USS Dorado was sunk by friendly fire from the destroyer USS Melvin in 1943.
Dorado was a United States Navy Gato-class submarine commissioned during World War II. On 12 October 1943, while travelling toward the Panama Canal area on its first war patrol, it was mistakenly attacked by aircraft and later struck by a torpedo from the destroyer USS Melvin.
The submarine was lost with all 77 crew members. The incident resulted from an identification failure during wartime operations, when friendly submarines, aircraft, and surface ships operated in the same waters under difficult conditions.
Dorado is sometimes confused with USS Scorpion or USS Thresher, later American submarines lost in peacetime accidents. Dorado’s loss was a World War II friendly-fire incident, not a reactor or training disaster.