USS Sea Tiger was a fictional submarine presumably named for the barracuda. No vessel of the United States Navy has been given that name, but the 1959 movie Operation Petticoat, starring Cary Grant and Tony Curtis, and the short-lived 1977-1978 television series of the same name, were set aboard a fictional Sea Tiger. According to the movie's dialogue, Sea Tiger was commissioned in 1940.
The name may come from the actual WWII-era submarine USS Sealion (SS-195), which like its film counterpart, was sunk at the pier at Cavite Navy Yard, the Philippines, on 10 December 1941 with the loss of 5 crewmembers.
The Sea Tiger in the movie was portrayed by three different American Balao-class submarines:
- Queenfish (SS-393), in the opening and closing scenes (c. 1959), in which the "393" on the conning tower is visible,
- Archerfish (SS-311), for all the WWII scenes where the boat was painted the standard gray and black,
- Balao (SS-285), for all the scenes in which Sea Tiger was painted pink.
Famous quotes containing the words sea tiger, sea and/or tiger:
“The Sea Tiger was built to fight. She deserves a better epitaph than “Commissioned 1940. Sank 1941. Engagements, none. Shots fired, none.” Now you can’t let her go that way. That’s like a beautiful woman dying an old maid.”
—Stanley Shapiro (1925–1990)
“The trumpets sound, the banners fly,
The glittering spears are ranked ready;
The shouts o’ war are heard afar,
The battle closes thick and bloody;
But it’s no the roar o’ sea or shore
Wad mak me langer wish to tarry;
Nor shout o’ war that’s heard afar,
Its leaving thee, my bonnie Mary.”
—Robert Burns (1759–1796)
“Iknowwhata mother tiger does when she’s upset. She eats her young.”
—Guy Trosper, U.S. screenwriter, and John Frankenheimer. Robert Stroud (Burt Lancaster)