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NavSource Online: Submarine Photo Archive

Contributed by Mike Smolinski

Sabalo (SS-302)

Radio Call Sign: November - Xray - Yankee - Oscar

Balao Class Submarine: Laid down, 5 June 1943, at Cramp Shipbuilding Corp., Philadelphia, PA.; Launched, 4 June 1944; Commissioned USS Sabalo (SS-302), 19 June 1945; Decommissioned, 7 August 1946, at Portsmouth Navy Yard, Portsmouth, NH; ; Laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Portsmouth, NH; Recommissioned, 1 June 1951, at Sub Base New London, CT.; Decommissioned and struck from the Naval Register, 1 July 1971; Final Disposition, sunk as a target in SubSinkEx Project "Thurber" off San Diego, CA. on 21 February 1973.
Partial data submitted by Ron Reeves, HTC, USNR (ret.)

Specifications: Displacement, Surfaced: 1,526 t., Submerged: 2,424 t.; Length 311' 8"; Beam 27' 3"; Draft 15' 3"; Speed, Surfaced 20.25 kts, Submerged 8.75 kts; Cruising Range, 11,000 miles surfaced at 10kts; Submerged Endurance, 48 hours at 2kts; Operating Depth Limit, 400 ft; Complement 6 Officers 60 Enlisted; Armament, ten 21" torpedo tubes, six forward, four aft, 24 torpedoes, one 5"/25 deck gun, one 40mm gun, two .50 cal. machine guns; Patrol Endurance 75 days; Propulsion, diesel-electric reduction gear with four Fairbanks-Morse main generator engines, 5,400hp, Fuel Capacity 94,400 gal., four Elliot Motor Co., main motors with 2,740 shp, two 126-cell main storage batteries, two propellers.

Size	Image Description	Contributed By/ Source
100k	Sabalo (SS-302), proceeding down the Deleware River in Philadelphia sometime shortly after being launched at Cramp Shipbuilding Corp., Philadelphia, PA., 4 June 1944.	Courtesy of John Hummel.
74k	Bernard Ouellet, EN, on Sabalo (SS-302) at the time, relates that this plaque is a one of a kind which was created by him using a patch he had custom made in Yokosuka during the Korean War Cruise (1953). When visiting the Sub Museum in Pearl Harbor some time ago, he noticed that there was no plaque with the ship's emblem in their collection. Upon return to his home, he mounted the patch and sent it to the museum.	U.S. Navy photo courtesy of ussubvetsofworldwarii.org Text info courtesy of Jeff Owens.
51k	Sabalo (SS-302), circa post 1952 in the somewhere in the Pacific.	Courtesy of George M. Arnold.
169k	Sabalo (SS-302) cuts a wide swath through the Pacific after conversion to a "Fleet Snorkel" type at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, post November 1952.	U.S. Navy photo courtesy of ussubvetsofworldwarii.org.
63k	Sabalo (SS-302), in the 1950s, after her "Fleet Snorkel" modernization. *Sabalo* has a new streamlined sail, but retains her original hull form. Her periscope and radar mast are extended; the two-shaded mottle finish on the periscope fairing was prescribed in 1953 for periscopes and snorkels.	US Navy photo from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, courtesy of Joe Radigan MACM USN Ret.
92k	Port side view of the Sabalo (SS-302) underway in the Pacific after conversion to a "Fleet Snorkel" type at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, post November 1952.	U.S. Navy photo courtesy of ussubvetsofworldwarii.org.
50k	Port side view of the Sabalo (SS-302) passing the Chilllian 4 Masted Barque *Esmerelda* off Diamond Head, HI., post November 1952.	U.S. Navy photo courtesy of ussubvetsofworldwarii.org. Text courtesy of Paul Harrington, Revere, Mass.
112k	Note: The narration in this photo appear from parts of three letters from two different people over a period of time. I hope it is plain enough to follow. Outboard of the Coucal (AS-8). The inboard boat is a Fleet Snorkel built by Portsmouth or Cramp and is most probably the Sabalo (SS-302). She had the dome starboard of center (forward of the other) and was homeported in Yokosuka for part of her life. The yard aparatus appears to be from Yokosuka which was *Coucal's* home port for a great part of its life. The outboard boat is a government yard built *Balao class* or *Tench*. This picture was probably taken in the 1952 to 1955 timeframe. To identify these boats, I was keying on the topside sonar arrangement on the forward deck of the Fleet Snorkel. The streamlined dome on the starboard side is either a WFA or BQS-3. That in itself was not unusual. What caught my eye was the can-on-a-post directly to port of this dome. The unconverted boat outboard also has it in the same location. These two boats are the only two I have ever seen with this arrangement. It is not the JT sonar, both boats have the T-shaped JT head just aft of this feature. It has me completely stumped. None of my references mention or identify it, and I have never seen it in any other picture. It might not even be sonar gear. It's possible that it is some other type of topside equipment.	USN photo courtesy of ussubvetsofwwii.org. Text courtesy of David Johnston, (USNR) & Jeff Owens, webmaster and historian for Sabalo(SS-302).
1.2m	Change of Command Ceremony PDF of the Sabalo (SS-302), 15 June 1968.	Courtesy of Ron Reeves HTC (ret.) & John Perry Wood USNA '53. Photo added 03/03/08.

View the Sabalo (SS-302)
DANFS history entry located on the Haze Gray & Underway

Crew Contact And Reunion Information
U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation
Fleet Reserve Association

Additional Resources and Web Sites of Interest
USS Sabalo (SS-302)
Full Fathom Five, U.S. Submarine War Against Japan

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