USS Becuna

The USS Becuna – named for a type of barracuda and nicknamed the “Tiger of the Sea” by her crew, is a “fleet” submarine, fast and capable of long voyages. She was built by Electric Boat Company at Groton, Connecticut, commissioned on May 27, 1944, and sent through the Panama Canal to the Pacific to help defeat the Japanese in World War II. 

Commander Henry Dixon Sturr (1910-1998) took command of the slender 308-foot-long submarine while she was under construction, and he commanded her on five long patrols, searching for enemy shipping while she was based in Fremantle, Australia. The reports of those missions make it clear that Becuna’s crew surveyed a lot of empty ocean, but they did find and sink approximately 18,000 tons of Japanese shipping, in recognition of which they received four Battle Stars and a Presidential Unit Citation. 

After the war, Becuna was moved from the Pacific to the Atlantic Fleet, and in 1950-51 she returned to the shipyard to be fitted with the Greater Underwater Propulsive Power (“GUPPY”) system. Before nuclear power, submarines relied on battery power when submerged, since their diesel engines required air. GUPPY included an enormously efficient snorkel—developed by the Germans during the war, which enabled boats to keep diesel engines running while submerged. Underwater speed was much increased.

Over the ensuing 18 years, Becuna operated from Groton, performing a variety of peacetime missions, most of them involving training. After serving the Navy continuously from 1944 to 1969, she was decommissioned and laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet in Philadelphia until 1976, when she was donated to the Cruiser Olympia Association. With the Olympia, she was transferred to the Independence Seaport Museum in 1996.

Penn's Landing, Delaware Ave. & Spruce St., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Photo Credit: Library of Congress

Photographer: Carol M. Highs