In Front of the Liberty Ship SS Jeremiah O’ Brien lies the USS Pampanito – SS-383 a Balao class submarine. She is named after the Pompano fish. The Balao class is with 120 submarines the most successful design of the United States Navy durin World War Two. The class was in production from 1942 until 1945. The USS Pampanito laid down her keel on November the 6th in 1943 and sailed off to Pearl Harbor. She sailed six war patrols in the Pacific on which she sank 6 ships and damaged 4. On her third war patrol she unknowingly sank the Kachidoki which was transporting 900 British prisoners of war. Pampanito picked up 73 surviors and called in three other vessels to assist.
After World War Two she returned to San Francisco were she was off and on in service until December 1971. Like the SS Jeremiah O’Brien she is a museum ship to be seen on Pier 45, Fisherman’s Wharf.
