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 and/or tiger:
“I have need of night people.
I have need to see the bum dozing
off on scag, the women in labor
pushing forth a pink head,
lord I need to fly I am sick of
rocks and sea water....”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“When there is no tiger on the mountain, the monkey becomes king.”
—Chinese proverb.