History
United States
Name	USS Penguin
Builder	Charleston Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co.
Laid down	9 February 1943, as USS Chetco (AT-99)
Launched	20 July 1943
Commissioned	29 May 1944
Decommissioned	June 1947
Renamed	USS Penguin, 23 September 1943
Reclassified	ASR–12, 23 September 1943
Recommissioned	3 April 1952
Decommissioned	29 June 1970
Motto	De profundis ("From the depths")
General characteristics
Class and type	Penguin class submarine rescue ship
Displacement	1,740 long tons (1,768 t) full load
Length	205 ft (62 m)
Beam	39 ft 3 in (11.96 m)
Draft	15 ft 6 in (4.72 m)
Speed	16 knots (18 mph; 30 km/h)
Complement	91
Armament	1 × 3"/50 caliber guns 4 × 20 mm 2 × dct

The third USS Penguin (ASR–12) was a submarine rescue ship in the United States Navy during World War II. She was the lead ship of a class of three vessels (Penguin, Bluebird, and Skylark) all originally laid down as fleet ocean tugs before being converted to rescue ships before completion.

Penguin was laid down as Chetco (AT-99) by the Charleston Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co., Charleston, South Carolina, 9 February 1943; launched 20 July 1943; sponsored by Mrs. H. S. Dickinson; renamed and reclassified USS Penguin (ASR–12), 23 September 1943; and commissioned 29 May 1944.

Penguin, a submarine rescue and salvage vessel reported for duty with SubRon 1, at New London, Connecticut, 9 June 1944. Based there after shakedown training, she served as a target and torpedo recovery ship for Allied submarines training in the area; performed towing assignments; participated in the planting and sweeping of experimental mine fields; and conducted salvage operations. Included in the latter were operations on a sunken U-boat near Block Island between April and June 1945.

Shifting to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for the period 5 July–7 September, Penguin served as a target vessel and a rescue and salvage ship for submarines undergoing sea trials, then returned to New London, and, for the remainder of the year alternated between those two submarine bases. Permanently attached to New London with the new year, 1946, she remained there until November when she participated in cold weather operations off Newfoundland.

On her return to New London she continued her duties as rescue and salvage ship, target and torpedo recovery vessel, and escort and towing vessel. In June 1947 she joined the Atlantic Reserve Fleet, decommissioning, at Atlantic Reserve Fleet, New London, 4 September.

Penguin, berthed at New London for four and a half years, recommissioned 3 April 1952. On 28 April, she reported for duty with the Atlantic Fleet's Submarine Forces, and on 23 July, arrived at Key West, her new homeport. For the next nine years, with only occasional interruptions for submarine exercises or salvage operations in the Caribbean, and, in August 1954, off Newfoundland, she carried out her mission in the Key West area for SubRon 12. During that period, however, she established a new record for ships of her class by "rescuing", during training operations, personnel from a submarine 349' below the surface, 24 February 1955.

In 1961, Penguin entered another first on her record. On 20 March she departed for Rota, Spain, becoming the first ASR to be deployed to the Sixth Fleet. Since that time she has continued salvage operations, primarily on downed aircraft, and weapons evaluation tests; provided target and torpedo recovery services; and performed towing services for the Atlantic Fleet and, in 1963, 1964, 1967 and 1969, for the 6th Fleet. While with the latter she has also served as flagship for that fleet's submarine force. Fortunately, however, into 1970, she had not been called on to conduct rescue operations for an actual submarine disaster.

 This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

• Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships Archived 2006-01-30 at the Wayback Machine
• Ships of the U.S. Navy, 1940-1945 - ASR-12 USS Penguin
• USS Penguin ASR-12 (Submarine Rescue Vessel)
• ASR tnails
• The US Navy
• Submarine Rescue
• Rescue and Salvage Ships Archived 2007-07-11 at the Wayback Machine
• Photo gallery at Navsource.org