WWII U.S. Sub Names

[LukeFF]

As I read more unit histories at Wikipedia, one thing has stood out very much in my mind - the Navy named their WWII boats after some ugly-ass fish! Take, for instance, my boat in my current career, the USS Pompano:

{Pompanos} are deep bodied and mackerel-like, typically silver colored and toothless with a forked tail and narrow base.

Yep, that about describes my current career. I attack a task force, fire all six torpedoes at two different ships, all with a good solution, and what's my reward for this?:

-Premature explosion
-Premature explosion
-Dud
-Dud
-Premature explosion
-Dud

I'm starting to think someone up in Command has it in for me. "Yep, let's give that new captain a boat named after a toothless fish! It'll match our torpedo performance perfectly!"

[Sailor Steve]

Hey, be glad you're not on USS Carp, or Sea Slug.

[C DuDe]

LukeFF,


Had the exact same thing. (hmmm should have said similer thing)

Fired 2 torp's at a minelayer and got:
-Premature explosion
-Premature explosion

Fired 3 torp's at a merchant and got:
-Dud
-Hit
-Hit


Wanted the 3 merchants so I went for the DD (who came to a full stop) and fired 5 fish to her and got 5 premature explosions, 5 of them!!! distances of 1500yrds, 1200yrds and last torp I fired at 800yrds (she didn't move a inch).

Must have gotten bad Torps from the same bunch as you had. (you stationed at Java?)

[ktrboston]

the same thing happened to me when I attacked 2 merchants. The first 3 torpedeos I fired exploded prematurly and this is 1943. I would of thought all the bugs should of been fixed by command by now but what can ya do. fire more fish!

[C DuDe]

who says it a bug?

[jason taylor]

To be fair they had to think of something after the best names are taken. Besides S boats don't even get a name.

[SteamWake]

Nevermind

[LukeFF]

Originally Posted by ktrboston

the same thing happened to me when I attacked 2 merchants. The first 3 torpedeos I fired exploded prematurly and this is 1943. I would of thought all the bugs should of been fixed by command by now but what can ya do. fire more fish!

Depends on when it was in 1943. There were still a lot of faults present with the Mark 14 in 1943.

C DuDe, I'm stationed out of Fremantle right now. Guess the same supply ship's visited both ports recently!

[NEON DEON]

You could fire only from 500 yards at 90 degrees with the torpedo set to slow speed. The short range should cut down on premies and the slow speed should reduce the dud rate.

[Lafferty]

Yes it does cut down on the dud rate. I've tried it.

[odjig292]

The US Naval Institute Proceedings magazine had an article many years ago by the guy who had been assigned to find fish names for the hundreds of submarines that were being built during the war. The Navy did not want to go with numbers (like the U-boats) because they felt it developed a sense of pride to identify with some type of fish. It is actually a humorous article about how he combed all marine sources to come up with common names of fish without resorting to "Guppy", "Goldfish" or "Anostymus Anostymus". By 1945 they were having a tough time trying to find names that wouldn't embarrass the crew. After the war they changed their policy and started to name them after communities. Hence the Los Angeles class.

[LukeFF]

Originally Posted by odjig292

It is actually a humorous article about how he combed all marine sources to come up with common names of fish without resorting to "Guppy", "Goldfish" or "Anostymus Anostymus".

Ah, but the little Anostie is so cute!

[JimRat]

Actually it wasn't until the 1970's that attack submarines started to be named after cities. (Prior to 1975 Cruisers were named for cities). Also the SSBNs, (Boomers), were originally named for Famous American Patriots. As the older diesel boats were scrapped the USN just reused their names, however as there were not as many nuke boats they tended to use only the best sounding names.

Just in case anyone is interested during WWII the following conventions were used in the naming of ships by the USN:

Carriers - Famous Battles in American History, (Lexington, Yorktown, Antietam, etc)
Battleships - States
BattleCruisers - U.S. Territories, (Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, Guam)
Heavy Cruisers (CA) - State Capitals
Light Cruisers (CL) - Large Cities that weren't State Capitals
Destroyers and Destroyer Escorts (DD,DE) - Deceased members of the USN or USMC, (that died in the line of duty).
Submarines - Sea Creatures, (not always fish, a Nautilus is a Shelled Organism)

That just about covers the combatants except for the smaller types which usaully weren't given names, just Letter / Number combinations.

[Sailor Steve]

Excellent summation, JimRat, and WELCOME ABOARD!

I would just like to add one thing:

Originally Posted by JimRat

Carriers - Famous Battles in American History, (Lexington, Yorktown, Antietam, etc)

Aircraft carriers were indeed named for famous battles, with newer ones even being named for recent battles: Belleau Wood, Midway; and one even named for the fictional location Doolittle's B-25s allegedly took off from - Shangri-La! But they were also named for other famous ships: Bonhomme Richard (John Paul Jones's ship), Ranger, Essex and of course the Big E herself - Enterprise!

[FAdmiral]

And the "Enterprise" name will live on in future space programs when warp
speed is discovered.

"Girl to Capt. Kirk: You live in outer space?"
"Kirk to girl" No, I live in Iowa, I only work in outer space."


JIM