page_title: USS Torsk
section_title: 1944–1945
hierarchical_section_title: USS Torsk / Service history / 1944–1945
caption_attribution_description: English: Starboard view of Side emblem and sail of the USS Torsk
context_page_description: USS Torsk, hull number SS-423, is a Tench-class submarine built for the United States Navy during World War II. Armed with ten torpedo tubes, the Tench-class submarines were incremental developments of the highly-successful Gato-class submarines that formed the backbone of the US Navy's submarine force during the war. Torsk was laid down at the Portsmouth Navy Yard in June 1944, was launched in September that year, and commissioned in December.
  In 1945, Torsk made two war patrols off Japan, sinking one cargo vessel and two coastal defense frigates. The latter of these, torpedoed on 14 August 1945, was the last enemy ship sunk by the United States Navy in World War II. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, she operated primarily as a training vessel; she also went on deployments to the Mediterranean Sea and helped to train elements of the Atlantic Fleet in anti-submarine tactics. Decommissioned in 1964, she served for another seven years as a training vessel for the Naval Reserve. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in December 1971 and turned over to the state of Maryland for use as a museum ship. She is now part of the historic fleet of Historic Ships in Baltimore.
context_section_description: The keel for Torsk was laid down at the Portsmouth Navy Yard on 7 June 1944, and the completed hull was launched on 6 September. Work was completed by the end of the year, and she was commissioned on 16 December. Beginning on 31 December, she began training exercises that lasted until 11 February 1945; five days later she sailed to Port Everglades, Florida, where she conducted anti-submarine experiments. The vessel remained there only briefly, and on 20 February, she got underway for the Pacific Ocean, passing through the Panama Canal and arriving in Hawaii on 23 March. There, she conducted further training and underwent repairs in preparation for her first war patrol.
  Torsk cruised to Guam and then proceeded to Kii Suido in the Japanese home islands, arriving there on 11 May. While there, she patrolled for American air crews that had to bail out from damaged aircraft during their raids on Japan, but no aircraft went down in the area that day. Late on 11 May, she moved to the northeastern coast of Honshu, arriving two days later. Over the course of 14 and 15 May, she attempted to contact the submarine wolfpack operating in the area, and she finally rendezvoused with the submarines Sand Lance and Cero the next day. She joined their patrols on the east coast of the island, but found no Japanese vessels in the area.
  Torsk encountered a Japanese coastal minelayer on 2 June between Honshu and Hokkaido. She launched a spread of six torpedoes, but the minelayer evaded them, prompting Torsk to dive to evade the expected counter-attack that did not occur. Two days later, she located a 700 long tons (710 t) freighter off Kobe Saki; she fired four torpedoes but again missed her target. Torsk departed the area on 5 June, bound for Midway Atoll, arriving there on 11 June; from there, she continued on to Pearl Harbor. After arriving on 16 June, she underwent a refit and began her second patrol on 17 July. She again sailed to Guam, where she stayed on 1 and 2 August, before continuing on to the Sea of Japan.
  On 10 August, Torsk passed through the minefields in the Tsushima Strait, and the next day, she found and took aboard seven Japanese sailors from the merchant ship Koue Maru that had been sunk four days earlier. Later on the 11th, the submarine entered her patrol area. While patrolling off Dogo Island the next morning, she located a small freighter and sank her with a submerged torpedo attack. Off Ando Saki on 13 August, Torsk found several small fishing boats and another small freighter; she sank the latter and later that day, attempted to sink another cargo vessel in Wakasa Wan but her torpedoes missed. 
  On 14 August, she encountered a medium-sized cargo ship accompanied by a 745 long tons (757 t) Kaibōkan type escort vessel steaming off Amarube Saki（Battle of Kasumi）. When the two ships approached Kasumi Ko at 10:35, Torsk launched a new, experimental Mark 28 torpedo, an acoustic homing torpedo, at the Kaibōkan. The torpedo struck the ship and blew a hole in the stern, bending it up at a 30-degree angle and causing it to rapidly sink. Torsk then attempted to torpedo the freighter as it entered the harbor, but the torpedoes missed, possibly because they struck uncharted coral reefs.
  At around 12:00, a second Kaibōkan arrived in the area to hunt for Torsk; the latter fired a second Mark 28 torpedo and then dove deep to evade any depth charge attacks. After reaching a depth of 400 feet (120 m), she launched a Mark 27 torpedo, a passive acoustic torpedo. Shortly thereafter, the hydrophone operator detected a large explosion; this was the Mark 28 striking the Kaibōkan, and a minute later the Mark 27 struck the vessel as well. This proved to be the last Japanese warship to be sunk in World War II, as the Japanese government announced it would surrender the next day. Additional patrol vessels arrived in the area, and their presence, coupled with that of patrol aircraft, compelled Torsk to remain submerged for more than seven hours. She then surfaced and proceeded toward the Noto Peninsula. After receiving word of Japan's surrender on 1
caption: Sail and boat's mascot emblem
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