USS Cochino (SS-345)

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Career
Ordered:
Laid down:
Launched:	20 April 1945
Commissioned:	25 August 1945
Fate:	lost to storm or perils of the sea
Stricken:
General Characteristics
Displacement:	1526 tons
Length:	311 feet 9 inches
Beam:	27 feet 3 inches
Draft:	16 feet 10 inches
Speed:	20 knots
Complement:	66 officers and men
Armament:	one five-inch gun, ten 21-inch torpedo tubes

USS Cochino (SS-345), a Gato-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the cochino, a triggerfish found in the Atlantic. Her keel was laid down by Electric Boat Company of Groton, Connecticut. She was launched on 20 April 1945 sponsored by Mrs. M.E. Serat, and commissioned on 25 August 1945 with Commander W.A. Stevenson in command.

Cochino joined the Atlantic Fleet, cruising East Coast and Caribbean Sea waters from her home port, Key West, Florida. On 18 July 1949, she put to sea for a cruise to Britain, and arctic operations. Her group ran through a violent polar gale off Norway, and the joltings received by Cochino played their part in causing an electrical fire and battery explosion, followed by the generation of deadly hydrogen chloride gas on 25 August.

Defying the most unfavorable possible weather conditions, men of Cochino and Tusk (SS-426) fought to save the submarine for 14 hours, displaying seamanship and courage. But a second battery explosion on 26 August made "Abandon Ship" the only possible order, and Cochino sank. Tusk's valiant crew rescued all of Cochino's men except for Robert Wellington Philo, a civilian engineer. Six sailors from Tusk were lost during the rescue.

References

This article includes information collected from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.