USS Muskallunge (SS-262), a Gato-class submarine, was a ship of the United States Navy named for the muskallunge. Construction and commissioning Muskallunge′s was keel was laid down on 7 April 1942 by the Electric Boat Company at Groton, Connecticut. She was launched on 13 December 1942, sponsored by Mrs. Merritt D. Graham, widow of Chief Torpedoman Graham, who was lost aboard the submarine in late July 1942, and commissioned on 15 March 1943, Lieutenant Commander (LCDR) Willard A. Saunders in command. First war patrol, September 1943 – January 1944 Following shakedown,Muskallunge departed Naval Submarine Base New London, New London, Connecticut, for the Pacific, arriving at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 7 August 1943. Before her first patrol, she was assigned the task of testing the Mark 14 torpedo against the cliffs of Kahoolawe, including the torpedo returned by the USS Tinosa (SS-283). Two of the three torpedoes detonated. The third was recovered and inspected, allowing the discovery of a flaw in the contact firing mechanism that had plagued the Mark 14 torpedo for 18 months. She cleared Pearl Harbor 7 September for her first war patrol, taking station off the Palau Islands. Muskallunge carried the first electric torpedoes to be fired in the war by an American submarine. She made two attacks on Japanese convoys; although handicapped by malfunctioning torpedoes, she managed to damage a passenger freighter and a cargo ship. On 25 October Muskallunge returned to Pearl Harbor. She sailed 27 November for her second war patrol, which was conducted in the western Carolines area and south of Guam. During this patrol Muskallunge scored hits on a tanker and two freighters, sinking one of the Noroto Maru class, before returning to Pearl Harbor 21 January 1944. From there, she went to the West Coast for overhaul. Third, fourth, and fifth war patrols, April – December 1944 After overhaul at Mare Island early in the year, Muskallunge left Pearl Harbor 30 April on her third war patrol. In June she joined eight other submarines in an operation designed to intercept any enemy forces approaching the Marianas which the Navy was invading. In the ensuing Battle of the Philippine Sea two of these submarines landed fatal blows on Japanese carriers and American naval aircraft wiped out the Japanese Fleet's air arm in a one-sided melee known as "the Marianas Turkey Shoot." Muskallunge ended the patrol at Fremantle, Australia, 4 July. In company