World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseCommissioned in Aug 1944 with Lieutenant Commander Paul C. Stimson in command, USS Sea Robin held her shakedown cruise off New Hampshire and Connecticut, United States then headed for the Pacific Ocean in Oct 1944. Off the Panama Canal, she was mistaken for a German submarine and was fired upon by a merchant ship; she escaped without damage. On her first war patrol in the Luzon Strait between the Philippine Islands and Taiwan, she sank the Japanese tanker Tarakan Maru. Her second war patrol was her most successful one, sinking three cargo ships and a gunboat off Java in the Dutch East Indies and sinking two fishing vessels in the South China Sea. During her third war patrol, her bow was damaged during an air attack, leading to failed torpedo attacks later in the third patrol, but the problem was not discovered until later. She arrived at Midway Atoll for replenishing in mid-Aug 1945, where she would be when the Pacific War ended.

ww2dbaseIn the immediate years after the war, USS Sea Robin was based in the Panama Canal Zone. In mid-1947, she became the first American submarine to round Cape Horn as she circumnavigated South America during a simulated war patrol. In early 1949, she was overhauled at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Pennsylvania, United States. In 1949, her base of operations was switched to New London, Connecticut, United States. Between Sep and Nov 1950, she served in the Mediterranean Sea with the US Navy 6th Fleet. In 1951, she was converted to a GUPPY IA submarine. In the 1950s and 1960s, she served out of New London, Connecticut, United States and in the Mediterranean Sea (with the US Navy 6th Fleet), participating in several exercises and training cruises. She was decommissioned in Oct 1970 and was sold for scrap in the following year.

Submarine Sea Robin (SS-407) Interactive Map

Photographs

Sea Robin Operational Timeline