USS Corvina (SS-226)

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Career
Ordered:
Laid down:
Launched:	9 May 1943
Commissioned:	6 August 1943
Fate:	lost
Stricken:	14 March 1944
General Characteristics
Displacement:	1526 tons
Length:	311 feet 9 inches
Beam:	27 feet 3 inches
Draft:	15 feet 3 inches
Speed:	20 knots
Complement:	82 officers and men
Armament:	one three-inch gun, ten 21-inch torpedo tubes

USS Corvina (SS-226), a Gato-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the corvina, any of various important food fishes related to the weakfish and the croaker of the Atlantic coast. Her keel was laid down by the Electric Boat Company of Groton, Connecticut. She was launched on 9 May 1943 sponsored by Mrs. R. W. Christie, and commissioned on 6 August 1943 with Commander R. S. Rooney in command.

Clearing New London, Connecticut, on 18 September 1943, Corvina arrived at Pearl Harbor on 14 October. She put out from Pearl Harbor on her maiden war patrol 4 November, topped off her fuel tanks at Johnston Island on 6 November, and was never heard from again.

Her assignment had been a dangerous one: to patrol as closely as possible to the heavily-guarded stronghold of Truk and to intercept any Japanese sortie endangering the forthcoming American invasion of the Gilbert Islands. Japanese records report that Japanese submarine I-176 fired three torpedoes at an enemy submarine south of Truk 16 November, claiming two hits which resulted in the explosion of the target. If this was Corvina she was the only American submarine to be sunk by a Japanese submarine in the entire war. Her loss with her crew of 82 was announced 14 March 1944.

References

This article includes information collected from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.