Watching a winter commissioning ceremony

Date

• December 30, 1944

Summary

• A crowd of men, women, and children, all wearing winter attire, stand on the snow-covered grounds of the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company along the Manitowoc River watching the commissioning ceremony for the U.S.S. Lizardfish (SS 373) on December 30, 1944. Among the group are Naval officers and crewmen, shipyard officials and workers, and family members of crewmen and workers. The Lizardfish, one of twenty-eight submarines built for the U.S. Navy by the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company during World War II, is tied up along the river, just out of view in this picture. In the background are scrap piles of material for two unfinished submarines, the “Needlefish” (SS 379) and the “Nerka” (SS 380). The large cylindrical sections with the number “379” would have formed hull portions of the “Needlefish” (SS 379). The company’s contracts to build those two submarines were cancelled in July, 1944 and parts for them were scrapped. However, work continued on several other submarines that were already under construction, including the Lizardfish, which had been laid down March 14, 1944 and launched July 16, 1944. After commissioning, the Lizardfish continued sea trials in Lake Michigan before departing Manitowoc on January 20, 1945 for Lockport, Illinois, where she was loaded into a floating drydock and towed down the Mississippi to New Orleans. Like the other Manitowoc submarines, the Lizardfish served in the Pacific during the war.