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The first USS ''Trepang'' (SS/AGSS-412) was a ''Balao''-class submarine in the United States Navy. She was named for the trepang, a marine animal sometimes called a 'sea slug' or a 'sea cucumber', having a long, tough, muscular body and found in the coral reefs of the East Indies. When the contract to build her was awarded to Mare Island Navy Yard in Vallejo, California, SS-412 was to be named ''Senorita'', which would have made her the only USN ship to be named for the senorita, a brilliantly colored kelpfish found along the California coast. She was renamed ''Trepang'' on 24 September 1942, and her keel was laid down on 25 June 1943. She was launched on 23 March 1944 sponsored by Mrs. R. M. Davenport, the wife of the submarine's prospective commanding officer, and commissioned on 22 May 1944 with Commander Roy Milton Davenport—already a three-time Navy Cross winner—in command. Following shakedown out of San Diego, California, ''Trepang'' departed the West Coast on 15 August 1944 and proceeded to Hawaii where her crew trained and prepared the ship for combat. == First patrol: September – October 1944 == Setting out from Pearl Harbor on 13 September for her first war patrol, the submarine prowled the waters south of Honshū, the largest and most important of Japan's home islands. She remained below during daylight hours and came up after dark to get a better view as she recharged her batteries and filled up with fresh air. On the night of 30 September, ''Trepang'' spotted a fast convoy departing Tokyo Bay. The submarine gave chase and closed in on a group of ships which included two large tankers, a small freighter, and an escort. The submarine fired an overlapping spread of torpedoes which struck the freighter, 750-ton ''Takunan Maru'', and sent her to the bottom. On 10 October, ''Trepang'' attacked her second convoy, which consisted of a pair of tankers and a single escort. Although the submarine claimed a "kill", a postwar assessment of the action did not credit her with a sinking. The following day, the error was reversed. The submarine launched four torpedoes at another Japanese ship, and her commanding officer recorded that all of the "fish" had missed. This time, however, postwar accounting credited ''Trepang'' with the destruction of the 1,000-ton ''Transport Number 105''. On 12 October, the submarine cruised some southwest of the entrance to Tokyo Bay. Soon after she came to the surface, and her radar swept the surrounding seas, four pips showed themselves on the phosphorescent screen—two large and two small—which were identified as two battleships and two destroyers. Despite the fact that the phosphorescent waters would make his submarine stand out starkly in the night, Davenport closed at flank speed and fired a full spread of six torpedoes. The "fish" sped through the water toward their targets. He claimed success when explosions rumbled across the water, and flames lit up the night. Davenport turned the submarine to present her stern tubes to the enemy and loosed four more torpedoes. These all missed. Davenport's gallant and skillfully pressed attacks earned him his fourth Navy Cross. He felt that he had damaged a and had sunk a destroyer, but a study of Japanese records after the war did not verify either claim. Her supply of torpedoes exhausted, ''Trepang'' cleared the area and headed for the Marshall Islands. She reached Majuro on 23 October for voyage repairs alongside submarine tender and brief training. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「USS Trepang (SS-412)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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