The U.S. Submarine TORSK, commissioned on December 16, 1944, was the last American naval vessel to sink a warship in World War II. One of 26 Tench Class fleet submarines built for the U.S. Navy during 1944-45, TORSK was part of the American Submarine offensive which played a pivotal role in World War II's Pacific Campaign.

USS Torsk is now part of the Living Classrooms Foundation's Maritime Museum in Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

TORSK departed New London, Connecticut, for the Pacific on February 11, 1945 and five weeks later arrived in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Under Commander Bafford E. Lewellen, TORSK would complete two war patrols totaling 103 days until the war's end in August.

While TORSK's first war patrol was largely uneventful, her second patrol would secure her place in history. Leaving Pearl Harbor on July 17, she arrived in the Sea of Japan on August 10, 1945. While patrolling on August 11, TORSK rescued seven Japanese merchant sailors adrift at sea and the following day recorded her first victory when a Japanese coastal freighter was spotted and sunk. On August 13, a second cargo ship was torpedoed marking TORSK's second victory.

On the morning of August 14, 1945, TORSK sighted a medium-sized cargo ship escorted by a coastal defense frigate off the Japanese mainland. Commander Lewellen immediately plotted a torpedo attack and was able to sink the escort. A short time later, a second Japanese frigate arrived to search for the American submarine. After firing a torpedo, TORSK dove to 400 feet and rigged for "silent running".

When no explosion was heard, a Mark 27 homing torpedo was fired at the sound of the frigate's propeller. Soon after, two explosions (presumably from both torpedoes) marked the sinking of the Japanese warship. Though TORSK's crew could not have known it at the time, they had sunk the last ship of World War II. Less than 24 hours later, a cease-fire order ending hostilities was passed throughout the American fleet.

Post World War II

From 1945 through 1967, TORSK served as both a training vessel for submarine crews and as an active boat in the Atlantic and Mediterranean fleets. In 1952, she received her present conning tower which included a snorkel. A snorkel is a retractable air-intake engine-exhaust system that enable a submarine's diesel engines to operate while the boat remains submerged. Today, TORSK is the only surviving example of a fleet-snorkel conversion.

Following her 1952 refit, TORSK carried out deployments in the Mediterranean, the Atlantic and the Caribbean. In 1960, she was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for service during the Lebanon Crisis. In 1962, when U.S. naval forces were ordered to interdict the delivery of Soviet nuclear missiles to Cuba, TORSK was deployed as an active part of the American blockade earning the Navy Commendation Medal. In 1967, after an all-time record of 11,884 career dives, TORSK was retired from the active fleet to become a training vessel for the naval reserve. On December 15,1971, she was struck from the Navy list and the following year arrived in Baltimore's Inner Harbor and became a museum and memorial.