USS Sawfish (SS-276), a Gato-class submarine, was a ship of the United States Navy named for the sawfish, a viviparous ray which has a long flat snout with a row of toothlike structures along each edge. It is found principally in the mouths of tropical American and African rivers. Sawfish (SS-276) was laid down on 20 January 1942 by the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine; launched on 23 June 1942; sponsored by the Honorable Hattie Wyatt Caraway, the first woman to be elected to the United States Senate; and commissioned on 26 August 1942, Lt. Comdr. Eugene T. Sands in command.