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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
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Photo # NH 99549:  USS Seawolf underway off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 7 March 1943

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

USS Seawolf (SS-197), 1939-1944

USS Seawolf, a 1450-ton Sargo class submarine built at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, was commissioned at the beginning of December 1939. Following a shakedown cruise to the Caribbean area she was sent to the West Coast and, later in 1940, went on to Manila to join the Asiatic Fleet. Immediately after war with Japan began in December 1941, Seawolf made her first war patrol, covering eastern Philippine waters, and made an unsuccessful attack that provided an early indication of the torpedo troubles that would plague U.S. submarine operations for the War's first year and a half. Late in that month she left Manila to transport critical personnel to Australia, returning in late January 1942 with a load of ammunition. On Seawolf's next patrol, in defense of the Dutch East Indies in February-April, she torpedoed several enemy ships, among them the light cruiser Naka, but apparently sank none of them. Based at Fremantle, Australia, for the rest of 1942, the submarine had three productive combat cruises that cost Japan six ships.

After a West Coast overhaul, Seawolf operated out of Hawaii from April 1943 to January 1944, making five patrols, her eighth through twelfth of the war. These resulted in the sinking of thirteen enemy ships, with credit for one of them shared with USS Whale (SS-239). This performance made her among the Navy's most productive submarines of World War II, both in total number of ships sunk and in tonnage.

Another session of shipyard work kept Seawolf out of action until June 1944, when she departed Pearl Harbor on an intelligence gathering mission to the Palau Islands, which would be invaded by U.S. forces a few months later. She then went on to Fremantle, from which she made a trip to Tawitawi to recover an agent. Seawolf left Brisbane on her fifteenth patrol in September, assigned to take U.S. Army agents and supplies to Samar, in the Philippines. While en route, breakdowns in communications caused U.S. anti-submarine forces to mistake her for Japanese. On 3 October 1944, after being forced to dive by an air attack, Seawolf was depth charged and sunk by the escort ship Richard M. Rowell (DE-403). All her crew and passengers, nearly a hundred men, were lost with her.

This page features, and provides links to, all the views we have concerning USS Seawolf (SS-197).

For more images related to this submarine, see:

  • USS Seawolf (SS-197) -- Actions and Activities.


    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 99548

    USS Seawolf
    (SS-197)

    Photographed soon after completion, circa 1939-1940.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 53KB; 740 x 555 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 99549

    USS Seawolf
    (SS-197)

    Underway off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 7 March 1943.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 49KB; 740 x 620 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 99550

    USS Seawolf
    (SS-197)

    Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 7 March 1943.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 65KB; 740 x 620 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 99551

    USS Seawolf
    (SS-197)

    Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 7 March 1943.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 65KB; 740 x 620 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 99552

    USS Seawolf
    (SS-197)

    At the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 3 March 1943, at the end of an overhaul.
    White outlines mark recent alterations, among them relocation of her 3"/50 deck gun and installation of radar antennas atop her periscope sheers.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 138KB; 605 x 765 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 99553

    USS Seawolf
    (SS-197)

    At the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 3 March 1943, at the end of an overhaul.
    White outlines mark recent alterations.
    Note Seawolf's propeller guards, and newly-constructed LSTs in the background.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 131KB; 600 x 765 pixels

     
    Photo #: 19-N-67016

    USS Seawolf
    (SS-197)

    Off the Hunters Point Naval Drydocks, San Francisco, California, 9 May 1944, following overhaul.

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

    Online Image: 54KB; 740 x 605 pixels

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

     
    Photo #: NH 99554-KN (color)

    USS Seawolf (SS-197)

    Photograph of the submarine's World War II battle flag.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 61KB; 740 x 500 pixels

     


    In addition to the images presented above, the National Archives appears to hold at least one other view of USS Seawolf (SS-197). The following list features this image:

    The image listed below is NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections.
    DO NOT try to obtain it using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."



  • Photo #: 80-G-459090
    USS Seawolf (SS-197) underway at high speed, circa 1939-1940.
    Starboard broadside high aerial view.

    Reproductions of this image should be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system for pictures not held by the Naval Historical Center.

    The image listed in this box is NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections. DO NOT try to obtain it using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


  • For more images related to this submarine, see:

  • USS Seawolf (SS-197) -- Actions and Activities.


    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 18 September 2004