USS LIONFISH (SS0298) National Historic Landmark

About this property

USS Lionfish (SS-298), a Balao-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy named for the lionfish. She was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986, and is now on display at Battleship Cove in Fall River, Massachusetts. Lionfish was laid down on 15 December 1942; launched on 7 November 1943, sponsored by Mrs. May Philipps Train, wife of Rear Admiral Harold C. Train; and commissioned on 1 November 1944. Her first commanding officer was Lieutenant Commander Edward D. Spruance, son of the admiral. After completing her shakedown cruise off New England, she began her first war patrol in Japanese waters on 1 April 1945. Ten days later, she avoided two torpedoes fired by a Japanese submarine. On 1 May, Lionfish destroyed a Japanese schooner with her deck guns. After a rendezvous with the submarine USS Ray (SS-271), she transported United States Army Air Forces B-29 Superfortress survivors to Saipan in the Mariana Islands and then made her way to Midway Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands for replenishment. On 2 June 1945 she started her second war patrol, and on 10 July 1945 fired torpedoes at a surfaced Japanese submarine I-162, after which Lionfish's crew heard explosions and observed smoke through their periscope, although I-162 was undamaged. She subsequently fired on two more Japanese submarines. Lionfish ended her second and last war patrol performing lifeguard duty (the rescue of downed fliers) off the coast of Japan. When World War II ended on 15 August 1945, she headed for San Francisco, California, and was decommissioned at Mare Island Navy Yard in Vallejo, California, on 16 January 1946. Lionfish was recommissioned on 31 January 1951, and headed for the United States East Coast for training cruises. After participating in NATO exercises and a Mediterranean cruise, she returned to the East Coast and was decommissioned at the Boston Navy Yard on 15 December 1953. In 1960, the submarine was placed in service, but not recommissioned, as a reserve training submarine at Providence, Rhode Island. In 1971, she was stricken from the Navy Register. In 1973, she began permanent display as a memorial at Battleship Cove in Fall River, Massachusetts, where she is one of the museum's most popular exhibits. As Lionfish was never converted to a GUPPY configuration, she is one of the very few preserved American World War II-era submarines in her "as built" configuration. Because of this state of preservation, she was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986. The submarine is featured on the DVD case of the 2007 Ubisoft game Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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