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NavSource Online: Submarine Photo Archive

Patches contributed by Mike Smolinski

Pickerel (SS-524)

Radio Call Sign: November - Yankee - Kilo - Golf

Tench Class Submarine: Laid down, 8 February 1944, at Boston Navy Yard, Boston, MA.; Launched, 15 December 1944; Commissioned USS Pickerel (SS-524), 4 April 1949; Decommissioned, 18 August 1972, and transferred (loaned) to Italy, renamed ITS Primo (or Peiro) Longobordo (S-501). Final Disposition, sold 5 December 1977 outright, Decomm. 31 January 1980 & sold 31 May 1981 in Genoa, Italy.
Partial data submitted by Ron Reeves, HTC, USNR (ret.)

Specifications: Displacement, Surfaced: 1,570 t., Submerged: 2,414 t.; Length 311' 8"; Beam 27' 4"; Draft 15' 3"; Speed, Surfaced 20.25 kts, Submerged 20 kts; Cruising Range, 11,000 miles surfaced at 10kts; Submerged Endurance, 48 hours at 2kts; Operating Depth, 400 ft; Complement 7 Officers, 69 Enlisted; Armament, ten 21" torpedo tubes, six forward, four aft, 24 torpedoes, Patrol Endurance 75 days; Propulsion, diesel-electric reduction gear with four main generator motors, Fairbanks-Morse diesel engines, HP 5,400. Fuel Capacity, 113,510 gal., Elliot electric motors, HP 2,740, two 126-cell main storage batteries, two propellers.

The following specs have been contributed by Robert (Bob) C. Sowell Jr. ET3 (Retired): No doubt, initially, when her construction began during WW II the plan was for her to have 126 cells forward and 126 aft; however, before her construction was completed in 1949 the new Ni-Cad battery had been developed that produced the same power with half the size and weight. The Pickerel had four 126 cell NiCad batteries, two in the Forward Battery Compartment and two in the After Battery Compartment. This additional battery power coupled with her streamlined superstructure boasted her underwater speed to about twice of that of conventional WWII Fleet type boats.

Size	Image Description	Source
53k	Northern pike (E. lucius), or Pickerel.	Courtesy of wikipedia.org.
64k	Pickerel (SS-524), off the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, New Hampshire, 21 July 1949.	Official U.S. Navy Photograph, # NH 97020, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.
34k	Bass (SSK-2), Bonita (SSK-3),Greenfish (SS-351) and Pickerel (SS-524) at Pearl Harbor, 1950.	Courtesy of Grant Riddle / submarinebaseph.com.
44k	Pickerel (SS-524) returning to Pearl Harbor after a record-setting 21-day submerged run snorkeling across the Pacific from Hong Kong.	Courtesy of Grant Riddle / submarinebaseph.com.
104k	"Crew members of the streamlined submarine Pickerel (SS-524) are shown beside a huge lei presented to the officers and men as the submarine docked at Pearl Harbor today, Nov. 4. She was among the first Pearl Harbor based submarines to return from the Korean War Zone." The original photograph was released by 14th Naval District PIO, and is dated 4 November 1950. The sailors are standing on *Pickerel's* bow, by her sonar dome and jackstaff.	Official U.S. Navy Photograph, # NH 97017, from the "All Hands" collection at the Naval Historical Center.
108k	Pickerel (SS-524), surfacing at a 48 degree up angle, from a depth of 150 feet, during tests off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii, 1 March 1952. "The purpose of this operation was to enable the Navy's submarine experts to evaluate the sub's capabilities and characteristics of the *GUPPY-snorkel type sub. This picture was taken from Sabalo* (SS-302). Her sonarmen kept *Pickerel* under observation while she was submerged and preparing to surface. During *Pickerel's* maneuvering the sonar gear delivered the constantly changing relative bearing which enabled the photographers to make this shot as she broke the surface." Note: The official record of the "surfacing" pictured above is that it started at 150 feet and reached a 48 degree up-angle. From a crew-member manning the helm during this evolution: "We started at 250 feet, flank speed. The surfacing order included 'use 60 degrees' (the highest reading on the -bubble-type' angle indicator). "We overshot, and lost the bubble at 65 degrees. The maximum angle (72 degrees) was calculated later by the highwater marks in the Pump Room bilges. Thinking back, even with the bow sticking above water up to the bridge fairwater, the screws wouldn't have been much above where we started, still pushing us upward. "First message from the Queenfish (SS-393) which was accompanying us: 'What is the specific gravity of your Torpedo Room bilges?' "As you may imagine, the C.O. was something of a competitive wildman, pushing to find out what the limits were for these new *GUPPY* boats, after putting up with the older WW2 boats. And, we had to beat the Amberjack's (SS-522) record of 43 degrees."	Text from All Hands magazine, May 1952 edition, courtesy of Stan Svec & /ussubvetsofworldwarii.org. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, # NH 97019, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.
100k	Pickerel (SS-524), off Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii, during the mid-1950s.	Official U.S. Navy Photograph, # NH 97021, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.
116k	Pickerel (SS-524), underway off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii, 17 January 1963. Photographed by PH2 D.C. Smith, USN.	Official U.S. Navy Photograph, # NH 97022, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.
36k	Pickerel (SS-524), with P-3 Orion flying overhead, circa 1960's.	U.S. Navy Photograph courtesy of Robert Hurst.
85k	Pickerel (SS-524), surfaced and underway off Hawaii, circa late 1960's.	Courtesy of George M. Arnold.
564k	Submarine are from left to right: Halibut (SSGN-587), Pickerel (SS-524), Perch (LPSS-313), Unidentified and Tunny (APSS-282) at Submarine Base Pearl Harbor on 12 April 1967.	U.S. Navy photo courtesy of Darryl Baker. Photo added 09/01/08.
122k	Pickerel (SS-524), underway in the Pacific Ocean, September 1969. The boat was in the Atlantic in SEP 69, because we were transferred to SUBRON 4 and arrived in Charleston in JUN 69. If that pic was taken in Hawaiian waters, the very latest it could have been taken was early JUN 69.	Official U.S. Navy Photograph # USN 1140854, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Photo i.d. & text courtesy of Dick Helm, 1968-71.
197k	Merchant ships waiting to unload in the harbor of Taranto, Italy in 1972 backdrop the ex-Pickerel (SS-524) as the Itialan ITS Primo Longobordo (S-501).	Itialian Navy photo by Lt.Cdr. Erminio Bagnasco via Maurizio Brescia.
129k	ex-Pickerel (SS-524) as the Itialan ITS Primo Longobordo (S-501) at Taranto, 1973. Not much has changed from her appearance in U.S. service except a loss of 23 numbers.	Photo from the Maurizio Brescia collection.