USS Eel (SS-354)

History
United States
Name:	USS Eel
Namesake:	The eel
Builder:	Electric Boat Company, Groton, Connecticut (proposed)[1]
Laid down:	Never
Fate:	Construction order cancelled 23 October 1944
General characteristics
Class and type:	Balao class diesel-electric submarine[2]
Displacement:	1,526 long tons (1,550 t) surfaced,[2] 2,414 long tons (2,453 t) submerged[2]
Length:	311 ft 9 in (95.02 m)[2]
Beam:	27 ft 3 in (8.31 m)[2]
Draft:	16 ft 10 in (5.13 m) maximum[2]
Propulsion:	4 × General Motors Model 16-248 V16 diesel engines driving electrical generators[3][4] 2 × 126-cell Sargo batteries[5] 4 × high-speed General Electric electric motors with reduction gears[3] two propellers [3] 5,400 shp (4.0 MW) surfaced[3] 2,740 shp (2.0 MW) submerged[3]
Speed:	20.25 kn (37.50 km/h) surfaced,[6] 8.75 kn (16.21 km/h) submerged[6]
Range:	11,000 nmi (20,000 km) surfaced @ 10 kn (19 km/h)[6]
Endurance:	48 hours @ 2 kn (3.7 km/h) submerged,[6] 75 days on patrol
Test depth:	400 ft (120 m)[6]
Complement:	10 officers, 70–71 enlisted[6]
Armament:	10 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 6 forward, 4 aft 24 torpedoes[5] 1 × 4-inch (102 mm) / 50 caliber deck gun[5] Bofors 40 mm and Oerlikon 20 mm cannon

USS Eel (SS-354), would have been a Balao-class submarine, the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the eels, an order of voracious, snakelike fishes, having a smooth, slimy skin and no pelvic fins.

Eel's construction was canceled on 23 October 1944.

The name USS Eel was used for a fictional U.S. Navy submarine in Edward L. Beach's 1955 novel Run Silent, Run Deep.

References

1. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922-1946, p. 146
2. Bauer, K. Jack; Roberts, Stephen S. (1991). Register of Ships of the U.S. Navy, 1775-1990: Major Combatants. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. pp. 275–280. ISBN 0-313-26202-0.
3. Bauer, K. Jack; Roberts, Stephen S. (1991). Register of Ships of the U.S. Navy, 1775–1990: Major Combatants. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. pp. 275–280. ISBN 978-0-313-26202-9.
4. U.S. Submarines Through 1945 p. 261
5. U.S. Submarines Through 1945 pp. 305–311
6. U.S. Submarines Through 1945 pp. 305-311

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

• Gardiner, Robert, Ed. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922-1946. New York: Mayflower Books, 1980. ISBN 0-8317-0303-2.