USS Razorback (SS-394)

Career

Ordered:
Laid down:	9 September 1943
Launched:	27 January 1944
Commissioned:	3 April 1944
Decommissioned:	30 November 1970
Fate:	Sold to Turkey, then repurchased to become museum
Homeport:	North Little Rock, Arkansas
Stricken:	30 November 1970
General Characteristics
Displacement:	1525 tons surfaced, 2415 tons submerged
Length:	311 ft 9 in (95 m)
Beam:	27 ft 3 in (8.3 m)
Draft:	15 ft 5 in (4.7 m)
Speed:	20 knots (37 km/h)
Complement:	81 officers and men
Armament:	one four-inch (102 mm) gun, one 40 mm cannon, two 20 mm cannon, ten 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes

USS Razorback (SS-394), a Balao-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the razorback, a species of whale (Balaenoptera physalus) found in the far southern reaches of the Pacific Ocean. (Although the boat was not named for the razorback hog, she has been adopted by the state of Arkansas.)

Her keel was laid down by the Portsmouth Navy Yard in New Hampshire on 9 September 1943. She was launched on 27 January 1944 sponsored by Mrs. H. F. D. Davis, and commissioned on 3 April 1944 with Lieutenant Commander A. M. Bontier in command.

After shakedown off New England, Razorback sailed to Pearl Harbor. Her first war patrol, commencing 25 August, was conducted east of Luzon as a member of an offensive group in support of the mid-September Palau landings. After sighting only enemy antisubmarine planes, she headed northeastward, arriving at Midway Island on 19 October.

On 15 November Razorback sailed from Midway Island on her second war patrol in company with USS Trepang (SS-412) and Segundo (SS-398). Operating with these submarines in the Luzon Straits, Razorback damaged 6933-ton freighter Kenjo Maru on 6 December and sank the old 820 ton destroyer Kuretake and damaged another freighter 30 December. She arrived at Guam for refit on 5 January 1945.

On 1 February Razorback set out for the East China Sea for her third war patrol, this time accompanied by USS Segundo and Seacat (SS-399). After sinking four wooden ships in three separate surface gun actions, she deposited three Japanese prisoners at Guam before terminating her patrol at Pearl Harbor on 26 March 1945.

On 7 May Razorback headed west again. Assigned to lifeguard duty in the Nanpo Shoto and Tokyo Bay areas, she rescued four B-29 Superfortress pilots and a fighter pilot before retiring to Midway Island to end that patrol and refit on 27 June.

On 22 July Razorback departed Midway Island for patrol in the Okhotsk Sea, where she sank six wooden cargo sea trucks and damaged two in a surface gun action. The remainder of the patrol was spent performing lifeguard services off Paramushiro for Alaska-based planes. On 31 August Razorback entered Tokyo Harbor with 11 other submarines to take part in the formal surrender of Japan. She departed 3 September, arrived at Pearl Harbor on 11 September and San Diego, California, on 20 September.

After the war she remained active with the Pacific Fleet serving off Japan and China in early 1948 and again in late 1949. In August 1952 she decommissioned incident to conversion to a GUPPY IIA-type submarine. She recommissioned in January 1954 and reported to Submarine Squadron 10 at New London, Connecticut, for shakedown and training.

Following shakedown Razorback was transferred to the West Coast and on 24 May 1954 became a unit of Submarine Squadron 3, based at San Diego, California. The remainder of 1954 and 1955 were spent providing antisubmarine training services for local surface and air units. In 1956 her range of operations was extended north to Canada and on 24 June 1957 she got underway on her first extended Far East deployment since the forties. Regularly deployed to the Seventh Fleet into the sixties Razorback sailed into the South China Sea on her 1965 deployment where she earned her first Vietnam Service Medal. She returned to San Diego, California, on 1 February 1966, but was in the western Pacific from 29 December 1966 to 3 July 1967 and from 6 August 1968 to February 1969. During 1969 and until January 1970, she continued to operate on the west coast out of San Diego, California. Razorback’s last deployment, again to the western Pacific, was from 30 January to 7 August 1970. Not long after her return to the West Coast, she was decommissioned at Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard. Concurrent with her decommissioning on 30 November, Razorback was transferred to the Turkish Navy.

Razorback earned five battle stars for World War II service and four stars for Vietnam service.

The submarine was recommissioned TCG Murat Reis (S 336), named after the great Ottoman admiral Murat Reis and served Turkey for 21 years, decommissioning late in 1991.

Ex-Murat Reis was purchased from Turkey by the city of North Little Rock, Arkansas in March 2004 for US$1.00. It was towed from Turkey across the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, arriving at Key West, Florida, on the evening of Sunday, 13 June 2004. On 14 June 2004, the submarine was again taken under tow, and arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana, on 19 June. Thence it was towed up the Mississippi River and the Arkansas River to her permanent berth in North Little Rock. After a stopover for the dedication of the Montgomery Point Lock and Dam on 16 July, its transit was delayed by the Army Corps of Engineers over safety concerns. At the time of transit, the submarine was drafting 11½ feet at its bow and at nearly 15 feet at its stern, while some portions of the Arkansas River were less than nine feet deep. A pair of barges were used as pontoons to lift the boat a few feet to clear the river bottom while remaining low enough to pass under the bridges along its route. On 29 August, Razorback reached her berth in North Little Rock.