USS Angler ( SS - 240 ) , a " Gato " - class submarine , was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the anglerfish . Her keel was laid down on 9 November 1942 by the Electric Boat Company in Groton , Connecticut . She was launched on 4 July 1943 ( sponsored by Mrs . Patrick H . Drewry , the wife of Congressman Patrick H . Drewry of the House Naval Affairs Committee ) , and commissioned at New London , Connecticut , on 1 October 1943 , Lieutenant Commander Robert I . Olsen in command . Service history . World War II . Following shakedown in the New London and Newport , Rhode Island , area , " Angler " sailed to Key West , Florida . She arrived on 21 November and after one week of operations with the Fleet Sound School , sailed for Pearl Harbor on 27 November . Selected to be transferred from Pearl Harbor , " Angler " commenced her first war patrol on 10 January 1944 , her patrol to terminate at Fremantle , Australia . " Angler " encountered a Japanese convoy north of the Mariana Islands on 29 January , and attacked with torpedoes . She claimed to have sunk one ship and damaged two others , but postwar records confirmed only the sinking of " Shuko Maru " . Having developed " structural noises " which prevented silent running , " Angler " turned back to Midway Island for repairs , arriving on 4 February . " Angler " began her second war patrol on 15 February , assigned the waters off the east coast of the Philippines in the Mindanao Sea and Sulu Sea . While she was nearing her patrol area , Major General Douglas MacArthur had learned that the Japanese were massacring all the civilians they could find on the island of Panay . MacArthur requested that a submarine be assigned to evacuate what was believed to be about twenty civilians from the island . The task fell to " Angler " , and she found 58 men , women , and children awaiting rescue . " Angler " took all of them on board and berthed them in the forward and after torpedo rooms . Meals were limited to two per day in an attempt to stretch the submarine ’ s overtaxed food supply . Toward the end of the cruise , many of the passengers and crew became nauseous . The captain suspected the water supply may have been contaminated , and requested that the fresh water tanks be cleaned upon arrival at Fremantle on 9 April . " Angler " sailed on 3 May for another patrol as one of eight submarines assigned to support the carrier strike scheduled to hit Surabaya , Java . Their job would be to sink retreating Japanese ships , to provide lifeguard services , and to guard the major passages from the Java Sea ( the Sunda Strait and Lombok Strait ) to the Indian Ocean lest the Japanese try to move into the Indian Ocean to attack the Allied strike force . Launched as scheduled on 17 May the strikes achieved complete surprise . The only action of the patrol for " Angler " came on 20 May , when she torpedoed and sank " Otori Maru " . Japanese escort vessels administered a bad pounding to " Angler " , but she escaped damage . The next day , nausea again gripped everyone on board " Angler " . The situation was reported to Fremantle , and the submarine was ordered to return at once . Things onboard " Angler " continued to grow worse . On 22 May , Lieutenant Commander Olsen noted in the log : " Physical condition of officers and crew is so bad that it is difficult to maintain watch , either surface or submerged . Put crew on fruit juice alone , no water . Held thorough field day in case boat is contaminated . Exercised special supervision in cooking , dishwashing . " On 23 May he wrote , " Decided to run submerged as we did not have enough able - bodied people to maintain proper surface watch . " " Angler " began her fourth war patrol on 21 June . She paused to refuel alongside a barge in Exmouth Gulf on 24 June , and while maneuvering into position , hit an uncharted obstruction . Returning to Fremantle for repairs , " Angler " was underway again on 29 June with a new starboard propeller . She rendezvoused with " Flasher " and " Crevalle " to carry out one of the first " wolfpack " patrols of the war . The group worked the middle area of the South China Sea and along the Indochinese coast , without success . They were then ordered to move to a position off the west coast of Luzon . On 25 July , " Angler " and her sister ships picked up a large northbound convoy and began a series of attacks over the next few days . While " Angler " failed to damage any ships , the pack as a whole sank six ships for 36 , 000 tons . The patrol continued uneventfully until 23 August , when " Angler " returned to Fremantle . On 18 September , the submarine departed on her next patrol , to operate with in the Sulu Sea . On 14 October " Angler " torpedoed and sank " Nanrei Maru " . At 0145 on 22 October , the men on watch on " Angler " s bridge were startled by voices calling out of the darkness . Repeated attempts to locate the source of the voices proved unsuccessful , but the dawn soon revealed " one of the most gruesome sights imaginable as far as you could see . . . " the water literally covered with wreckage and dead Japanese , most clad in Army uniforms . Aircraft in the vicinity made it too risky to stop and investigate a lifeboat , but " Angler " returned at sunset . At 1806 , she brought this boat alongside and counted 26 surviving men , both soldiers and naval ratings . Determining who was the senior officer of the group , the submarine retained three men for questioning , and after giving the men remaining in the boat some food , water , and a course to land , away , released the lifeboat . The three prisoners retained on board — Second Lieutenant Seigi Shimazu , Sergeant Sei Fuji , and Sergeant Toyonaga Nishikawa — had willingly agreed to go along with the Americans . At 1915 on 23 October , " Angler " made radar contact with the main Japanese force steaming to contest the Allied invasion of Leyte . " Angler " tracked the task force until 0240 the following morning , and her contact reports proved of inestimable value to the American forces off Leyte . Ironically , " Angler " had just made the only worthwhile contact with the only worthwhile convoy of her entire patrol . Although the maneuvers to clear the convoy took her astern of the task force , " Angler " forsook the convoy of civilian ships for the military task force . On 1 November , " Angler " rendezvoused with , and received onboard Commander Fred E . Bakutis , a pilot from Fighting Squadron 20 ( VF - 20 ) who had been rescued by " Hardhead " a short time before . " Angler " returned to Fremantle on 9 November . On 4 December , " Angler " left on her sixth patrol , during which time she served a brief period of lifeguard duty . On 13 December , was fired on by a Japanese destroyer . A shell tore a large hole in " Bergall " s pressure hull and left the submarine unable to dive . " Angler " , operating in the Java Sea , received orders to proceed to " Bergall " s assistance , take off the crew and torpedo the ship . She found the crippled submarine on 15 December . " Bergall " s commanding officer , Commander John Hyde , had decided to remain in " Bergall " with a skeleton crew . " Angler " trailed " Bergall " to take everyone off if a Japanese attack threatened . The two submarines traveled nearly , through waters mostly controlled by the enemy , and reached Exmouth Gulf safely on 20 December without seeing any Japanese airplanes or ships . " Angler " resumed her patrol , but contacted no enemy shipping . She put in at Saipan briefly on 6 February 1945 , then continued on to Pearl Harbor . " Angler " reached the West Coast of the United States on 24 February , and immediately began overhaul at the Bethlehem Steel Company yard at San Francisco , California . She was underway again on 18 May , and by 12 June was ready to begin her seventh and final war patrol . On 27 June , she made a fuel stop at Saipan then sailed to patrol the waters east of Honshū . At that stage of the war , shipping targets were few and far between , and " Angler " made only two contacts . One of these moved away faster than " Angler " could close , but the submarine developed the other into an unsuccessful torpedo attack on 25 July . " Angler " did , however , conduct three shore bombardment missions during this patrol . The first - on 26 July - found her making a careful reconnaissance to locate a Japanese installation on Kinkasan Island . From a range of about , " Angler " hurled 25 rounds at a target area containing closely bunched buildings , radio towers , and a lighthouse . Although she claimed at least 20 hits , the large clouds of smoke and dust made a closer assessment of damage impossible . Five days later , on 31 July , after an all - day close - in observation , " Angler " surfaced at dusk in a thick fog , off Tomakomai , on Hokkaidō , and fired 50 rounds at what looked like a thickly congested factory installation . On 1 August , " Angler " joined and in carrying out a coordinated gun action against boat sheds and boats ; " Angler " firing 23 rounds of five - inch , 320 rounds of 40 mm and 300 rounds of 20 mm . Post - War . " Angler " arrived at Midway on 9 August , and was there when hostilities ceased on 15 August . She sailed for Pearl Harbor on 26 August and paused there briefly before continuing on to the United States . The submarine transited the Panama Canal on 14 September , and called at New Orleans , Louisiana on 20 September . A month of leave and upkeep followed , and on 24 October , " Angler " got underway for Jacksonville , Florida . She continued on to Newport to unload her torpedoes on 2 November , and arrived at New London on 6 November . " Angler " sailed to Portsmouth , New Hampshire in February 1946 to begin deactivation . She returned to New London on 21 April , and was decommissioned there on 12 February . Following her recommissioning on 2 April 1951 , " Angler " held shakedown in the Caribbean Sea . She then began operations from her home port of New London . In October 1952 , " Angler " was decommissioned and entered the General Dynamics Corporation yard at Groton , Connecticut , for overhaul and conversion . During the overhaul , one of her four diesel engines was removed to make room for advanced sonar equipment . She was redesignated SSK - 240 in February 1953 . Upon completion of overhaul , " Angler " was recommissioned in September 1953 and rejoined the Atlantic Fleet . Following her shakedown in the West Indies from November 1953 - March 1954 , she returned to New London . She then operated along the East Coast and in the West Indies for the next two years , taking part in numerous Atlantic Fleet exercises , and spent the period from January through April 1956 undergoing overhaul at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard . " Angler " made a training cruise to the West Indies , then returned to the East Coast . In October , she deployed to northern Europe and visited several ports in Britain before returning in December to New London . " Angler " spent the first eight months of 1957 participating in exercises along the East Coast . On 27 September , she was underway for Europe to take part in NATO fleet exercises . She then visited Dieppe , France and the Isle of Portland , England before returning to New London . Her final operation of the year was a training cruise to Bermuda in November . From 24 February - 23 March 1958 , " Angler " participated in Operation " Springboard , " held in the West Indies and Caribbean , following those evolutions with numerous training exercises . On 3 November , " Angler " once again entered the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard for overhaul . Repairs were completed in March 1959 , and the submarine resumed her schedule of operations and exercises along the East Coast . She also rendered services to the Submarine School , New London . In 1960 , the ship reverted to her original designation , SS - 240 . On 24 October 1962 , " Angler " commenced her first deployment to the 6th Fleet and conducted operations in the Mediterranean Sea . In the course of her deployment , she visited ports in Spain , Italy , France , and Greece . She returned to New London on 6 February 1963 and resumed operations with the submarine school . In 1963 , " Angler " was redesignated AGSS - 240 . For the remainder of her career , the submarine continued her pattern of periodic deployments to the Caribbean and West Indies , made midshipman and Naval Reserve training cruises , and operated in conjunction with the submarine school . " Angler " was decommissioned on 1 April 1968 and was assigned to the Naval Reserve training program at Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . On 30 June 1971 , she was redesignated IXSS - 240 . Her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 15 December 1971 . Sold to the Union Minerals and Alloys Corporation , of New York City on 1 February 1974 , she was removed from naval custody on 4 March 1974 to be broken up for scrap . Awards . " Angler " won six battle star s for her World War II service .