PICUA (S-22) submarine

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aukepalmhof
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PICUA (S-22) submarine

Post by aukepalmhof » Tue Nov 30, 2010 8:33 pm

Built as a submarine by the Boston Navy Yard in Boston for the U.S.A. Navy.
08 February 1944 laid down.
15 December 1944 launched as USS GRENADIER (SS-525), christened by Mrs. John A, Fitzgerald, wife of the first GRENADIER’s last skipper. Named for the grenadier fish a soft-finned deep sea fish of the Macrouridae with a long, tapering body and short, pointed tail family, also known as rattails. She was one of the Tench class.
Displacement 1,570 ton surfaced, 2,414 tons submerged. Dim. 943.8x 8.2 x 5.2m. (draught).
Powered by four Fairbank-Morse 10-cyl. diesel engines, 5,400 shp., two Westinghouse electric motors, 2,740 shp., twin shafts, speed 18 knots surfaced, 13.5 knots submerged.
Was fitted out with a snorkel.
Test dive 120 metres.
Range by a speed of 10 knots, 13,245 miles surfaced, and submerged by a speed of 4 knots, 127 miles.
Armament 10 – 21 inch torpedo tubes, six bow and four stern, carried 28 torpedoes. 1 – 5 inch gun, 2 – 20mm guns and 2 -30 cal. machine guns.
Crew 81.
15 December 1944 commissioned under command of Commander Henry G. Reaves.
One of the first Greater Underwater Propulsion Power Program (GUPPY) submarines, GRENADIER was equipped with a snorkel to permit indefinite running in an awash condition. GRENADIER proved the worth of this device during her shakedown. Returning from the Caribbean Sea cruise, the new submarine made the seven-day voyage from Guantanamo Bay to New London, Connecticut, submerged. Almost two years of intensive training exercises out of New London were capped by her first yard overhaul at Philadelphia, extending from 16 December 1952 to 22 April 1953.
In June 1953 GRENADIER participated in the annual midshipman cruise to Rio de Janeiro and other Brazilian ports. Returning to New London via the Caribbean Sea, she then supported ASW exercises during November, as an aircraft carrier task force perfected its antisubmarine operations. GRENADIER continued training and battle exercises along the New England coast and off the Virginia Capes and in August 1955 cruised to Montreal, Quebec, via the St. Lawrence River.
GRENADIER departed New London 3 January 1956 on the first of several Mediterranean Sea cruises. During a three-month deployment she steamed throughout the Mediterranean and both showed the flag and participated in attack and antisubmarine exercises with various units of the Sixth Fleet. On two subsequent Mediterranean deployments from 8 November 1957 to 27 January 1958, and from 10 April to 8 August 1962 she operated with the Sixth Fleet to bolster peace keeping operations in that troubled region of the world.
Between these cruises, the submarine participated in exercises along the East Coast and was a frequent visitor to Caribbean waters. Grenadier operated out of New London until 15 September 1959, she transferred to Key West, Florida. From there Grenadier served more frequently in the Caribbean, and also patrolled and held exercises along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts of Florida.
While on special antisubmarine exercises in the North Atlantic on the morning of 29 May 1959, GRENADIER, in company with a patrol plane, sighted and photographed a Soviet submarine prowling the waters off Iceland. It was the first confirmed sighting of a Soviet submarine in the Atlantic.
GRENADIER again confronted Soviet ships when the Cuban missile crisis threatened nuclear war in October 1962. In company with BALAO (SS-285), THREDFIN (SS-410), TRUTTA (SS-421), and CHOPPER (SS-342), she formed part of the American fleet that blockaded and quarantined Cuba. After the Soviet offensive missiles were pulled out of Cuba, GRENADIER was one of several ships dispatched to Cuba in November to assert and confirm the United States’s rights and position there.
GRENADIER continued patrols and training operations out of Key West. Assigned to SubRon 12, she participated in exercises along the Atlantic coast and in the Caribbean. In addition, she has provided valuable aid during the perfecting of advanced sonar and ASW equipment. She distinguished herself in 1966 gathering navigational data and other information in the Caribbean.
GRENADIER was decommissioned, struck from the Naval Vessel Register and sold to Venezuela on 15 May 1973.
Commissioned in the Venezuela Navy the same day at Key West, Fl. As ARV PICUA (S-13), what was later changed to (S-22).
16 November 1978 decommissioned. 01 January 1980 stricken, and sold on 18 June 1981 to Verolme Shipyard, Angra Dos Reis, Brazil.
Venezuela 1980 1.50b sg2438, scott1235
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Grenadier_(SS-525) http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/08525.htm The Encyclopedia of Warships.
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USSGrenadierSS525.jpg

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