USS Torsk (SS423)

• Torsk started life as a Tench class fleet submarine.
• Built by the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, her keel was laid on June 7, 1944.
• Torsk was launched September 6, 1944
• Comissioned on December 16, 1944.

World War II record

• Torsk departed New London, Connecticut, for the Pacific on February 11, 1945 and five weeks later arrived in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii via the Panama Canal. She was under the command of Commander Bafford E. Lewellen,
• Torsk completed two war patrols in the remaining months of WWII, totaling 103 days until the Japanese surrended on August 19, 1945. While Torsk first war patrol was routine the second patrol secured her place firmly in submarine history.
  • Leaving Pearl Harbor on July 17, 1945 she arrived in the Sea of Japan on August 10, 1945.
  • While patrolling on August 11, Torsk rescued seven Japanese merchant sailors adrift at sea and the following day recorded her first victory when a Japanese coastal freighter was spotted and sunk.
  • On August 13, a second cargo ship was torpedoed.
  • On the morning of August 14, 1945, Torsk sighted a medium-sized cargo ship escorted by a coastal defense frigate off the Japanese mainland. Commander Lewellen immediately plotted a torpedo attack and was able to sink the escort.
  • That same day a second Japanese frigate arrived to search for Torsk. After firing a torpedo, Torsk dove to 400 feet and rigged for "silent running." When no explosion was heard, a Mark 27 homing torpedo was fired at the sound of the frigate's propeller. Shortly after, two explosions (presumably from both torpedoes) marked the sinking of the Japanese warship. Although no one knew it at the time, Torsk had sunk the last ship of World War II. Less than 24 hours later, a cease-fire was called and Japan surrended to the Allied Forces

After World War II

• From 1945 through 1967, Torsk served as both a training vessel for submarine crews and as an active boat in the Atlantic and Mediterranean fleets.
• In 1952, she received her present conning tower which included a snorkel. Today, Torsk is the only surviving example of a fleet-snorkel conversion.
• Following her 1952 refit, Torsk carried out deployments in the Mediterranean, the Atlantic and the Caribbean.
• In 1954 Torsk was transfered from New London Connecticut to her new base in Norfolk, Virginia
• In 1960, she was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for service during the Lebanon Crisis.
• In 1962, when U.S. Naval forces were ordered to interdict the delivery of Soviet nuclear missiles to Cuba, Torsk was deployed as an active part of the American blockade earning the Navy Commendation Medal.
• In 1967, after an all-time record of 11,884 career dives, Torsk was retired from the active fleet to become a training vessel for the naval reserve.
• On December 15,1971, she was decommisioned and the following year arrived in Baltimore's Inner Harbor to became a museum and memorial.

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