First in a series
By James Heinz
As Hitler ravaged Europe, and blitzed London, the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co. prepared to build the first of twenty-eight submarines destined for combat in the Pacific.
On this seventy-fifth anniversary of the end of World War II, the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society starts a series of stories about those submarines and the role they played in the global conflict.
Under contract with the US Navy, the Wisconsin shipbuilder completed the first phase in two hundred and twenty-eight days with the production of the Peto, a football field-long submarine. She was laid down on June 8, 1941, on the shores of Lake Michigan, launched April 30, 1942, and commissioned Nov. 21. This was the first submarine Manitowoc had ever built.
At its completion, the submarine was placed on a barge dry dock and transported to New Orleans via the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, the Illinois River and the Mississippi River. The Peto needed the barge because its minimum draft of twelve feet was too much for stretches of the river system. After being completely refitted, and put through a shakedown in late 1942, the Peto passed through the Panama Canal and arrived in Australia in March 1943.
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The USS Peto (SS-264) is a Gato-class vessel named for the sharp-nosed tropical fish of the mackerel family. The submarine was 311 feet, 9 inches in length, with a beam of 27 feet, 3 inches, and a maximum draft of 17 feet.
The submarine ran with four General Motors model 16-248 V16 diesel engines driving electric generators. Included in the propulsion were two, 126-cell Sargo batteries and four high-speed General Electric electric motors with reduction gears. They drove two propellers. The vessel’s surface speed was 21 knots, and 9 knots submerged with a range of 11,000 nautical miles at 10 knots on the surface. The submarine had a test depth of 300 feet.
Her six officers and fifty-four enlisted men manned armament that included ten, 21-inch torpedo tubes –– six forward and four aft –– with twenty-four torpedoes. The boat had a 50 caliber deck gun and a 20 millimeter cannon.
Between April 1943 and the end of the war, Peto sank ten Japanese merchant ships, landed a Marines on an island, and rescued allied pilots. During her career, the submarine was awarded eight battle stars.
On June 25, 1946, the Peto was decommissioned and placed in reserve at New London, Conn. In November 1956, she became a training submarine for the Naval Reserve; on Aug. 1, 1960, the vessel was taken off the Naval Vessel Registration and about three months later was sold for scrap.
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Information and photos for this story are from Wikipedia sites – Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co. and the USS Peto.
Photo: The picture on this page is of the USS Peto (SS-265) being side-launched at Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co., Manitowoc, WI., April 30, 1942.
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James Heinz is the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society’s acquisitions director. He became interested in maritime history as a kid watching Jacques Cousteau’s adventures on TV. He was a Great Lakes wreck diver until three episodes of the bends forced him to retire from diving. He was a University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee police officer for thirty years. He regularly flies either a Cessna 152 or 172.
