USS Chivo
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 US | |
| Name | USS Chivo (SS-341) |
| Builder | Electric Boat Company, Groton, Connecticut [1] |
| Laid down | 21 February 1944 [1] |
| Launched | 14 January 1945 [1] |
| Commissioned | 28 April 1945 [1] |
| Decommissioned | 1 July 1971 |
| Stricken | 1 July 1971 [1] |
| Fate | Transferred to Argentina, 1 July 1971 [1] |
| History | |
 Argentina | |
| Name | ARA Santiago del Estero (S-22) |
| Acquired | 1 July 1971 |
| Decommissioned | January 1981 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Balao-class diesel-electric submarine |
| Displacement | list error: <br /> list (help) 1,526 tons (1550 t) surfaced 2,424 tons (2460 t) submerged |
| Length | 311 ft 9 in (95.0 m) [1] |
| Beam | 27 ft 3 in (8.3 m) [1] |
| Draft | 16 ft 10 in (5.1 m) maximum [1] |
| Propulsion | list error: <br /> list (help) 4 × General Motors Model 16 V16 diesel engines, total 5,400 bhp (4.0 MW) 4 × General Electric electric motors, total 2,740 bhp (2.0 MW) two propellers [1] |
| Speed | list error: <br /> list (help) 20.25 knots (37 km/h) surfaced 8.75 knots (16 km/h) submerged |
| Range | 11,000 nm (20,000 km) surfaced at 10 knots (19 km/h) |
| Endurance | list error: <br /> list (help) 48 hours at 2 knots (4 km/h) submerged 75 days on patrol |
| Test depth | 400 ft (120 m) |
| Complement | 6 officers, 60 enlisted |
| Armament | list error: <br /> list (help) 10 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes (six forward, four aft) 24 torpedoes 1 × 5 in (127 mm) / 25 caliber deck gun four machine guns |
USS Chivo (SS-341), a Balao-class submarine, was a ship of the United States Navy named for the chivo or big-scaled goatfish Pseudopenaeus grandisquamis, a fish inhabiting the Pacific Ocean between Panama and Mexico.
Chivo (SS-341) was launched 14 January 1945 by Electric Boat Company, Groton, Conn.; sponsored by Mrs. Raymond E. Baldwin, wife of the governor of Connecticut; and commissioned 28 April 1945, Lieutenant Commander W. B. Crutcher, USNR, in command.
Chivo departed New London 7 June 1945 for Key West where she trained and exercised briefly, before sailing on to Pearl Harbor. While the submarine was preparing for her first war patrol, hostilities ended; Chivo then remained at Pearl Harbor, operating locally with other ships of the Pacific Fleet. She returned to the States in October, basing on San Diego for local operations which continued until January 1946, when Chivo sailed for a tour of duty in the western Pacific. Returning to San Diego in May, the submarine exercised along the west coast for the next 15 months.
In August 1947 Chivo began a simulated war patrol which took her to Suva, Fiji Islands; Guam, and Japan, before she arrived back at San Diego in November. West Coast duty continued for her until mid-1949 when she was transferred to the Atlantic Fleet, arriving at her new home port of Key West on 4 July 1949. The submarine continued to train and provide services for other ships in intertype exercises until 30 October 1950 when she arrived at New London to begin an extensive GUPPY IA overhaul and modernization.
With increased power and a new streamlined shape, Chivo returned to duty with the Atlantic Fleet in July 1951. Based on Key West until 1959, and then Charleston, she participated in exercises and tests off the east coast, through 1963. Interspersed among her regular operations were a tour of duty with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea (1952), and visits to the Pacific Coast of Colombia (1953), Quebec City, Canada (1959), and South Africa (1960).
ARA Santiago del Estero (S-22)
Chivo was decommissioned, struck from the Naval Register, and transferred (sold) to Argentina, under terms of the Security Assistance Program, 1 July 1971, renamed ARA Santiago del Estero (S-22). She was decommissioned by the Argentine Navy in January 1981.
References
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.
