Tag: Pacific submarine warfare

SS Bluegill’s 2nd War Patrol: The August 13, 1944 Battle and the Mark 18 Torpedo’s Trial

USS Bluegill began her life on the ways at Groton, Connecticut, in December of 1942. She was a Gato-class boat, built for the long patrols and hard work the war in the Pacific demanded. When Mrs. W. Sterling Cole christened her on August 8, 1943, she slid into the Thames River looking every bit the part of a warship that would soon prowl far from home. Commissioned that November under Lt. Comdr. Eric L. Barr, Jr., she went through the usual shakedown, torpedo shoots, and workups before making the long transit to the war zone.

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Days of Torpedoes and Thunder

When USS Narwhal SS-167 slipped away on her fourth war patrol, the crew didn’t expect the weeks ahead to feel so long, cold, and cloaked in mist. They were headed for Midway first, a routine leg with training dives and gunnery drills to keep everyone sharp. By July 13, they made it to Midway Lagoon, tied up next to the tender Fulton, and took on over 29,000 gallons of fuel. The crew from Squadron Eight and Fulton gave them everything they needed and more. Spirits were high. Repairs were done quickly. At 1641 local time, they steamed out again, escorted by a friendly bird overhead.

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Legacy of Sailfish

On June 24, 1948, readers of The North Adams Transcript opened their paper to find a quiet notice tucked amid the day’s dispatches: the old submarine Sailfish had been sold for scrap. No fanfare, no ceremony. Just a line confirming that one of the most storied submarines in American naval history had reached her end. To most readers, it might have meant little. But to those who knew her story—those who had followed her transformation from the sunken Squalus to the battle-hardened Sailfish—it marked the closing chapter of a saga that began with tragedy, rose through heroism, and sailed deep into the waters of legend.

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