USS Sea Robin (SS-407), a , was a vessel of the United States Navy named for the sea robin. This is a spiny-finned fish with red or brown coloring on its body and fins. The first three rays of its pectoral fin separate from the others and are used in walking on the sea bottom. Construction and commissioning Sea Robin was laid down by the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine, on 1 March 1944, launched on 25 May 1944, sponsored by Mrs. Homer Ambrose, wife of Captain Ambrose, the navy yard's production superintendent, and commissioned on 7 August 1944. First patrol, November 1944 – January 1945 After shakedown off Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and New London, Connecticut, Sea Robin transited the Panama Canal on 12 October 1944 following an incident with a Scandinavian merchant ship which, mistaking the submarine for a German U-boat, frantically scattered shells in the general direction of the surfaced "enemy." Fortunately, Sea Robin was out of range and escaped without damage. After spending six days at Pearl Harbor, Sea Robin sailed for Luzon Strait and her first war patrol where, on 6 January 1945, she torpedoed and sank her initial victim of the war, the 5,000-ton Japanese tanker Tarakan Maru. Except for dodging floating mines, the remainder of the submarine's first patrol was uneventful; and she returned to port at Fremantle, Western Australia, on 29 January 1945. Second patrol, February – April 1945 Sea Robins second patrol proved to be her most productive of the war. On 3 March, while patrolling north of Surabaja in the Java Sea, the boat evaded a Japanese escort ship and torpedoed the cargo ship, Suiten Maru (2,500 tons). After several unsuccessful attempts to rescue survivors, the submarine finally hauled three prisoners of war on board and continued her patrol. Two days later, Sea Robin contacted a troop-laden convoy of two cargo ships, a converted gunboat, and several escorts. The gunboat Manyo Maru (2,900 tons) was the first to be sent to the bottom, the victim of three torpedo hits. After evading the suddenly active escort vessels, the submarine commenced an end around and, several hours later, was again in firing position. Shoyu Maru (853 tons), the first of the two vessels, was zigzagging radically but was unable to avoid the three torpedoes that Sea Robin fired at her. She took one hit below her bridge and settled quickly by the