USS Requin ( SS - 481 ) USS " Requin " ( SS / SSR / AGSS / IXSS - 481 ) , a " Tench " - class submarine , was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the requin , a sand shark . Since 1990 it has been a museum ship in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania . Her keel was laid down on 24 August 1944 by the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery , Maine . She was launched on 1 January 1945 sponsored by Mrs . Slade D . Cutter , and commissioned on 28 April 1945 with Commander Slade D . Cutter in command . Initially , " Requin " carried heavier armament than usual for a fleet submarine , perhaps because Commander Cutter was one of the most decorated submarine skippers going to sea . She had an additional five - inch / 25 - caliber deck gun , as well as two 24 - tube five - inch ( 127 mm ) rocket launchers , which were intended to be used to provide offshore bombardment during Operation Downfall , the planned invasion of Kyūshū and Honshū . Shakedown and first conversion . Following shakedown off the New England coast , " Requin " departed Portsmouth , on 3 June 1945 en route to Hawaii . She joined the Pacific Fleet on 13 July at Balboa , Panama , and at the end of the month reached Pearl Harbor . However , two weeks after her arrival , three days before she was to begin her first war patrol , World War II ended and " Requin " was recalled and ordered back to the Atlantic . " Requin " arrived at Staten Island , New York , on 18 September to begin what would be in the words of Commander Cutter , " a dull and boring assignment , " essentially becoming a target for sonar school ships . On 6 January 1946 she sailed for Key West , Florida , where she joined Submarine Squadron 4 ( SubRon 4 ) . August through November of that year were spent at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery , Maine , being converted to a radar picket submarine . Her four stern torpedo tubes were removed , along with both of her deck guns and her aft anti - aircraft cannon . Two of her forward torpedo tubes were inactivated , and she was reduced to only ten torpedoes . She also received a new skipper ; in October 1946 , Commander George L . Street III , who earned the Medal of Honor during the war , took command . Radar picket operations . After leaving the yard she resumed operations in the western Atlantic and in the fall of 1947 moved north for exercises with her sister radar picket submarine ; on 13 November she crossed the Arctic Circle . Given hull classification symbol SSR - 481 on 20 January 1948 , " Requin " began modification to the MIGRAINE II Radar Picket configuration at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery , Maine . In December she departed the shipyard after competing trials with new radar equipment and reported to New London , Connecticut for duty with Submarine Squadron 8 . In May 1949 she sailed east for her first deployment with the Sixth Fleet . Arriving at Gibraltar on 14 May , she operated in the Mediterranean Sea until 30 June . Soon after her return to New London , " Requin " was transferred to Norfolk , Virginia , for duty with SubRon 6 . Into the spring of 1950 , she operated in the western Atlantic , ranging from Nova Scotia to the West Indies . Overhaul occupied most of the summer , and with the end of the year she prepared for another Sixth Fleet tour . In the Mediterranean from mid - January to mid - May 1951 , she resumed operations off the East Coast and in the Caribbean Sea on her return . In August 1952 , she was back in European waters . During September , she visited the United Kingdom ; then , in October the submarine transited the Strait of Gibraltar for her regular Sixth Fleet duty . In 1953 , she maintained her schedule of Second and Sixth Fleet operations , but at the end of the year put into Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , for an extensive modernization overhaul that among other changes removed her last antiaircraft cannon . On 2 May 1955 , she sailed for her fifth Mediterranean deployment . Detached at the end of July , she returned to Norfolk and remained on the East Coast , with cruises to the Caribbean , until November 1957 when she resumed duty with the Sixth Fleet . Second conversion . From June through August 1959 the Charleston Navy Yard in South Carolina removed all " Requin " ’ s radar equipment and improved her streamlining . Upon her conversion to Fleet Snorkel configuration , she was given hull classification symbol SS - 481 on 15 August 1959 , and rejoined SubRon 6 in Norfolk for operations as a normal attack submarine , a role she retained until her decommissioning . " Requin " conducted local operations off the East Coast and in the Caribbean Sea . On 20 September 1963 , " Requin " completed her 5000th dive . From 7 January 1964 into May she operated with the Sixth Fleet , then resumed her Second Fleet duties into 1968 , interrupted only twice for extended deployments . Operation UNITAS VII in the fall of 1966 called for " Requin " to cruise around the South American continent for exercises with various South American navies and her last Sixth Fleet deployment sent her back to the Mediterranean for duty from 4 April to 27 July 1967 . " Requin " ’ s last Mediterranean deployment began on 4 April 1967 . On 8 June , just as she completed a series of exercises with the U . S . Sixth Fleet , she received word that the US signals intelligence ship was under attack . " Requin " ’ s crew prepared to go to the defense of " Liberty " , but received orders from the Sixth Fleet commander to surface and proceed to Crete . On 28 May 1968 , during her last deployment before decommissioning , " Requin " departed Norfolk , Virginia , as part of the search effort for the missing nuclear attack submarine . On 29 June 1968 , " Requin " was reclassified AGSS - 481 and in October 1968 she began inactivation at Naval Station Norfolk . Decommissioned on 3 December 1968 , she was towed to St . Petersburg , Florida in February 1969 and served there as a non - powered Naval Reserve training vessel for Naval Reserve Center St . Petersburg , adjacent to Albert Whitted Airport and Coast Guard Air Station St . Petersburg . On 30 June 1971 " Requin " was reclassified as IXSS - 481 , and on 20 December 1971 she was struck from the Naval Vessel Register . Preservation efforts . On 17 June 1972 " Requin " was transferred to a non - profit memorial foundation in Tampa , Florida , and docked in the Hillsborough River adjacent to the Tampa Convention Center as a tourist attraction . She remained in this role until 1986 , when the non - profit organization responsible for the submarine folded due to insolvency and " Requin " was closed down due to lack of funding and support . With the exception of briefly reopening in 1988 , she essentially remained abandoned at the pier for the subsequent four years . On 21 February 1990 Senator John Heinz introduced Senate Bill S . 2151 , which allowed " Requin " to be transferred as an exhibit for the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania . On 24 May " Requin " was towed to Tampa Shipyard for dry docking and hull repairs , in preparation for her move to Pittsburgh . On 7 August she left International Ship Repair in Tampa under tow to Baton Rouge , Louisiana where , on 11 August , she was lifted onto barges and began her ride up the Mississippi River and Ohio River to Pittsburgh . On 4 September " Requin " arrived at the Carnegie Science Center , and on 20 October " Requin " was dedicated as a memorial and museum exhibit , and opened for tours .