High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! USS Drum (SS-228) is a Gato-class submarine of the United States Navy, the first Navy ship named after the drum, any of various types of fish capable of making a drumming sound. Drum is presently on display as a museum ship in Mobile, Alabama. Drum was laid down on 11 September 1940 at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine. She was launched on 12 May 1941 (sponsored by Mrs. Thomas Holcomb), and commissioned on 1 November 1941, Commander Robert H. Rice in command. According to materials obtained at the submarine, Drum was the twelfth of the Gato class but was the first completed and the first to enter combat in World War II. She is the oldest still in existence.