USS Bonita (SS-165)

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Career
Ordered:
Laid down:
Launched:	9 June 1925
Commissioned:	22 May 1926
Fate:	sold
Stricken:
General Characteristics
Displacement:	2000 tons
Length:	341 feet 6 inches
Beam:	27 feet 7 inches
Draft:	15 feet 11 inches
Speed:	18.8 knots
Complement:	56 officers and men
Armament:	one five-inch gun, six 21-inch torpedo tubes

USS Bonita (SF-6/SS-165), a B class submarine, was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named for the bonito, any of several types of fish including the tunny (Orcynus pelamys), the skipjack (Sarda Mediterranea), the medregal (Seriola fasciata), or the cobia (Elacate canada). Her keel was laid down by the Portsmouth Navy Yard. She was launched on 9 June 1925 as V-3 sponsored by Mrs. L.R. DeSteiguer, wife of Rear Admiral DeSteiguer and commissioned on 22 May 1926 with Lieutenant Commander C.A. Lockwood, Jr., in command.

Assigned to Submarine Division 20, V-3 cruised along the East Coast and in the Caribbean Sea until November 1927. With her division, she then transferred to the Pacific arriving at San Diego, California, on 17 December 1927. After service with Submarine Divisions 20 and 12 along the Pacific coast and off Hawaii, she joined Submarine Division 15 of the Rotating Reserve at Mare Island Navy Yard on 1 June 1932. She was renamed Bonita on 9 March 1931 and given hull classification symbol SS-165 on 1 July 1931.

Bonita rejoined Submarine Division 12 in September 1933 and cruised in Caribbean Sea, West Coast, and Hawaiian waters through 1936. She departed San Diego, California, on 20 January 1937 and arrived at Philadelphia Navy Yard on 18 February. She was placed out of commission in reserve at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 4 June 1937.

Recommissioned 5 September 1940, she departed New London, Connecticut, on 17 November 1940 for Coco Solo, Panama. Bonita patrolled in the Pacific, off Panama, until she returned to Philadelphia for overhaul in October 1942. Patrolling off the Maine coast until mid-1943, she then joined Submarine Division 13, Submarine Squadron 1, on training duty out of New London. She remained on that duty until February 1945. Arriving at Philadelphia Navy Yard on 17 February 1945, she was decommissioned 3 March and sold 28 October 1945.

See USS Bonita for other ships of the same name.

References

This article includes information collected from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.