USS COD (submarine)

About this property

USS Cod is a Gato-class submarine, the only vessel of the United States Navy to be named for the cod, an important and very popular food fish of the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans. She was launched on 21 March 1943, and commissioned on 21 June 1943. Cod is now a National Historic Landmark, preserved as a museum ship and memorial permanently moored in Cleveland, Ohio, and is open to visitors daily from May to November. Cod's keel was laid down by the Electric Boat Company at Groton, Connecticut, on 21 July 1942. The submarine's four main Cleveland Model 16-248 V16 diesel engines and one Cleveland Model 8-268 auxiliary diesel engine were built by General Motors Cleveland Diesel Engine Division on Cleveland's west side. She was launched on 21 March 1943, sponsored by Mrs. G.M. Mahoney, and commissioned on 21 June 1943 with Commander James C. Dempsey, USN in command. Commander Dempsey had already won fame by sinking the first Japanese destroyer lost in World War II while in command of the submarine USS S-37 (SS-142). On 30 August 1943, the American Type C1-B cargo ship SS Alcoa Patriot opened gunfire on Cod in the Caribbean Sea at 12°25′N 076°03′W, about 120 nautical miles (220 km; 140 mi) north-northwest of Barranquilla, Colombia, and 330 nautical miles (610 km; 380 mi) east of the northern entrance to the Panama Canal. Less than three hours later, Alcoa Patriot again sighted Cod and fired on her at 12°02′N 076°04′W, about 105 nautical miles (194 km; 121 mi) northwest of Barranquilla and 310 nautical miles (570 km; 360 mi) east of the northern entrance to the Panama Canal. Cod suffered no damage or casualties in either incident. Cod arrived in Brisbane, Australia, on 2 October 1943 to prepare for her first war patrol. She sailed from there 20 days later. Penetrating the South China Sea, she contacted few targets, and launched an attack only once, on 29 November, with unobserved results. She returned to Fremantle, Australia, to refit from 16 December 1943 to 11 January 1944. Cod put to sea for her second war patrol in the South China Sea, off Java, and off Halmahera. On 16 February, she surfaced to sink a sampan by gunfire, and on 23 February, torpedoed a Japanese merchantman. She sent another to the bottom on 27 February, Taisoku Maru (2,473 tons) and two days later attacked a third, only to be forced deep by a concentrated depth charging delivered by a Japanese escort ship. Refitting at Fremantle again from 13 March – 6 April 1944, Cod sailed to the Sulu Sea and the South China Sea off Luzon for her third war patrol. On 10 May, she attacked a heavily escorted convoy of 32 ships and sank the destroyer Karukaya and cargo merchantman Shohei Maru (7,256 tons) before the escorts drove her down with depth charges. She returned to Fremantle to replenish on 1 June 1944.

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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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