Launching and Commissioning
USS Bowfin (SS-287)
7 December 1942

On 15 December 1941, eight days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the Portsmouth Navy Yard was given the order to start construction of the new Balao class fleet submarines. The third boat of the class was to bear the name USS Bowfin (SS-287). Her keel was laid on 23 July 1942.

Construction proceeded smoothly, and Bowfin was launched at Portsmouth (actually located in Kittery, Maine) on 7 December 1942, exactly one year after the Pearl Harbor attack. Because of this historic coincidence, and in hopes of future success against the enemy, she was appropriately dubbed the "Pearl Harbor Avenger."

Bowfin was christened by Mrs. Jane Gawne, wife of Captain James Orville Gawne.

After a period of fitting out, Bowfin neared the ceremony marking her acceptance into the U.S. Navy. Her commissioning party was held on 24 April 1943 at the Pannaway Club in New London, followed a week later by her formal Commissioning Ceremony held on her main deck on the first of May.

Commander Joseph Harris Willingham, USN, reads his orders taking command of USS Bowfin (SS-287), on 1 May 1943.

Bowfin - the fish

USS Bowfin takes her name from the hard fighting, aggressive, and voracious fish found in fresh water from the Great Lakes on south. As the last survivor of the family Amiidae, which dates back to the Jurassic Period, this "living fossil" is at home in backwaters and marshy areas. Due to its ability to use its swim bladder as a primitive lung, it thrives in water with low oxygen content, and can survive for days at a time in little or no water. Hardly a more appropriate name could have been found for an air-breathing diesel boat, this one soon to be legendary in the submarine force for her bold determination and insatiable appetite for enemy shipping.