USS Balao (SS-285)
History of the USS Balao Submarine
The USS Balao (SS-285) was ordered for the U.S. Navy during World War II. Her keel was laid down at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in New Hampshire on June 26, 1942. She was launched on October 27, 1942 and commissioned on February 4, 1943 under the command of Lieutenant Commander Richard H. Crane.
The USS Balao joined the Seventh Fleet on July 10, 1943 at Brisbane, Australia. Her first war patrol began on July 25 between Truk and the Bismarcks. This patrol brought only five enemy contacts with no chances for attack before she shifted to the area between Palau and Rabaul on August 26. She saw no action there either, and she returned to Brisbane for refitting on September 13.
When her next patrol began on October 4, the USS Balao returned to the waters between Palau and Rabaul. She launched six torpedoes at a convoy on October 17, but they missed her targets; she was able to escape from their depth charges as well. On October 23, she scored six torpedo hits on an enemy convoy. Moving to the area south of Truk, she fired on two ships on November 4, but her torpedoes missed their mark. Three days later, she sailed to Milne Bay, New Guinea for refitting.
On December 13, the USS Balao conducted testing before beginning her next patrol. She encountered four enemy warships on December 27 but scored no torpedo hits. On January 1, 1944, she attacked another small convoy and damaged a freighter, although she had initially believed that the ship sank. The submarine returned to Brisbane for refitting on January 7.
The USS Balao began her next patrol north of New Guinea on February 13. On February 23, she sank the Nikki Maru and took aboard one of the survivors. She sank the Shoho Maru and Akiuro Maru on February 28. The submarine fired on a small convoy on March 3, but missed her targets, and had another failed attack the following day. She headed back to New Guinea, having used all of her torpedoes.
Following a period of refitting and training at Pearl Harbor, the USS Balao returned to the war zone at the end of April, patrolling the Palau Islands. She made contact with a Japanese convoy on May 14 but was unable to attack. While patrolling the area between Yap and Palau, she damaged a cargo ship on June 2 before heading for a refit at Majuro on June 12.
The USS Balao returned to patrol of the Palaus on July 5. She helped bombard Angaur Island on July 26, scoring several direct hits and rescuing a downed aviator from the USS Bunker Hill. The submarine moved on to conduct lifeguard duty at Peleliu Island, rescuing two more downed aviators. Two days later, she helped destroy two sampans before completing her patrol and heading to Mare Island in California via Saipan for a complete overhaul.
Joining a wolf pack upon her return to the war zone, the USS Balao began her next patrol of the Yellow Sea on December 17. On January 2, 1945, she sank a three-masted schooner. Six days later, she sank the Daigo Maru before leaving the wolf pack for solitary patrol.
After refitting in Guam from January 19 to February 27, the USS Balao joined another wolf pack to patrol the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea. She attacked a small tanker on March 9, but missed her mark and dodged enemy depth charges. The submarine sank a trawler on March 18, taking three survivors onboard. The next day, she sank the Hakozaki Maru, a trawler, and damaged three other trawlers. She fired upon a small convoy on March 21, but was unable to see if her torpedoes hit their marks when she had to dive deep to escape counterattack. Five days later, she sank the Shinto Maru No. 1 before heading to Guam for a refit on April 8.
Along with a new wolf pack, the USS Balao sailed for her next patrol of the Yellow Sea on May 3. She attacked but missed a small freight on May 19, instead sinking a nearby 30-ton junk. Four days later, mechanical difficulties sent her heading back to Pearl Harbor for refitting. She narrowly avoided four torpedoes fired at her that night, and arrived at Pearl Harbor on June 3.
When her repairs were complete, the USS Balao headed out for her final war patrol on July 7 to the Nanpo Island area. While there, she provided lifeguarding duties for air strikes on the Japanese home islands, rescuing four downed aviators. The submarine sank a picket boat and damaged another one day before the Japanese surrender on August 15. She sailed to Staten Island, New York via Pearl Harbor and was decommissioned on August 20, 1946.
The USS Balao was recommissioned on March 4, 1952 under the command of Lieutenant Commander S.V. Hadley. She was assigned to Submarine Squadron 12 out of Key West, Florida for training purposes. Aside from training duty, she made several goodwill cruises over the next few years. She appeared in the film Operation Petticoat as the pink submarine in 1959. Reclassified as an auxiliary submarine, AGSS-285, on April 1, 1960, she resumed her services in training and testing.
In April 1962, the USS Balao joined the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean, participating in NATO exercises for four months. Her training duties were interrupted briefly by the Cuban Missile Crisis that autumn, when she was deployed to the Western Atlantic. The submarine was decommissioned and struck from the Naval Vessel Register on August 1, 1963. She was sunk as a target off the coast of northern Florida on September 6. The submarine earned nine battle stars for her service in World War II.
The use of asbestos was common in shipbuilding components for much of the 20th Century because of its resistance to heat, fire, water and corrosion. Because of their asbestos exposure onboard ship and in the shipyards, seaman, shipyard workers and longshoreman are at risk for developing asbestos-related diseases like mesothelioma.
Sources include:
Asbestos and Ship-Building: Fatal Consequences, by John Hedley-Whyte and Debra R Milamed
