The partially completed hulk of USS Turbot.
History
United States
NameTurbot
NamesakeThe turbot
BuilderCramp Shipbuilding Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Laid down13 November 1943
Launchedas incomplete hulk 12 April 1946
CompletedNever
CommissionedNever
Stricken1958
FateConstruction contract cancelled 12 August 1945
NotesServed as testing hulk; survived as such into the 1980s
General characteristics
Class and typeBalao-class diesel-electric submarine[2]
Displacement
  • 1,526 long tons (1,550 t) surfaced,[2]
  • 2,414 long tons (2,453 t) submerged[2]
Length311 ft 9 in (95.02 m)[2]
Beam27 ft 3 in (8.31 m)[2]
Draft16 ft 10 in (5.13 m) maximum[2]
Propulsion
Speed
  • 20.25 knots (37.50 km/h; 23.30 mph) surfaced,[1]
  • 8.75 knots (16.21 km/h; 10.07 mph) submerged[1]
Range11,000 nmi (20,000 km; 13,000 mi) surfaced at 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph)[1]
Endurance48 hours at 2 kn (3.7 km/h; 2.3 mph) submerged,[1] 75 days on patrol
Test depth400 ft (120 m)[1]
Complement10 officers, 70–71 enlisted[1]
Armament

USS Turbot (SS-427), a Balao-class submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the turbot, a large, brown and white flatfish, valued as a food.

Turbot's keel was laid down on 13 November 1943 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by the Cramp Shipbuilding Company, but the contract for her construction was cancelled on 12 August 1945. Her partially completed hulk was launched on 12 April 1946 and, in 1950, was assigned to the Naval Ship Research and Development Center at Annapolis, Maryland, where it was used for research and development in connection with the control and reduction of machinery noise in submarines.[6]

Turbot was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in 1958, and sold for scrapping to the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, at Sparrow's Point, Maryland; however, rather than being scrapped, she remained tied up to a U.S. Navy pier in Carr's Creek at the North Severn Naval Station in Maryland, where she continued to be used for testing well into the 1980s. Some material was removed from her hulk for use in other submarines, including her six torpedo air flasks, which were installed in the submarine USS Pampanito (SS-383) in San Francisco, California.[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f U.S. Submarines Through 1945 pp. 305-311
  2. ^ a b c d e f Bauer, K. Jack; Roberts, Stephen S. (1991). Register of Ships of the U.S. Navy, 1775-1990: Major Combatants. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. pp. 275–282. ISBN 0-313-26202-0.
  3. ^ a b c d e Bauer, K. Jack; Roberts, Stephen S. (1991). Register of Ships of the U.S. Navy, 1775–1990: Major Combatants. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. pp. 270–280. ISBN 978-0-313-26202-9. OCLC 24010356.
  4. ^ U.S. Submarines Through 1945 p. 261
  5. ^ U.S. Submarines Through 1945 pp. 305–311
  6. ^ a b Anonymous, "The Case of the Missing Hull Numbers," Submarine Force Museum, 4 August 2014, 8:00 a.m. EDT Retrieved 17 June 2018.
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