Recognition Guide Warships of the Second World War
United States Navy — Submarine SS-248

USS Dorado (SS-248)

Gato-class diesel-electric submarine

USS Dorado (SS-248)
Unknown author — Unknown source — Public domain — Wikimedia Commons Plate — SS-248 The construction of the USS Dorado (SS-248). Photograph taken from the Naval Historical Center. Public Domain.

Service

  1. United States Navy28 August 1943 — 6 October 194339 days of the war
Full service history About 338 words
Gato-class diesel-electric submarine Particulars
Name
USS Dorado
Pennant / hull number
SS-248
Builder
Electric Boat, Groton, Connecticut
Laid down
27 August 1942
Launched
23 May 1943
Commissioned
28 August 1943
Fate
Missing after 6 October 1943
Possibly sunk off Panama 12 October 1943 (1943)
Status
Wreck

Specifications

Displacement, submerged
1,525 long tons (1,549 t)
Length
94.79 m (311 ft)
Beam
8.23 m (27 ft)
Draught
5.18 m (17 ft)
Range
11,000 nmi (20,372 km)
Complement
60
Main gun
76 mm (3 in)

A dolphin fish of the genus Coryphaena , abundant in the Mediterranean and in many parts of the Atlantic, less numerous on the American coast.

Dorado (SS-248) was laid down on 27 August 1942 at Groton, Conn., by the Electric Boat Co.; launched on 23 May 1943 ; sponsored by Mrs. Ezra G. Allen, wife of Rear Adm. Ezra G. Allen, Budget Officer of the Navy Department; and commissioned on 28 August 1943, Lt. Cmdr. Earle C. Schneider in command.

Dorado sailed from New London, Conn., on 6 October 1943, for the Canal Zone but never reached her destination. Two days after Dorado 's departure, on 8 October 1943, the German submarine U-214 ( Oberleutnant zur See Rupprecht Stock, commanding), on her tenth war patrol (the second under Stock) lay a field of 15 mines off Colon, Panama Canal Zone.

Continue to the full service history About 338 words

From the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, compiled by the Naval History and Heritage Command (Dorado (SS-248)). A work of the United States Government, in the public domain.

Armament and machinery

Armament and machinery
Propulsion
  • 4 × General Motors Model 16-248 V16 Diesel engines driving electric generators
  • 2 × 126-cell Sargo batteries
  • 4 × high-speed General Electric electric motors with reduction gears
  • two propellers
  • 5,400 shp (4.0 MW) surfaced
  • 2,740 shp (2.0 MW) submerged
Armament
  • 10 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes
  • 6 forward, 4 aft
  • 24 torpedoes
  • 1 × 3-inch (76 mm) / 50 caliber deck gun
  • Bofors 40 mm and Oerlikon 20 mm cannon

Sister ships

51 more in the class

Sources

  • Facts harvested from USS Dorado (SS-248) on Wikipedia. Figures only — no wording is taken from it.
  • Service history reproduced verbatim from Dorado (SS-248) , Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships — public domain, a work of the United States Government.
  • Photograph: Unknown author — Unknown source — Public domain — Wikimedia Commons