Macabi (SS-375)
1945–1971
Fish (Albula vulpes) occurring in tropical seas and off U.S. coasts as far north as San Diego, Calif., and Long Island, N.Y., and reaching a length of three feet.
(SS‑375: displacement 1,526 (surfaced), 2,424 (submerged); length 311'9"; beam 27'3"; draft 15'3"; speed 20.25 knots (surfaced), 8.75 knots (submerged.); complement 66; armament 1 5-inch, 2 40 millimeter, 2.50 caliber machine guns, 10 21-inch torpedo tubes; class Balao)
Macabi (SS‑375) was laid down on 1 May 1944 at Manitowoc, Wisc., by Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co.; launched on 19 September 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Arthur S. Carpender, wife of Vice Adm. Arthur S. Carpender, who had served as Commander, Seventh Fleet (19 February–26 November 1943); and commissioned at her building yard on 29 March 1945, Cmdr. Anthony H. Dropp in command.
Following trials in Lake Michigan, Macabi entered a floating dry dock at Lockport, Ill., on 19 April 1945 to transit the Chicago Canal to descend the Mississippi River, and reached New Orleans, La., on 26 April. Three days later, she left for shakedown operations off Panama.
Macabi departed Balboa, Canal Zone, on 3 June 1945, for Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, for training, then sailed on 9 July for the Caroline Islands, proceeding via Guam, Marianas. She assumed lifeguard station off Japanese-held Truk upon arriving on 21 July. Some ten days later, Macabi was forced to dive to avoid two aerial bombs off Moen Island.
She returned to Apra Harbor, Guam, for repairs (4–13 August 1945); and was en route back to Truk to reume her lifeguard duties when Japan, in the wake of devastation wreaked by atomic bombs at Hiroshima (6 August) and Nagasaki (9 August), accepted the provisions of the Potsdam Declaration and agreed to surrender. Consequently, Macabi was then ordered home, touching at Pearl Harbor (27–29 August) en route. Arriving at San Francisco, Calif., on 5 September, she entered the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, Calif., on 12 December to begin an inactivation overhaul. She was decommissioned there on 16 June 1946.
Macabi was lent to Argentina under the Military Assistance Program on 11 August 1960, and served under the name Santa Fe (S-11) into the 1970s. Stricken from the [U.S.] Navy List on 1 September 1971, the boat was later sold outright to Argentina. By 1975, Santa Fe was laid up at Puerto Belgrano and cannibalized for spare parts.
Updated, Robert J. Cressman,
16 June 2020
