USS Sea Poacher (SS-406)

History of the USS Sea Poacher Submarine

The USS Sea Poacher (SS-406) was ordered for the U.S. Navy during World War II. Her keel was laid down at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in New Hampshire on February 23, 1944. She was launched on May 20, 1944 and commissioned on July 31, 1944 under the command of Commander Francis M. Gambacorta.

The USS Sea Poacher arrived at Pearl Harbor on October 25, 1944. Her first two war patrols were conducted without making any noteworthy enemy contacts. She was sailing the Kuril Islands for her third war patrol when she sank the Japanese army ships Ume Maru No. 56 and Fukumo Maru on May 15, 1945. Three of her crew members were injured when a 20 millimeter gun exploded onboard, and the submarine was forced to terminate her patrol early at Midway.

During her fourth war patrol, the USS Sea Poacher sank two small Japanese vessels on July 20 with her gunfire off the coast of Honshu. Three days later, she sank the guardboat Kiri Maru No.2. Her gunfire sank three more small vessels that week, one on July 24, another on July 26, and another the following day.

While she was being refit at Pearl Harbor, World War II ended. The USS Sea Poacher was ordered to Balboa as a member of Submarine Squadron 6. She conducted antisubmarine warfare training and fleet exercises there until she was transferred to Key West, Florida with Submarine Squadron 4 on June 1, 1949.

The USS Sea Poacher underwent GUPPY IA conversion at Charleston Naval Shipyard in South Carolina in 1951. Over the next decade, she operated out of Key West and in the Caribbean, making occasional deployments to the Mediterranean with the Sixth Fleet and participating in NATO exercises. The submarine helped rescue a U.S. Navy blimp on July 10, 1952 when it was having engine problems.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the USS Sea Poacher participated in the United States naval quarantine of Cuba. She was reclassified as an auxiliary submarine, AGSS-306, on November 1, 1969 and decommissioned 14 days later. Her classification reverted back to SS-306 on June 30, 1971 before she was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on August 15, 1973.

The USS Sea Poacher was sold to the Peruvian Navy on July 1, 1974 under the Security Assistance Program. She served Peru first as the BBAP Pabellon de Pica (S-49) before her name was changed to La Pedrera a few weeks later. Peru decommissioned her in 1995. The USS Sea Poacher earned four 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

Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships – USS Sea Poacher