The USS Cod (SS-224) is a celebrated Gato-class submarine that racked up a formidable combat record in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Commissioned in June 1943, the submarine completed seven successful combat patrols, sinking more than 12 enemy vessels and damaging many others, earning a total of seven battle stars. Beyond her standard torpedo runs, the Cod is legendary for performing one of the most unique humanitarian rescues in naval history. In July 1945, she rushed to the aid of the grounded Dutch submarine HNLMS O 19 in the South China Sea; after a daring, multi-day operation failed to free the stranded vessel, the Cod took the entire 56-man Dutch crew aboard, destroyed the Dutch sub to keep it out of enemy hands, and delivered the rescued sailors safely to port—marking the first sub-to-sub international rescue in history.
Today, the USS Cod is recognized as a National Historic Landmark and is permanently docked on the Lake Erie waterfront in Cleveland, Ohio, where it serves as a remarkably well-preserved museum ship. Unlike nearly all other surviving World War II submarines, the Cod is entirely intact and has never had doors or stairways cut into her pressure hull for public access; visitors still enter and exit the vessel through the original hatches and climb down vertical ladders, experiencing the exact interior layout that wartime sailors did. Because she was never updated with post-war modifications, the Cod remains a pristine time capsule of 1940s naval engineering, complete with her original five diesel engines and the authentic, cramped living spaces where her crew lived for months at a time under the sea.