USS Plaice
1943 Balao-class submarine
USS Plaice (SS-390), a Balao-class submarine, was a ship of the United States Navy named for the plaice, one of the various American flatfish; summer flounder. She participated in the Pacific War campaign of World War II, receiving six battle stars for her service. The United States later transferred her to Brazil in a joint cooperation program.
Construction and commissioning
Plaice was laid down by the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, on 14 July 1943; launched on 15 November 1943, sponsored by Miss Eleanor Fazzi; and commissioned on 12 February 1944.
Service history
United States Navy
Following shakedown and training, Plaice got underway for the Panama Canal Zone on 15 April, and arrived Pearl Harbor on 13 May. She departed on her first war patrol in the Bonin Islands area on 3 June. Plaice torpedoed and sank Hyakufuku Maru on 30 June; Kogi Maru on 5 July; and Submarine Chaser No. 50 on 18 July, before returning to Midway Island.
The submarine was off on her second war patrol on 17 August, this time in the Nansei Shoto area. In the early afternoon on 7 September, Plaice scored one torpedo hit on a Kongō Maru-class liner converted to an auxiliary cruiser.
“USS Plaice” enters the record as 1943 Balao-class submarine. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Plaice, Balao-class and submarine can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“USS Plaice” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Plaice, Balao-class and submarine provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 12, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q3268979. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1943 and 1944.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “USS Plaice”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow USS Plaice primary sources, USS Plaice archive and Plaice research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “USS Plaice”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “USS Plaice” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.