Talk:USS Archerfish (SS-311)

Typo
"...she rescued one drowned aviator before returning to Midway..."

Either she rescued a downed aviator, or she recovered a drowned aviator. Since I don't know which is true, I mention it here for someone who might.


 * Good catch. According to 1, the aviator was alive and later became an admiral. Article has been updated. Jinian 11:54, 19 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Archer-Fish <--correct name format
This is not well-known, but the submarine's name was actually spelled as Archer-Fish, rather than Archerfish.

Source: Sea Assault, written by Joseph F. Enright, who was the captain of Archer-Fish when it sank the Japanese supercarrier Shinano.


 * In fact, that is so not well-known that the United States Navy doesn't even know it. The Naval Vessel Register, which is the authoritative source, spells it without the hyphen. ➥the Epopt 18:11, 9 August 2006 (UTC)


 * Then I guess it's a moot point. —Preceding unsigned comment added by WWII freak (talk • contribs) 16:28, 14 August 2006


 * DANFS now says "Archer-Fish": http://history.navy.mil/danfs/a10/archer-fish.htm ! (But the old page is still there: http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/a10/archerfish-i.htm .)


 * This change was apparently prompted by an email of mine pointing out the downed/"drowned" aviator:
 * {| border=1 width=90% cellpadding=20 bgcolor=lightgray


 * Please note the boat's name is actually Archer-Fish and not Archerfish. When the boat was recommissioned in the '50s the ship apparently deleted the hyphen, and when the SSN was built the name assigners simply retained the hyphen-less spelling. One of the vagaries of the ship name business.

Thanks for calling this to our attention.

Bob C.

Robert J. Cressman Head, Ships History Branch Editor, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
 * }
 * —wwoods 17:45, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

The tonage of the Shinano in this article doesn't jive with its stated tonnage in the Shinano article- just thought I'd point that out

Archerfish name
This is from the website ussarcherfish.com:

Following commissioning in 1943, the Crew of the new SS311, officially named USS ARCHERFISH was unofficially renamed USS Archer-Fish by the Crew. She carried that name throughout the War until She was decommissioned in 1946. When the USS ARCHERFISH was recommissioned in 1952, and throughout the remainder of Her Naval Service, ending in 1968, She was known by the un-hyphenated version of Her name. Her successor, USS ARCHERFISH (SSN-678) also used the un-hyphenated version. The name Archer-Fish was used by a special Boat and a special Crew during a special era..........

The website goes on to say that perhaps she was intended to have a hyphenated name and lost it to a clerical error, but adds, "various official documents do not have Her name hyphenated but all or most documents orginated by the Boat are hyphenated". Though not definitive one way or the other, I would argue that the evidence points more strongly to the boat being officially named Archerfish regardless of what her crew called her. Plus, if she was named for the actual archerfish why change it to Archer-Fish? Guardfish isn't Guard-Fish, Bonefish isn't Bone-Fish, why would Archerfish be different? For that matter, why change the name of a ship being recommissioned? It is also worth mentioning that in Theodore Roscoe's United States Submarine Operations in World War II the name Archerfish is used throughout. Roscoe wrote the book at the behest of the Bureau of Naval Personnel and it was published in 1949, which belies the notion that the name Archerfish was somehow applied retroactively upon the boat's 1952 recommissioning.

The point that I am laboring to make is that it just seems strange for the Archerfish to be known as the Archerfish for sixty-odd years before someone notices or decides that her real name has always been Archer-Fish. It doesn't pass the smell test. In any event, a preponderance of the evidence would suggest that Archerfish is the correct name, not Archer-Fish, especially given that the only usage of the latter name comes from the crew who themselves believed the official name was Archerfish. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.244.31.37 (talk) 02:06, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

Correct name was always "USS Archerfish" - Please correct
This image shows USS Archerfish in 1945, clearly showing the name without a hyphon. This should solve the problem. Please rename the article as soon as possible to the correct name. --GDK (talk) 12:11, 19 August 2010 (UTC)
 * As I wrote the post above over two years ago, I'm with you on getting rid of that ridiculous hyphen, but it looks like one of us will have to do it ourselves if it is to get done. Incidentally, DANFS seems to have come to it's senses as the link above to the hyphenated Archer-Fish no longer works, but the link to the "old" correct page does. Perhaps it's time to put this one case of original research to bed.172.191.63.123 (talk) 19:24, 8 May 2011 (UTC)
 * This is a very bad unresolved issue. We have a dead link referenced still in the article from hazegray.org - they no longer list the vessel on their site at all.HammerFilmFan (talk) 12:07, 20 February 2013 (UTC)

Location
The map-linked coordinates of the wreck may be a typo. Article says "off California", but longitude shows E140, which is close to Japan. Perhaps this should be W140? If you flip the sign from pos to neg in GMaps you can see that W140 would be between California and Hawaii. Leaving this uncorrected since I have no idea where the wreck actually is. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.176.224.216 (talk) 07:55, 8 October 2015 (UTC)