After passing through the edge of a typhoon, Sailfish arrived on station to perform lifeguard duty. On 12 October, staying surfaced in full view of enemy attackers,[38] she rescued 12[38] Navy fliers who had ditched their stricken aircraft after strikes against Japanese bases on Formosa. She sank a sampan and a patrol craft[38] with her deck gun as the enemy craft tried to capture the downed aviators. The following day, she rescued another flier. The submarines pulled into Saipan, arriving on 24 October, to drop off their temporary passengers, refuel, and make minor repairs.

After returning to the patrol area with the wolf pack, she made an unsuccessful attack on a transport on 3 November. The following day, Sailfish damaged two destroyers but was slightly damaged herself by a bomb from a patrol aircraft. With battle damage under control, Sailfish eluded her pursuers and cleared the area. After riding out a typhoon on 9–10 November, she intercepted a convoy on the evening of 24 November heading for Itbayat in the Philippines. After alerting Pomfret of the convoy's location and course, Sailfish was moving into an attack position when one of the escorting destroyers headed straight for her. Sailfish fired a three-torpedo spread "down the throat" and headed toward the main convoy. At least one hit was scored on the destroyer and her pip faded from the radar screen. Suddenly, Sailfish received an unwelcome surprise when she came under fire from the destroyer that she had believed to be sunk. Sailfish ran deep after ascertaining there was no hull damage resulting from a near miss from the escort's guns. For the next 4​1⁄2 hours, Sailfish was forced to run silent and deep as the Japanese kept up an uncomfortably accurate depth charge attack. Finally, the submarine was able to elude the destroyers and slip away. Shortly, Sailfish headed for Hawaii, via Midway, and completed her 12th and final war patrol upon arriving at Pearl Harbor on 11 December. Sailfish had damaged the IJN destroyer Harukaze, which had previously sunk USS Shark, and also a landing ship.[23]

Return stateside

Following refit, Sailfish departed Hawaii on 26 December and arrived at New London, via the Panama Canal, on 22 January 1945. For the next four and one-half months, she aided training out of New London. Next, she operated as a training ship at Guantanamo Bay from 9 June–9 August. After a six-week stay at Philadelphia Navy Yard, she arrived at Portsmouth, New Hampshire on 2 October for deactivation.

Post war

Decommissioned on 27 October 1945, she was initially scheduled to be a target ship in the atomic bomb tests or sunk by conventional ordnance. However, she was placed on sale in March 1948 and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 30 April 1948. The hulk was sold for scrapping to Luria Brothers of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 18 June 1948. Her conning tower stands at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery as a memorial to her lost crewmen.[39]

Sailfish was awarded nine battle stars for service in the Pacific and the Presidential Unit Citation for outstanding performance on her 10th patrol."