fish names and the us navy

[face]

so i was watching some history stuff and the person i was watching said off the top of his head that the us navy during ww2 was naming so many submarines that that they ran out of fish to name them after so they started to name fish than name the submarines after the fish they just gave a name i figured that there was no way this was true but after some reading IT'S TRUE

in the book submarine stories by Paul Stillwell theres a section from a captain william f calkins who's job it was to name ships (and submarine) after going through all the easy names like salmon he stated to taking to the United States National Museum (now the National Museum of Natural History)for names with the understanding that the name needed to be easy to pronounce spell and not be silly after a while even the Museum started to run out of names so they stated making them up

(after the war)
"As we parted, Dr. Wetmore said, “Calkins, you have been an amusing fellow to work with. You know, in the early part of the war, you were naming your submarines after our fish, but I learn lately that we have been naming our fish after your submarines.”  And that is exactly what happened. When the going got really tough, I tried a new tack. I would read the dictionary until I came across a name that sounded
sort of fishy. Then I would ask one of Dr. Wetmore’s ichthyologists if he had a fish by that name, knowing
darned well he didn’t.  When he had checked his card file without finding the name, I would ask him if he could find me a blank card. The taxonomists are constantly finding new subspecies, differentiating them by minor features from their near relatives. The scientific name is fairly automatic – genus, species, and subspecies, which may be the name of the discoverer. But often no one gets around to giving them popular names.

So the ichthyologist and I would thumb through the cards until we found a likely blank one, add the name I
had devised, and there was the Navy’s newest sub, named after a perfectly bona fide fish, with its name properly listed with the U.S. National Museum."

you can find the full story here
https://www.facebook.com/MareIslandMuseum/posts/a-fishy-storynot-enough-fishcapt-william-f-calkins-usnr-retwhen-the-navy-launche/1591121617695786/

and a better version of what i just wrote
https://siarchives.si.edu/blog/fish-story
https://siarchives.si.edu/blog/fish-story
 

so next time you hear a common fish names there's a not 0 chance it was named after a submarine and give a thought for william calkins stuck in a room desperately wishing for more fish.

[Ken Burke]

Sounds like something outta @lefty o’s book!

[lefty o]

On 8/21/2022 at 12:59 AM, Ken Burke said:

Sounds like something outta @lefty o’s book!

ha, this guy doesnt do submarines. ive been on 2, both tied to the pier. wont catch me underwater on one of them. it is true that a lot of the old boats were named for fish.

Edited August 21, 2022 by lefty o

[Ken Burke]

Two thing this guy doesn’t do: jump outta perfectly good airplane, submerge a perfectly sound boat

[Tanked]

A submarine trip could be on my one and done list if the price is right.  I think the navy might have missed a few, I could not find a USS Sardine.  The name would have been appropriate for a submarine.  They could also have doubled up and used some of the Latin names.

[face]

On 8/21/2022 at 1:20 PM, Tanked said:

A submarine trip could be on my one and done list if the price is right.  I think the navy might have missed a few, I could not find a USS Sardine.  The name would have been appropriate for a submarine.  They could also have doubled up and used some of the Latin names.

apparently the navy  doesn't like the name sardine.

"we never figured that we could put sardine on the navy list but we named the uss sarda same fish"

[Tanked]

On 8/22/2022 at 12:24 PM, face said:

apparently the navy  doesn't like the name sardine.

"we never figured that we could put sardine on the navy list but we named the uss sarda same fish"

The French and British used it on sailing ships.  I guess Sardine had a bad connotation for someone. That makes me wonder how Plunger made the list. 

Diver or gambler is not the first thing I think of.   It would not have been my choice for a submarine, being neither fish nor nobel in everyday use.