promptly destroyed her as well. She ended the war while on lifeguard station 40 miles southeast of Hachijo Jima of Izu Islands south of Japan, about 250 kilometers south of Tokyo, Japan. She was decommissioned from service at Mare Island Naval Shipyard at Vallejo, California, United States in Mar 1946 and was placed in reserve until she was removed from the US Navy Register in Mar 1967. She was sold for scrap in the following year.
ww2dbaseSource: Wikipedia
Last Major Revision: Apr 2013