USS Finback ( SS - 230 ) , a " Gato " - class submarine was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the finback , the common whale of the Atlantic coast of the United States . " Finback " ( SS - 230 ) was laid down 5 February 1941 by Portsmouth Navy Yard . She was launched 25 August 1941 ( sponsored by Mrs . A . E Watson ) , and commissioned 31 January 1942 , Lieutenant Commander Jesse L . Hull ( Class of 1926 ) in command . 1942 . First and second patrols . " Finback " reached Pearl Harbor from New London 29 May 1942 , and two days later , with the Japanese fleet on the move , was ordered out to patrol during the American victory in the Battle of Midway . She returned to Pearl Harbor 9 June to prepare for her first full war patrol . She cleared harbor , bound for the Aleutian Islands , 25 June . " Finback " first contacted the enemy on 5 July , when she attacked two destroyers , and received her baptism of fire in a heavy depth charge attack . Two special missions highlighted this first war patrol : a reconnaissance of Vega Bay , Kiska , 11 July , and a surveying operation at Tanaga Bay , Tanaga , 11 August . The submarine ended her patrol at Dutch Harbor 12 August , and returned to Pearl Harbor 23 August to refit . Departing Pearl Harbor 23 September 1942 , " Finback " made her second war patrol off Taiwan . On 14 October , she sighted a convoy of four merchantmen , guarded by a patrol vessel . The submarine launched two torpedoes at each of the two largest targets , sinking one , then went deep for the inevitable depth charging . When she surfaced , she found two destroyers in the area , preventing a further attack . With tubes reloaded she headed for the China coast . Four days later , 18 October , she inflicted heavy damage on a large freighter , and on 20 October , " Finback " sent another large freighter to the bottom . The submarine rounded out this highly successful patrol with a surface gunfire engagement 3 November , sinking an ocean - going sampan . " Finback " returned to Pearl Harbor 20 November . 1943 . Third and fourth patrols . During her third war patrol , between 16 December 1942 and 6 February 1943 , " Finback " served for some time as escort for a carrier task force , forbidden to reveal herself by making attacks during that part of the patrol . Finally freed of this restriction , she engaged a patrol boat in a surface gun duel on 17 January , leaving the enemy craft abandoned and sinking . After refitting at Midway , " Finback " made her fourth war patrol between 27 February and 13 April , scouting shipping lanes between Rabaul and the Japanese home islands . On 21 March , she damaged a large cargo ship , and from 24 – 26 March made an exasperatingly difficult chase of a convoy . At last in position to attack , she fired three torpedoes at each of two ships , and was immediately fired upon , then forced deep by an uncomfortably efficient depth - charging . Almost out of fuel , " Finback " was forced to break off the contact , and shaped course for Wake Island and Midway . On 5 April , passing a reef south of Japanese - held Wake , " Finback " sighted a merchantman that was beached and well down by the stern . Through radical maneuvers and brilliant timing , the submarine was able to elude both a patrol boat and a searching airplane and put a torpedo in the beached ship . This was the final blow in sinking this 10 , 672 ton ship previously damaged by two of " Finback " ' s sister submarines . Fifth and sixth patrols . " Finback " refitted at Pearl Harbor from 13 April to 12 May 1943 for her fifth war patrol . Through most of this patrol , she roamed off Taiwan , and along the shipping lanes from the Japanese home islands to the Marshalls . On 27 May , she sank a cargo ship , and sent another to the bottom on 7 June . Yet another of Japan ' s dwindling merchant fleet was sunk by " Finback " four days later . After refitting at Fremantle , Western Australia , 26 June – 18 July , the submarine sailed for her sixth war patrol along the Java coast . Her first contact was made 30 July , and although the freighter defended herself with gunfire , she was sunk , as was a larger cargo ship on 3 August . A week later , " Finback " outwitted both a surface escort and a patrol plane to inflict damage on another merchantman . She encountered two small minelayers , a tug , and an inter - island steamer on 19 August , and engaged all but the tug with surface gunfire , leaving three badly damaged ships behind when her dwindling supply of ammunition forced her to break off the action . 1944 . Seventh and eighth patrols . After a major overhaul at Pearl Harbor between 12 September and 15 December 1943 , " Finback " sailed for the South China Sea on her seventh war patrol , characterized by heavy weather , few contacts , and continual sighting of patrol planes . She sank a large tanker in a surface attack on New Year ' s Day 1944 , sent a fishing trawler to the bottom after a surface gunfire action on 30 January , and left another badly damaged after a similar action the next day . The submarine refitted at Pearl Harbor once more between 11 February and 6 March 1944 , then sailed for her eighth war patrol , off Truk in the Caroline Islands . Prevented from launching attacks through most of this patrol because of her assignment as lifeguard for carrier air strikes on targets in the Carolines , " Finback " contacted a six - ship convoy on 12 April , noting three escorts . She attacked four of the ships before heavy counter - attack sent her deep . On 16 April , while making a reconnaissance of Oroluk Atoll , she fired on a partially submerged steamer and a lookout tower on the atoll . Three days later , she sank one of a group of sampans , then sailed for refit at Pearl Harbor from 1 May – 30 May . Ninth , tenth and eleventh patrols . During her ninth war patrol , off the Palaus and west of the Marianas , " Finback " again had as her primary mission lifeguard duty during plane strikes covering the opening of the Marianas operation . She returned to Majuro 21 July for refit , then sailed 16 August on her tenth war patrol under command of Lieutenant Commander Robert Russell Williams , Jr . , and was assigned to lifeguard duty in the Bonins . Guided by friendly aircraft , she rescued a total of five downed Naval aviators , one very close inshore off Chichi Jima . Watchman Torpedoman First Class , Donnet Kohler , pulled out a tall lanky young pilot who ended up becoming the 41st President of the United States , George H W Bush . On 10 – 11 September she tracked a convoy , and although twice her attacks were broken off by an alert escort , she sank two small freighters . " Finback " put in to Pearl Harbor for refit . On her eleventh war patrol , she was again detailed to lifeguard duty in the Bonins . She sank a freighter on 16 December , and returned to Midway 24 December . 1945 . Twelfth patrol . The submarine ' s twelfth war patrol , made between 20 January and 25 March 1945 in the East China Sea , was frustrated by lack of worthwhile targets , and " Finback " returned to Pearl Harbor for a thorough overhaul . Still at Pearl Harbor at the close of the war , she sailed for New London 29 August 1945 . Post war . Homeported at New London for the remaining 5 years of her active career , " Finback " was engaged in training student submariners . Twice , in 1947 and in 1948 , she sailed to the Caribbean to take part in 2nd Fleet exercises . She was decommissioned and placed in reserve at New London 21 April 1950 . " Finback " was stricken on 1 September 1958 , and sold for scrap 15 July 1959 . All but the third , ninth , and twelfth of " Finback ' s " 12 war patrols were designated " Successful . " She received 13 battle stars for World War II service , and is credited with having sunk 69 , 383 tons of enemy shipping .