High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! USS Stickleback (SS-415), a Balao-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the stickleback, any of numerous small scaleless fish having two or more free spines in front of the dorsal fin. Her keel was laid down on 1 March 1944 by the Mare Island Navy Yard of Vallejo, California. She was launched on 1 January 1945 sponsored by Mrs. John O.R. Coll, and commissioned on 29 March 1945, Commander Lawrence G. Bernard in command.