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NavSource Online: Submarine Photo Archive

Patch contributed by Harold F.(Carl) Carlson & submitted by Gary Carlson.

Marlin (SS-205)

Radio Call Sign: November - Echo - November - Victor

Mackerel Class Submarine: Laid down, 28 May 1940, at Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, ME.; Launched, 28 September 1941; Commissioned, USS Marlin (SS-205), 1 August 1941; Decommissioned, 9 November 1945, at Boston, MA.; Struck from the Naval Register, (date unknown); Final Disposition, sold for scrapping, 29 March 1946, to Boston Metal Co., Baltimore, MD.

Specifications: Displacement, Surfaced: 825 t., Submerged: 1,179 t.; Length 238' 11" ; Beam 21' 8"; Draft 15' 2"; Speed, Surfaced 16 kts, Submerged 9 kts; Complement 4 Officers, 34 Enlisted; Armament, six 21" torpedo tubes, 12 torpedoes, one 3"/50 dual purpose deck gun, two .50 cal. machine guns, two .30 cal. machine guns; Propulsion, diesel-electric, four Electric Boat Co. diesel engines, 3,360 hp, Fuel Capacity, 29,000 gals., four Electro Dynamic electric motors, 1,500 hp, Battery cells 120, twin propellers.

Size	Image Description	Source
15k	Commemorative postal cover on the occasion of the keel laying of the Marlin (SS-205), 28 May 1940, at Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, ME.	Courtesy of Jack Treutle.
15k	Commemorative postal cover on the occasion of the first day of postal service on the Marlin (SS-205), 22 Sept. 1940.	Courtesy of Jack Treutle.
22k	Commemorative postal cover on the occasion of the launching of the Marlin (SS-205), 28 September 1941.	Courtesy of Jack Treutle.
18k	Marlin (SS-205), underway, possibly during her shakedown period.	Courtesy of Hyper War US Navy in World War II.
24k	Commemorative postal cover on the occasion of the Marlin's (SS-205) first deep dive, 14 October 1941.	Courtesy of Jack Treutle.
20k	Commemorative postal cover marking Navy Day, 27 October 1941 and the following submarines commissioned since the previous year: Trout (SS-202), Tuna (SS-203), Mackerel (SS-204), Marlin (SS-205), Gar (SS-206), Grampus (SS-207), Grayback (SS-208), Grayling (SS-209), Grenadier (SS-210) & Gudgeon(SS-211).	Courtesy of Jack Treutle.
172k	Photographed off Portsmouth on 19 May 1943, Marlin (SS-205), shows war alterations, most importantly the 20-mm gun platform abaft her bridge, the wire loop for underwater HF reception, & an SD air warning radar. Another 20-mm gun was mounted forward of her bridge.	USN photo. Text courtesy of U.S. Submarines Through 1945, An Illustrated Design History by Norman Friedman. Naval Institute Press.
63k	Marlin (SS-205) as modified, 19 May 1943, showing her SJ & SD (circled) radars. She retained her old bridge face, with its windows, but had the roof removed to provide an open bridge, with a venturi to protect it.	USN photo. Text courtesy of U.S. Submarines Through 1945, An Illustrated Design History by Norman Friedman. Naval Institute Press.
81k	Marlin (SS-205), underway in June 1943, place unknown.	US Navy photo, courtesy of Mike Green.
446k	On board the Marlin (SS-205), at New London, Conn. Sailor looks down the hatch. August 1943.	NARA Photo # 080-G-468099 by Lt. Comdr. Charles Fenno Jacobs. Photo # HD-SN-99-02602, courtesy of dodmedia.osd.mil, Defense Visual Information Center.
505k	Looking forward along deck from stern of the Marlin (SS-205) off coast of New London, Conn. August 1943.	NARA Photo # 080-G-468316 by Lt. Comdr. Charles Fenno Jacobs. Photo # HD-SN-99-02601, courtesy of dodmedia.osd.mil, Defense Visual Information Center.
103k	Submarine Commanding Officer sights through a periscope in the submarine's control room, during training exercises at the Submarine Base, New London, Groton, Connecticut, in August 1943. In the background, another officer watches men at the control dials. The pair of angled dials below the handles are stadimeter readouts. One is provided opposite the observer to allow an assistant to take readings. The two planesmen are at the left. Photographed by a member of Edward Steichen's unit. Note: Captain Edward L. Beach commented (during the mid-1980s) that this submarine is not a "Fleet Boat", but is more likely either Mackerel (SS-204) or Marlin (SS-205). He also thought that the officer at the periscope might be John F. Walling, who was lost in April 1945 while commanding Snook (SS-279).	US Navy photo # 19-N-23871 from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. Partial text courtesy of U.S. Submarines Through 1945, An Illustrated Design History by Norman Friedman. Naval Institute Press. Photo added 02/13/08.
248k	Port side view of the Marlin (SS-205), probably taken in 1943 while she was employed patrolling and training ships off New London and Portsmouth, N.H	USN photo courtesy of ussubvetsofworldwarii.org.
21k	Commemorative postal cover honoring Submarine Division 13, the O-7 (SS-68) & Marlin (SS-205), 27 October 1943.	Courtesy of Jack Treutle.
113k	Portsmouth's Marlin (SS-205) is shown in February 1944; her bridge was cut down like a fleet boats'. Armament was a 3-in/50 gun aft & a pair of 20-mm guns on the bridge fairwater. Radar has been added; a surface-search SJ forward of the periscopes and a air search SD on the vertical antenna mast abaft the periscopes. On deck, just abaft the forward boat / torpedo derrick, is a JP sonar There was also a keel sonar (presumably QB/JK) in a trunk just abaft the well for the SD mast. Unlike a fleet boat, she had a very small conning tower; both periscopes were let into the control room below it ; the control room also housed the torpedo data computer at its after end, port side. *Marlin, unlike a contemporary Gato* (SS-212-84), had direct drive diesels. Her motors were controlled from a console at the forward end of the machinery space. Most of the crew was accommodated in the big crew space abaft the control room (24 berths), but there was also accommodations in the forward (8 berths) & after (6 berths) torpedo room. Complement was 4 officers & 38 enlisted men.	Drawing courtesy of Jim Christley. Text courtesy of U.S. Submarines Through 1945, An Illustrated Design History by Norman Friedman. Naval Institute Press.