| Year | Date | Historical Events |
| 1942 | Jul 23 | Keel laid down by the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, ME. |
| | Dec 7 | Launched. |
| 1943 | May 1 | Commissioned. |
| | May 1 | Recommissioned. |
| | Aug 10 | Arrived Brisbane, Australia after departing New London, CT. |
| | Aug 16 | Bowfin got underway for Darwin, Australia. |
| | Aug 25 | Bowfin topped off with fuel at Darwin, Australia and departed on her 1st war patrol. |
| | Sep 2 | Bowfin reached the Mindanao Sea, but plied it's waters for more than 3 weeks without encountering any worthy targets. |
| | Sep 24 | Bowfin rendezvoused with Billfish (SS-286) to conduct coordinated operations. |
| | Sep 25 | The 2 submarines began tracking a 6 ship convoy and continued the chase for some 5 hours before Bowfin finally attained a suitable attack position. She then launched her 6 bow torpedoes—4 at a freighter and 2 at a trailing transport. |
| | Sep 25 | (Cont'd.) 3 exploded against the side of the first ship and both of those fired at the second struck home. The submarine immediately turned her fantail toward the convoy and emptied her stern tubes, sending 4 torpedoes in the direction of a tanker. |
| | Sep 25 | (Cont'd.) Gunfire at her periscope forced Bowfin to go deep and so prevented her from observing the progress of her last salvo, but her crew heard its torpedoes explode. |
| | Sep 25 | (Cont'd.) When the submarine rose to periscope depth about an hour later, the 8,120-ton passenger-cargo ship Kirishima Maru was slowly sinking, the tanker was on fire, and the transport seemed to be settling by the stern. |
| | Sep 25 | (Cont'd.) However, the two latter ships apparently were able to limp back to port, for the sinking of neither was confirmed by postwar study of Japanese records. |
| | Sep 28 | Bowfin came across a 1,400-ton inter-island steamer and shadowed her until reaching a firing position about 3 hours later. She then launched 3 torpedoes. One stopped before reaching the target, and the other two missed.
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| | Sep 30 | As she left the Mindanao Sea, Bowfin chanced upon a diesel propelled barge carrying over 100 Japanese soldiers and opened fire on it with her 4-inch gun. When the target responded with machine gun fire, the submarine’s 20-millimeter guns entered the fray. |
| | Sep 30 | (Cont'd.) The battle came to an abrupt end when a 4-inch round struck the enemy’s magazine and blew apart the already sinking barge.
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| | Oct 2 | Bowfin continued her retirement through Makassar Strait toward Australia, she sighted a schooner off Balikpapan. Willingham fired two shots across the stranger’s bow but failed to bring her to, so he had her sunk with gunfire.
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| | Oct 10 | Bowfin arrived at Fremantle, Ausatralia, ending a successful patrol. |
| | Oct 26 | LCDR. Walter Thomas Griffith relieved Willingham in command of Bowfin. |
| | Nov 1 | Upon completion of refitting, Bowfin got underway for her 2nd war patrol and headed for the South China Sea. |
| | Nov 8 | Bowfin picked up the trail of 5 schooners. When she pulled within range of them, she opened fire with her 4-inch gun and sank 3 before bombs from a Japanese plane forced the submarine to dive and thus allowed the 2 surviving vessels to slip away. |
| | Nov 8 | (Cont'd.) After staying down until the return of darkness, Bowfin surfaced and resumed patrolling. Before long, she discovered and opened fire upon a large sailing ship which went down after suffering hits by two 4-inch shells. |
| | Nov 10 | Bowfin found her next victims, a pair of small steamers heading for Tawi-Tawi Bay, and set both afire with gunfire.
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| | Nov 26 | Bowfin unexpectedly found herself surrounded by Japanese shipping. After barely avoiding a collision with a tanker by backing all engines, she torpedoed and sank the 5,069 ton tanker Ogurasan Maru and then dispatched the 5,407 ton freighter Tainan Maru. |
| | Nov 26 | (Cont'd.) Bowfin's torpedoes ended the career of Van Vollenhoven, a 691 ton coastal cargo ship which the Japanese had taken from her French owners when they overran Indochina almost two years before. |
| | Nov 28 | After having sent a small passenger-cargo ship to the bottom with a single torpedo, Bowfin joined Billfish in attacking a convoy and quickly sank Sydney Maru, a 5,425 ton freighter and Tonon Maru, a 9,866 ton tanker.
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| | Dec 2 | Bowfin sank a 2 masted yacht with her deck gun. |
| | Dec 5 | Bowfin arrived at Fremantle, Australia. |
| 1944 | Jan 8 | Bowfin got underway for her 3rd war patrol. She proceeded through the Java, Banda, and Flores Seas to Makassar Strait. |
| | Jan 16 | Bowfin encountered a small schooner; surfaced, and sank the sailing vessel with her deck gun. |
| | Jan 17 | Bowfin came across a cargo ship and two escorts, but her attacks on these targets were frustrated by malfunctioning torpedoes. |
| | Jan 17 | (Cont'd.) One from her first spread of four bow torpedoes hit and stopped the freighter, but the other three missed and two shots from her bow tubes detonated before reaching the target. |
| | Jan 18 | Bowqfin returned to the convoy and finished off the crippled cargo ship with four well-aimed torpedoes which sent the 4,408-ton Shoyu Maru to the bottom. She also managed to hit one of the escorts with two “fish,” but did not sink her.
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| | Jan 20 | Out of torpedoes, Bowfin returned to Darwin, Australia for more and, while in port, picked up Rear Admiral Christie who remained on board the submarine for the rest of the patrol to check on torpedo performance, first hand. |
| | Jan 29 | Bowfin laid a minefield in Makassar Strait before beginning the voyage back to Australia. |
| | Jan 30 | Bowfin came across a pair of small schooners which she destroyed with her 4-inch gun. |
| | Feb 7 | Bowfin moored at Fremantle, Australia. |
| | Feb 28 | Underway on her 5th war patrol, Bowfin headed for the Celebes Sea. |
| | Mar 10 | Bowfin sighted a convoy of four ships screened by a couple of escorts. Bowfin fired six bow tubes, but four of the torpedoes exploded prematurely. |
| | Mar 11 | Bowfin attacked the freighter again, but the Japanese escorts drove her down once more. Later that day, she rose to periscope depth, found the damaged ship alone, and finished the 4,470-ton Tsukikawa Maru off with four well aimed torpedoes.
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| | Mar 12 | Bowfin returned to Darwin, Australia for more torpedoes. |
| | Mar 15 | Bowfin stood out to sea with a fresh load of torpedoes. |
| | Mar 18 | Bowfin emptied her bow tubes while attacking a small convoy, but all six either ran under their targets or missed wide of their marks. |
| | Mar 18 | (Cont'd.) The inevitable depth charge barrage followed, but proved to be equally ineffective. When Bowfin attacked again later that day she fired four torpedoes, all of which were wasted.
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| | Mar 24 | Bowfin attacked a five ship convoy in the Celebes Sea, sinking two freighters. The 5,139 ton Shinkyo Maru and the 5,395 ton Bengal Maru. She also damaged a third ship but could not finish her off for want of torpedoes. |
| | Apr 1 | Bowfin arrived at Darwin, Australia. There, CDR. John H. Corbus relieved LCDR. Griffith in command of Bowfin. |
| | Apr 24 | Bowfin got underway again on and headed for the Palaus. This 6th war patrol proved to be her longest in both time and distance. |
| | May 14 | Bowfin managed to put two torpedoes into a freighter, and it refused to sink. |
| | Jun 21 | Bowfin arrived at Pearl Harbor, HI. |
| | Jul 16 | Bowfin left Hawaii and headed for the Ryukyu Islands on her 7th war patrol. |
| | Aug 9 | Bowfin sighted four ships heading for the harbor at Minami Daito. She trailed them into port and, after they had moored, fired her bow torpedoes, blowing up two and damaging a third. |
| | Aug 22 | Bowfin attacked a convoy, hit several ships, claimed several kills including two destroyers, but apparently only sank the 6,754 ton transport Tsushima Maru carrying 1,484 civilians, including 767 schoolchildren. |
| | Aug 28 | Bowfin set a little trawler afire with her 4-inch gun. |
| | Sep 21 | Bowfin reached San Francisco, CA., and entered the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo , CA. for overhaul.
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| | Dec 16 | At the end of the yard work, CDR. Alexander K. Tyree relieved CDR. Corbus and, later that day, the submarine got underway Westward back across the Pacific. Bowin headed for a station near the Japanese home islands south of Honshu on her 7th war patrol. |
| 1945 | Feb 17 | Bowfin attacked two Japanese subchasers and sank the 750-ton Coast Defense Vessel No. 56 with torpedoes and then survived a 26-depth-charge attack by her victim’s consort. |
| | Feb 17 | Bowfin attacked two Japanese subchasers and sank the 750-ton Coast Defense Vessel No. 56 with torpedoes and then survived a 26-depth-charge attack by her victim’s consort. Bowfin later sank a Japanese sea truck with one torpedo. |
| | Mar 19 | Bowfin rescued the pilot and gunner of a downed torpedo bomber. |
| | Mar 25 | Bowfin arrived at Guam, Marianas Island. |
| | Apr 23 | Bowfin got underway for her 8th war patrol, and plied the waters North of Honshu and Hokkaido. |
| | May 1 | Bowfin's first kill came when two of her torpedoes sank the 2,719 ton transport Chowa Maru. |
| | May 8 | Bowfin overtook, torpedoed, and destroyed an 880 ton freighter Daito Maru No. 3. |
| | May 22 | Bowfin arrived at Apra Harbor, Guam for refit. While training for her 9th and final war patrol, Bowfin rescued a Marine Corps pilot whose fighter had crashed. |
| | May 29 | Bowfin got underway and pointed her bow back toward the enemy homeland. One of nine submarines protected by newly developed mine-detecting sonar and sent into the Sea of Japan. |
| | Jun 11 | The 1,898 ton transport Shinyo Maru took four torpedoes from Bowfin, before sinking. |
| | Jun 13 | Bowfin sank the 887 ton freighter Akiura Maru. |
| | Jul 4 | Bowfin left the Sea of Japan by La Pérouse Strait (Soya Misaki) and headed for Hawaii. She reached Pearl Harbor, HI. on Independence Day and began preparations to return to action. |
| | Aug 1 | Bowfin sailed for the Marianas, her staging point for her 10th war patrol. However, while enroute, she received word of Japan’s capitulation. As a result, she reversed course and returned to Hawaii. |
| | Sep 21 | Bowqfin arrived at Tompkinsville,Staten Isaland, NY,. after leaving Pearl Harbor, HI. She operated with the Atlantic Fleet. |
| 1951 | Oct 6 | Bowfin arrived at San Diego, CA., and operated there on local operations and training exercies. |
| 1953 | Oct 8 | Arrived San Francisco to commence inactivation. |
| 1954 | Apr 22 | Bowfin was placed "Out of Commission, In Reserve" at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, CA. |
| | May 22 | Decommissioned. |
| 1960 | May 1 | Bowfin moved to Seattle, WA., to replace Puffer (SS-268) as the Naval Reserve training submarine there and to begin a bit over a decade’s service. |
| 1971 | Dec 1 | Bowfin was struck from the Naval Register, and taken back to Pearl Harbor,HI., where she now serves as a memorial.
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