USS Whale (SS-239), a Gato-class submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for a whale, an extremely large, aquatic mammal that is fishlike in form. The USS Cachalot (SS-170) commissioned on 1 December 1933 preceded the Whale.

Frederick Joseph "Fritz" Harlfinger II was a United States Navy officer who served as a submarine commander during World War II and later commanded the South Atlantic Force of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet. He then served as director of the Office of Naval Intelligence and finally as director of Command Support Programs in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, with the rank of vice admiral.