Joseph F. Enright

Joseph Francis Enright (September 18, 1910 – July 20, 2000) was a submarine captain in the United States Navy. He is best known as the man who sank the Japanese aircraft carrier Shinano–the "most significant single submarine sinking of World War II."

US Navy career Enright was born in Minot, North Dakota. He graduated from United States Naval Academy in 1933, served three years on and in October sailed out on her first war patrol into busy Japanese waters. On November 15 an Ultra message alerted him to intercept aircraft carrier Shōkaku; Enright located the target and "made a timid approach, abandoning the effort as daylight approached". Enright took the blame for failure: "I was responsible for an unproductive patrol and request to be relieved by an officer who can perform more satisfactorily". Enright requested to be given another submarine command

Enright had initially assumed the target was a tanker. Once he realized it was a carrier, he ordered it tracked "from ahead" in hopes of getting into position for an attack from below.

At 0241, on November 29, the target turned away from Archerfish and then straight at her. Shinano was also compromised by inadequate watertight integrity. A number of watertight doors had not been installed, and the compartments had not been air tested. The carrier's executive officer recalled hearing air rushing through gaps in the doors mere minutes after the last torpedo hit. He knew this meant seawater was already surging into Shinano, proving the doors were unseaworthy. Enright also discovered that task group commander Toshio Abe had operated under the assumption that Archerfish was part of a wolfpack rather than a lone sub. In hopes of outrunning Archerfish, Abe inadvertently turned into the sub's path on a number of occasions. Most seriously, just before Enright opened fire, Abe inadvertently exposed Shinanos entire side to Archerfish, an ideal firing situation for a submarine. As it turned out, this magnified the damage when Enright loosed his torpedoes.