USS Triton ( SS - 201 ) USS " Triton " ( SS - 201 ) , a " Tambor " - class submarine , was the first submarine and third ship of the United States Navy to be named for Triton , a mythological Greek god , the messenger of the sea . Her keel was down on 5 July 1939 by the Portsmouth Navy Yard . She was launched on 25 March 1940 sponsored by Mrs . Ernest J . King , wife of Rear Admiral King , and commissioned on 15 August 1940 with Lieutenant Commander Willis A . " Pilly " Lent ( Class of 1925 ) in command . The new submarine held her shakedown training in the Caribbean Sea from 14 January 1941 to 26 March and then conducted training and minelaying exercises in the Portsmouth , New Hampshire - New London , Connecticut area . " Triton " departed Portsmouth on 1 July , transited the Panama Canal on 12 July , and arrived at San Diego , California , on 20 July . Nine days later , she and sister ship headed for Hawaii and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 4 August . First patrol . Assigned to Submarine Division 62 , " Triton " made a training cruise to Midway from 30 August to 15 September , then participated in local and fleet operations in the Hawaiian area . On 19 November , the submarine headed west to conduct a practice war patrol and arrived off Wake Island on 26 November . On 8 December , she saw columns of smoke rising over the island but assumed it was caused by construction work being done ashore . That night , when she surfaced to charge her batteries , she was informed by radio Wake and Pearl Harbor had been bombed and was ordered to stay out of range of Wake ' s guns . The next morning , " Triton " observed the Japan ese bombing the island . On the night of 10 December , she was surfaced , charging her batteries , when flashes of light from Wake revealed a destroyer or light cruiser on a parallel course . The submarine was silhouetted against the moon , and the enemy ship turned towards her . " Triton " went deep and began evasive action . When the Japanese ship slowed astern , the submarine came to and fired four stern torpedoes — the first American torpedoes shot during World War II — on sonar bearings . She heard a dull explosion 58 seconds later and believed one had hit the target , then went to and cleared the area . ( No sinking was recorded , and she was not credited with one . ) After their initial repulse on 11 December , the Japanese returned with two aircraft carrier s , " Hiryū " and " Sōryū " ; " Triton " was not informed , and made no attacks on them . Neither did she make any effort to evacuate the 350 Marines . On 21 December , the submarine was ordered to return to Hawaii , and she arrived back at Pearl Harbor on 31 December . Second patrol . On 25 January 1942 , " Triton " got underway for the East China Sea and her second war patrol , covering the sealanes to Dairen , Shanghai , and Korea . She was off Kyūshū on 17 February when she contacted a freighter . The submarine launched four torpedoes and scored one hit in the stern . The target stopped for a few minutes and then slowly got underway . That evening , " Triton " attacked another freighter with two torpedoes at a range of . One hit the Japanese cargo ship aft of her well deck , and the maru went dead in the water and began settling . Soon , several heavy explosions marked the end of " Shinyo Maru Number 5 " . Four days later , the submarine intercepted two cargo ships . She sank " Shokyu Maru " with two torpedoes but could not attack the second ship because of its speed and the appearance of a four - engine patrol plane . On the night of 27 February , the submarine was on the surface for a battery charge when she sighted a ship approximately three miles away . She closed to attack and launched two torpedoes . One torpedo hit , but haze over the water and smoke from the damaged ship prohibited a second attack . " Triton " made no further contacts and returned to Pearl Harbor on 17 March , where she was praised for an aggressive patrol , earning credit for two ships totalling 12 , 000 tons ( reduced to 5 , 982 tons postwar ) , but criticized for excessive use of torpedoes , which were in extremely short supply . Third patrol . " Triton " ( now in the hands of C . C . Kirkpatrick , Class of 1931 ) got underway on 13 April to return to the East China Sea . Ten days later , the submarine contacted a 2 , 000 - ton trawler near Marcus , astonishingly stopped and not blacked out . After missing with two torpedoes ( at point blank range ) , she surfaced to engage with her deck guns , firing 19 rounds of three - inch ( 76 mm ) and " a hurricane of small - arms " , leaving the trawler a sinking wreck , giving " Triton " the first confirmed sinking of an enemy vessel by deck gun fire by an American submarine . Amid shallow , glassy seas and poor sonar conditions , on 1 May , she sighted six freighters , in two columns , escorted by a single torpedo boat . She launched two torpedoes , and both hit the leading ship , " Taei Maru " ( 2 , 200 tons ) , which sank , then two more at the next freighter ; both missed . She fired at a third cargoman but the torpedo ran deep ; a second torpedo , set shallow and aimed at a different ship , broke the back of " Calcutta Maru " ( 5 , 300 tons ) , which promptly sank . " Triton " contacted an escorted convoy on 6 May and launched two torpedoes at the trailing ship ; one sank soon after leaving the tube , the other missed ahead . She next spotted a destroyer coming to the rear of the convoy , fired two more ( both set shallow ) at this same ship from , and went deep to elude . Her sonar heard two violent explosions ; " Taigen Maru " ( 5 , 600 tons ) had sunk . At that point , the submarine maneuvered around and ahead of the convoy to position for another attack . When she attained the desired position , she launched four torpedoes — two at the third ship and two at a fourth . " Triton " heard two explosions from the first spread ( one in the third ship ) , none from the second ( which had avoided ) , as she was forced to take evasive action from the escort . The submarine later returned to periscope depth , but no ships were in sight . The convoy had cleared the area . On 15 May , she sank two deep - sea fishing boats with her deck guns . The next day , after monitoring orders to other boats attempting to intercept without success , " Triton " ran into position and at 15 . 20 spotted the crippled " Shōkaku " and a destroyer , returning from the Battle of Coral Sea . At , with the target making , " Triton " could not close the range , despite surfacing and bending on 19½ knots ( 36 km / h ) . She sent a contact report , but it was not acknowledged . One day later , 17 May , in " one of the luckiest finds of the war " , " I 64 " surfaced right in front of " Triton " ; she fired her last bow torpedo from and parts of the target were blown into the air . " I 64 " ( 1 , 700 tons ) , the fourth Japanese sub sunk by the Pacific Fleet Sub Force , went down by the stern . Four days later , " Triton " fired her last four torpedoes at another enemy submarine ; all missed . The patrol earned her credit for five ships of 24 , 200 tons ( reduced to 15 , 800 postwar ) , terminating at Pearl Harbor on 4 June , as the Battle of Midway began . Fourth patrol . " Triton " ' s fourth war patrol took her to Alaskan waters and lasted from 25 June to 24 August . On 4 July , she was patrolling in a heavy fog , in the vicinity of Cape Sabok , when the fog lifted enough to reveal a Japanese destroyer . The submarine trailed the enemy for ten hours , in and out of patches of fog , until she had closed the range to . " Triton " then launched two torpedoes , and one hit amidships . The Japanese destroyer " Nenohi " { right } ( 1 , 370 tons ) capsized to port and slid under the waves in five minutes . " Triton " sighted a freighter on 28 July , but lost it in a fog bank . The same thing happened the next day . On 9 August , " Triton " saw an enemy submarine ' s periscope and prepared to attack . However , the Japanese sub struck first , forcing " Triton " to go deep as enemy torpedoes passed overhead . On 15 August , " Triton " launched four torpedoes at a darkened ship from a range of . There were two consecutive explosions , and flames shot over into the air . To " Triton " , the enemy ship appeared to be larger than a destroyer . However , there is no official record of a sinking on that date . The submarine made no further contacts before returning to Pearl Harbor on 7 September , and was credited with two ships for 3 , 100 tons ( postwar , only " Nenohi " , at 1 , 600 tons ) . She then entered Pearl Harbor Navy Yard for an overhaul until 6 December . Fifth patrol . On 16 December , " Triton " got underway for a position east of Wake on the Midway – Wake route . She was one of three submarines stationed between the two islands to mark the way for United States Army Air Forces B - 24 Liberator bombers in strikes on Wake and to rescue the crews of any planes forced down at sea . She made no rescues , but , on the night of 23 December , she aided in guiding the Liberators in a night bombing attack on the island . On 24 December , the submarine sighted the mast of a ship on the horizon , headed for Wake anchorage . " Triton " ( alerted by ) closed to and launched two torpedoes . One hit under the stack , the other under the foremast . " Amakasu Maru Number 1 " was obliterated in a cloud of smoke and steam as she went under . The submarine then set a course for Brisbane . On 28 December , she sighted an enemy ship , closed to , and launched three torpedoes into the transport " Omi Maru " . The ship sank almost immediately and , although there was much wreckage , no survivors were seen . " Triton " was then ordered to patrol the Truk – Rabaul – New Guinea shipping lanes , north and northwest of New Ireland , arriving on 30 December 1942 . On 10 January 1943 , " Triton " stalked an unidentified vessel but withheld her attack upon observing it was marked as a hospital ship . Three days later , she launched four torpedoes at a tanker and scored one hit . When the enemy began firing at her periscope , she went deep to begin an end around . About 20 minutes later , the submarine returned to periscope depth and launched a spread of four torpedoes . Two geysers of water rose amidships as high as the target ' s bridge , but no explosions followed . The next day , " Triton " attempted to attack a freighter , but an escort forced her down where she was subjected to a two - hour depth charge attack . On 16 January , she attacked two cargo ships , scoring two hits on the first and one on the second ; but her victims forced her to submerge before she could evaluate the damage . Later that day , " Triton " fired her last three torpedoes at a large freighter but heard no explosions . She then headed for Australia and reached Brisbane on 26 January , with a total of 6 , 500 tons for the trip . Final patrol . Falling under the strict tactical control of Admiral James Fife , Jr . , " Triton " ( now in the hands of George K . MacKenzie ) on 16 February began her sixth and final war patrol , hoping to destroy enemy shipping between the Shortland Basin and Rabaul . She reported smoke on 22 February and a new Japanese radar at Buka . On 6 March , the submarine attacked a convoy of five destroyer - escorted ships , sinking the cargo ship " Kiriha Maru " and damaging another freighter . One of her torpedoes made a circular run , and " Triton " went deep to evade it . She attacked another convoy on the night of 8 March and claimed that five of the eight torpedoes she had fired scored hits . She could not observe the results or make a follow - up attack because gunfire from the escorts forced her down . On 11 March , " Triton " reported she was chasing two convoys , each made up of five or more ships . She was informed was operating in an adjoining area and ordered to stay south of the equator . On 13 March , " Triton " was warned that three enemy destroyers , including the " Akikaze " were in her area either looking for a convoy or hunting American submarines . On 15 March , " Trigger " reported she had attacked a convoy and had been depth charge d . Even though attacks on her ceased , she could still hear distant depth charging for about an hour . No further messages from " Triton " were ever received . Post - war examination of Japanese records revealed on 15 March 1943 , three Japanese destroyers attacked a submarine a little northwest of " Triton " ' s assigned area and subsequently observed an oil slick , debris , and items with American markings . On 10 April 1943 , " Triton " was reported overdue from patrol and presumed lost , one of three lost in a month . This gave her 6 , 500 tons for the trip to Brisbane . There are persistent rumors " Triton " was actually lost off Moreton Island near Brisbane , sunk either to friendly fire from an Australian pilot or Japanese mines or torpedoes . Her loss was allegedly covered up by the Australian military . It is undisputed two weeks after " Triton " was supposed to have been sunk , a welcoming committee , complete with band , mail delivery , fresh fruit and ice - cream was waiting for her on the dock at New Farm on the Brisbane River ; since she could simply have suffered a radio casualty , this is unsurprising . The Australian Defence Department refers inquiries to the Australian War Memorial in Canberra . The Memorial ' s position is , it was highly unlikely Australian fire had sunk the submarine , and if there had been a cover - up during the war , the truth would have come out in the intervening years . " Triton " received five battle star s for World War II service . The " Triton " is the subject of an episode of the syndicated television anthology series , " The Silent Service " , which aired during the 1957 - 1958 season . The bell for the USS Triton , which has been missing since around 1967 has been located and steps are being taken for it to be returned to Master Chief Harold Weston of the USS Triton SSRN - 586 . It will then be available for reunions , ceremonies and display . The rumors about " Triton " ' s loss to friendly fire are laid out at http : / / ozatwar . com / ozatwar / usstriton . htm