USS Spot ( SS - 413 ) USS " Spot " ( SS - 413 ) was a " Balao " - class submarine of the United States Navy , named for the spot , a small sciaenoid food fish of the Atlantic coast , with a black spot behind its shoulders . " Spot " was laid down on 24 August 1943 by the Mare Island Navy Yard , Vallejo , Calif . ; launched on 19 May 1944 ; sponsored by Mrs . A . A . Gieselmann ; and commissioned on 3 August 1944 , Commander William S . Post , Jr . , in command . First patrol , December 1944 – January 1945 . " Spot " completed fitting out at Mare Island on 18 September and moved to San Diego for shakedown . After a yard period , the submarine sailed for Hawaii and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 14 November . Accompanied by , she got underway for the Marianas on 4 December . They were joined by en route , and the trio arrived at Saipan on 15 December 1944 . Two days later , the hunter - killer group headed for the Yellow Sea . On 7 January 1945 , " Spot " sank two small trawlers with her deck gun . Four days later , she destroyed a small freighter by gunfire . On 13 January off Shanghai , the submarine sank two trawlers by shellfire , and she repeated the feat the next day . In a night sweep through the Elliott Islands on 18 and 19 January , " Spot " torpedoed a cargo ship and a tanker . As " Spot " came down the west coast of Korea , she sighted a small ship and fired her last three torpedoes . All ran shallow and missed . With only 1 , 300 rounds of 20 mm ammunition remaining , the submarine closed to and opened fire . The enemy made an unsuccessful attempt to ram . No one manned the Japanese ship ' s machine gun atop her pilot house ; her top deck was in shambles ; and the ship was dead in the water but not sinking . " Spot " waited for an hour and then sent over a boarding party of seven men to plant demolition charges and search for intelligence material . After about ten minutes on board , the party had to abandon as the ship listed to port and sank by the stern . The boarding party was recovered and one Japanese prisoner taken . The submarine returned to Midway on 30 January for a refit and training period . Second patrol , February – March 1945 . On 24 February , " Spot " began her second war patrol which took her , , and into the East China Sea . On the second night in her assigned patrol area , " Spot " expended all torpedoes attacking a Japanese convoy . They sank the passenger - cargo ship , " Nanking Maru " , and damaged a freighter . The attack was made in heavy weather and shallow water . " Spot " was surfaced and heading for deeper water but could not elude one of the escorts which closed to and opened fire . " Spot " manned her guns and returned the fire even though she was wallowing heavily in the rough seas . A lucky hit by her gun knocked out the escort ' s forward gun and saved the submarine from almost certain disaster . " Spot " secured her guns , cleared the bridge , and submerged . The escort dropped a few depth charge patterns which caused no damage , and the submarine returned to Saipan on 23 March to reload . Four days later , she resumed her patrol . On 31 March , she sighted a destroyer that offered no recognition signals . The submarine maneuvered to close when the destroyer turned towards her and increased its speed . When the range was approximately , the destroyer opened fire . " Spot " fired a recognition flare that was answered by a second salvo . As " Spot " submerged , another salvo straddled her conning tower . The destroyer was later identified as . " Spot " suffered no damage in this incident which could have been a disaster . Third and fourth patrols , April – July 1945 . During the first week of April , " Spot " guarded the approaches to Kii Suido . After aircraft from the Fast Carrier Task Force sank battleship " Yamato " , a cruiser , and four destroyers in the East China Sea on 7 April , the submarine patrolled in that area . She hunted off the China coast and then conducted a reconnaissance of Kokuzan To , off Korea and decided to shell a radio station on the northwest tip of the island . On the evening of 25 April , she surfaced and began the bombardment which hit an oil storage area , several barracks , and set the radio station on fire . " Spot " returned to the Mariana Islands on 4 May for refit . " Spot " began her last war patrol on 2 June and performed lifeguard services off the coast of Honshū until 23 June . She then patrolled in the East China and Yellow Seas , sinking two junks by gunfire before returning to Saipan on 18 July . The submarine sailed for Hawaii the next day . " Spot " arrived at Pearl Harbor on 29 July for an extended overhaul and was still there when hostilities ceased . She sailed for San Diego on 27 August and provided services for antisubmarine warfare units there from 3 September 1945 to 2 March 1946 . The ship then sailed to San Francisco to prepare for inactivation . She was decommissioned at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard on 19 June and attached to the Pacific Reserve Fleet . " Spot " received four battle star s for World War II service . " Simpson " ( SS - 21 ) . In January 1961 , " Spot " was towed to Pearl Harbor for modernization in preparation for transfer to Chile . The Chilean crew reported on board later in the year for training and on 12 January 1962 , " Spot " was loaned to that government under the Military Assistance Loan Program . She was renamed " Simpson " ( SS - 21 ) , in honor of Chilean admiral Robert Winthrop Simpson ( 1799 – 1877 ) . The submarine arrived at Chile 23 April 1962 . On 1 August 1975 the submarine was sold outright to Chile , and struck from the US Naval Register . In 1980 , the " Simpson " was used extensively by director Kinji Fukasaku in the disaster film " Fukkatsu no hi " . She was deleted by the Chilean Navy in 1982 .