USS Seal (SS-183), a Salmon-class submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the seal, a sea mammal valued for its skin and oil. Her keel was laid down on 25 May 1936 by the Electric Boat Company in Groton, Connecticut. She was launched on 25 April 1937 at the Naval Submarine Base, New London, sponsored by Mrs. John F. Greenslade, and commissioned on 30 April 1937, Lieutenant Karl G. Hensel in command.