USS Torsk, hull number SS-423, is a built for the United States Navy during World War II. Armed with ten torpedo tubes, the Tench-class submarines were incremental developments of the highly-successful s that formed the backbone of the US Navy's submarine force during the war. Torsk was laid down at the Portsmouth Navy Yard in June 1944, was launched in September that year, and commissioned in December. In 1945, Torsk made two war patrols off Japan, sinking one cargo vessel and two coastal defense frigates. The latter of these, torpedoed on 14 August 1945, was the last enemy ship sunk by the United States Navy in World War II. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, she operated primarily as a training vessel; she also went on deployments to the Mediterranean Sea and helped to train elements of the Atlantic Fleet in anti-submarine tactics. Decommissioned in 1964, she served for another seven years as a training vessel for the Naval Reserve. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in December 1971 and turned over to the state of Maryland for use as a museum ship. She is now part of the fleet of Historic Ships in Baltimore. Name Following US Navy naming practice for submarines up to the 1950s, Torsk was named for a fish: "Torsk" is the common name in the North American fishery for the Cusk, a cod-like fish in the family Lotidae. It is also a Scandinavian term for the Atlantic cod. Design The Tench-class submarines were incremental improvements of the preceding and es of fleet submarines that proved to be highly successful during operations against Japan in the Pacific War. The Tenches, the culmination of early wartime experiences, were the last submarine class to be built by the United States Navy during the war. Torsk is long, with a beam of and a maximum draft of . She displaced surfaced and submerged. The Tench-class submarines were powered by four Fairbanks-Morse Model 38D8-⅛ 10-cylinder opposed piston diesel engines driving electrical generators. These were rated at for a maximum speed of on the surface. During underwater operations, she was powered by two 126-cell Sargo batteries that drove two low-speed direct-drive General Electric electric motors. Her electric motors provided and a top speed of submerged. While surfaced, she had a cruising radius of at a speed of . Her submerged endurance was limited by the life of her batteries, which