190

Spearfish headed up the Thames River, CT. in the summer of 1939. The city of Groton is in the background. On the hill is the Fort Griswold monument.

Photo in the private collection of Ric Hedman.

Spearfish after a wartime overhaul at Mare Island in 1943. She is showing all of the typical mid-war modifications. The two hatch-like openings in her fairwater below the forward gun deck are not hatches. They are ammunition storage lockers that housed ready service ammo for the 3"/50 caliber gun. While most boats received lockers like these, Spearfish was unusual in that actual hatch covers were used as opposed to a more simple style used on other boats.

On the forward fairwater gun deck is a circular antenna for Radio Direction Finder (RDF) equipment. Mounted on the starboard side of the shears is a square-shaped antenna for Low-Frequency (LF) radio receiption.

U.S. Navy photo.

Spearfish is seen here in the mouth of the Napa River after a thorough overhaul and modernization at the Mare Island Navy Yard, August 21, 1944. In this configuration she is broadly similar to a Gato-class Mod 4. The fore and aft sections of her conning tower fairwater have been cut away, a 20mm gun has been placed on both of the new guns decks, her bridge has been lowered to expose the framework that supports the periscope shears, and a 4"/50 caliber Mk 9 gun has been installed aft of the fairwater. The two humps on the aft deck are for new water cooled mufflers, installed to cut down on smoking and sparks from her engines. SJ surface search radar has been installed on the starboard side of the periscope shears, and SD air search radar on a thin mast aft of the periscopes. She would receive no further major modifications before the end of the war.

USN photo 5343-44 courtesy of Darryl Baker via Navsource.org

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