USS Trutta ( SS - 421 ) USS " Trutta " ( SS - 421 ) , a " Tench " - class submarine , was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the trutta , a variety of trout , distinguished from the typical trout by its small , black spots and its smaller and fewer scales . She was originally assigned the name " Tomtate " , often misspelled as " Tomatate " , and would have made her the only ship named for the tomtate , a food fish of warm American waters having a compressed body , a toothless palate , and conical jaw teeth , but was renamed " Trutta " on 24 September 1942 . Her keel was laid down on 22 May 1944 by the Portsmouth Navy Yard . She was launched on 18 August 1944 sponsored by Mrs . Edward C . Magdeburger , and commissioned on 16 November 1944 with Commander Arthur C . Smith in command . First War Patrol . Following outfitting and shakedown , " Trutta " underwent 30 days of intensive training in the Portsmouth - New London area and then set a course southward and steamed via the Canal Zone to arrive at Pearl Harbor on 25 February 1945 . After a period of advanced training , " Trutta " got underway from Oahu with and , members of a coordinated attack group under " Trutta " ' s direction and arrived at Saipan on 30 March . The following day , as she was leaving Tanapag Harbor on her first war patrol , the submarine struck a cable connected to an oil drum adrift in the charted channel and was forced to return to Saipan to repair her damaged propeller blades . The submarine finally got underway on 3 April and proceeded as rapidly as possible toward her patrol area . On 7 April , she changed course in an attempt to intercept a Japanese naval force which had sortied from Bungo Suido late the day before . It was feared that this task force , headed by " Yamato " , the world ' s largest battleship , would interrupt the assault on Okinawa to the south . Despite her full - power running , " Trutta " did not intercept the Japanese ships because they changed their course . Nevertheless , the Japanese force did not reach Okinawa because on that day fliers from the carriers of Vice Admiral Mitscher ' s Task Force 58 sank " Yamato " , light cruiser " Agano " , and destroyer " Hamakaze " , and inflicted irremediable damage to three other destroyers which the Japanese scuttled . After receiving news of this successful battle , " Trutta " headed southward on 9 April . Proceeding via the Nansei Shoto , she avoided the hostile notice of enemy aircraft and weathered gale force winds and force - five seas before entering her patrol area in the East China Sea on the afternoon of 11 April . There , she patrolled along the Shanghai - Quelpart Island traffic routes . On 13 April , while pursuing an antisubmarine force of three Japanese destroyers , she passed through an uncharted minefield before the ships changed course and outdistanced her . While patrolling near the entrance to Daito Wan on the western coast of Korea on 18 April , she sank one small freighter with gunfire and damaged another . Off the China coast on 22 April , " Trutta " narrowly escaped damage when an enemy float plane dropped two bombs which exploded over the diving submarine . Shortly after midnight three days later , as " Trutta " patrolled west of Quelpart Island , lookouts on the submarine ' s bridge were startled to see a torpedo pass astern . As " Trutta " put on speed and turned parallel to the torpedo ' s wake , another torpedo passed by her port side moving from stern to bow , a sinister reminder that she was not alone in the Yellow Sea . Fortunately , " Trutta " observed no further sign of the Japanese submarine , and she continued her patrols until 26 April when she headed for Guam . Late in the day , on 27 April , as she passed between Akuseki Shima and Takara Shima in the northern Ryukyus , she made contact with a Japanese plane . the harbinger of a prolonged coordinated holddown attempt . The next morning , finding her adversary of the night before replaced by two " Settles , " the submarine , low on air and battery power , sent a message indicating that she would have to surface and fight it out if the situation did not improve before noon . A little more than an hour later , 10 American fighters from Okinawa appeared and routed the Japanese planes . Friendly air cover remained with the submarine until she recharged her batteries and filled her air flasks . She then proceeded independently to the Marianas , arriving at Guam on 4 May . Second War Patrol . Following refitting and exercises with battleship , " Trutta " got underway on 2 June in company with . She weathered a typhoon before arriving on lifeguard station on 7 May . That day , while standing lifeguard duty for air strikes on Kobe , the submarine rescued a downed Army aviator who had been adrift in a small rubber boat for nearly a week and , the day before , had also weathered the typhoon . As air raids against the cities of the Japanese homeland intensified , " Trutta " manned a lifeguard station south of Kyushu , made patrols just off Bungo Suido , and conducted visual and photo reconnaissance of Tori Shima , approaching to within about one mile ( 1 . 6 km ) of the island . On 21 June , she departed Bungo Suido to join a coordinated attack group ( wolfpack ) " Street ' s Sweepers " patrolling the Yellow and East China Seas . She conducted patrols west of Tsushima Strait and then fired a few diversionary rounds of five - inch ( 127 mm ) fire on Hirado Shima before moving west to take up patrol along the southwest coast of Korea . On 1 July , her persistence paid off when , after pursuing a sailing vessel , she discovered a fleet of schooners . Working quickly to take advantage of surprise and to prevent the ships from fleeing to nearby shallow water , " Trutta " sank seven of the three - and four - masted schooners in a four - hour action . Crew members boarded and searched two of the vessels and put the schooner crews in lifeboats before destroying the ships . On 6 July , while patrolling the southern approaches to Daito Wan , she came upon a tug towing three schooners , quickly dispatched the tug and two of its tows with five - inch ( 127 mm ) fire , and left the third in flames . She continued patrolling along the Korean coast until the afternoon of 12 July when she departed the area and set her course for the Marianas . End of hostilities . She arrived at Guam on 18 July , underwent refitting by , and then got underway on 12 August for her third patrol . Before " Trutta " arrived in her assigned area , she received official word that peace negotiations had obviated continuing her patrol ; the submarine set a northeast course . She arrived at Midway on 24 August and two days later headed home via Pearl Harbor and the Panama Canal . After calls at New Orleans and other gulf and east - coast ports , she arrived at New London early in January 1946 and reported to the Sixth Fleet for inactivation . By March 1946 , she had been placed out of commission . She remained in the Reserve Fleet until 1951 when she was reactivated at New London . Recommissioned on March 1951 , she operated out of that port until 4 May 1952 when she was again decommissioned , this time at Charleston . Following conversion to a " Guppy II A " submarine , she was recommissioned on 2 January 1953 and joined Submarine Squadron 4 at Key West . Post World War II U . S . service . For the next 19 years , she operated out of Key West , plying the Atlantic , the Caribbean , and the Gulf of Mexico . During this period , she also made six deployments to the Mediterranean . She assisted in the evaluation of new weapon systems , including electronic counter - measure equipment ; served as an antisubmarine warfare training target ; trained naval reserves ; and participated in fleet exercises . Shortly after her transfer to Squadron 12 on 1 August 1959 , she rescued five Cuban refugees who had been adrift in a rubber boat for two days . Still homeported at Key West , she continued her duties through the 1960s , breaking routine with goodwill visits to American and Mediterranean ports , and earning a number of Battle Efficiency " E ' s . " Moored at Key West in November 1969 , she celebrated the 25th anniversary of her first commissioning . Transfer to Turkish Navy . Her long career with the United States Navy drew to its close in 1972 . In June of that year , she trained a turnover crew of the Turkish Navy , and the veteran submarine was decommissioned on 1 July and turned over to the Navy of the Republic of Turkey . She was renamed TCG " Cerbe " ( S 340 ) . " Trutta " was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on that same day . The Turkish Navy decommissioned " Cerbe " on 23 July 1999 at the Gölcük Navy Yard . Today , her sail is preserved as a memorial to Turkish submariners . " Trutta " received two battle star s for World War II service .