USS Tigrone (SS-419)

USS Tigrone (SS-419)

USS Tigrone (SS/SSR-419), a Tench-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the tigrone, a tiger shark found in tropical waters. Her keel was laid down on 8 May 1944 by the Portsmouth Navy Yard. She was launched on 20 July 1944 sponsored by Mrs. Charles F. Grisham, and commissioned on 25 October 1944 with Commander Hiram Cassedy in command.

Tigrone completed fitting out in mid-November and conducted training out of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and New London, Connecticut, before departing the Submarine Base at New London on the last day of 1944. After ten days of training at the Fleet Sound School, the new submarine got underway on 16 January. Steaming via the Canal Zone, she paused for a week of training off Panama, then set her course for Hawaii, conducting extensive practice approach exercises with attack transport Riverside en route. On 16 February, she arrived at Pearl Harbor to prepare for her first war patrol.