SS-306 was actually the USS Tang. In her short career, lasting barely over a year, she amassed an unequaled record. Depending on the source, she sank either 24 ships for 93,824 tons or 31 ships in her five patrols, totaling 227,800. The Tang was sunk on 25 October,1944 with the loss of 74 men. Nine men, including her skipper, survived. Tang was sunk by her last torpedo which made a circular run. Picked up by a Japanese destroyer, the men were tortured by survivors of the ships she had sunk in her last action. They were interred at Japanese POW camps until the end of the war.
One of the first films to touch on the topic of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The aircraft carrier used in the film, CV-21 USS Boxer, never received any major modernization, and thus throughout her career (1945-69) retained the classic appearance of a World War II Essex-class aircraft carrier. On 10 March 1948 she was the site of the first landing of a Navy jet aircraft (the FJ-1 Fury) aboard an aircraft carrier. She was also scheduled to be the prime recovery vessel for the Gemini 8 mission in March, 1966. This opportunity was missed, however, when Gemini 8 had an in-flight emergency and landed in the Western Pacific instead.
No ship of the US Navy has ever borne the name USS Tiger Shark or Tigershark.