The Water Wolf - USS Muskallunge at Camranh Bay

Welcome to Patrol Reports, where we share stories from the history of the United States Submarine Force. Today we turn to USS Muskallunge, a Gato-class submarine whose name came from the legendary muskie, the fish of ten thousand casts.

Built at Electric Boat and commissioned in 1943, Muskallunge was destined to play an outsized role in the Silent Service. She tested the torpedoes that helped turn the tide of the war, carried the first electric torpedoes into combat, and prowled the Pacific through seven war patrols.

On August 21, 1944, she struck a Japanese convoy near Camranh Bay, sinking the Durban Maru and surviving a furious counterattack that rained down nearly fifty depth charges.

Her story spans from those desperate battles to her postwar service in Brazil, and finally to her discovery on the ocean floor in 2021. This is the patrol report of USS Muskallunge.