USS Dorado (SS-248)

For other ships with the same name, see USS Dorado.

USS Dorado (SS-248), a Gato-class submarine, was the first submarine of the United States Navy to be named for the dorado.

Dorado fitting out, the final stage of construction, in August 1943.
History
United States
Builder	Electric Boat, Groton, Connecticut[1]
Laid down	27 August 1942[1]
Launched	23 May 1943[1]
Sponsored by	Mrs. Ezra G. Allen
Commissioned	28 August 1943[1]
Fate	Missing after 6 October 1943 Possibly sunk off Panama 12 October 1943[2]
General characteristics
Class and type	Gato-class diesel-electric submarine[2]
Displacement	1,525 long tons (1,549 t) surfaced,[2] 2,424 long tons (2,463 t) submerged[2]
Length	311 ft 9 in (95.02 m)[2]
Beam	27 ft 3 in (8.31 m)[2]
Draft	17 ft (5.2 m) maximum[2]
Propulsion	4 × General Motors Model 16-248 V16 Diesel engines driving electric 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	21 kn (39 km/h) surfaced,[6] 9 kn (17 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	300 ft (91 m)[6]
Complement	6 officers, 54 enlisted[6]
Armament	10 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 6 forward, 4 aft 24 torpedoes[5] 1 × 3-inch (76 mm) / 50 caliber deck gun[5] Bofors 40 mm and Oerlikon 20 mm cannon

Construction and commissioning

Dorado′s keel was laid down on 27 August 1942 by the Electric Boat Company of Groton, Connecticut. She was launched on 23 May 1943, sponsored by Mrs. Ezra G. Allen, wife of Rear Admiral Ezra G. Allen, Budget Officer of the United States Department of the Navy, and commissioned on 28 August 1943.

Service history

Dorado's sea trials proved the readiness of the crew, and she sailed from Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton, Connecticut, on 6 October 1943 for the Panama Canal Zone. She did not arrive.

The standard practice of imposing bombing restrictions within an area 50 nautical miles (93 km; 58 mi) ahead, 100 nmi (185 km; 115 mi) astern, and 15 nmi (28 km; 17 mi) on each side of the scheduled position of an unescorted submarine making passage in friendly waters had been carried out and all concerned had been notified. However, the crew of a PBM Mariner flying boat of Patrol Squadron 210 (VP-210) based at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, assigned to provide air coverage on the evening of 12 October 1943 had received an incorrect description of the restriction area, 11 nmi (20 km; 13 mi) out of place.

At 2049 local time, under a moonlit but stormy sky, that plane attacked an unidentified submarine that it believed was outside the restriction area with three Mark-47 depth charges and a 100 lb (45 kg) Mark-4 Mod-4 demolition bomb. About two hours later, the plane sighted a second submarine with which it attempted to exchange recognition signals. This second submarine fired upon the plane.

A convoy scheduled to pass through the restricted area surrounding Dorado on the evening of 12 October 1943 reported no contact.

Air searches were begun immediately after 14 October 1943, Dorado′s scheduled date of arrival in the Panama Canal Zone. Widely scattered oil slicks with occasional debris were found. Subsequently, the Board of Investigation held in Guantánamo Bay, and the more formal Naval Board of Inquiry held at the Washington Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., found that the "widely scattered oil slicks" were actually oleous in nature and not bunker oil or diesel fuel - most probably rotting vegetation like seaweed. All of the "occasional debris" was determined not to have come from Dorado.

At both the Board of Investigation and the Court of Inquiry, the aircrew testified that they were certain that both submarines they had attacked were U-boats. Despite the circumstantial evidence, there are reasons to doubt that Dorado was sunk by the Mariner.^[7] Because the crew knew that Dorado was operating in the area, they carefully observed their two targets before attacking. Prior to the first attack, the four crewmen of the aircraft observed the surfaced submarine for 12 minutes, noting:

• it was 48 nmi (89 km; 55 mi) from where they had been told to expect Dorado to be and 34 nmi (63 km; 39 mi) from where Dorado really was supposed to be
• it was heading almost 90 degrees off from Dorado’s base course
• it had no guns on the fore deck, where Dorado carried a five-inch (127 mm) gun
• it had an entirely grooved deck, where Dorado's deck was grooved only near the conning tower
• it had a "knob-like" object on the front of the conning tower, almost certainly the Metox radar detector installed on Type IX U-boats

FuMB-1 Metox-U-boat radar detector antenna.

Post-war examination of Kriegsmarine records indicate that the submarine first attacked by the Mariner may have been U-518, though that boat's logs do not record the attack. It is possible that the attack went unnoticed by the boat; of the three depth charges and one 100 pounds (45 kg) bomb that were dropped, one depth charge was a confirmed dud, one was dropped too low to arm, and neither the third depth charge nor the bomb were seen to explode. After the attack, the Mariner searched the area for 20 minutes, but saw no explosions, bubbles, or debris.

The second submarine, attacked by the Mariner two hours later, was certainly U-214; her log book, captured after World War II, describes firing at the aircraft.

On 8 October, 5 nmi (9.3 km; 5.8 mi) off Colón, U-214 laid a minefield of 15 mines. One of these may have sunk Dorado on or about 14 October 1943.^[8][9]

Dorado was one of only two U.S. Navy submarines lost in the Atlantic Ocean during World War II. The other was USS R-12, which sank during a training dive near Key West, Florida.

Legacy

Artists Thomas Hart Benton and Georges Schreiber with Dorado′s commanding officer Earle Caffrey Schneider on the deck of USS Dorado in the summer of 1943.

A memorial to Dorado stands on the Arkansas River in Veterans Memorial Park in Wichita, Kansas.

A 614-page book entitled USS Dorado (SS-248): On Eternal Patrol was published by Douglas E. Campbell in November 2011.

Before she was lost, the American painter Thomas Hart Benton sailed aboard Dorado on her shakedown cruise, using that experience as the basis for his paintings Score Another for the Subs, In Slumber Deep, and The Claustrophobic Confines.^[10]

See also

• French submarine Surcouf a French submarine sunk in the same area under similar circumstances

References

1. Friedman, Norman (1995). U.S. Submarines Through 1945: An Illustrated Design History. Annapolis, Maryland: United States Naval Institute. pp. 285–304. ISBN 1-55750-263-3.
2. Bauer, K. Jack; Roberts, Stephen S. (1991). Register of Ships of the U.S. Navy, 1775-1990: Major Combatants. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. pp. 271–273. ISBN 0-313-26202-0.
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. 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. U.S. Submarines Through 1945 pp. 305-311
7. "www.lostsubs.com - USS Dorado (SS-248)". Archived from the original on 14 February 2005. Retrieved 2 April 2006.
8. "Patrol of U-boat U-214 from 22 Aug 1943 to 30 Nov 1943 - U-boat patrols - uboat.net". uboat.net. Retrieved 14 December 2009.
9. "USS Dorado (SS-248) - American Vessels lost to U-boats - uboat.net". uboat.net. Retrieved 8 September 2011.
10. "An American Artist Declares War". World War II (January/February 2014): 52–57. January–February 2014.

•  This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

External links

• The Syneca Research Group's discussion of Dorado is published at http://www.ussdorado.com
• On Eternal Patrol: USS Dorado
• NavSource Online: Submarine Photo Archive
• DETAILS PLAIN LANGUAGE: The Mystery and Loss of Submarine USS Dorado

12°21′N 78°50′W