Gerold Frank: U.S.S. Seawolf: Submarine Raider of the Pacific

He turned the periscope over to Ensign Mercer. As he came by the sound shack, he looked in. “Good work, boys,” he said. “Take it easy for a little while. We may be busy later.”

Lieutenant Deragon went over our records to see if we could identify the ship we’d sunk.

A few minutes later Ensign Mercer, after checking tides and currents, told the Captain the Japs were being floated out toward the Celebes. They were on their way to the open sea, without oars or provisions. According to the charts, the nearest land was 600 miles to the south.

Captain Warder was silent for a moment. “Well,” he said at last, “we won’t have any prisoners tonight.” He paused again. “They’ll never make it. Those poor bastards swimming around… Well, there’s nothing we can do about them.”

We waited until darkness and then surfaced. Jap lifeboats were still bobbing up and down. They must have been a terrified group when they saw the long black shape of the Seawolf bear down on them. The first two Japanese the Captain saw were youngsters. They looked about sixteen, he said. They were stark naked, clinging to two pieces of wreckage. Their clothes had been blown off by the blast. The Captain leaned over the rail cable. “Savvy English?” he shouted.

One boy turned, screamed what sounded like a panic-stricken warning, then let go of his piece of wreckage and swam off. The Captain shouted after him, but he churned the water like a long-distance swimmer and finally vanished in the darkness. Captain Warder asked the remaining boy if he could “Savvy English.” The other shook his head.

“Sousa,” the Captain called, “go down to the rail and see if you can make out a name on that wreckage.”

Eddie leaned far over and examined several pieces floating about, but he could find no identification.

Sousa threw a line out to the boy, but the Jap chattered and would have nothing to do with it. Sousa shouted in exasperation, “Grab hold the line, grab hold!” but the Jap pushed it away each time it dropped nearby. Captain Warder watched this scene silently.

“All right, Sousa, you can’t do anything with him,” he said finally. “Pass the word below to bring up a life jacket and a bottle of whisky.” They were handed up and tossed to the Jap. He caught them and held them. Captain Warder commented dryly:

“If he puts on that jacket and drinks the whisky, he’ll never know what hit him.”

The current was strong. In a few minutes the Jap who wouldn’t be rescued was out of sight and on his way to the open sea.

At that he was given more than the men on the Perch , and the Sea Lion , and the Shark . They didn’t even get a life jacket or a bottle of whisky.

We were on the double alert all night. When you sink a ship and then return to the same area, you’re inviting trouble. The Skipper decided to patrol outside the harbor for a period of watchful waiting. We were on the alert, too, for mine fields. We saw hostile aircraft and ignored them. After surfacing that night the Captain decided to go into the Gulf again. We sneaked into the Gulf before diving, and at this point we were less than twenty miles from a beehive of Jap activity. We pushed on silently, nearer and nearer to the Jap center. We upped a cautious periscope.

“I can see a church steeple, some houses,” the Skipper reported. “Looks like a lot of shipping in there. I see several masts… Can’t go in there, boys, that’s mined. Let’s take a look over here…. Hmmmm, could be at that… What a wonderful camouflage job… Left full rudder, Rudy… I think there’s a ship over there, but I’m not sure. If it is, it’s a big one. Battle stations! Sure that’s a ship… She’s a beauty… Motor ship, with a cruiser stern… Heavy guns aft… looks brand new to me… What a camouflage job!… I can see them loading her, probably hemp. This ship is tied up to a wharf or anchored right off one. She’s a beauty. This should be an easy attack if we can avoid detection. Down periscope.”

Silence. Then: “What course are we steering, Jim? Where are we? Let me have a look here. This is a ticklish spot to get out of in case they send somebody out here looking for us, as I expect them to… So that’s where we are… Well, I want to work up to this point and take a zero angle shot. How about the tides and the current drift?”

Captain Warder was thorough as usual. We worked our way slowly in. The water was shallow, but the possibility of mines kept us even more tense. This place surely must have a mine field.

I could almost sense Maley’s thoughts. Again, up periscope.

“Just as I thought,” observed the Skipper. “Down periscope. Make ready the bow tubes. Sound, I won’t need you on this attack, but I want you to track these fish. I want to know especially if any of them run erratic… Bow tubes ready? O.K., open the outer doors. Rudy, this is going to be ticklish, and I’m going to have to coach you on. Up periscope. We will fire this time if everything is the same up here.”

The periscope hit its upper level, and the Captain was on it like a leech.

“Okay, they haven’t seen us. They’re loading hemp, all right. Boy, she’s a beauty! Henry, I’m going to fire. Are you ready?… Rudy, come left more, come left a hair, steady, hold her steady… Fire!… Eckberg, are they running?”

“They’re running, Captain—hot and straight.”

“Yes, I see ’em now, number two is going to miss, number three is going to hit.”

Boom! I heard her go. What an explosion!

The whole ship seethed with excitement.

Captain Warder watched intently. “She’s listing heavily to port. Seems to be settling heavily. The guns are manned and firing wildly—in all directions. They don’t know what hit them. We must have caught them flat-footed… Now, what is this?… Boy, what damage control they must have! They have righted the ship and taken off the list… Oh, no, my friends!… Not that easy!… Make ready the aftertubes… Rudy, swing her around!”

The Wolf swung completely around, attacked again—from the stern. More of our torpedoes crashed into her. Captain Warder waited impatiently until the smoke cleared away.

“We blew their aft guns to bits. The forward gun is manned, but the crew is standing there. They’re probably dazed. Wait, there’s a fire breaking out in the bow. They’re abandoning ship… There she goes settling in the water. Wait a minute! What have we here? Here come some Zeros! They’re peppering my periscope.”

We heard the rat-tat-tat of the machine guns. But Captain Warder was determined to see this large Jap vessel sink, Zeros or no Zeros.

“Dammit,” he exploded, “that ship must be honeycombed with watertight compartments. It won’t do any good to put any more fish into her now, unless I can place it… Hmmmm. Damn those planes! Damn them! Well, I’m going to throw one more at her and see what happens. Up periscope. Rudy, come right, now. Steady. Are you ready, Hank? Okay—Fire!” Pause. “Well, there she goes, boys. She’s going up in smoke. Fires are breaking out all over her. I believe she’s sitting on the bottom in very shallow water. Come on, I’m satisfied. Take a couple of snaps, Jim, and then let’s get the hell out of here.”

I heard the sound of many screws. The anti-sub boats were still hunting for us. I gave the Captain their bearings.

“We’ll have to get out of here,” he said.

The Japs were coming closer, throwing depth charges right and left. They were missing completely. The Wolf headed out for the mouth of the Gulf. We had to get out of here fast. We knew the Japs would immediately take protective measures. It would be suicide to stay.

It was now late afternoon. We raced under a flat sea, with a bright sun in the sky. It was risky periscope weather. Seventy miles should take us—Just then the Captain’s voice broke in. “Oh, here’s another one. Looks like—yes, it is a big Maru… We’ll take her. Sound, this will have to be your approach.”