USS Guitarro (SS-363)
1943 Balao-class submarine
USS Guitarro (SS-363), a Gato-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the guitarro.
Construction and commissioning
Guitarro initially was ordered as a unit of the Balao class, but her builder, the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company, did not receive the drawings for the Balao class from the Electric Boat Company in time to build Guitarro or the submarines USS Golet (SS-361), USS Guavina (SS-362), and USS Hammerhead (SS-364) to the new design, so they were built as Gato-class submarines. Thus, in some references, these four submarines are listed as units of the Balao-class.
Guitarro was launched 26 September 1943 by the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company at Manitowoc, Wisconsin, sponsored by Mrs. Pauline Palmer McIntire, wife of Vice Admiral Ross T. McIntire, chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, and commissioned at Manitowoc on 26 January 1944.
World War II service
Guitarro departed Manitowoc for Chicago 13 February, and there she was placed in a floating drydock. Steamer Minnesota towed the drydock to New Orleans, arriving 22 February, and there Guitarro prepared for sea. Steaming from New Orleans 1 March, she operated out of Balboa, Canal Zone, for several weeks and departed for Pearl Harbor 2 April 1944.
First war patrol, May – June 1944
Arriving at Pearl Harbor 17 April, Guitarro prepared for her first war patrol off Formosa. She got underway on this duty 7 May 1944.
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