USS Robalo (SS-273)
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| Career | |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | |
| Laid down: | 24 October 1942 |
| Launched: | 9 May 1943 |
| Commissioned: | 28 September 1943 |
| Fate: | lost to a Japanese mine |
| Stricken: | 16 September 1944 |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 1525 tons surfaced, 2424 tons submerged |
| Length: | 311 feet 9 inches |
| Beam: | 27 feet 2 inches |
| Draft: | 15 feet 3 inches |
| Speed: | 20 knots surfaced, 9 knots submerged |
| Complement: | 60 officers and men |
| Armament: | one three-inch gun, two 20mm cannon, ten 21-inch torpedo tubes |
USS Robalo (SS-273), a Gato-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the róbalo or common snook, a warm water sport and food fish. Her keel was laid down on 24 October 1942 by the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company at Manitowoc, Wisconsin. She was launched on 9 May 1943 sponsored by Mrs. E.S. Root; and commissioned on 28 September 1943 with Commander Manning M. Kimmel in command.
After passage by inland waterways and being floated down the Mississippi River, Robalo deployed to the Pacific. On her first war patrol, she hunted for Japanese ships west of the Philippines, where she damaged a large freighter. During her second patrol in the South China Sea near Indochina, she damaged a 7500-ton tanker.
Robalo departed Fremantle on 22 June 1944 on her third war patrol. She set a course for the South China Sea to conduct her patrol in the vicinity of the Natuna Islands. After transiting Makassar Strait and Balabac Strait, she was scheduled to arrive on station about 6 July and remain until dark on 2 August 1944. On 2 July, a contact report stated that Robalo had sighted a Fuso-class battleship with air cover and two destroyers for escort. The ship was then just east of Borneo. No other messages were ever received from the submarine and when she did not return from patrol, she was presumed lost.
On 2 August a note was dropped from the window of a cell of Puerto Princessa Prison Camp on Palawan Island in the Philippines. It was picked up by an American soldier who was on a work detail nearby. The note was in turn given to H.D. Hough, Yeoman Second Class, who was also a prisoner at the camp. On 4 August he contacted Trinidad Mendosa, wife of guerrilla leader Dr. Mendosa who furnished further information on the survivors.
From these sources it was concluded that Robalo was sunk on 26 July 1944, two miles off the western coast of Palawan Island from an explosion in the vicinity of her after battery, probably caused by an enemy naval mine. Only four men swam ashore, and made their way through the jungles to a small barrier northwest of the Puerto Princessa Prison Camp, where Japanese Military Police captured them and jailed them for guerrilla activities. On 15 August, they were evacuated by a Japanese destroyer and never heard from again. Robalo was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 16 September 1944.
Robalo earned two battle stars for World War II service.
References
This article includes information collected from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
| Gato-class submarine |
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Gato | Greenling | Grouper | Growler | Grunion | Guardfish | Albacore | Amberjack | Barb | Blackfish | Bluefish | Bonefish | Cod | Cero | Corvina | Darter | Drum | Flying Fish | Finback | Haddock | Halibut | Herring | Kingfish | Shad | Silversides | Trigger | Wahoo | Whale | Angler | Bashaw | Bluegill | Bream | Cavalla | Cobia | Croaker | Dace | Dorado | Flasher | Flier | Flounder | Gabilan | Gunnel | Gurnard | Haddo | Hake | Harder | Hoe | Jack | Lapon | Mingo | Muskallunge | Paddle | Pargo | Peto | Pogy | Pompon | Puffer | Rasher | Raton | Ray | Redfin | Robalo | Rock | Runner | Sawfish | Scamp | Scorpion | Snook | Steelhead | Sunfish | Tunny | Tinosa | Tullibee |
| List of submarines of the United States Navy List of submarine classes of the United States Navy |