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Photo # NH 91833:  USS Seal when first completed, circa mid-1938

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Seal (SS-183), 1938-1957

USS Seal, a 1450-ton Salmon class submarine built at Groton, Connecticut, was commissioned at the end of April 1938. After spending her first year's service primarily in the Caribbean and Panama areas, she was sent to the Pacific, where she operated in Hawaiian waters and off the West Coast. Seal voyaged to the Philippines in October and November 1941 and was there when the Pacific phase of World War II erupted in December.

Seal began her first war patrol from Manila in the middle of that month, sank a small freighter and ended the cruise at Soerabaja, Java, early in February 1942. She made a second patrol during that month and the next, as the Japanese completed their conquest of the Indies, attacked three convoys and inflicted damage on one enemy ship. During April-October 1942 Seal was based at Fremantle, Australia. During this time she made three war patrols, two off Indochina and one through the central Pacific en route to Pearl Harbor, that cost the Japanese war effort two freighters. In turn, the submarine's periscopes were damaged beyond use when she collided with an enemy ship in mid-November.

Following an overhaul, in April 1943 Seal returned to combat, sinking a tanker in early May during her sixth war patrol. Her next cruise had to be cut short after she was damaged in July by a prolonged depth charging. While off northern Japan at the end of August 1943, Seal again suffered damage when a hatch failed to close properly while she was diving. Though the submarine made her own repairs and remained on patrol, she made no "kills" in two attacks. Between November 1943 and March 1944 she operated in the central Pacific during the invasions of the Gilbert and Marshall Islands, performing lifeguard and reconnaissance duties. At the end of her tenth patrol Seal entered the Mare Island Navy Yard for an overhaul that included replacement of her original, and very unreliable, H.O.R. diesel engines.

When this work was completed in the summer of 1944, Seal was sent to the northern Pacific, where she made several attacks and sank two Japanese ships. Her final combat cruise, during the fall, took her back off northern Japan, yielding another sunken Maru, her seventh. After returning to Pearl Harbor late in November 1944, Seal was assigned to training service, initially in the Hawaiian area and, after June 1945, at New London, Connecticut. Decommissioned in mid-November 1945, three months after Japan had given up the fight, she was placed in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet. In June 1947 Seal was taken out of "mothballs" and put back to work as a stationary training submarine for the Naval Reserve. This assignment, initially at Boston, Massachusetts, and later at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, lasted until she was taken out of service and stricken from the list of Naval vessels in May 1956. Seal was sold for scrapping a year later.

This page features, and provides links to, all the views we have concerning USS Seal (SS-183).

For additional images related to this submarine, see:

  • Seal (SS-183) -- Views taken in 1942 and Later.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

    Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

    Photo #: NH 91833

    USS Seal
    (SS-183)

    Photographed when first completed, circa mid-1938.

    Courtesy of the Electric Boat Company, Groton, Connecticut.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 53KB; 740 x 615 pixels

     
    Photo #: 19-N-19022

    USS Seal
    (SS-183)

    Off Provincetown, Massachusetts, during her trials, 5 March 1938.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 58KB; 740 x 615 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: 19-N-19021

    USS Seal
    (SS-183)

    Off Provincetown, Massachusetts, during her trials, 5 March 1938.

    Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.

    Online Image: 59KB; 740 x 620 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     
    Photo #: NH 103421

    USS Seal
    (SS-183)

    View of Navy personnel and civilians standing on and by the submarine's fairwater, as she was delivered to the Naval Submarine Base, New London, by her builders, the Electric Boat Company of Groton, Connecticut, circa April 1937.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 73KB; 740 x 530 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 83625

    USS Seal
    (SS-183)

    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.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 190KB; 900 x 735 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 77086

    USS Stingray
    (SS-186), foreground

    Operating in formation with other submarines, during Battle Force exercises, circa 1939.
    The other three submarines are (from left to right): Seal (SS-183); Salmon (SS-182) and Sturgeon (SS-187).

    Collection of Vice Admiral George C. Dyer, USN (Retired).

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 110KB; 740 x 595 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 77089

    USS Stingray
    (SS-186), foreground

    Submerging in formation with other submarines, during Battle Force exercises, circa 1939.
    USS Sturgeon (SS-187) is immediately beyond Stingray, with the wakes further in the distance probably belonging to USS Seal (SS-183) and USS Salmon (SS-182).

    Collection of Vice Admiral George C. Dyer, USN (Retired).

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 121KB; 740 x 580 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 98985

    USS Stingray
    (SS-186), foreground

    Surfacing in formation with other submarines, during Battle Force exercises, circa 1939.
    The other three submarines are (from left to right): Seal (SS-183); Salmon (SS-182) and Sturgeon (SS-187).

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 107KB; 740 x 645 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 68481

    USS Holland (AS-3)


    Panoramic photograph of the ship moored at Bouy 19, San Diego harbor, California, in 1940, with eleven submarines alongside. Submarines are (from left to right): Salmon (SS-182); Seal (SS-183); Stingray (SS-186); Perch (SS-176); Pollack (SS-180); Cachalot (SS-170); Cuttlefish (SS-171); Skipjack (SS-184); Sturgeon (SS-187); Snapper (SS-185) and Sargo (SS-188). SS-182 through SS-187 were members of Submarine Division 15, commanded by R.W. Christie.
    USS Richmond (CL-9), flagship of the Submarine Force, is in the right distance.

    Courtesy of the U.S. Naval Institute. James C. Fahey Collection.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 53KB; 900 x 310 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 68479

    Submarines in San Diego harbor, California, 1940


    Moored alongside USS Holland (AS-3), from which the photograph was taken, the submarines are (from left to right): Salmon (SS-182); Seal (SS-183); Pickerel (SS-177); Plunger (SS-179); Snapper (SS-185) and Permit (SS-178).
    Note the small motor boats, of the type carried by fleet submarines prior to World War II.
    One of the men standing on Salmon's deck is Yeoman Clayton Johnson, who in 1969 was a Commander serving at the Naval History Division.
    USS Enterprise (CV-6) is in the distance, tied up at Naval Air Station, North Island.

    Courtesy of the U.S. Naval Institute. James C. Fahey Collection.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 103KB; 740 x 565 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 68482

    USS Plunger (SS-179)


    Backing clear of a nest of submarines, alongside their tender in San Diego harbor, California, in 1940. Other identifiable submarines present are:
    Salmon (SS-182);
    Seal (SS-183); and
    Stingray (SS-186).

    Courtesy of the U.S. Naval Institute. James C. Fahey Collection.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 104KB; 740 x 610 pixels

     
    Photo #: 80-G-451131

    Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii


    Aerial view, looking west, with the supply depot in upper center, 13 October 1941. Part of the Submarine Base is at lower left; the Navy Yard is in the upper left; and Ford Island is in the top right.
    See Photo # 80-G-451131 (complete caption) for identification of some of the ships present.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

    Online Image: 128KB; 740 x 615 pixels

    Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system.

     


    For additional images related to this submarine, see:

  • Seal (SS-183) -- Views taken in 1942 and Later.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


    Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

    Page made 28 January 2006