Class: Balao Submarine
Launched: 30 January 1944
At: Electric Boat Company, Groton, Connecticut
Commissioned: May 27, 1944
Length: 311 feet, 8 inches
Beam: 27 feet, 2 inches
Draft: 17 feet (surface trim)
Displacement: 1,525 tons
Armament: Ten 21-inch torpedo tubes
Address:
Independence Seaport Museum
211 South Columbus Blvd. at Penns Landing
Philadelphia, PA 19106-3199
(215) 925-5439
Fax: (215) 925-6713
Email: seaport@phillyseaport.org
http://www.phillyseaport.org
Latitude: 39.94355, Longitude: -75.141179
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An example of the standard fleet-type Balao class submarine of World War II, Becuna was commissioned in May, 1944 and conducted five wartime patrols with the U.S. Seventh Fleet. Becuna sank the 7,500 ton freighter Nichiyoku Maru, two small coastal freighters, assisted USS Hawkbill with the sinking of the oiler Tokuwa Maru, and damaged another oiler. The submarine also served as a lifeguard for downed pilots and narrowly missed an attack on the battleship Yamato.
Converted from her basic fleet boat configuration to a streamlined fast underwater submarine known as a GUPPY (Greater Underwater Propulsion Project) type 1A in 1951, Becuna served during the Korean War and Vietnam conflict in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. Berthed at Penn’s Landing in Philadelphia, the boat now serves as an educational resource and tourist attraction with the cruiser Olympia.
USS Becuna is a National Historic Landmark
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