USS Torsk (SS-423) is named for a food fish of the North Atlantic Ocean, also known as the cusk or tusk. The torsk, a member of the cod family, can reach a length of three feet and weigh as much as 30 pounds.

USS Torsk (SS-423) was laid down on 7 June 1944 at the Portsmouth (New Hampshire) Navy Yard, christened by Mrs. Allen B. Reed and launched on 6 September 1944, and commissioned on 16 December 1944 with Commander Bafford E. Lewellen in command.

When commissioned, the Balao Class submarine displaced 1,570 tons; was 311'8" in length overall; had a beam of 27'3"; drew 15'5" of water (mean) when on the surface in diving trim; could make 20 1/4 knots on the surface and 8 3/4 knots submerged; was manned by 81 officers and men; was armed with one 5-inch deck gun, one 40-mm and one 20-mm and two 50-caliber antiaircraft machine guns, and ten 21-inch torpedo tubes. Twenty-four torpedoes were carried. The submarine was also equipped to carry and launch mines.

Completed on the last day of 1944, USS Torsk trained out of Portsmouth, New Hampshire; Newport, Rhode Island; and New London, Connecticut; until 11 February 1945...when she headed for Florida. On the 16th of February, the submarine arrived at Port Everglades, Florida, where she provided services for antisubmarine warfare (ASW) research. She departed Port Everglades on 20 February, transited the Panama Canal, and arrived at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 23 March 1945.

After a repair and training period, she got underway from Pearl Harbor for her first war patrol. USS Torsk paused briefly at Guam enroute to an area off Kii Suido...which she reached on 11 May...and began lifeguard duty (picking up downed aviators who crashed at sea). Air contacts were few in this period, and the submarine found no opportunity to conduct rescue operations. Toward midnight on 11 May, she set course for her patrol area off the northeastern coast of Honshu. She arrived there on the 13th, and, for two days, attempted to contact other members of the wolf pack named "Lewellen's Looters." On the 16th, she made rendezvous with USS Sandlance (SS-381) and USS Cero (SS-225). For more than a fortnight, their careful coverage of the east coast of Honshu turned up nothing more interesting than mines.

On 2 June, while patrolling between Honshu and Hokkaido, USS Torsk came upon a small coastal minelayer. The submarine fired six torpedoes--which the small vessel avoided by maneuvering--and then dove and rigged for depth charges...which did not materialize. USS Torsk had another disappointing encounter on the 4th, when, while patrolling off Kobe Saki, she fired four torpedoes at a 700-ton freighter without scoring. The following day, she set her course for Hawaii, stopped at the Midway Islands on the 11th, and arrived at Pearl Harbor on the 16th of June 1945.

After refitting and the installation of new equipment, the submarine got underway for her second war patrol on 17 July. She spent the first two days of August at Guam...then set course for the Sea of Japan.

She passed through the minefields of Tsushima Strait on 10 August and, on the morning of the 11th, rescued seven Japanese merchant seamen who had survived the sinking of the "Koue Maru" some four days before. Early that afternoon, the submarine entered her patrol area, and, on the following morning off Dogo Island, USS Torsk made a submerged periscope attack which sank a small coastal freighter.

On the 13th, she patrolled off Ando Saki, and, after sighting a number of fishing boats during the morning, sighted another small freighter which she promptly sank. Later the same day, she made an unsuccessful attack on a cargo ship as it entered Wakasa Wan; then dodged through a 75-boat fishing fleet; and outdistanced the cargo ship's escort.

Off Amarubi Saki on the morning of the 14th, USS Torsk sighted a medium cargo ship and took up the chase. A 745-ton "Kaibokan"-Class patrol escort vessel accompanied the freighter to seaward, presenting the submarine with a tempting target. At 1035, as the freighter and her escort approached Kasumi Ko, USS Torsk launched one of the new experimental Mark 28 torpedoes at the escorting ship. Minutes later, the "fish" found its mark; an explosion bent the stern of the frigate up to a 30-degree angle, and, shortly thereafter, the target sank. As the freighter entered the harbor half an hour later, USS Torsk attempted to sink her but was unsuccessful, possibly because torpedoes fired at the merchantman struck undetected reefs near the mouth of the harbor.

Around noon, another frigate appeared, apparently a reinforcement which had been called in. Continuing her aggressive action, USS Torsk fired a Mark 28 torpedo at the frigate, which had already detected the submarine's presence. Commander Lewellen then initiated deep submergence procedures and ordered the crew to rig for silent running. After a tense five minutes, she reached 400 feet and there she launched another torpedo, this time the new Mark 27 acoustic homing torpedo. Almost immediately, a loud explosion announced that the first torpedo had found its mark, and a minute later, a second explosion sounded, followed by strong breaking up noises. The secret new torpedoes had proven their worth in battle...and USS Torsk was credited, not only with two enemy warships, but also with sinking the last Japanese warship sunk during the Second World War. Held down by enemy planes and patrol vessels, the submarine remained submerged more than seven hours. Then, she surfaced and headed for the Noto peninsula.

On the 15th, following four highly successful days of aggressive patrolling, USS Torsk received word of the cessation of hostilities with the Empire of Japan. She continued her patrol in the Sea of Japan, conducting visual and photographic surveillance...and destroying floating mines. On the 31st, what was thought to be a torpedo wake was sighted, an indicator that not everyone had heard...or planned to recognize...the news of the war's ending.

The submarine set her course for the Marianas on 1 September, passed through the Tsushima Strait on the 3rd, and arrived at Guam on the 9th of September 1945 ... successfully completing her second and last war patrol (Japan surrendered on board USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945...thus officially ending the Second World War).

USS Torsk departed the Marianas on 10 September, proceeded to New London, Connecticut, via Pearl Harbor and the Panama Canal...arriving at that submarine base in mid-October.

For the next seven years, USS Torsk (SS-423) operated out of United States Submarine Base, New London/Groton, Connecticut. She served as a training ship ("School Boat") for aspiring submariners attending Submarine School at New London, participated in exercises and tests, and, occasionally, made naval reserve training cruises.

In June of 1949, she was assigned to Submarine Squadron TWO; and, in the summer of 1950, she was deployed to the Mediterranean. The submarine returned to New London in the fall for fleet exercises, and, the following year, extended her operations into the Caribbean.

Early in 1952, she completed her conversion to a fleet-snorkel submarine and was again deployed to the Mediterranean that summer. Returning on 27 November, she continued operations out of New London ranging from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Havana, Cuba...as she trained prospective submarine commanding officers...and laid exercise mine fields off Key West, Florida. During 1955, she was assigned to Submarine Squadron SIX at the Convoy-Escort Piers at Norfolk, Virginia. There, her duties included services to aircraft and surface ships...to help them hone their skills in antisubmarine warfare. She made frequent Caribbean voyages and participated in "Operation Springboard." During June of 1959, she proceeded, via the Saint Lawrence Seaway, to the Great Lakes, visited various ports on Lake Ontario and Lake Michigan...then returned to the Virginia Capes Operating Areas off Norfolk in the Atlantic Ocean in mid-August.

In the early 1960s, she made Mediterranean deployments; joined Commonwealth countries in "Exercise New Broom X;" and continued her duties in training antisubmarine forces in the Atlantic Ocean. During the Cuban Crisis in the fall of 1962, she patrolled in support of the blockade of that Caribbean island. Nothing got by her...undetected.

On 4 March 1964, the veteran submarine was decommissioned , and, following modifications at the Boston Navy Yard, was assigned to the Washington Navy Yard for use in training the Submarine Naval Reserve Group that drilled in that Washington, D. C., military facility. USS Torsk remained there until 1971. Then, on 15 December 1971, the submarine was struck from the Navy List (that is, she was no longer a unit of the United States Navy).

On 26 September 1972, she was turned over to the State of Maryland for use as a memorial and museum. Subsequently, she was towed to, and moored at, the Inner Harbor at Baltimore.

There, USS Torsk (SS-423) remains to the present day ... opened to all who want to see what World War II submarining was all about.

USS Torsk (SS-423) received two battle stars for her World War II