USN:
Originally a Gato class submarine, converted under SCB 39 (Ship Characteristics Board) and recommissioned in the active fleet as SSO-362. Submarine Oiler USS Guavina (AOSS-362) anchored off a Caribbean port and standing by to refuel a P5M Marlin, 5 March 1955
Guavina (AGSS-362), refueling a
P5M Marlin flying boat off Norfolk, VA. in 1955. It was planned to use submarines to refuel the new jet-powered
P6M SeaMaster flying boats. As part of this program
Guavina was converted to carry 160,000 gallons of aviation fuel.
Guavina was converted to a tanker configuration from March 1949 through February of 1950 and equipped with additional AVGAS bladders in place of her stern torpedo tubes so she could function as a mobile refueling point for US Navy seaplanes. Later gaining an expanded deck atop her stern to facilitate the refueling process and give the Sub the ability to refuel multiple aircraft at the same time, she made numerous deployments along the Atlantic Coast and to both the Caribbean and Mediterranean Seas honing the scope of AOSS operational doctrine.
The efforts of Guavina and her crew were expected to provide the basis for a fleet of similarly-modified WWII Tanker-Subs which would be deployed worldwide to support the nuclear strike/deterrent mission of the
Martin P6M SeaMaster program. However, with waning US Navy interest in seaplane operations and the the SeaMaster getting the axe in 1959, the Guavina was left without a mission and subsequently decommissioned in March 1959 . She was placed into reserve training status before eventually being struck from the Register in 1967 and sunk as a target of Cape Henry, VA.
Her initial conversion in 1949/1950 at Mare Island was undertaken to allow her to resupply Marine beachheads.
Large fuel bunkers were built up around her hull amidships which greatly increased her beam, and five bow and two stern torpedo tubes were removed. The single remaining bow tube was used to discharge cargo, and the two stern tubes used to fire countermeasures (acoustic homing torpedoes).
An overhaul in 1954 at Philadelphia turned her into a seaplane tanker with the addition of the "flight deck" on her stern.