USS Dorado ( SS - 248 ) USS " Dorado " ( SS - 248 ) , a " Gato " - class submarine , was the first submarine of the United States Navy to be named for the dorado , also known as the dolphinfish or mahi - mahi . Her keel was laid down on 27 August 1942 by the Electric Boat Company of Groton , Connecticut . She was launched on 23 May 1943 ( sponsored by Mrs . Ezra G . Allen ) , and commissioned on 28 August 1943 , Lieutenant Commander Earle Caffrey Schneider in command . Service history . " Dorado " s sea trials proved the readiness of the crew , and she sailed from New London , Connecticut , on 6 October 1943 for the Panama Canal Zone . She did not arrive . The standard practice of imposing bombing restrictions within an area ahead , astern , and on each side of the scheduled position of an unescorted submarine making passage in friendly waters had been carried out and all concerned had been notified . However , the crew of a PBM Mariner of Patrol Squadron 210 out of Guantánamo Bay , Cuba , assigned to provide air coverage on the evening of 12 October had received an incorrect description of the restriction area , out of place . At 2049 local time , under a moon - lit but stormy sky , that plane attacked an unidentified submarine that it believed was outside the restriction area with three Mark - 47 depth charge s and a Mark - 4 Mod - 4 demolition bomb . About two hours later , the plane sighted a second submarine with which it attempted to exchange recognition signals . This second submarine fired upon the plane . A convoy scheduled to pass through the restricted area surrounding " Dorado " on the evening of 12 October reported no contact . Air searches were begun immediately after 14 October , her scheduled date of arrival . Widely scattered oil slicks with occasional debris were found . Subsequently the Board of Investigation held in Guantánamo Bay , and the more formal Naval Board of Inquiry held at the Washington Navy Yard , found that the " widely scattered oil slicks " were actually oleous in nature and not bunker oil or fuel - most probably rotting vegetation like seaweed . All of the " occasional debris " was determined not to have come from " Dorado " . At both the Board of Investigation and the Court of Inquiry , the aircrew testified that they were certain that both submarines they had attacked were U - boat s . Despite the circumstantial evidence , there are reasons to doubt that " Dorado " was sunk by the Mariner . Because the crew knew that " Dorado " was operating in the area , they carefully observed their two targets before attacking . Prior to the first attack , the four crewmen of the aircraft observed the surfaced submarine for 12 minutes , noting : Post - war examination of " Kriegsmarine " records indicate that the submarine first attacked by the Mariner may have been " U - 518 " , though that boat ' s logs do not record the attack . It is possible that the attack went unnoticed by the boat ; of the three depth charges and one 100 pound bomb that were dropped , one depth charge was a confirmed dud , one was dropped too low to arm , and neither the third depth charge nor the bomb were seen to explode . After the attack , the Mariner searched the area for 20 minutes , but saw no explosions , bubbles , or debris . The second submarine , attacked by the Mariner two hours later , was certainly " U - 214 " ; her log book , captured after World War II , describes firing at the aircraft . On 8 October , five miles off Colón , " U - 214 " laid a minefield of 15 mines . One of these may have sunk the United States Navy submarine on or about 14 October . Syneca Research Group . The Syneca Research Group describes an unusual possible fate for " Dorado " : they assert the boat ' s sea trials were marred by a fire , a submerged grounding , and difficulties in diving the boat and keeping her submerged . They also believe they have evidence that aircraft pilots in the early 1970s were familiar with the remains of a submarine conning tower that stuck up out of the sandy bottom just off the Mexican coast — a handy reference point , especially easy to spot when the rising or setting sun threw the sail ' s silhouette across the white sand . However , since the 1970s , drifting sand has covered the site . " Dorado " s buoyancy problems are cited to support the possibility that the bombing killed her crew , but left the boat in a buoyant condition so that she did not sink to the ocean floor , but rather drifted some in the currents of the Caribbean Sea until she grounded in the shallow water near the coast . A memorial to " Dorado " has been constructed in the Veterans Memorial Park in Wichita , Kansas on the Arkansas River . A 614 - page book entitled " USS DORADO ( SS - 248 ) : On Eternal Patrol " was published by Douglas E . Campbell in November 2011 . ISBN 978 - 1 - 257 - 95155 - 0