USS Barbero (SS-317)
History of the USS Barbero Submarine
The USS Barbero (SS-317) was ordered for the U.S. Navy during World War II. Her keel was laid down at the Electric Boat Company in Connecticut on March 25, 1943. She was launched on December 12, 1943 and commissioned on April 29, 1944 under the command of Lieutenant Commander Irvin S. Hartman.
The USS Barbero began her first war patrol on August 9, 1944 in the Philippines. She made contact with few targets and scored no hits before heading to Fremantle, Australia on October 4. After a period of refitting, she began her next patrol on October 26 as part of a wolf pack in the area of the Makassar Strait and near Mindoro. The submarine sank a troop transport on November 2 and a tanker on November 8.
Though she had to stop for three days for minor upkeep and to rearm with more torpedoes, the USS Barbero then moved on to the South China Sea. On Christmas Eve, she sank one Japanese tanker and damaged another. The following day, on Christmas, she sank a cargo ship. Two days later, a near miss from an aerial bomb forced her back to the United States for repairs at Portsmouth, New Hampshire via Fremantle. Her overhaul began on March 7, 1945, and the war ended as she was returning to Pearl Harbor via the Panama Canal.
The USS Barbero underwent conversion to a cargo submarine, redesignated SSA-317 on March 31, 1948. Assigned to the Pacific Fleet, she spent the next two years evaluating her capabilities as a cargo carrier in an experimental program. She was decommissioned on June 30, 1950.
Another conversion began on February 1, 1955. Now able to launch Regulus nuclear cruise missiles, she was redesignated SSG-317 and recommissioned on October 28, 1955. The submarine operated out of California until April 1956. She was then transferred to the Atlantic Fleet, where she spent the next eight years conducting nuclear strategic deference patrols, including the Cuban Missile Crisis and other Cold War operations. On June 8, 1959, the USS Barbero helped the United States Postal Service (USPS) by launching the first and only official delivery of Missile Mail in its specially configured Regulus cruise missile.
The USS Barbero was decommissioned on June 30, 1964 and struck from the Naval Vessel Register the following day. She was sunk as a target off Pearl Harbor on October 7, 1964. The submarine earned two 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
