High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! USS Billfish (SS-286), a Balao-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to bear the generic name for any fish, such as gar or spearfish, with bill-shaped jaws. Her keel was laid down at Portsmouth Navy Yard on 23 July 1942. She was launched on 12 November 1942 sponsored by (Mrs. Lewis Parks, wife of Lieutenant Commander Parks), and commissioned on 20 April 1943 with Lieutenant Commander Frederic Colby Lucas, Jr., in command.