Qualla: USS Bowfin

USS Bowfin: Introduction

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0. She was launched on December 7, 1942 -- exactly one year after the attack that drew America into the war. The timing was deliberate. At Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, Mrs. Jane Gawne broke a bottle across the bow of USS Bowfin as the submarine slid into the water on the anniversary of Pearl Harbor, earning the boat a nickname she would carry through nine war patrols across the Pacific: the "Pearl Harbor Avenger." Today Bowfin floats at a pier in the harbor whose devastation gave her that name, open for tours just steps from the Arizona Memorial Visitor Center.

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Image: Famartin | CC BY-SA 4.0

USS Bowfin: Nine Patrols Across the Pacific

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sanjay Acharya, CC BY-SA 3.0. Commissioned on May 1, 1943, under Commander Joseph H. Willingham, Bowfin transited the Panama Canal and crossed the Pacific to Brisbane, Australia. Her first war patrol brought her to the Mindanao Sea, where she spent three frustrating weeks without finding targets before finall...

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Image: Sanjay Acharya | CC BY-SA 3.0

USS Bowfin: Life Inside a Balao-Class Boat

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0. Walking through Bowfin today, visitors quickly understand what submarine duty demanded. The Balao-class boat stretches roughly 312 feet, with a crew of about 80 men sharing a space designed around torpedoes, diesel engines, and electric motors. Bunks were stacked three high and s...

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Image: Famartin | CC BY-SA 4.0

USS Bowfin: The Avenger Comes Home

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Famartin, CC BY-SA 4.0. After the war, Bowfin served in various states of readiness and reserve until she was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register in 1971. A decade later, the submarine was moved to Pearl Harbor and opened to the public as the centerpiece of the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum and Park. ...

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Image: Famartin | CC BY-SA 4.0

USS Bowfin: The Boat and the Harbor

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit United States Navy, Journalist Seaman Ryan C. McGinley, Public domain. Bowfin's story is inseparable from the place where she now rests. Her launch-date symbolism was no accident; the Navy understood that morale required visible acts of response after the devastation of December 7, 1941. But Bowfin was more than a symbol. She was a working warship t...

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Image: United States Navy, Journalist Seaman Ryan C. McGinley | Public domain