.jpg) USSSeal | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Name | Seal |
| Builder | Electric Boat Company,Groton, Connecticut[1] |
| Laid down | 25 May 1936[1] |
| Launched | 25 August 1937[1] |
| Commissioned | 30 April 1938[1] |
| Decommissioned | 15 November 1945[1] |
| Stricken | 1 May 1956[1] |
| Fate | Sold for scrap, 6 May 1957[1] |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | Salmon-class compositediesel-hydraulic anddiesel-electricsubmarine[2] |
| Displacement | 1,435long tons (1,458 t) standard, surfaced,[3] 2,198 long tons (2,233 t) submerged[3] |
| Length | 308 ft 0 in (93.88 m)[3] |
| Beam | 26 ft1+1⁄4 in (7.957 m)[3] |
| Draft | 15 ft 8 in (4.78 m)[3] |
| Propulsion | 4 ×Hooven-Owens-Rentschler (H.O.R.) 9-cylinderdiesel engines (two hydraulic-drive, two drivingelectrical generators),[2][3][4] 2 × 120-cellbatteries,[3] 4 × high-speedElliottelectric motors withreduction gears,[2] two shafts,[2] 5,500shp (4.1 MW) surfaced,[2] 2,660 shp (2.0 MW) submerged[2] |
| Speed | 21 knots (39 km/h) surfaced,[3] 9 knots (17 km/h) submerged[3] |
| Range | 11,000 nautical miles (20,000 km) @ 10 knots (19 km/h)[3] |
| Endurance | 48 hours @ 2 knots (3.7 km/h) submerged[3] |
| Test depth | 250 ft (76 m)[3] |
| Complement | 5 officers, 54 enlisted[3] |
| Armament | 8 ×21 inch (533 mm)torpedo tubes (four forward, four aft; 24 torpedoes),[3] 1 ×3 in (76 mm)/50cal deck gun,[3] four machine guns |
USSSeal (SS-183), aSalmon-classsubmarine, was the second ship of theUnited States Navy to be named for theseal, a seamammal valued for its skin and oil.
Seal′skeel waslaid down on 25 May 1936 by theElectric Boat Company inGroton,Connecticut. She waslaunched on 25 April 1937 atNaval Submarine Base New London in Groton,sponsored by Mrs. Rosemary G. Greenslade, wife ofLieutenant (laterRear Admiral) John F. Greenslade and daughter-in-law of Rear AdmiralJohn W. Greenslade.Seal wascommissioned on 30 April 1937, Lieutenant Karl Goldsmith Hensel,[5] commanding.
Following an extended shakedown cruise[6] in theCaribbean and a post-shakedown yard period,Seal departedNew England in late November and proceeded to thePanama Canal Zone to commence operations out of her home port,Coco Solo. Arriving on 3 December, she conducted local operations offBalboa, Panama, and off Coco Solo into January 1939, then proceeded toHaiti where she participated in type exercises prior toFleet Problem XX. That exercise, to test the fleet's ability to control the approaches toCentral America andSouth America, was conducted during late February in theLesser Antilles.
In March,Seal returned to the Haiti–Cuba area for exercises with Destroyer Division 4 (DesDiv 4). In April, she proceeded toNew London, Connecticut, for overhaul which included modification of her main engines. In June, thesubmarine again sailed south, transited the Panama Canal, and continued on toSan Diego, California, andPearl Harbor. InHawaii from July to September, she took soundings for the Hydrographic Office and participated in various local exercises. At the end of the latter month, she returned to San Diego, her home port into 1941.
During the next two years, she conducted exercises and provided services to surface ships and toUnited States Navy andUnited States Army air units along the West Coast and in the Hawaiian area. In the fall of 1941, Submarine Division 21 (SubDiv 21) - of which she was now a part - was transferred to theAsiatic Fleet. Departing Pearl Harbor on 24 October, she reachedManila on 10 November, and 34 days later, cleared that bay to commence her first war patrol. She headed north to intercept Japanese forces moving into northernLuzon to reinforce those already landed atVigan andAparri, Cagayan.
Initially offCape Bojeador, she shifted south to the Vigan area on 20 December, and on 23 December,torpedoed and sankHayataka Maru, the last Japanese ship sunk by American torpedoes in December 1941 killing them all.
From the Vigan area, the submarine moved into the approaches toLingayen Gulf, and in January 1942, she again turned north to patrol the entrance toLamon Bay. She rounded Cape Bojeador on 9 January andCape Engaño on 10 January, and, on 11 January—as the Japanese invaded theNetherlands East Indies atTarakan,Borneo, andMinahasa,Celebes—she headed south for theMolucca Passage. By 20 January, she was patrolling east of the Celebes to intercept enemy traffic intoKema. On 27 January, she was ordered to patrol offKendari, which had been attacked on 24 January and then to proceed to theRoyal Netherlands Naval Base atSoerabaja, then still under Allied control.
Seal arrived at Soerabaja on 5 February. Daily air raids necessitated diving during the day and precluded repairs to her engines, which smoked excessively, and to the broken prism control mechanism in her high periscope. On 11 February, she departed forTjilatjap on the south coast ofJava, and on 14 February, she went alongsideHolland. That same day, the Japanese moved into southernSumatra, and on 19 February, they invadedBali. Allied forces counterattacked, and as air and surface forces hit the Japanese fleet,Seal departed Tjilatjap and transitedLombok Strait to patrol north of Java. On 24 February, she attacked two convoys, only damaging one freighter. The next day, she unsuccessfully attacked an enemy warship formation. On 1 March, as the Japanese moved against Soerabaja, she was similarly disappointed. On 14 March, she headed east to patrol the southern approaches toMakassar City, and for the next week, with her forward air conditioning unit broken down and her refrigerating plant inoperable, she patrolled between that city and De Bril Bank.[7] On 21 March, she headed forFremantle, Western Australia—the Netherlands East Indies had fallen.
Arriving on 9 April,Seal departed again on 12 May and worked her way through theMalay Archipelago, theCelebes Sea, and theSulu Sea to her patrol area off theIndochina coast. During the early morning hours of 28 May, she entered theSouth China Sea, and that night, she fired on and sank 1,946-tonTatsufuku Maru. On 7 June, while offCam Ranh Bay, she attacked an eight-ship convoy and underwent a seven-hourdepth charging by surface ships and aircraft. From 15–17 June, heavy seas and high winds hampered hunting, and on 18 June, "a healthy stream of air bubbles" was discovered "issuing from the starboard side...." On 19 June, she left the area and headed forBalabac Strait. On 23 June, she moved intoMakassar Strait, and on 4 July, she reached Fremantle.
On her fourth war patrol, from 10 August-2 October,Seal returned to the Indochina coast and patrolled north from Cape Padaran. Despite 11 sightings, she was plagued by uncertain torpedo performance against shallow draft vessels, by premature explosions and by leaky exhaust valves and holes in the fuel compensating line which resulted in air and oil leaks to the surface. She was able to damage only one cargo ship, on 3 September.
Twelve days later,Seal was en route back to Fremantle. She arrived on 2 October and departed again on 24 October to patrol in the shipping lanes in thePalau area. On 16 November, she intercepted a convoy of five cargomen in two columns with adestroyer escort and conducted a submerged attack on the leader of the near column as the formation zigzagged toward the submarine. Less than a minute after firing,Seal collided with, or was rammed by, another enemy ship. Theperiscope went black and vibrated severely. The submarine rose to 55 feet (17 m); hung there nearly a minute then started down. A few minutes later, depth charging began andSeal leveled off at 250 feet (76 m). Breaking up noises were heard. Four hours later, the area was clear andSeal surfaced. The high periscope had been bent horizontally, and the housing on the low periscope had been sprung, preventing its operation. The radar antenna had been broken off the radio mast. Quantities of uncooked rice and beans, unlike those used on the submarine, were found between the wooden deck pieces of thecigarette deck,[8] on the bridge, and caught in thebathythermograph. The periscope shears[9] yielded "a good sample of Japanesebottom paint."
Captured Japanese documents later confirmed the sinking of 3,500-tonBoston Maru by an American submarine on that date in that location. Whether that ship wasSeal's target or the colliding ship is not known, but it is possible that the freighter's hull had been badly punctured by the submarine's periscope shears.
On 17 November,Seal was ordered to start forPearl Harbor. She arrived on 30 November, and after temporary repairs, continued on to theMare Island Navy Yard for permanent repairs.
On 2 April 1943, she returned toHawaii, and 12 days later, she departed on her sixth war patrol. On 18 April, she topped off atMidway Island, and by 1 May, she was patrolling off thePalau Islands. On 2 May, she attacked a freighter, but missed and subsequently came under an aerial bombing attack. On 4 May, she sankSan Clemente Maru, but for the remainder of the patrol, was unable to close any targets.
Seal returned to Midway on 3 June. Refit took two weeks; further training took a third. On 24 June, she was ready for sea. On 2 July, she entered her area offTodo Saki[10][11] on the northeasternHonshū coast, and on 8 July, she underwent a severe, ten-hour, depth charging which resulted in persistent air and oil leaks and forced her to turn back for repairs.
She arrived at Pearl Harbor on 24 July. Her repairs were quickly completed, and in mid-August, she sailed west again. On 27 July, she entered the southernKuril Islands. On 31 July, while the submarine was diving, the conning tower hatch failed to latch, and subsequently flew open. The pumproom was flooded before the boat could be surfaced. Substantial damage to her electrical circuits resulted andSeal retired eastward to make temporary repairs. The work continued for a week, and on 8 August, as the air compressors were being jury-rigged to provide sufficient air pressure to launch torpedoes, she returned to the Kurils and crossed into theSea of Okhotsk. On 17 August, she attacked two freighters with no success. On 25 August, she cleared the area, and on 4 October, she returned to Pearl Harbor.
During her next war patrols,Seal provided lifeguard services and conducted reconnaissance missions—atKwajalein on her ninth - from 7 November-19 December - and at Ponape on her tenth - from 17 January-6 March 1944.
Seal proceeded toMare Island, and after re-engining and overhaul, returned to the northernHokkaidō–Kuril Islands area for her eleventh war patrol, from 8 August-17 September.
With 14–15 hours of daylight, she hunted in the coastal and inter-island shipping lanes toMuroran,Matsuwa, andParamushiro. On 24 August, she attacked and sankTosei Maru offErimo Saki.[12] On 5 September, after a six-hour chase, she fired four torpedoes at a maru with one escort. All of her torpedoes missed. On the night of 8 September, she encountered a two-column, six-ship convoy with an escort on each wing, and closed in to the leading ship. Shortly after 2045, she fired four torpedoes at overlapping targets, then opened to the eastward as the torpedoes started hitting. Just before midnight, she again attacked the convoy, now comprising only four ships. One freighter took two hits. A second maru turned to chaseSeal.Seal retired briefly, and just before 0300 on 9 September, hit the remainder of the convoy. Daylight brought antisubmarine aircraft to the scene, andSeal fishtailed at deep submergence until 1700. At 2026, having sunkShonan Maru and damaged three or four other ships, she headed for Midway, arriving on 17 September.
On her twelfth and final war patrol, from 10 October-29 November,Seal again hunted in the Kurils. Her 30 days in the area yielded only two contacts worthy of torpedo fire. On 25 October, she caught and sankHakuyo Maru (5,742 GRT) killing 1,415 as it ran down the convoy lanes away from Paramushiro. Three weeks later, she attacked and damaged another maru offEtorofu (nowIturup). During the last days of the patrol, she ranged off the coast ofSakhalin, scoreless. On 17 October, she cleared the area.
Seal arrived at Pearl Harbor on 29 November, and after refit, assumed training duties in the Hawaiian area. In June 1945, she returned to New London where she continued her training duties through the end ofWorld War II.
After the war, she was ordered inactivated and disposed of. In early November, she proceeded toBoston, Massachusetts, where she was decommissioned on 15 November, and after a change in her orders, was retained in the Reserve Fleet. On 19 June 1947, she was placed in service and assigned to Boston as a Naval Reserve training ship, and in March 1949, she was transferred toPortsmouth, New Hampshire, where she continued to serve the Naval Reserve until placed out of service and struck from theNaval Vessel Register on 1 May 1956. Six days later, she was removed from thePortsmouth Naval Shipyard for scrapping.
With Lieutenant Karl G. Hensel in command, Seal had an extended shakedown cruise in the Caribbean Sea. In late Nov 1937, she sailed from New England region of the United States and operated in the Panama and Caribbean Sea area from 3 Dec 1937 until Apr 1939.
At Tampa, Florida, 20 July 1938. Montage of photographs by Robertson & Fresh, Tampa, showing the ship, her officers and her crew. Among the officers seen in the upper left are Seal's Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Commander Karl G. Hensel, and Ensigns B.C. Hills and F.E. Brown.
Feature Designation Code: RF (reef(s)
This area was known as the cigarette deck, as it was the area that crewmen could go to catch a smoke while the boat was surfaced.
Shears – the structure on the submarine that supported the periscopes and radar antenna...
Periscope photograph taken by USS Pickerel (SS-177), probably during her sixth war patrol, circa February 1943. Official U.S. Navy Photograph
This handsome and historic lighthouse marks the easternmost cape of the island of Honshū...The lighthouse is in a rugged area accessible by a hike of about 2-1/2 hours round trip. Hikers are rewarded by spectacular views of the Pacific.
Feature Designation Code: CAPE (cape)
This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.
