USS Bowfin ( SS - 287 ) USS " Bowfin " ( SS / AGSS - 287 ) , " Balao " - class submarine , was a ship of the United States Navy named for the bowfin . Since 1981 , she has been open to public tours at the USS " Bowfin " Submarine Museum & Park in Pearl Harbor , Hawaii , next to the USS Arizona Memorial Visitor Center . " Bowfin " was laid down by the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard at Kittery , Maine on 23 July 1942 ; launched on 7 December 1942 by Mrs . Jane Gawne , wife of Captain James Gawne ; and commissioned on 1 May 1943 , Commander Joseph H . Willingham in command . First patrol . Following fitting out , the submarine proceeded via Newport , Rhode Island , to New London , Connecticut , her base for shakedown training . Early in July , she got underway for the Pacific war zone and , after transiting the Panama Canal and crossing the Pacific , reached Australia . Post - voyage repair at Brisbane preceded her getting underway on 19 August to move north and west along the Australian coast to Darwin . She topped off her fuel tanks at that port and sailed on the morning of 25 August for her first war patrol . The warship reached the Mindanao Sea on 2 September , but plied its waters for more than three weeks without encountering any worthwhile targets . On 24 September , she rendezvoused with to conduct coordinated operations . The next day , the two submarines began tracking a six - ship convoy and continued the chase for some five hours before " Bowfin " finally attained a suitable attack position . She then launched her six bow torpedo es — four at a freighter and two at a trailing transport . Three exploded against the side of the first ship and both of those fired at the second struck home . The submarine immediately turned her fantail toward the convoy and emptied her stern tubes , sending four torpedoes in the direction of a tanker . Gunfire at her periscope forced " Bowfin " to go deep and so prevented her from observing the progress of her last salvo , but her crew heard its torpedoes explode . When the submarine rose to periscope depth about an hour later , the 8 , 120 - ton passenger - cargo ship " Kirishima Maru " was slowly sinking , the tanker was on fire , and the transport seemed to be settling by the stern . However , the two latter ships apparently were able to limp back to port , for the sinking of neither was confirmed by postwar study of Japanese records . Later in the day , members of " Bowfin " ’ s crew heard distant explosions and inferred that " Billfish " was going after the remnants of the convoy , a conclusion which proved to be correct , for their sister ship managed to damage two Japanese ships totaling about 12 , 000 tons . Although the submarines continued to pursue the remaining enemy vessels as they fled during the night , the battered group of Japanese ships finally managed to slip away in the darkness . The following morning , after " Bowfin " ’ s radar had picked up an enemy plane also equipped with radar , the submarine was forced to submerge to avoid detection . Two days later , she came across a 1 , 400 - ton inter - island steamer and shadowed her until reaching a firing position about three hours later . She then launched three torpedoes . One stopped before reaching the target , and the other two missed . On 30 September , as she left the Mindanao Sea , " Bowfin " chanced upon a diesel - propelled barge carrying over 100 Japanese soldiers and opened fire on it with her 4 - inch gun . When the target responded with machine gun fire , the submarine ’ s 20 - millimeter guns entered the fray . The battle came to an abrupt end when a 4 - inch round struck the enemy ’ s magazine and blew apart the already sinking barge . On 2 October , as the submarine continued her retirement through Makassar Strait toward Australia , she sighted a schooner off Balikpapan . Willingham fired two shots across the stranger ’ s bow but failed to bring her to and sank her with gunfire . Bowfin arrived at Fremantle on 10 October , ending a successful patrol . Rear Admiral Ralph W . Christie , who commanded American submarines in the area , was lavish in his praise of the submarine ’ s performance ; he rewarded her commanding officer with the opportunity of heading a submarine division . To free him for the new role , Lieutenant Commander Walter Thomas Griffith relieved Willingham as commanding officer of " Bowfin " on 26 October . Second patrol . Upon completion of refitting , " Bowfin " got underway on 1 November and headed for the South China Sea . From time to time during this patrol , she again cooperated with " Billfish " . On 8 November , " Bowfin " picked up the trail of a group of five schooners . When she pulled within range of them , she opened fire with her 4 - inch gun and sank three before bombs from a Japanese plane forced the submarine to dive and thus allowed the two surviving vessels to slip away . After staying down until the return of darkness , " Bowfin " surfaced and resumed patrolling . Before long , she discovered and opened fire upon a large sailing ship which went down after suffering hits by two 4 - inch shells . Two days later , she found her next victims , a pair of small steamers heading for Tawi - Tawi Bay , and set both afire with gunfire . Her luck was even better on the morning of 26 November while she was approaching the coast of Indochina during a blinding rainstorm . Without prior knowledge that any other vessels were near , she unexpectedly found herself surrounded by Japanese shipping . After barely avoiding a collision with a tanker by backing all engines , she torpedoed and sank the 5 , 069 - ton tanker " Ogurasan Maru " and then dispatched the 5 , 407 - ton freighter " Tainan Maru " . A few hours later , her torpedoes ended the career of " Van Vollenhoven " , a 691 - ton coastal cargo ship which the Japanese had taken from her French owners when they overran Indochina almost two years before . On 28 November , after having sent a small passenger - cargo ship to the bottom with a single torpedo , " Bowfin " joined " Billfish " in attacking a convoy and quickly sank " Sydney Maru " , a 5 , 425 - ton freighter and " Tonon Maru " , a 9 , 866 - ton tanker . Meanwhile , one of the Japanese ships fired on " Bowfin " and scored hits which opened leaks in her starboard induction line which , while serious , did not prevent the submarine from getting off her last two torpedoes . Repair efforts upon the return of daylight slowed but did not completely stop the flooding , and " Bowfin " began her voyage back to Australia . En route to her base on 2 December , she came across a “ two masted yacht . . . which . . . , ” in Griffith ’ s words , “ . . . looked like it might have been some planter ’ s yacht taken over by the Japs . ” The submarine ’ s deck gun promptly destroyed this stranger ; and , thereafter , " Bowfin " enjoyed an uneventful passage which brought her to Fremantle a week later . There , Rear Admiral Christie praised her performance as the “ classic of all submarine patrols . ” Third and fourth patrols . The submarine got underway on 8 January 1944 for her third war patrol . She proceeded through the Java , Banda , and Flores Seas to Makassar Strait where — on 16 January — she encountered a small schooner ; surfaced , and sank the sailing vessel with her deck gun . The following day , she came across a cargo ship and two escorts ; but her attacks on these targets were frustrated by malfunctioning torpedoes . One from her first spread of four bow torpedoes hit and stopped the freighter , but the other three missed and two shots from her bow tubes detonated before reaching the target . After reloading her tubes , she returned to the convoy the following day and finished off the crippled cargo ship with four torpedoes which sent the 4 , 408 - ton " Shoyu Maru " to the bottom . She also managed to hit one of the escorts with two “ fish , ” but did not sink her . Out of torpedoes , " Bowfin " returned to Darwin for more and , while in port , picked up Rear Admiral Christie who remained on board the submarine for the rest of the patrol to check on torpedo performance , first hand , and to learn the secret of " Bowfin " ’ s remarkable success . The day after she returned to sea , the submarine put three torpedoes into a small cargo ship . Lt . Comdr . Griffith claimed that the target sank and his distinguished passenger confirmed the kill , but the sinking was not borne out by postwar examination of Japanese records — possibly because " Bowfin " ’ s alleged victim was too small to be listed . About daybreak on 28 January , " Bowfin " began trailing a large tanker ; and she continued the chase until reaching striking range that evening . She then fired all six bow torpedoes ; but , since the target simultaneously changed course , none struck home . After a rapid reload , she sent six more toward the tanker and , this time , two exploded against the side of the Japanese ship , sending towers of fire and smoke skyward . Nevertheless , the tanker remained afloat ; and , as " Bowfin " closed to administer the coup de grace , the enemy ship began fighting back with her main battery and machine gun fire . Undaunted , the submarine kept up the attack and during the ensuing twenty minutes fired six more torpedoes : two misses , followed by a pair of hits , then a miss , and finally another hit . At this point the tanker ’ s fire was becoming more accurate and forced the submarine to dive . When she came up , the Japanese vessel was retiring from the scene and by dawn had disappeared over the horizon . The next day , " Bowfin " laid a minefield in Makassar Strait before beginning the voyage back to Australia . On 30 January , she came across a pair of small schooners which she destroyed with her four inch gun . The submarine moored at Fremantle on 5 February and began preparations for her next mission . Fifth patrol . Underway on 28 February 1944 , the submarine headed for the Celebes Sea . On 10 March , she sighted a convoy of four ships screened by a couple of escorts . " Bowfin " fired six bow tubes , but four of the torpedoes exploded prematurely . Japanese planes forced Griffith to dive and thus prevented anyone on board from observing the fate of the two other torpedoes . During the ensuing action in which the escorts searched for the submarine and she in turn strove to hide at some 350 feet below the surface , a chain dragged by one of the Japanese hunters scraped across " Bowfin " ’ s hull . Meanwhile , depth charge explosions — more than twenty — shook the submarine severely but did no debilitating damage . When Griffith dared to rise to the surface , he saw a freighter down by the stern being taken under tow . Despite the efforts of the enemy escorts and of five circling Japanese aircraft , " Bowfin " attacked the convoy but could not follow the progress of her torpedoes because one of them had boomeranged and threatened her by running in a circular pattern . She dived to escape the danger and did not come up again until the next day . She attacked the freighter again , but the Japanese escorts drove her down once more . Later that day , she rose to periscope depth , found the damaged ship alone , and finished the 4 , 470 - ton " Tsukikawa Maru " off with four well - aimed torpedoes . The submarine then began looking for the rest of the convoy , caught up with it well after dark , and fired her remaining torpedoes , but none scored . She then headed back to Darwin for more , and stood out to sea again on 15 March with a fresh supply . Three days later , she emptied her bow tubes while attacking a small convoy , but all six either ran under their targets or missed wide of their marks . The inevitable depth charge barrage followed , but proved to be equally ineffective . When " Bowfin " attacked again later that day she launched four torpedoes — all of which were wasted . She did better on the night of 24 March when , at the end of a long chase , she attacked a five - ship convoy in the Celebes Sea , sinking two freighters — 5 , 139 - ton " Shinkyo Maru " and 5 , 395 - ton " Bengal Maru " . She also damaged a third ship but could not finish her off for want of torpedoes . As a result , she headed back to Darwin where she arrived on 1 April . Sixth and seventh patrols . There , Commander John H . Corbus relieved Lieutenant Commander Griffith in command of the submarine which got underway again on 24 April and headed for the Palaus . Although this sixth patrol proved to be her longest in both time and distance , she only managed to put two torpedoes into a freighter on 14 May , and it refused to sink . She performed lifeguard duty before heading via Midway for Pearl Harbor where she arrived on 21 June . On 16 July , " Bowfin " left Hawaii and headed for the Ryukyu Islands . She encountered no worthwhile targets until 9 August when she sighted four ships heading for the harbor at Minami Daito . She trailed them into port and , after they had moored , fired her bow torpedoes , blowing up two and damaging a third . A stray torpedo hit a dock , sending a bus careering into the water , an incident that the Cary Grant comedy film Operation Petticoat incorporated into its story line in 1959 ( Grant yelling " We just sunk a truck " in the film after an unintentional misfire caused by a nurse on board ) . However , no sinkings were confirmed by Japanese records — again possibly because of the small size of the alleged victims . An authenticated kill came off the Tokara Islands on 22 August when she attacked a convoy , hit several ships , claimed several kills including two destroyers , but apparently only sank the 6 , 754 - ton transport " Tsushima Maru " carrying 1 , 484 civilians , including 767 schoolchildren . On 28 August , she set a little trawler afire with her 4 - inch gun . However , since she had futilely fired her last four torpedoes at this target before surfacing , the submarine headed via Midway and Pearl Harbor for the west coast of the United States . She reached San Francisco , California , on 21 September and entered the Mare Island Navy Yard for overhaul . At the end of the yard work , Commander Alexander K . Tyree relieved Commander Corbus on 16 December 1944 ; and , later that day , the submarine got underway westward back across the Pacific . Following training in Hawaiian waters , she headed for a station near the Japanese home islands south of Honshū where she performed lifeguard services for American planes — both naval and Army — raiding strategic enemy targets in Japan . On 17 February , " Bowfin " attacked two Japanese subchasers and sank the 750 - ton " Coast Defense Vessel No . 56 " with torpedoes and then survived a 26 - depth - charge attack by her victim ’ s consort which had herself barely escaped destruction when some of " Bowfin " ’ s torpedoes exploded prematurely . The submarine later sank a Japanese sea truck with one torpedo . On 19 March about 15 miles south of Shikoku at 9 : 30 a . m . , the submarine was on watch when a lone Navy torpedo bomber with white stars on its wings and its tail shot up headed in low toward the submarine . The plane had been hit moments earlier by enemy flak during its bombing run over the Kure Naval Yard . The plane landed in the water dead ahead , about 500 yards off the bow . It floated for two minutes and then nosed down and sank . Both men in the plane jumped out and hung onto an inflated raft . Eleven minutes later the crew of the " Bowfin " had them aboard . She rescued the pilot , Lieutenant R . U . Plant , and gunner , J . Papazoglakis ( Pakis ) of the downed Grumman Avenger torpedo bomber of Torpedo Squadron 83 ( VT - 83 ) from the aircraft carrier USS " Essex " . The two men were cold and wet from just a few minutes in that water , but otherwise safe and sound . The captain ordered the life raft sunk and the dye marker destroyed with small arms fire and then resumed patrol on the lifeguard station . The submarine soon set a course for the Marianas and ended the patrol upon her arrival at Guam on 25 March . Eighth and ninth patrols . Underway on 23 April for her eighth war patrol , the submarine plied the waters north of Honshū and Hokkaidō . Her first kill came on 1 May when two of her torpedoes sank the 2 , 719 - ton transport " Chowa Maru " . A week later , she overtook , torpedoed , and destroyed an 880 - ton freighter " Daito Maru No . 3 " ; but , that proved to be the last score of the patrol . After a fortnight of futile searching for targets , she arrived at Apra Harbor , Guam , for refit . While training for her ninth and final patrol of the war , " Bowfin " rescued a Marine Corps pilot whose fighter had crashed . She got underway on 29 May and pointed her bow back toward the enemy homeland . One of nine submarines protected by newly developed mine - detecting sonar and sent into the Sea of Japan , she carefully threaded her way through the dangerous minefields of Tsushima Strait which guarded this previously sacrosanct maritime heart of the Japanese Empire , but found little enemy shipping . Nevertheless , she wasted neither of her two attackable contacts : the first , the 1 , 898 - ton transport " Shinyo Maru " took four torpedoes before sinking on 11 June ; and the second , the 887 - ton freighter " Akiura Maru " met a similar fate on 13 June . The submarine left the Sea of Japan by La Pérouse Strait ( Soya Misaki ) and headed for Hawaii . She reached Pearl Harbor on Independence Day and began preparations to return to action . Early in August , " Bowfin " sailed for the Marianas , her staging point for her 10th war patrol . However , while en route , she received word of Japan ’ s capitulation . As a result , she reversed course and returned to Hawaii and , then , headed for the Panama Canal on her way to the east coast of the United States . " Bowfin " arrived at Tompkinsville , Staten Island , New York , on 21 September 1945 . She served in the Atlantic Fleet until decommissioned at New London on 12 February 1947 and placed in reserve . Post - war . Reactivated because of the Navy ’ s need to expand the fleet to support United Nations - led forces during the Korean War , the submarine was recommissioned on 27 July 1951 and , following shakedown training , sailed for the Pacific . After arriving at San Diego , California on 6 October , she worked from that port for the next two years , devoting her time to training operations and local exercises . The nominal ending of hostilities in Korea in the summer of 1953 reduced the Navy ’ s need for active submarines and prompted " Bowfin " ’ s second inactivation . She arrived at San Francisco on 8 October 1953 and was placed out of commission , in reserve , at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard on 22 April 1954 . The warship remained there until moving to Seattle , Washington , on 1 May 1960 to replace as the Naval Reserve training submarine there and to begin a little over a decade ’ s service . Her name was finally struck from the Navy list on 1 December 1971 , and she was taken back to Pearl Harbor , where she now serves as a memorial . Audio Tours are available to the general public at Pearl Harbor . Some areas of the ship are off limits . " Bowfin " was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1986 . The sinking of Tsushima Maru . " Tsushima Maru " was an unmarked Japanese cargo ship that was sunk by " Bowfin " between 10 and 10 : 30 p . m . local time on 22 August 1944 as the ship was carrying hundreds of schoolchildren from Okinawa to Kagoshima . Attacked while in convoy , " Tsushima " sank close to the island of Akusekijima . 1 , 484 civilians including 767 schoolchildren were killed ; 59 children survived the sinking . On her sixth patrol , " Bowfin " destroyed a pier at Minami Daito that contained a crane and a bus . Thirteen small vessels were sunk by the " Bowfin " s deck guns . USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park . The submarine is owned and operated by the Pacific Fleet Submarine Memorial Association , and is now part of the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park in Pearl Harbor , on the island of Oahu , Hawaii . Visitors can tour the submarine with an audio narration of life in the vessel during World War II . The park ' s museum features exhibits and artifacts about submarines and the history of the United States Submarine Service , including detailed models , weapon systems , photographs , paintings , battleflags , recruiting posters and a memorial honoring the 52 American submarines and the more than 3 , 500 submariners lost during World War II . The museum ' s other exhibits include a Kaiten torpedo and a 40 mm Quad gun , along with Poseidon C - 3 and Regulus I missile s . The park is located within walking distance of the visitor center for the USS " Arizona " Memorial , and the USS " Missouri " Museum .