USS Tullibee ( SS - 284 ) USS " Tullibee " ( SS - 284 ) , a , was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the tullibee . Her keel was laid down on 1 April 1942 at Mare Island , California , by the Mare Island Navy Yard . She was launched on 11 November 1942 sponsored by Mrs . Kenneth C . Hurd ; and commissioned on 15 February 1943 , Commander Charles F . Brindupke in command . " Tullibee " held shakedown training from 8 – 30 April 1943 and departed for Hawaii on 8 May . She arrived at Pearl Harbor on 15 May and held further training exercises in Hawaiian waters . Numerous air fitting leaks developed , and she was docked for repairs twice . When this proved ineffective , the submarine entered the navy yard until 11 July . First war patrol . On 19 July , " Tullibee " got underway for the Western Caroline Islands and her first war patrol . On 28 July , she sighted a passenger - cargo ship , accompanied by an escort and an aircraft that prevented her attack . On 5 August , the submarine began patrolling the Saipan - Truk traffic lanes . Five days later , she sighted smoke on the horizon that proved to be three freighters with an escort . " Tullibee " closed the range to ; launched one torpedo at the ship on the right and three at the vessel on the left . As the submarine fired the first torpedo , a ship rammed her and bent her number one periscope . She went deep and was depth charge d by the escort as the ships sped away . As they had been set to run at a depth of — too deep for the draft of the largest target — none of the torpedoes exploded . On 14 August , " Tullibee " sighted a convoy of three freighters with an escort and began an end - around run to get into good attack position . She launched a torpedo from a range of and went deep . It missed , and she returned to periscope depth to fire three torpedoes at the last ship . It apparently saw their wakes as it turned and combed them . The submarine again went deep . When she surfaced , the targets had escaped . On 22 August , " Tullibee " sighted a convoy of five ships escorted by two destroyers ; closed to ; and launched three torpedoes at the nearest freighter . Two minutes later , she fired three more at another ship . As she went deep to avoid a destroyer heading her way , she heard one explosion . She soon heard the bursts of two more torpedo explosions , followed by breaking up noises . When she surfaced , she sighted over 1000 empty oil drums , but no ships . Postwar examination of Japanese records indicated that " Tullibee " had damaged one freighter and had sunk the passenger - cargo ship " Kaisho Maru " . The patrol terminated when the submarine reached Midway Island on 6 September . Second war patrol . On 28 September , " Tullibee " began her second war patrol . Her assigned area was in the East China Sea between the Ryukyu Islands and the China coast . On 4 October , she sighted a convoy of nine passenger - cargo ships with three destroyer escorts . The submarine pulled well ahead of the convoy and tracked them until the next morning . At 00 : 58 , she fired a spread of three torpedoes at a large freighter , with one hitting the target a minute later . Another spread of three from the bow tubes produced two hits on a heavily - laden cargo ship . Minor explosions and breaking up noises began immediately as " Chicago Maru " sank . Twelve days later , " Tullibee " contacted a convoy of seven ships with three escorts that later separated into two groups ; one hugging the China coast and the other heading for Pescadores Channel . She attacked the largest ship in the latter group with six torpedoes ; one hit the target . The submarine began an end - around run and launched four torpedoes at another ship . Two torpedoes soon broached , and " Tullibee " broke off the attack . She went deep and rigged for silent running to evade the escorts . On 5 November , the submarine was running submerged near Okinoyerabu Shima when she sighted a large , three - story building on the island . She surfaced and fired 55 shells into the barracks before retiring at full speed . She began the voyage back to Hawaii the next day and reached Pearl Harbor , via Midway Island , on 16 November . Her official score for this patrol was one passenger - cargo ship sunk , a tanker damaged , and a passenger - cargo ship damaged . Third war patrol . " Tullibee " s third patrol was in a " wolfpack " with sister ships and . The trio sortied from Pearl Harbor on 14 December 1943 for the Mariana Islands to intercept enemy shipping plying between Truk and Japan . On 2 January 1944 , " Tullibee " sighted a Japanese on the surface and launched four torpedoes at a range of . The enemy saw the wakes and combed the four of them as " Tullibee " was forced deep by an enemy floatplane that dropped six bombs . On 19 January , " Haddock " reported that she had damaged the Japanese escort carrier , which limped to Saipan . " Tullibee " sighted the carrier there on 25 January , close ashore and well protected by escorts and aircraft . The submarine remained on station for several days awaiting an opportunity to sink the aircraft carrier . However , when she surfaced on 28 January , she learned that the carrier had slipped away . Three days later , the submarine made radar contact with two targets . She launched three torpedoes at what appeared to be a freighter and swung left to fire one at the escort . The first target , net tender " Hiro Maru " , took two hits and disintegrated in about one minute . The torpedo fired at the escort missed , and the submarine went deep to evade . " Tullibee " cleared the area the following day and returned to Pearl Harbor on 10 February . Fourth war patrol and loss . On 5 March , " Tullibee " stood out of Pearl Harbor to begin her fourth war patrol . Nine days later , she called at Midway Island to top off her fuel and then proceeded to her patrol area in the Palau Islands . She was scheduled to support aircraft carrier strikes against those islands on 30 – 31 March . On 25 March , " Tullibee " arrived on station and began patrolling . The next day , off the Palau Islands she made radar contact on a convoy consisting of a large passenger - cargo ship , two medium - sized freighters , a destroyer , and two other escorts . The submarine made several surface runs on the transport but kept losing her in rain squalls . " Tullibee " finally closed to and launched two torpedoes from her bow tubes at the target . About two minutes later , the submarine was rocked by a violent explosion . It was only learned after the war that " Tullibee " s torpedo had run a circular course and she had sunk herself . Gunner ' s Mate C . W . Kuykendall , on the bridge at the time , was knocked unconscious and thrown into the water . When he regained consciousness , the submarine was gone . He heard voices in the water for about ten minutes before they stopped . The next day , he was picked up by ( ) . Kuykendall survived as a prisoner of war and was released after V - J Day . " Tullibee " received three battle star s for World War II service . " Tullibee " was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 29 July 1944 .