USS Sealion (SS-195), a Sargo-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the sea lion, any of several large, eared seals native to the Pacific. Her keel was laid down on 20 June 1938 by the Electric Boat Company of Groton, Connecticut. She was launched on 25 May 1939 sponsored by Mrs. Claude C. Bloch, and commissioned on 27 November 1939, Lieutenant J. K. Morrison Jr. in command.