HOME | DD

Description
This is TORSK (SS-423) in February of 1945, with Measure 32/3SS-B camouflage. TORSK was a TENCH class boat, a wartime incremental improvement over the preceding GATO and BALAO class submarines. The TENCH class incorporated a new propulsion system, a completely redesigned ballast tank arrangement, and a revamping of the torpedo rooms (allowing four more torpedoes to be carried). Externally, the only visible difference between the TENCH and BALAO class boats is the sharper knuckle on the lower edge of the bow, a result of the redesigned forward torpedo room. Otherwise, TENCH class boats were built to the same standards as the BALAOs. An interesting feature of TORSK, usually seen on late-war boats, is the angled dive planes; these allowed the boat to crash dive much faster, as the planes are already rigged down and would immediately force the bow under while diving.

A late-war class, few of the TENCH boats saw any service, but TORSK completed two successful war patrols in the last days of the conflict, sinking the last Japanese ship of the war on August 14th, 1945.

TORSK survived the war, serving in the peacetime US Navy, and went on to become a museum ship in Baltimore, Maryland.

---

All original work. Do not reproduce without following the Shipbucket.com Fair Use Agreement (requires preservation of the scale bar, watermark, and credits in the original on any derivative works).

Description
This is TORSK (SS-423) in February of 1945, with Measure 32/3SS-B camouflage. TORSK was a TENCH class boat, a wartime incremental improvement over the preceding GATO and BALAO class submarines. The TENCH class incorporated a new propulsion system, a completely redesigned ballast tank arrangement, and a revamping of the torpedo rooms (allowing four more torpedoes to be carried). Externally, the only visible difference between the TENCH and BALAO class boats is the sharper knuckle on the lower edge of the bow, a result of the redesigned forward torpedo room. Otherwise, TENCH class boats were built to the same standards as the BALAOs. An interesting feature of TORSK, usually seen on late-war boats, is the angled dive planes; these allowed the boat to crash dive much faster, as the planes are already rigged down and would immediately force the bow under while diving.

A late-war class, few of the TENCH boats saw any service, but TORSK completed two successful war patrols in the last days of the conflict, sinking the last Japanese ship of the war on August 14th, 1945.

TORSK survived the war, serving in the peacetime US Navy, and went on to become a museum ship in Baltimore, Maryland.

---

All original work. Do not reproduce without following the Shipbucket.com Fair Use Agreement (requires preservation of the scale bar, watermark, and credits in the original on any derivative works).