USS Dragonet (SS-293)
Encyclopedia
USS Dragonet (SS-293), a Balao-class
Balao class submarine
The Balao class was a successful design of United States Navy submarine used during World War II, and with 122 units built, the largest class of submarines in the United States Navy. An improvement on the earlier Gato class, the boats had slight internal differences...

 submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...

, was a ship of the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

 named for the dragonet
Dragonet
Dragonets are small, perciform, marine fish of the diverse family Callionymidae . Found mainly in the tropical waters of the western Indo-Pacific, the family contains approximately 186 species in 18 genera. The Draconettidae may be considered a sister family, whose members are very much alike,...

, a family of fishes found in the warm seas of the world.

Dragonet (SS-293) was launched 18 April 1943 by Cramp Shipbuilding Co., Philadelphia, Pa.; sponsored by Mrs. J. E. Gingrich; and commissioned 6 March 1944, Commander Jack Hayden Lewis in command.

Dragonet reached Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...

 from New London
Naval Submarine Base New London
Naval Submarine Base New London is the United States Navy's primary submarine base, the "Home of the Submarine Force", and "the Submarine Capital of the World".-History:...

 9 October 1944, and put out on her first war patrol 1 November, bound for the Kurile Islands and the Sea of Okhotsk
Sea of Okhotsk
The Sea of Okhotsk is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean, lying between the Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands on the southeast, the island of Hokkaidō to the far south, the island of Sakhalin along the west, and a long stretch of eastern Siberian coast along the west and...

. On the morning of 15 December 1944, while submerged south of Matsuwa, Dragonet struck an uncharted submerged pinnacle, which holed her pressure hull in the forward torpedo room. The space was completely flooded, and in order to surface the submarine, it was necessary to blow water out of the compartment with compressed air. At 0845 she surfaced, just 4 miles (6.4 km) from the airfield on Matsuwa, and set course to clear the danger area as quickly as possible. Her bow planes were rigged out, and in order to rerig them, it would be necessary to enter the flooded compartment. Next day this was accomplished by putting pressure in the forward battery compartment, and opening the water-tight door into the forward torpedo room. The determination and skill of her crew were further tried when she had to run through two days of storm to reach Midway
Midway Atoll
Midway Atoll is a atoll in the North Pacific Ocean, near the northwestern end of the Hawaiian archipelago, about one-third of the way between Honolulu, Hawaii, and Tokyo, Japan. Unique among the Hawaiian islands, Midway observes UTC-11 , eleven hours behind Coordinated Universal Time and one hour...

 20 December for emergency repairs.

After overhaul at Mare Island Naval Shipyard
Mare Island Naval Shipyard
The Mare Island Naval Shipyard was the first United States Navy base established on the Pacific Ocean. It is located 25 miles northeast of San Francisco in Vallejo, California. The Napa River goes through the Mare Island Strait and separates the peninsula shipyard from the main portion of the...

, Vallejo, CA.
Vallejo, California
Vallejo is the largest city in Solano County, California, United States. The population was 115,942 at the 2010 census. It is located in the San Francisco Bay Area on the northeastern shore of San Pablo Bay...

, Dragonet returned to Pearl Harbor 2 April 1945, and sailed on her next patrol 19 April. She called at Guam
Guam
Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...

 to refuel from 1 May to 3 May, then proceeded to lifeguard duty south of the Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese home islands. She rescued four downed Army aviators during this patrol, and returned to refit at Guam between 10 June and 8 July.

Dragonets third war patrol, between 8 July 1945 and 17 August, was a combination of lifeguard duty and offensive against Japanese shipping in Bungo Suido. At this late stage in the war, the remnants of the Japanese merchant marine provided few targets, and none was contacted by Dragonet. She rescued a downed naval aviator near Okino Shima. Putting in to Saipan
Saipan
Saipan is the largest island of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands , a chain of 15 tropical islands belonging to the Marianas archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean with a total area of . The 2000 census population was 62,392...

 at the close of the war, she sailed on to Pearl Harbor and San Francisco.

Dragonet was decommissioned and placed in reserve at Mare Island 16 April 1946, and laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet. She was struck from the Naval Register 1 June 1961, and sunk by explosive test in Chesapeake Bay
Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...

.

Dragonets second and third war patrols were designated as "successful". She received two battle stars for World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

service.



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