{| border="1" align="right" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="300" style="margin: 0 0 1em 0.5em"
|style="text-align: center" colspan="2"|[[image:IIH.png|300px|insert caption here]]
|-
!style="color: white; height: 30px; background: navy;"| Career
!style="color: white; height: 30px; background: navy;"| [[Image:US Naval Jack.svg|48px|USN Jack]]
|-
|Ordered:
|
|-
|Laid down:
|[[10 July]] [[1944]]
|-
|Launched:
|[[5 November]] [[1944]] 
|-
|Commissioned:
|[[17 March]] [[1945]] 
|-
|Decommissioned:
|[[15 December]] [[1971]]
|-
|Fate:
|sold to the [[Republic of China]]
|-
|Stricken:
|[[15 December]] [[1971]]
|-
!colspan="2" style="color: white; height: 30px; background: navy;"| General Characteristics
|-
|Displacement:
|1570 tons
|-
|Length:
|311 feet 8 inches
|-
|Beam:
|27 feet 4 inches
|-
|Draft:
|15 feet 3 inches
|-
|Propulsion:
|
|-
|Speed:
|20 knots
|-
|Range:
|
|-
|Complement:
|76 officers and men
|-
|Armament:
|one five-inch gun, ten 21-inch torpedo tubes
|-
|Motto:
|
|}
'''USS ''Cutlass'' (SS-478)''', a [[Tench class submarine|''Tench''-class]] [[submarine]], was the only ship of the [[United States Navy]] to be named for the [[cutlassfish]], a long, thin fish found widely along the coasts of the [[United States]] and in the [[West Indies]].  

Her keel was laid down by the [[Portsmouth Navy Yard]] on [[10 July]] [[1944]].  She was [[ship naming and launching|launched]] on [[5 November]] [[1944]] sponsored by Mrs. R. E. Kintner, and [[ship commissioning|commissioned]] on [[17 March]] [[1945]] with Commander Herbert L. Jukes in command.

Departing [[Portsmouth, New Hampshire]], on [[25 April]] [[1945]], ''Cutlass'' arrived at [[Pearl Harbor]] on [[15 July]] and put out on her maiden war patrol two days later. Assigned to patrol in the vicinity of the [[Kurile Islands]], she entered the area one day after the Japanese surrender, remained on observation patrol until [[24 August]], then returned to Pearl Harbor.  She sailed on [[2 September]] for New York, arriving [[24 September]] to receive visitors through [[Navy Day]].

''Cutlass'' cruised on the East Coast until [[8 January]] [[1946]] when she cleared for the [[Panama Canal Zone]]. Except for three months of operations in [[Delaware Bay]], ''Cutlass'' remained in the [[Caribbean Sea]], based at [[Cristobal, Canal Zone]]. From [[23 August]] to [[2 October]] [[1947]] she made a cruise down the coast of [[South America]], around [[Cape Horn]], visited [[Valparaíso]], [[Chile]], and returned to the east coast of South America through the [[Straits of Magellan]].

''Cutlass'' left the Panama Canal Zone [[6 January]] [[1948]] for local operations at [[Key West, Florida]], then entered [[Philadelphia Naval Shipyard]] in March for overhaul and modernization. Arriving at Key West [[7 February]] [[1949]] she served as test submarine for Operation "Rainbow" evaluating color schemes to enhance [[livability]], a serious problem in new submarines with long submergence capability. She continued to sail out of Key West until the summer of [[1952]] when her home port was changed to [[Naval Station Norfolk|Norfolk, Virginia]].

In [[1953]] ''Cutlass'' cruised to the [[Mediterranean Sea]], visiting [[France]], [[Greece]], [[Turkey]], [[North Africa]], [[Gibraltar]], [[Malta]], and [[Spain]], then sailed in [[Cuba]]n waters to act as target for [[destroyer]]s and aircraft engaged in antisubmarine exercises. She joined in local operations, fleet exercises and antisubmarine warfare training in the [[Caribbean Sea]] until September [[1956]] when she departed for the Mediterranean and operations with [[NATO]] forces including the [[US 6th Fleet|Sixth Fleet]]. She visited [[Italy]], [[Greece]], [[Crete]], [[Majorca]], [[Portugal]] and [[England]], returning to Norfolk in December. In [[1958]] she sailed on a north European cruise, visiting [[Rosyth]], [[Scotland]], [[Copenhagen]] and [[Korsor]], [[Denmark]], and passing through the [[Kiel Canal]].

In the first half of [[1959]], ''Cutlass'' joined in the antisubmarine warfare development work of Task Force "Alfa" off the [[Virginia Capes]], and in September sailed for the Mediterranean. In November she passed through the [[Suez Canal]] to join ships of the [[Pakistani Navy]] in exercises off [[Karachi]], returning to Norfolk in December. After continued operations with TF "Alfa," she entered [[Philadelphia Naval Shipyard]] in February [[1960]] for an overhaul which continued until August.

:''11 years of history go here''

''Cutlass'' was decommissioned and struck from the [[Naval Vessel Register]] on [[15 December]] [[1971]].  On [[4 December]] [[1973]], she was sold to the [[Republic of China]] (Taiwan) where she was commissioned as [[CNS Hai Shih (SS-791)|''Hai Shih'' (SS-791)]] (meaning "[[sea lion]]") . As of mid-November [[2005]], ''Hai Shih''was still in service.

== References ==
{{DANFS}}

==External links==
*[http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Quarters/1319/ USS Cutlass naval webring page]

{{Tench_class_submarine}}

[[Category:Tench class submarines|Cutlass]]
[[category:Republic of China Navy ships]]