The first USS Trepang (SS/AGSS-412) was a Balao-class submarine in the United States Navy. She was named for the trepang, a marine animal sometimes called a "sea slug" or a "sea cucumber," having a long, tough, muscular body and found in the coral reefs of the East Indies. Construction and commissioning When the contract to build Trepang was awarded to Mare Island Navy Yard in Vallejo, Califoria SS-412 was to be named Senorita, which would have made her the only U.S. Navy ship to be named for the senorita, a brilliantly colored kelpfish found along the California coast. She was renamed Trepang on 24 September 1942, and her keel was laid down on 25 June 1943. She was launched on 23 March 1944 sponsored by Mrs. Jane Andre Davenport (née Gorham), the wife of Trepang′s prospective commanding officer, Commander Roy Milton Davenport, and commissioned on 22 May 1944 with Commander Davenport — already a three-time Navy Cross winner — in command. Service history World War II May–September 1944 Following shakedown at San Diego, California, Trepang departed San Diego on 15 August 1944 and proceeded to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. where her crew trained and prepared the ship for combat. First war patrol: September – October 1944 Setting out from Pearl Harbor on 13 September 1944 for her first war patrol, Trepang prowled the waters south of Honshū, the largest and most important of Japan's home islands. She remained below during daylight hours and came up after dark to get a better view as she recharged her batteries and filled up with fresh air. On the night of 30 September, Trepang spotted a fast convoy departing Tokyo Bay. The submarine gave chase and closed in on a group of ships which included two large tankers, a small freighter, and an escort. The submarine fired an overlapping spread of torpedoes which struck the freighter, 750-ton Takunan Maru, and sent her to the bottom. On 10 October, Trepang attacked her second convoy, which consisted of a pair of tankers and a single escort. Although the submarine claimed a "kill", a postwar assessment of the action did not credit her with a sinking. The following day, the error was reversed. The submarine launched four torpedoes at another Japanese ship, and her commanding officer recorded that all of the "fish" had missed. This time, however, postwar accounting credited Trepang with the destruction of the 1,000-ton Transport