USS Tirante ( SS - 420 ) USS " Tirante " ( SS - 420 ) , a " Tench " - class submarine , was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the tirante , a silvery , elongated " cutlass fish " found in waters off Cuba . Her keel was laid down on 28 April 1944 by the Portsmouth Navy Yard of Kittery , Maine . She was launched on 9 August 1944 sponsored by Mrs . William B . Sieglaff , wife of Commander Sieglaff , and commissioned on 6 November 1944 with Lieutenant Commander George L . Street III in command . First War Patrol . Following shakedown training in Long Island Sound and training in waters off Panama and off Oahu , " Tirante " departed Pearl Harbor on 3 March 1945 , bound for Japanese home waters . Prowling to the westward of Kyūshū , the submarine patrolled the approaches to Nagasaki . She had good hunting . She sank the 703 - ton tanker " Fuji Maru " on 25 March and followed this success with the sinking of the 1218 - ton freighter " Nase Maru " three days later . After the latter attack , Japanese escorts kept " Tirante " down for seven hours , before she slipped away from her hunters , unscathed . On 31 March , " Tirante " shelled and sank a 70 - ton lugger with five - inch ( 127 mm ) and 40 - millimeter gunfire and , on 1 April , missed an LST - type vessel with a spread of three torpedoes . The submarine soon shifted to waters off the south coast of Korea , near the Strait of Tsushima . At twilight on 6 April , she battle - surfaced and captured a small Japanese fishing vessel and took its three crewmen prisoner before sinking the prize . The following day , " Tirante " torpedoed a 2800 - ton cargo freighter loaded with a deck cargo of oil drums . The submarine surfaced , looked over the debris , and directed nearby Korean fishing craft to pick up two survivors who were clinging to pieces of wreckage . Nevertheless , although observers on the submarine reported witnessing the Maru ' s sinking , post - war examination of Japanese records failed to confirm the " kill . " Having broken the Japanese codes , American naval intelligence men were able to anticipate Japanese movements . One intercepted enemy message told of an important convoy steaming toward " Tirante " ' s area . In response to this information , the submarine laid an ambush on 9 April . Picking out two targets , she launched three torpedoes at each . One spread missed , but the other struck the 5500 - ton transport " Nikkō Maru " , carrying homeward - bound Japanese soldiers and sailors from Shanghai . As the important auxiliary slipped beneath the waves , enemy escorts leapt to the offensive . To ward off the counterattack , " Tirante " fired a " cutie " ( homing torpedo ) at one of the escorts and heard subsequent " breaking - up noises . " But again , post - war accounting failed to confirm the sinking . " Tirante " resumed her relentless prowling of the Yellow Sea between Quelpart Island ( Cheju Do ) and the mouth of the Yangtze River . She soon received an intelligence report which informed her that an important Japanese transport was at Cheju , the main port on Quelpart Island . Under cover of darkness , " Tirante " boldly began her approach on the surface . In defiance of possible enemy radar or patrolling planes or ships , she closed the coast and penetrated the mine - and shoal - obstructed waters within the ten - fathom curve line . Prepared to fight her way out , " Tirante " then entered the harbor where she found three targets : two escort vessels and the 4000 - ton " Juzan Maru " . The submarine launched three torpedoes at the Maru , which blew up in an awesome explosion . The conflagration clearly illuminated " Tirante " and alerted the " Mikura " - class escort vessel " Nomi " and " Kaibokan Number 31 " which immediately got underway toward the invading submersible . As she headed back out to sea at flank speed , " Tirante " launched a spread of torpedoes which hit and destroyed both pursuers . En route to Midway Island , the submarine captured two Japanese airmen ( bringing her prisoner total to five ) and concluded her first war patrol on 26 April . " Tirante " ' s stellar performance earned Commander Street the Medal of Honor . Lieutenant Edward L . Beach , the executive officer — and later commander of during the submarine ' s submerged circumnavigation of the globe — received the Navy Cross . The ship , herself , was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation . Second and Third War Patrols . " Tirante " departed from Midway Island on 20 May as command ship of the nine - boat " wolfpack " dubbed " Street ' s Sweepers " . They patrolled the Yellow Sea and East China Sea on the lookout for enemy targets — by then dwindling in number . " Tirante " located a four - ship convoy on 11 June , in the familiar hunting grounds off Nagasaki . She evaded the three escorts long enough to get a shot at the lone merchantman , an 800 - ton cargo freighter and pressed home a successful attack . Post - war Japanese records , though , did not confirm a " kill " . The next day , " Tirante " pulled off nearly a repeat performance of her hit - and - run raid at Cheju . She crept into Ha Shima harbor , some seven miles ( 11 km ) from Nagasaki and picked out the 2200 - ton " Hakuju Maru " moored alongside a colliery . From a range of , the submarine fired a " down the throat " shot at the cargoman which exploded with a roar . The second " fish " failed to detonate , but the third completed the destruction begun by the first . As shells from shore guns fell around her , " Tirante " bent on speed and cleared the area . Resuming her roving patrols , " Tirante " and her sisters played havoc with shipping between Korea and Japan , destroying junks carrying supplies from Korea to the Japanese home islands . Boarding parties from the submarine would take off the skippers for questioning , put the crew in life boats , and set the craft afire . " Tirante " bagged a dozen in this manner and also destroyed two heavily armed picket boats with surface gunfire before returning to Guam on 19 July . " Tirante " departed Guam on 12 August on what would have been her third war patrol . The end of the war , however , cut this operation short and the submarine put into Midway Island on 23 August . Eventually sailing for the east coast of the United States , " Tirante " moored at the Washington Navy Yard in October – at which time Commander Street received his Medal of Honor in a White House ceremony . Shifting to Staten Island , New York , on 31 October , the submarine remained there until moving to New London , Connecticut , on 8 January 1946 . After conducting training operations out of New London , Connecticut , " Tirante " was decommissioned and placed in reserve on 6 July 1946 at her home port . Post World War II and fate . Subsequently converted to greater underwater propulsive power ( GUPPY IIA ) configuration , " Tirante " was recommissioned on 26 November 1952 , at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard . After conducting her shakedown to Bermuda and operating in the Atlantic as far north as Iceland , the submarine returned to the east coast of the United States to prepare for her first deployment with the Sixth Fleet . In the ensuing two decades , " Tirante " conducted six more Mediterranean Sea deployments , interspersed with a regular schedule of exercises and maneuvers with Fleet units in the North Atlantic , off the east coast and in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico . The ship participated in joint exercises with NATO forces ; sometimes served as a target for antisubmarine warfare exercises ; and , on occasion , assisted the Fleet Sonar School at Key West , Florida , in the development of ASW tactics and weapons . Decommissioned at Key West , Florida , on 1 October 1973 , and struck from the Naval Vessel Register the same day , " Tirante " was sold on 11 April 1974 to Union Minerals and Alloys of New York , for scrapping . " Tirante " received two battle star s and a Presidential Unit Citation for her World War II service . The " Tirante " is the subject of an episode of the syndicated television anthology series , " The Silent Service " , which aired during the 1957 - 1958 season .