In Memoriam - USS Pickerel (SS-177) - Sunk on April 7, 1943

USS Pickerel (SS-177) was a Porpoise-class submarine, designed in the 1930s and commissioned in 1937. She was similar to Razorback in many respects, but only had a test depth of 250 feet.

On March 22nd, 1943, Pickerel left Midway island on her seventh war patrol. Her assigned patrol area was off the Japanese home island of Honshu.

She was never heard from again.

After the war, Japanese records revealed that Pickerel sank two vessels during her final patrol. The first, a submarine chaser was sunk on April 3rd and the second, the merchant ship Fukuei Maru was sunk on April 7th. There were several anti-submarine attacks carried out by Japanese forces in the area, and one of these attacks was the likely cause of Pickerel's loss.