USS Sirago ( SS - 485 ) USS " Sirago " ( SS - 485 ) , a " Tench " - class submarine , was named for the sirago , a small , freshwater tropical fish . Construction and launch . Her keel was laid down on 4 January 1945 at the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery , Maine . She was launched on 13 May 1945 , sponsored by Mrs . L . Mendel Rivers and commissioned on 13 August 1945 with Commander F . J . Harlfinger , II , in command . First duties . Commissioned at the end of World War II , " Sirago " conducted her shakedown cruise off the East Coast and in the Caribbean Sea during the fall of 1945 . After shakedown , she joined Submarine Squadron ( SubRon ) 8 at New London , Connecticut , and , in January 1946 , she proceeded to Provincetown , Massachusetts , where she participated in the destruction of two German submarines . On returning to New London , " Sirago " commenced duties that included training services for the Submarine School and for the fleet ' s destroyer force ; experimental exercises to evaluate new techniques and equipment ; type training ; and fleet exercises that took her from Davis Strait into the Caribbean . In December 1948 , she entered the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for a Greater Underwater Propulsive Power Program ( GUPPY ) conversion ; and , on 25 July 1949 , she left the yard for Norfolk , Virginia , where , as a modernized high - speed attack submarine , she joined SubRon 6 . Attached to SubRon 6 for the next twenty - two years , " Sirago " ’ s primary mission was antisubmarine warfare . Secondary missions included antishipping warfare , intelligence gathering , and the provision of services for research and development studies . Those duties , during the 1950s , continued to see her operating primarily in the western Atlantic as she participated in exercises with others of her ASW group ; in fleet exercises ; in joint Canadian - United States exercises , and in NATO exercises , which took her into the eastern Atlantic Ocean and North Sea areas . During the 1950s , she also deployed to the Mediterranean Sea where she operated as a unit of the Sixth Fleet from September to November 1951 and from September to December 1954 . Overhaul and new service . In October 1962 , " Sirago " entered the Norfolk Naval Shipyard for another extensive overhaul which included the installation of a fiberglass superstructure and sail and , in the spring of 1963 , she resumed operations with her ASW group , Task Group " ALFA . " That fall , she deployed to the Middle East for CENTO exercise " MIDLINK VI " ; but , during the remainder of the 1960s and into the 1970s , her operations were similar to those of the 1950s . On 1 July 1971 , with Commander Clyde H . Shaffer Jr . in command , " Sirago " was reassigned to SubRon 12 at Key West , Florida ; but , less than four months later , on 15 October , she was ordered back to Norfolk , where she rejoined SubRon 6 for one more year . Decommissioning . " Sirago " remained in SubRon 6 until she was decommissioned on 1 June 1972 . Struck from the Naval Vessel Register on the same day , she was turned over to the Naval Ships Systems Command and sold for scrapping to the Jacobson Metal Company of Chesapeake , Virginia , on 2 May 1973 .