Lost Boats
It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died...rather we should thank God that such men lived...
~ George S. Patton
Lost on 03 OCT 1944 with 83 officers and men and 17 embarked US Army troops when she was sunk just North of Morotai, Republic of the Philippines, in a 'friendly fire' incident with USS RICHARD M. ROWELL (DE 403), a Destroyer Escort.
In this tragic error, USS RICHARD M. ROWELL mistook USS SEAWOLF for a Japanese submarine that had just sunk another US destroyer.
USS SEAWOLF ranks seventh for number of enemy ships sunk.
Presumed lost on 24 OCT 1944 with the loss of 87 officers and men when she was sunk near Hainan.
The second boat to carry this name during World War II, USS SHARK was on her third war patrol.
USS SHARK was sunk by escorts after attacking and sinking a lone Japanese freighter.
Compounding the tragedy, it turned out that the freighter had 1,800 U.S. POW's on board.
Lost on 24 OCT 1944 when she became grounded on Bombay Shoal off Palawan and was then destroyed by the deck gun of the USS NAUTILUS (SS 168) to prevent her falling into enemy hands intact.
The entire crew was rescued by USS DACE (SS 247).
Winner of one Navy Unit Commendation, Darter had sunk a heavy cruiser and damaged another, then went aground while attempting an "end around" on an enemy formation in hopes of getting in an attack on a battleship.
Lost on 25 OCT 1944 with the loss of 78 officers and men in the Formosa Strait.
USS TANG was on her fifth war patrol. She ranks second in the number of ships sunk and fourth in tonnage, and had won two Presidential Unit Citations.
During a daring night surface attack, USS TANG was lost to one of her own torpedoes. Her last shot broached and curved to the left in a circular run. She fishtailed to clear the turning circle of the torpedo, but it struck her abreast the after torpedo room approximately 20 seconds after it was fired.
USS TANG sank by the stern.
Nine of the crew survived and were taken prisoner, including CO CDR O'Kane, the bridge crew, and five who had gained the surface from her final resting place 180 feet below. All survived the war, and CDR O'Kane was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Lost on 07 NOV 1944 with 85 officers and men when she was sunk off northern Hokkaido.
Winner of two Presidential Unit Citations, USS ALBACORE was on her eleventh war patrol and struck a mine while running submerged near a Japanese patrol craft that had detected her.
Until the war ended, USS ALBACORE was missing, presumed lost.
According to Japanese records captured after the war, a submarine assumed to be USS ALBACORE struck a mine very close to the shore off northeastern Hokkaido on 07 NOV 1944,
Sunk on 08 NOV 1944 with the loss of 86 officers and men in the South China Sea.
Winner of two Navy Unit Commendations, USS GROWLER was on her twelfth war patrol as part of a wolf-pack.
The wolf-pack, headed by USS GROWLER, closed a convoy for attack.
The order to commence attacking was the last communication ever received from USS GROWLER.
Lost while attacking the convoy, possibly as a result of a depth charge attack or victim of a circular run by one of her own torpedoes, she was listed as lost in action against the enemy, cause unknown.
Probably sunk on 16 NOV 1944 with the loss of 83 men near Tokyo Bay.
On her eighth war patrol, she was damaged, possibly by a mine and trailing oil, which helped Japanese coast defense vessels locate and destroy her with depth charges.
From records available after the war, it appears that USS SCAMP was sighted by Japanese planes and reported depth charged by a coast defense vessel to the south of Tokyo Bay.
Lost with a total of 83 officers and men, somewhere near Okinawa on her thirteenth war patrol.
It is assumed she was lost to a mine.
Lost on 04 FEB 1945 with the loss of 81 officers and men on her fourth war patrol.
Based on Japanese records, she was bombed near the southern entrance to the Palawan Passage.
The day before, she reported she survived 3 depth charge attacks. USS BARBEL sent a message reporting that she had been attacked three times by enemy aircraft with depth charges and would transmit further information on the following night.
USS BARBEL was never heard from again.
Lost on 20 MAR 1945 with the loss of 87 officers and men at the end of her second war patrol.
While steaming eastward, USS KETE sent in a weather report from a position south of Colnett Strait. Scheduled to arrive Midway by 31 MAR 1945, she was neither seen nor heard from again.
Probably sunk near Okinawa, by a Japanese submarine that itself was subsequently lost.