USS Sablefish, 1954

Sablefish (SS-303) was laid down on 5 June 1943 by Cramp Shipbuilding Company, Philadelphia, Pa.; launched on 4 June 1944; sponsored by Mrs. E. W. Burrough; and commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 18 December 1945, Comdr. R. H. Crane in command.

Her duty in 1946 established a pattern for her operations during much of her subsequent career. Highlights of her service for the next few years were: testing a new type of submarine escape buoy in January 1948, and again in September of that year; participating in ceremonies at Havana, Cuba, on 14 February 1948, the 50th anniversary of the sinking of battleship, Maine ; conversion to a snorkel submarine during the first half of 1951; and a starring role in one of Edward R. Murrow's See-It-Now television shows.

On 15 July 1952, the submarine broadened her experience by departing New London and sailing to the Mediterranean for her first deployment with the 6th Fleet. After exercises with other United States warships and vessels of the navies of NATO allies during the rest of the summer, Sablefish returned to New London in October. Thereafter, she made six more deployments to the Mediterranean.

The ship began her last Mediterranean deployment in the fall of 1968 and returned to her home port on 1 February 1969. On 30 June 1969, while operating out of New London, she was reclassified as an auxiliary submarine and redesignated AGSS-303. She was decommissioned there on 1 November 1969 and struck from the Navy list the same day. She was subsequently stripped and sold on 29 July 1971 to Union Mineral and Alloys Corp., New York City, N.Y.

[Taken from the entry on Sablefish in the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.]