USS Carbonero (SS-337)
History of the USS Carbonero Submarine
The USS Carbonero (SS-337) was ordered for the U.S. Navy during World War II. Her keel was laid down by the Electric Boat Company in Connecticut on December 16, 1943. She was launched on October 15, 1944 and commissioned on February 7, 1945 under the command of Commander Charlton L. Murphy.
The USS Carbonero spent several weeks with the Fleet Sonar School at Key West, Florida before she arrived at Pearl Harbor on May 9, 1945. She began her first war patrol on May 26 off the coast of Formosa, primarily performing lifeguard duty. This uneventful patrol ended on July 8 at Subic Bay.
After refitting at Subic Bay, the USS Carbonero sailed for her second patrol on August 4 in the Gulf of Siam. Six days later, her gunfire sank three small Japanese vessels. She sank another small vessel the following day, and another the day after that. On August 12, she sank two more small vessels and another on August 14, the day before the Japanese capitulation. After that, she was ordered to put in at Subic Bay.
The USS Carbonero headed to Seattle on September 22. She operated along the West Coast for the next few years. The submarine took part in a simulated war patrol of the Far East in 1947 before operating as a control vessel for the Submarine Guided Missile Program out of California. In 1949, she was then redesignated as an auxiliary submarine, AGSS-337, assigned to the Regulus Missile Program.
In 1951, the USS Carbonero underwent modernization in the Fleet Snorkel program. She then operated out of Southern California and the Hawaiian Islands. The submarine helped test new guided missile equipment for several years.
Shifting her homeport to Pearl Harbor on May 13, 1957, the USS Carbonero became the flagship of Submarine Division 12 in July 1959. She participated in local operations and was deployed to the Western Pacific, the South Pacific, and the continental United States. Her Regulus missile guidance equipment was removed in 1962, and she was redesignated as an attack submarine, SS-337.
The USS Carbonero participated in Operation Dominic in 1962, nuclear testing off Christmas Island and Johnston Island. She was later involved in aviator lifeguard duties during the Vietnam War, making several such deployments to the Far East. The submarine was decommissioned and struck from the Naval Vessel Register on December 1, 1970. She was sunk as a target off the coast of Hawaii on April 27, 1975. The USS Carbonero earned one battle star 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
