USS Billfish (SS-286)

Any fish of many species (such as the sauty, gar, spearfish, and sailfish) which have long, narrow jaws that resemble a bird's bill.

The first Billfish (SS-286) was laid down by the Portsmouth (N.H.) Navy Yard on 23 July 1942; launched on 12 November 1942; sponsored by Mrs. Zelda L. Parks; and commissioned on 20 April 1943, Lt. Comdr. Frederic C. Lucas, Jr., in command.

Following shakedown training off the east coast, the new submarine sailed via the Panama Canal for the southwest Pacific. She reached Brisbane, Australia, on 1 August but departed that port on the 12th for her first war patrol that took her, via Darwin, to the waters of the Netherlands East Indies. Shortly after midnight on 29 August, she chased an unescorted tanker near Balobac Strait but that target's zigzag course enabled her to escape into the darkness before the submarine could reach a suitable attack position. That evening, Billfish encountered another ship, which she took to be the large tanker that had eluded her earlier, and fired a spread of torpedoes at this target. The "fish" passed under the stranger that then turned and revealed herself to be a small combatant rather than the expected deep-draft vessel for which the torpedoes had been set.

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From the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, compiled by the Naval History and Heritage Command (Billfish I (SS-286)). A work of the United States Government, in the public domain.