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SEALION:
Any of several large,
eared seals native to the Pacific.
USS SEALION
APSS-315
From the Dictionary of
American Naval Fighting Ships, (1976) Vol. 6,
pp.416-418.
 The
second SEALION (SS-315) was laid down on 25 February 1943 by
the Electric Boat Co., Groton, Conn.; launched on 31 October
1943; sponsored by Mrs. Emory Land; and commissioned on 8
March 1944, Lt. Comdr. Eli T. Reich in command. Following
the shakedown, SEALION, assigned to Submarine Division
(SubDiv) 222, sailed for the Pacific and arrived at Pearl
Harbor on 17 May. Further training occupied the next three
weeks, and, on 8 June, she headed west on her first war
patrol. Sailing with sister ship TANG (SS-306), she stopped
off at Midway on the 12th; glanced off a whale on the 15th,
and, on the 22d, transited Tokara Strait to enter the East
China Sea. On the 23d, she and TANG took up stations in the
Osumi Gunto, an island group to the south of Kyushu. That
afternoon, SEALION unsuccessfully conducted her first
attack; then underwent her first depth charging.
On
the 24th, TINOSA (SS-283) joined the two submarines; and the
group moved northward to patrol the approaches to Sasebo.
Patrolling in adjacent lanes, the submarines contacted a
convoy on the 25th, but SEALION lost depth control on
reaching attack position and was unable to fire.
From
the Sasebo area, the submarines moved toward the Korean
peninsula. On the 28th, SEALION caught and sank a Japanese
naval transport, SNASEI MARU, in the Tsushima Island area;
then continued on into the Korean archipelago. On the 30th,
she used her deck guns to sink a sampan, and, with the new
month, July, she moved closer to the China coast to patrol
the approaches to Shanghai.
On
the morning of 6 July, SEALION intercepted a convoy south of
the Four Sisters Islands and, at 0447 commenced firing
torpedoes at two cargomen in the formation. Within minutes,
the 1,922-ton SETSUZAN MARU sank, and the convoy scattered.
SEALION retired to the northeast to evade the convoy's
escort, a destroyer, as it began its search for the
submarine. At 0600, the destroyer closed SEALION; and the
submarine fired four torpedoes at the warship. All missed.
An hour later enemy aircraft joined the search which was
continued until mid-afternoon.
Three
days later, SEALION moved northward again and commenced
hunting between the Shantung peninsula and Korea. Dense fog
blanketed the area and left her blind while her radar was
out of commission. By midnight on the night of 10 and 11
July, however, her radar was back in partial operation; and,
on the morning of the 11th, she conducted several attacks,
sinking two freighters, TSUKUSHI MARU NO. 2 and TAIAN MARU
NO. 2.
The
running surface chase with the second freighter involved
three attacks over a period of almost seven hours. On the
third attack, at 0711, SEALION fired her last torpedo; then,
after debris from the explosion had flown over the
submarine, she moved down the port quarter of the target,
pouring 20mm. shells into the Japanese bridge. At 0714, the
freighter disappeared; and SEALION headed south of Tokara
Strait. On the 13th, she cleared that strait; and, on the
21st, she arrived at Midway.
Refitted
by submarine tender FULTON (AS-11), SEALION departed for the
Bashi Channel and her second war patrol on 17 August.
Hunting with submarines GROWLER (SS-215) and PAMPANITO
(SS-383), she transited the channel and moved into the South
China Sea on 30 August. During the pre-dawn hours of the
31st, she conducted a night surface attack against a
Japanese convoy and heavily damaged a tanker. As RIKKO MARU
bellowed black smoke, other Japanese ships took SEALION
under fire with deck guns. The submarine moved out of the
area and ahead of the convoy. At 0720, she again attacked
the convoy. Within minutes, SHIRATAKA, a minelayer, went
down; enemy planes begin circling the area and the convoy's
surface escorts began their search. SEALION went deep and
headed south. Later that day, she closed another target with
a merchant ship appearance; but, as she reached firing
position, the target was made out to be an antisubmarine
vessel. Three torpedoes were fired, but were spotted by the
target's bow lookout. The target swerved, and the hunter
became the hunted. Depth charging followed without damage to
the submarine; but SEALION, low on fuel and torpedoes,
headed for Saipan.
There,
the submarine rearmed and refueled; and on 7 September, got
underway to rejoin her attack group. On the 10th, she moved
through Balintang Channel. On the 11th, she rendezvoused
with two other submarines; and, on the 12th the group
attacked and decimated a convoy en route to Formosa.
At
about 0200, GROWLER attacked the formation. PAMPANITO and
SEALION followed suit. GROWLER's torpedoes sent a destroyer
to the bottom. SEALION fired two torpedoes, both misses, and
was taken under fire by two of the escorts. The submarine
went to top speed and managed to keep ahead of the escorts
until they broke off to rejoin the convoy shortly before
0330.
An
hour and one-half later, SEALION again closed the convoy
and, at 0522, fired three torpedoes at a tanker; then swung
to fire on a large transport, RAKUYO MARU, the last ship in
the nearer column. At 0524, the tanker ZUIHO MARU, possibly
hit by torpedoes from both PAMPANITO and SEALION, burst into
flames. KACHIDOKI MARU, a transport near the tanker, was
disabled. She swung into the burning tanker and was soon
ablaze. SEALION's second target was illuminated and, at
0525, she fired on RAKUYO MARU. Both torpedoes hit and that
ship began to burn. SEALION
was then forced deep and, after several attempts to get a
better look at the scene, cleared the area and started after
the remainder of the convoy.
On
the morning of the 15th, the three submarines reformed their
scouting line. That afternoon, PAMPANITO radioed SEALION,
and other submarines in the area, to return to the scene of
the action on the 12th. RAKUYO MARU had been carrying
Australian and British prisoners of war. By 2045, SEALION
had taken on 54 POW's and started back to Saipan. All of the
POW's were coated with crude oil and all were in poor health
suffering from malaria, malnutritional diseases such as
pellagra and beriberi, and exposure. Three died before the
submarine reached Balintang Channel on the 17th. On the
18th, destroyer CASE (DD-370) rendezvoused with SEALION and
transferred a doctor and a pharmacist's mate to the
submarine. On the 19th, a fourth POW died; and, on the 20th,
SEALION arrived in Tanapag Harbor and transferred the
surviving 50 to the Army hospital there.
From
Saipan, SEALION returned to Hawaii. Arriving at Pearl Harbor
on 30 September, she departed again on 31 October and, with
sister ship KETE (SS-369), headed west to patrol in the East
China Sea. The two submarines stopped off at Midway on 4
November; then continued on to their patrol area.
Ten
days later, SEALION transited Tokara Strait. On the 16th,
her number 8 tube was accidentally fired with both doors
closed. Heavy seas prevented a thorough inspection of the
damage. On the 17th, she began patrolling the approaches to
Shanghai. On the 18th, there was a hydrogen explosion in the
battery space of the torpedo in number 5 tube. On the 21st,
at 0020, she made radar contact with an enemy formation
moving through Formosa Strait at about 16 knots and not zig
zagging.
By
0048, the pips were made out to be two cruisers and two
battleships. At 0146, three additional ships, escorts-one on
either beam of the formation and one on the starboard
quarter-became visible. At 0245, SEALION, ahead of the task
force, turned in and slowed for the attack. Eleven minutes
later, she fired six torpedoes at the second ship in line.
At 0259, she fired three at the second battleship. At 0300,
her crew saw and heard three hits from the first salvo, but
they had hit and sunk the destroyer, URAKAZE, not the first
battleship. Shortly thereafter, one torpedo from the second
spread hit the second battleship. SEALION opened to the
westward. The Japanese searched to the east. By 0310, the
submarine had reloaded and began tracking again with the
thought that the torpedoes had only dented the battleship's
armor belt.
The
enemy formation, however, had begun zig-zagging and the sea
and wind had increased; then, at 0450, the enemy formation
split into two groups. SEALION began tracking the slower
group, the apparently damaged battleship escorted by two
destroyers. At 0524, a tremendous explosion lit the area and
the battleship, KONGO, disappeared. During the next few
days, SEALION continued to patrol between China and Formosa,
and, on the 28th, she headed for Guam.
On
her fourth war patrol, 14 December to 24 January 1945,
SEALION returned to the South China Sea in a coordinated
attack group with sister ships BLENNY (SS-324) and CAIMAN
(SS-323). Poor weather plagued her; and, of the 26 days
spent on station, all but six were spent on the surface. On
one of those few good days, 20 December, she sighted a
supply ship escorted by a destroyer through her high
periscope and, at 1937, fired six torpedoes at the supply
ship for four hits. The submarine then evaded the escort,
reloaded, and waited. Two and one-half hours later, the
target, MAMIYA, was still afloat, and the submarine went in
for a second attack. At 0032 on the 21st, she fired three
torpedoes for two hits. The supply ship went under.
That
day, SEALION joined the 7th Fleet, and, from 28 December
1944 to 14 January 1945, she performed reconnaissance duties
in support of the reoccupation of the Philippines. On the
latter date, she cleared her patrol area and headed for
Western Australia.
Arriving
at Fremantle on the 24th, she departed on her fifth war
patrol on 19 February. Again operating in a coordinated
attack group, she returned to the South China Sea; then
proceeded into the Gulf of Siam. In the predawn darkness of
17 March, she torpedoed and sank a small unescorted tanker,
SAMUI; and, on 2 April, she rescued an Army aviator who had
been drifting in a rubber raft for 23 days. That same day
three more downed aviators were transferred to her from
submarine GUAVINA (SS-362); and, on the 6th, she delivered
her passengers to Subic Bay.
By
30 April, SEALION was again ready for sea. With submarines
BASHAW (SS-241) and HAMMERHEAD (SS-364), she departed Subic
Bay for the northern part of the South China Sea. Through
May, she patrolled off Hong Kong and provided lifeguard
services for strikes against Formosa. At the end of the
month, she received downed aviators from submarine BREAM
(SS-243) and transported them back to Subic, then with
passengers bound for Hawaii, she sailed east. On 12 June,
she arrived at Guam, whence she proceeded to a lifeguard
station off Wake Island and, on 30 June, she cleared that
area for Pearl Harbor.
From
Pearl Harbor, SEALION continued on to San Francisco where
she was undergoing overhaul at the end of the war. With the
cessation of hostilities, inactivation preparations were
added to the overhaul and, on 2 February 1946, the
submarine, which had been awarded the Presidential Unit
Citation for her six war patrols, was decommissioned.
SEALION (SS-315) earned five
battle stars during World War II.
A
year and one-half later, however, SEALION, along with sister
ship PERCH (SS-313), was designated for conversion to a
troop carrier, and in April 1948, she entered the San
Francisco Naval Shipyard for the eight-months conversion.
During that period, her torpedo tubes and forward engines
were removed, and her forward engine room and forward and
after torpedo rooms were converted to berth 123 troops. The
forward engine room and after torpedo room were designed for
alternative use as cargo space. The wardroom was redesigned
for use as an operating room; the beam aft of the conning
tower was extended, and a large watertight cylindrical
chamber was installed abaft the conning tower to store
amphibious landing equipment-including an
LVT. On
2 November 1948, SEALION was recommissioned a submarine,
transport, with the hull designation SSP-315.
Training
exercises off the southern California coast, with Marines
embarked, took her into the spring of 1949 when she was
ordered to the Atlantic for duty in SubDiv 21. During April,
she operated in the New London area, then, in May, she
commenced operations out of Norfolk as a unit of SubDiv 61,
SubRon 6. On 31 January 1950, she was reclassified a
transport submarine, ASSP-315; and, by the spring of that
year, had conducted exercises as far north as Labrador and
as far south as the southern Caribbean. From April through
June of 1950, she underwent her first post-conversion
overhaul at Portsmouth, N.H.; and, in July, she resumed
operations out of Norfolk.
Reassigned
to SubDiv 63 in March 1955 and reclassified submarine
transport APSS-315 on 24 October 1956, SEALION continued a
schedule of exercises with Marines, Underwater Demolition
Teams and Beach Jumper units and, on occasion, Army units,
off the Virginia and Carolina coasts and in the Caribbean
until 1960. During that time, interruptions came only for
overhaul periods, during one of which the "LVT hangar" abaft
the conning tower was removed, and for one deployment with
the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean from August to November
1957.
 1956
-- A Marine Corps helicopter recently landed on the decks of
the troop carrier submarine USS SEA LION (ASSP-315) during
operations in the Atlantic. This is one of very few times
that this has been accomplished. SEA LION, a unit of
Submarine Division SIXTY THREE, is the only troop carrier
sub in the Atlantic Fleet. In usual operations SEA LION acts
as an amphibious vessel, landing Marine reconnaissance
troops along simulated enemy shores. She works closely with
other groups, including the UDT frogmen and specialized
units of the Armed Forces. She carries no torpedoes or tubes
since conversion to a transport. Her sister ship PERCH is
the only other of the species and operates with the Pacific
Fleet. (Joe Csikos, JO3, USN)
On
30 June 1960, SEALION was decommissioned at Portsmouth,
N.H., where she remained as a reserve training submarine
until reactivated a year later. In August 1961, she was
towed to Philadelphia for overhaul; on 20 October, she was
recommissioned, and, on 18 December 1961, she rejoined
SubRon 6 at Norfolk. The new Squadron Medical Officer of
SubRon 6, LT William H. McMicken, MC (SS) USN reported for
duty in July 1962.
There
SEALION resumed a schedule similar to that of the 1950's,
again with few interruptions--for regular overhauls, and in
the fall of 1962, to support the blockade put into effect
during the Cuban Missile Crisis. On 22 October 1962, she
departed Norfolk on what was to be a month-long training
cruise in the Caribbean, but the formation of the blockade
force altered the cruise plans. SEALION was ordered to the
Submarine Base, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands to stand by to
transport and support a Marine Reconnaissance Team. Dr.
McMicken flew to Key West, FL, and then joined the submarine
in St. Thomas to be available for underwater reconnaissance
operations if needed. Fortunately, these operations were not
necessary once the Soviet leader agreed to remove the
missiles and the blockade of Cuba was lifted.
Dr.
McMicken returned to the Squadron in Norfolk, VA, and
SEALION continued a delayed Carribbean deployment. On 3
December, she returned to Norfolk and from then into 1967
she maintained her schedule of exercises with Marine
Reconnaissance, UDT, and SEAL personnel. On 15 September
1967, she changed homeports and administrative control and
for the next two years, her last two years of active
service, she operated out of Key West as a unit of SubDiv
121.
Reclassified
an amphibious transport submarine, LPSS-315 in January 1969,
SEALION was ordered inactivated the following summer, and,
in September, she proceeded to Philadelphia where she was
decommissioned and placed in the inactive fleet on 20
February 1970.
Stricken
from the Navy Register on 15 March 1977, SEALION was sunk as
a target off Newport, R.I., on 8 July 1978.
Adapted from: K. Jack
Bauer and Stephen S. Roberts, Register of Ships of the U.
S. Navy, 1775-1990, p.276
Another link with more
about the submarine and additional photos: USS
SEALION APSS-315
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