USS Sterlet ( SS - 392 ) USS " Sterlet " ( SS - 392 ) , a " Balao " - class submarine , was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the sterlet , a small sturgeon found in the Caspian Sea and its rivers , whose meat is considered delicious and whose eggs are one of the world ' s great delicacies , caviar . Her keel was laid down on 14 July 1943 at the Portsmouth Navy Yard . She was launched on 27 October 1943 sponsored by Mrs . Charles A . Plumley , and commissioned on 4 March 1944 with Commander O . C . Robbins in command . Following fitting - out and shakedown training , " Sterlet " departed Key West , Florida , on 1 May to join the Pacific Fleet . The submarine reached Pearl Harbor on 13 June , and she immediately plunged into another round of training exercises to prepare for her first war patrol . First War Patrol . On 4 July 1944 , she put to sea to prey on Japanese shipping . The patrol lasted 53 days ; and " Sterlet " spent 34 of them in her assigned patrol area , the Bonin Islands . By the time she put into Midway Island for refit on 26 August , the submarine was a battle - proven veteran , claiming to have sunk four enemy ships . She even brought in a prisoner — a survivor from a Japanese convoy destroyed by American aircraft carrier planes three weeks earlier . Second War Patrol . The submarine remained at Midway for just over three weeks ; then headed for its patrol area in the Nansei Shoto on 18 September . After sinking a small Japanese fishing boat on 9 October , " Sterlet " rescued six downed airmen off Okinawa . On 18 October , she made an unsuccessful attempt to close and attack one of six destroyer s escorting three cruiser s . Two days later , she fired a spread of three torpedoes at a Japanese cargo ship , but all three missed . She made a third fruitless approach on 25 October and unleashed four torpedoes on small convoy . Results : four misses . Not to be denied , " Sterlet " made another approach on the convoy . This time , four of the six fish she launched scored . Three hit a large gasoline tanker , and the fourth plowed into a freighter . The tanker , " Jinei Maru " , is known definitely to have gone down . " Sterlet " spent the remainder of the day evading the attacks of the escorts . That night , she allowed a hospital ship to pass unmolested . She attacked a small freighter with four torpedoes on 29 October , but had to surface and sink it with her deck gun . On 31 October , she made a night surface attack on a tanker previously damaged by and apparently sank it with a spread of six torpedoes . " Sterlet " then joined " Trigger " in escorting the damaged into Saipan . From there , " Sterlet " put to sea on 10 November with six other submarines in a coordinated attack group . On the night of 15 November , she , " Trigger " , and engaged in a gun duel with an enemy sub chaser . " Sterlet " completely depleted her supply of five - inch ( 127 mm ) shells in the battle and was forced to sink the enemy craft with torpedoes early the following morning . On 30 November , the submarine returned to the Submarine Base at Pearl Harbor . Third War Patrol . Following almost two months in Hawaii , " Sterlet " embarked on her third war patrol on 25 January 1945 . Her assigned area was off Honshū , Japan , particularly the area off Tokyo Bay , where she stood lifeguard duty for Fifth Fleet pilots attacking Tokyo . She made reconnaissance sweeps of the Japanese Fleet and patrolled with a " wolfpack " that also included , , , and . During this cruise , she made two torpedo attacks , one each on 1 March and 5 March , and claimed two sinkings , a freighter and a tanker . She ended the war patrol at Midway on 4 April . Fourth War Patrol . " Sterlet " ’ s fourth war patrol lasted from 29 April to 10 June and took her north of Japan to the Sea of Okhotsk and the vicinity of the Kuril Islands . On this cruise , her proximity to Soviet territory and the port of Vladivostok complicated her mission . Though Soviet ships were advised to remain out of the war zone around Japan , " Sterlet " had to be extremely vigilant in her identification of potential targets lest she send some of the United States ' s allies in the European war to a wet , chilly grave . Lack of certainty in identification forced the submarine to pass up several inviting targets . To further cloud the issue , Japanese ships probably attempted to disguise themselves as Soviets on several occasions to escape American submarines . " Sterlet " , however , managed to emerge victorious over two enemy ships . In the late afternoon of 29 May , she encountered a large and a small freighter , escorted by three patrol frigate s . At 16 : 41 , the submarine tried for a good setup , but failed due to the convoy ' s rapid change in course . She lost sound contact around 1720 and , 40 minutes later surfaced for a daylight end - around . At 1822 , the lookouts sighted smoke ; and , by 21 : 53 , the submarine was in position to launch a night surface radar attack . She launched six torpedoes , three at each freighter . Two minutes later , one of the escorts peeled off and made for " Sterlet " . She immediately went right full rudder , all ahead at flank speed . In another two minutes , two torpedoes plowed into each of the two targets — four explosions within 20 seconds . At 22 : 05 , the enemy frigate began random depth charge attacks . Three minutes later , the smaller of the two targets sank by the stern . At 22 : 11 , " Sterlet " unleashed four " fish " at the pursuing escort . The setup was hasty at best . All four missed , and she prudently opened range to reload and prepare for another attack on the damaged freighter still afloat . As she approached , her quarry was dead in the water , down by the stern , and partially enveloped by smoke . Two of the escorts were thrashing about the surrounding waters , indiscriminately shooting and dropping depth charges . At 22 : 35 , one of them passed between " Sterlet " and her victim . The submarine shifted her sights on him and , four minutes later , sent three torpedoes streaking at him . The frigate sighted the wakes , immediately turned into them , and rapidly closed on " Sterlet " . This pursuit forced " Sterlet " to retire ; and , after more than an hour of running from the frigate and undergoing his bombardment , she managed to open range by firing four torpedoes " down the throat " at him . This tactic did not allow her to escape , and the chase continued until the frigate turned broadside to fire both his forward and after guns in salvo . That curious maneuver allowed " Sterlet " to open range to at which point , the enemy ' s radar wavered . " Sterlet " shut her radar down , came hard to starboard and opened out . A minute before midnight , " Sterlet " turned her radar back on . The screen was clear ; she had escaped . The submarine had one more anxious moment during the patrol , when she encountered a Q - ship screened by a small escort . She launched six torpedoes at the " freighter , " which disconcertingly turned and closed " Sterlet " . She succeeded in evading that aquatic chameleon and returned to Midway on 10 June . Fifth War Patrol . " Sterlet " ’ s final war patrol commenced on 5 July when she departed Midway for the vicinity of Kii Suido and Bungo Suido . Except for one occasion when she shelled oil storage tanks and a power plant near Shingu on Honshū , this whole patrol was given over to lifeguard duty for the crews of carrier planes and B - 29 Superfortress es pummelling Japan . " Sterlet " rescued a New Zealander and a Briton , one well up in Kii Suido . The Japanese capitulation brought an end to the patrol , and " Sterlet " reached Midway on 23 August . On 6 September , she sailed for the United States and , ten days later , entered San Diego , California . Post - War Activities . " Sterlet " remained on the West Coast until the end of February 1946 , at San Diego until 13 November and at San Francisco , California , thereafter . On 26 February 1946 , she started back to the western Pacific and after briefly stopping at Pearl Harbor , Guam , and Subic Bay , arrived in Tsingtao , China , on 20 April . She operated out of Tsingtao until the end of May , participating in the Navy ' s show of force along the northern China coast . She spent the first ten days of June in Shanghai and then got underway for Pearl . " Sterlet " reached Oahu on 22 June and conducted operations in the Hawaiian Islands for the next 16 months . She headed west again on 15 November 1947 and reached Brisbane , Australia , on 1 December . Five days later , the submarine shaped a course for Guam , arriving there on 14 December . She departed Guam on 2 January 1948 , stopped at Okinawa from 6 January to 10 January , and arrived in the Sasebo operating area on 12 January . For the rest of the month , she operated in the vicinity of Sasebo and Yokosuka , visiting both ports . On 28 January , she sailed for the California coast and , after a brief stop at Midway and a six - week layover in Pearl Harbor , reached San Francisco on 30 April . On 1 May , she reported to the Pacific Reserve Fleet for inactivation . She was placed out of commission , in reserve on 18 September 1948 and berthed at Mare Island , California . Just under two years later , on 7 August 1950 , " Sterlet " was ordered reactivated . She was recommissioned at Mare Island on 26 August 1950 with Lieutenant Commander George W . Kittredge in command . On 25 September , she headed for San Diego where she conducted a month of training . In December , she shifted to Long Beach , California , where she became one of the stars in the motion picture " Submarine Command " with Bill Holden and William Bendix . " Sterlet " resumed operations along the West Coast early in 1951 and that employment continued until January 1953 , when she was deployed to the Far East . On this cruise , she joined in hunter - killer exercises , visited Chichi Jima , Atami , Japan , and Buckner Bay , Okinawa ; and conducted photographic reconnaissance on Marcus Island . She returned to San Diego , California , on 23 June and resumed West Coast operations . In August 1954 , " Sterlet " exchanged crews and homeports with . On 13 September , she reported for duty to Submarine Squadron 1 at Pearl Harbor . For the remainder of her Navy career , " Sterlet " was home ported at Pearl Harbor . Between 1954 and 1968 , she alternated operations in the Hawaiian Islands with nine deployments to the western Pacific with the Seventh Fleet . On these cruises , usually of approximately six months duration , she participated in a host of exercises and war game problems and visited most major ports in the Far East , particularly those in Japan , Taiwan , China and in some of the Central Pacific islands . After her return from her final deployment in the summer of 1968 , " Sterlet " was found to be unfit for further naval service . Accordingly , she was decommissioned on 30 September 1968 , and her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on the following day . She rendered her last service to the Navy on 31 January 1969 when she was sunk as a target by the nuclear - powered submarine USS . Honors and awards . " Sterlet " was awarded six battle star s for World War II service .