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NavSource Online: Submarine Photo Archive

Patch contributed by Don McGrogan, BMCS, USN (ret.)

Plaice (SS-390)
Keel Laying - Active Service

Radio Call Sign: November - Juliet - Whiskey - Oscar

To Additional Pages

WW II Patrols
Decommissioning & Brazilian Service

Balao Class Submarine: Laid down, 14 July 1943, at Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, ME.; Launched, 15 November 1943; Commissioned USS Plaice (SS-390), 12 February 1944; Decommissioned late 1947, at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, CA.; Laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet; Reactivated 18 May 1963 in preparation for transfer to Brazil, under the Military Assistance Program, 7 September 1963; Commissioned in the Brazilian Navy as Bahia (S-12); Sold to Brazil in 1972; Struck from the Naval Register, 1 April 1973; Final Disposition; Original plan was to make the sub a Museum, but it was sold for scrapping in 1978 because The Brazilian Museum of Naval Technology had financial problems and had to cancel the program. Plaice received six battle stars for World War II service.
Update courtesy of Valdo Novaes.

Specifications: Displacement, Surfaced 1,526 t., Submerged 2,391 t.; Length 311' 9"; Beam 27' 3"; Draft 15' 3"; Speed, Surfaced 20.25 kts, Submerged 8.75 kts; Cruising Range, 11,000 miles surfaced at 10 kts; Submerged Endurance, 48 hours at 2 kts; Operating Depth, 400 ft; Complement 6 Officers 60 Enlisted; Armament, ten 21" torpedo tubes, six forward, four aft, 24 torpedoes, one 5"/25 deck gun, one single 40mm gun mount, one single 20mm gun mount, two .50 cal. machine guns; Patrol Endurance 75 days; Propulsion, diesel-electric reduction gear, four Fairbanks Morse diesel engines, 5,400 HP, Fuel Capacity, 116,000 gal., four Elliot Motor Co. electric main motors with 2,740 shp, two 126-cell main storage batteries, two propellers.

Size	Image Description	Source
22k	Commemorative postal cover issued on the occasion of the Plaice's (SS-390) launching on 15 November 1943 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.	Courtesy of Jack Treutle.
20k	Commemorative postal cover issued on the occasion of the Plaice's (SS-390) commissioning on 12 February 1944.	Courtesy of Jack Treutle.
95k	Pre-christening photo of the sponsor & maid of honor, Eleanor Fazzi & her cousin, Elda Petrucci who would christen the Plaice (SS-390) on 15 November 1943 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Lea Emby explains how her mother was chosen to christen the *Plaice* . "My mother was chosen to christen a submarine because her brother was killed on the Yorktown (CV-5) in the Battle of the Coral Sea. His name was Victor A. Fazzi, Fireman 2nd Class, USNR. He had enlisted in the navy long before the start of the war, and he had been assigned to the *Yorktown* before it was sent to the Pacific. When my mother's brother (Victor) was killed, he was buried at sea, and the navy did not return his personal effects, although they said they would. This was due to the fact that the *Yorktown* was patched up quickly and sent back into action - into the Battle of Midway, where, of course, it sank. Anyway, all of this was too much for my grandmother (my mother's mother). Victor had been her oldest son, and her favorite. When he died and nothing was returned, she just couldn't go on. She died about 4 weeks later, she was only 49. So . . . my mother lost her brother and her mother within a month, and she was left to keep house and take care of her father and raise her younger brother and sister. My mom had two younger siblings - so my mother was 23; her brother 15; and her sister only 8 when all of this happened. Of course, she did this without complaining, that's what their generation did. When my parents got married, my father had to move in with them, my mother would leave her family. My grandfather was friendly with a Rhode Island superior court judge, very politically influential, and this judge contacted RI Senator Theodore Francis Green (who was a former RI governor). At the time, Senator Green was on some military subcommittee in Congress, and Judge DePasquale arranged to have Eleanor christen a submarine as his offering of condolence to my grandfather. So that's how my mother, an ordinary Italian girl and a child of immigrants from Providence Rhode Island, got to sponsor a US submarine!!! Only in America."	USN photo courtesy of her daughter, Lea Emby.
47k	Pre-christening photo of the sponsor, Eleanor Fazzi who would christen the Plaice (SS-390) on 15 November 1943 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.	USN photo courtesy of her daughter, Lea Emby.
66k	The Plaice (SS-390) is christened by Eleanor Fazzi on 15 November 1943 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.	USN photo courtesy of her daughter, Lea Emby.
19k	Commemorative medallion on the occasion of the launching of the Plaice (SS-390), 15 November 1943 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.	Courtesy of James A. Munroe in remembrance of his father Raymond L. Munroe Sr. who worked at the yard during WW II and the Korean wars as a chauffeur.
95k	The Plaice (SS-390) is waterborne at Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, ME. following her launching on 15 November 1943.	USN photo courtesy of ussubvetsofwwii.org.
82k	Crew at Midway after Plaice's (SS-390) first war patrol, July 1944.	Courtesy of Ray Barber.
72k	Crew at Guam after Plaice's (SS-390) third patrol, 1944 Xmas day.	Courtesy of Ray Barber.
45k	Crew at Midway after Plaice's (SS-390) fifth patrol, 26 April 1945.	Courtesy of Ray Barber.
20k	Plaice's (SS-390) Battle flag with Disney Logo first stage in production.	Courtesy of Ray Barber.
60k	Plaice's (SS-390) Battle flag with Disney Logo.	Courtesy of Ray Barber.
28k	By late 1944, many submarines had limited radar detection installations called radar countermeasures (RCM), although they never included jammers. Plaice's (SS-390) antenna blocked out here appears to be an AS-44, which detected microwave (S-band) signals at 1000-3500 MHz seerving an APR-5AX or SPR-2. Both antennas were omnidirectional, and both could be connected to a pulse analyzer (SPA-1), from which the signal's pulse repetition rate and pulse width could be read. If the radar was a known type, this figure could identify it.	Photo courtesy of Ray Barber, partial text courtesy of U.S. Submarines Through 1945, An Illustrated Design History by Norman Friedman. Naval Institute Press.
263k	Plaice (SS-390), off Diamond Head, circa 1946-47.	Courtesy of Ray Barber.
129k	Plaice (SS-390), circa post WW II.	Courtesy LCDR Calvin Raymond USN Ret.
1.0m	Parche (SS-384) with *YF-312* and S-30 (SS-135) outboard at Mare Island between 19 and 23 October 1945. The submarine to the left of *Parche's* sail is either Plaice (SS-390), Tinosa (SS-283) or Queenfish (SS-393). The Nereus (AS-17) is just visible left of the *Parche's* periscope shears.	USN photo courtesy of Darryl Baker. Photo added 09/09/09.
164k	Broadside view of Plaice (SS-390) off Mare Island on 24 Feb 1947. She was in overhaul at Mare Island on 3 Dec 1946 to 6 March1947.	USN photo # 415-47, courtesy of Darryl Baker.
148k	Amidships looking aft plan view of Plaice (SS-390) at Mare Island on 27 Feb 1947.	USN photo # 430-47, courtesy of Darryl Baker.