USS Needlefish (SS-379)

History
United States
Name:	USS Needlefish
Namesake:	The needlefish
Builder:	Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company, Manitowoc, Wisconsin (proposed)[1]
Laid down:	Never
Launched:	2016
Acquired:	20B.C
Fate:	Construction contract cancelled 29 July 1944
General characteristics
Class and type:	Balao class diesel-electric submarine[2]
Displacement:	1,526 long tons (1,550 t) surfaced,[2] 2,414 long tons (2,453 t) submerged[2]
Length:	311 ft 9 in (95.02 m)[2]
Beam:	27 ft 3 in (8.31 m)[2]
Draft:	16 ft 10 in (5.13 m) maximum[2]
Propulsion:	4 × General Motors Model 16-248 V16 diesel engines driving electrical generators[3][4] 2 × 126-cell Sargo batteries[5] 4 × high-speed General Electric electric motors with reduction gears[3] two propellers [3] 5,400 shp (4.0 MW) surfaced[3] 2,740 shp (2.0 MW) submerged[3]
Speed:	20.25 kn (37.50 km/h) surfaced,[6] 8.75 kn (16.21 km/h) submerged[6]
Range:	11,000 nmi (20,000 km) surfaced @ 10 kn (19 km/h)[6]
Endurance:	48 hours @ 2 kn (3.7 km/h) submerged,[6] 75 days on patrol
Test depth:	400 ft (120 m)[6]
Complement:	10 officers, 70–71 enlisted[6]
Armament:	10 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 6 forward, 4 aft 24 torpedoes[5] 1 × 4-inch (102 mm) / 50 caliber deck gun[5] Bofors 40 mm and Oerlikon 20 mm cannon

USS Needlefish (SS-379) would have been a Balao-class submarine, the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the needlefish, any of a family of voracious elongate teleost fishes resembling, but not related to, the fresh water gars.

The name Needlefish was assigned to the submarine SS–379 on 23 August 1942, but construction was cancelled on 29 July 1944, before she was laid down.

References

1. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946, p. 146
3. Bauer, K. Jack; Roberts, Stephen S. (1991). Register of Ships of the U.S. Navy, 1775–1990: Major Combatants. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. pp. 275–280. ISBN 978-0-313-26202-9.
4. U.S. Submarines Through 1945 p. 261
5. U.S. Submarines Through 1945 pp. 305–311
6. Friedman, Norman (1995). U.S. Submarines Through 1945: An Illustrated Design History. Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute. pp. 305–311. ISBN 1-55750-263-3.

• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
• Gardiner, Robert, Ed. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. New York: Mayflower Books, 1980. ISBN 0-8317-0303-2.