Did you know why USS Cod has a martini glass on her battle flag?

Submarine battle flags are traditional, unofficial records of a vessel’s history, displaying the boat’s victories and exploits through a variety of symbols. While these flags are not official, some of the icons were relatively standard: a “meatball” flag for a Japanese merchant ship, a Rising Sun flag with rays for a warship, and a “hollow,” white sun for ships damaged rather than sunk. Some flags also display unusual images relevant to their actions. One example of this is the train on the flag of USS Barb (“Sinking” an Enemy Train); another is the martini glass on the battle flag (and conning tower) of USS Cod.

Cod was a Gato-class submarine, the class being the first mass-produced U.S. submarine type of World War II. After her commissioning on June 21, 1943, she ran patrols in the Pacific, mainly in and near the South China Sea, sinking over 12 enemy vessels.

Cod was on her seventh and last patrol in the Gulf of Siam and along the coast of Indo-China, when, in July 1945, she was directed to assist the Dutch submarine HNLMS (“His/Her Netherlands Majesty’s Ship”) O 19. O 19 and her sister ship O 20 were the first submarines in the world to be equipped with a submarine snorkel, which allowed them to run the diesel engines while submerged. She was one of over a dozen Dutch submarines stationed in the Dutch East Indies that continued to fight for the Allied side after their home country was conquered by Nazi Germany.

O 19 was heading for the Philippines when she struck Ladd Reef in the South China Sea and ran aground on July 8, 1945. She could not pull herself free of the reef, and the crew had to be rescued by Cod. Once the crew was safely aboard the American boat, O 19 was scuttled by a combination of explosives, torpedoes and gunfire to prevent her capture by the Japanese. This was the only international submarine-to-submarine rescue in history. Cod dropped off the rescued crew at a U.S. Navy base and resumed her patrol, making numerous gunfire attacks small ships trying to supply the Japanese garrison at Singapore. 

Cod returned to Fremantle in Western Australia on August 13, 1945, where the crew was reunited with the Dutch submariners, who threw a party for their rescuers. The two crews learned of the Japanese surrender (The Jewel Voice Broadcast) during the celebrations. The Cod crew decided to record the rescue of O 19 and the well-timed party on their battle flag and the conning tower with a martini glass and O 19’s name underneath it.

USS Cod was mothballed in 1946, recommissioned in 1951 for use in training exercises, decommissioned again, and recommissioned again as a training boat. She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register in 1971, and operates today as a museum ship in Cleveland, Ohio.