Bonita with characteristic bulky electronics compartment at her bow (Mare Island Naval Shipyard) |
|
| Career | |
|---|---|
| Builder: | Mare Island Naval Shipyard |
| Laid down: | 19 May 1950 |
| Launched: | 21 June 1951 |
| Commissioned: | 11 January 1952 |
| Decommissioned: | 7 November 1958 |
| Struck: | 1 April 1965 |
| Fate: | Sold for scrap, 17 November 1966 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type: | Barracuda-class diesel-electric hunter-killer submarine |
| Displacement: | 765 tons (777 t) surfaced 1,160 tons (1179 t) submerged |
| Length: | 196 ft 1 in (59.77 m) overall |
| Beam: | 24 ft 7 in (7.49 m) |
| Draft: | 14 ft 5 in (4.39 m) mean |
| Propulsion: | 3 × General Motors diesel engines, total 1050 bhp (0.8 MW) 2 × General Electric electric motors two screws |
| Speed: | 13 knots (24 km/h) surfaced 8.5 knots (16 km/h) submerged |
| Test depth: | 400 ft (120 m) |
| Complement: | 37 officers and men |
| Armament: | 4 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes |
USS Bonita (SSK-3/SS-552), a Barracuda-class submarine, was the fourth ship of the United States Navy to be named for the bonito, any of several types of fish, including the skipjack tuna, Katsuwonus pelamis, the Atlantic bonito (Sarda sarda), the lesser amberjack (Seriola fasciata), or the cobia (Rachycentron canadum).
The original contract for construction of Bonita (SSK-3) was let to New York Shipbuilding Corporation of Camden, New Jersey, but later transferred to Mare Island Naval Shipyard of Vallejo, California, where her keel was laid down on 19 May 1950. She was launched as K-3 on 21 June 1951 sponsored by Mrs. J.S. Clark, widow of Commander James S. Clark, and commissioned on 11 January 1952 with Lieutenant Commander Eric E. Hopley in command.
The three SSK boats, Barracuda (SSK-1), Bass (SSK-2), and Bonita (SSK-3), were built around the large BQR-4 bow-mounted sonar array as part of Project Kayo, which experimented the use of passive acoustics with low-frequency, bow sonar arrays. When the boat was rigged for silent running, these arrays gave greatly improved convergence zone detection ranges against snorkeling submarines. The SSKs themselves were limited in their anti-submarine warfare abilities by their low speed and their need to snorkel periodically, but the advances in sonar technology they pioneered were invaluable to later nuclear-powered submarines.
K-3 joined Submarine Squadron 7 at Pearl Harbor on 15 May 1952 and performed experimental and normal submarine duties, making a cruise to Alaskan waters in August and September 1956. She was renamed Bonita 15 December 1955, decommissioned on 7 November 1958, and given hull classification symbol SS-552 on 15 August 1959.