Figure 1: Starboard side view of USS Sculpin (SS-191), probably during her shakedown cruise in the summer of 1939. US Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 2: USS Sculpin (SS-191) entering Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, sometime between 9 April 1940 and 23 October 1941. US Navy photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 3: USS Sculpin (SS-191) off San Francisco, California, on 1 May 1943 following an overhaul. Official US Navy photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 4: USS Sculpin (SS-191) in San Francisco Bay, California, on 1 May 1943 following an overhaul. Official US Navy photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 5: USS Sculpin (SS-191) in San Francisco Bay, California, on 1 May 1943 following an overhaul. The San Francisco Bay Bridge is in the background. Official US Navy photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 6: USS Sculpin (SS-191) at the Bethlehem Steel Company shipyard, San Francisco, California, on 1 May 1943, following an overhaul. This view of her midships area, port side, identifies changes recently made to the ship. Note outlined hull number 191 on the side of her “sail” or conning tower. Among the ships and craft in the background are the small tug Lucien (center, middle distance) and Navy barge YC-826 (right, middle distance). Official US Navy photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 7: USS Sculpin (SS-191) at the Bethlehem Steel Company shipyard, San Francisco, California, on 1 May 1943, following an overhaul. This view of the forward end of her sail identifies changes recently made to the ship. Note the 20-mm and 3-inch guns, and the SD and SJ radar antennas. Official US Navy photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 8: USS Sculpin (SS-191) at the Bethlehem Steel Company shipyard, San Francisco, California, on 1 May 1943, following an overhaul. This view of the after end of her sail identifies changes recently made to the ship. Note the 20-mm gun and the SD and SJ radar antennas. The Coast Guard lighthouse tender Balsam (WAGL-62) is in the floating dry dock in the right background. Official US Navy photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 9: Lieutenant Commander Fred Connaway, USN, photographed circa 1942. On 19 November 1943, he was in command of USS Sculpin (SS-191) and was the ship’s last commanding officer. US Naval Historical Center photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 10: Captain
John P. Cromwell, USN, photographed circa 1943. He was also on board USS Sculpin (SS-191) on 19 November 1943,
the date of the ship’s final battle. US
Naval Historical Center photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Named after a
spiny, broad-mouthed fish, the 1,450-ton USS Sculpin (SS-191) was a Sargo
class submarine that was built by the Portsmouth Navy Yard at Kittery, Maine,
and was commissioned on 16 January 1939. The ship was approximately 310 feet
long and 27 feet wide, had a surfaced top speed of 20 knots and a submerged top
speed of 8.75 knots, and had a crew of 55 officers and men. Sculpin originally was armed with one
3-inch gun, two .50-caliber machine guns, two .30-caliber machine guns, and
eight 21-inch torpedo tubes (carrying a total of 24 torpedoes), but the gun
armament changed slightly during the early years of World War II.
Shortly after
being commissioned, Sculpin spent
much of 1939 assisting in the rescue and salvage efforts of her sister ship,
the submarine USS Squalus (SS-192)
which had accidently sunk on 23 May. After salvage operations were completed, Sculpin was sent to join the Pacific
Fleet in February 1940. She was based in the Philippines in October 1941 and
was there when Japan attacked the United States on 7 December (8 December
Philippine time).
From December
1941 to January 1942, Sculpin conducted
her first war patrol and made an attack that may have sunk a Japanese merchant
ship, although the “kill” could not be confirmed. Then from late January 1942
to January 1943, Sculpin was based at
Java (now Indonesia) and Australia, completing five more patrols into
Japanese-held waters. Sculpin sank
two enemy cargo ships and heavily damaged a destroyer, a light cruiser, and
several merchant ships.
In May 1943,
following an overhaul which was completed at San Francisco, California, Sculpin was based at Pearl Harbor,
Hawaii. Sculpin’s seventh and eighth
war patrols took place from May to September 1943. During those patrols, the
submarine damaged the Japanese aircraft carrier Hiyo and sank a cargo ship.
Sculpin left Pearl Harbor on her ninth war
patrol in early November 1943. On this trip, she was serving as the prospective
flagship for an American “wolf pack” under the overall command of Captain John
P. Cromwell, who was on board the ship. But actual command of the vessel
belonged to her commanding officer, Commander Fred Connaway. Captain Cromwell
was ordered to take Sculpin and two
other American submarines and patrol due north of the island of Truk, which had
a major Japanese naval base on it. The three submarines were to form a wolf
pack and sink any Japanese ships that were leaving Truk to oppose the
forthcoming American invasion of Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands. Cromwell was to
coordinate attacks on the enemy, while Commander Connaway would command Sculpin.
On 16
November 1943, Sculpin arrived on
station and made radar contact with a large Japanese convoy on the evening of
18 November. Sculpin attacked the
convoy while on the surface during the early morning hours of 19 November.
Suddenly, the submarine was spotted by the convoy’s escort vessels, which
attacked immediately. Sculpin was
forced to crash dive and was severely damaged by the numerous depth charges
that were dropped on her by Japanese destroyers. The ship was taking on water
and was in immediate danger of sinking.
The
submarine’s commanding officer, Commander Connaway, decided to surface and give
the crew of his sinking ship a chance for survival. With her decks still awash,
Sculpin’s gunners manned the deck
guns, even though they were no match for the much larger guns on board the
Japanese destroyers. An enemy shell hit the conning tower and killed the bridge
watch team, including Commander Connaway, and flying shrapnel killed the 3-inch
deck gun crew as well.
The senior
surviving ship’s officer ordered that the submarine be scuttled to prevent her
from being captured. This officer then informed Captain Cromwell of his
decision. Captain Cromwell, though, possessed vital information concerning the
forthcoming amphibious assault on the Gilbert Islands and subsequent operations.
Fearing that he might reveal these plans under the influence of torture (which
was used extensively by the Japanese during the war), Captain Cromwell refused
to leave the stricken submarine. USS Sculpin
sank and Captain Cromwell went down with the ship.
Forty-two of Sculpin’s crew were picked up by the
Japanese destroyer Yamagumo. There
was a forty-third survivor, but he was badly wounded and was thrown back into
the sea by the Japanese because of his condition. The survivors were questioned
for roughly ten days at the Japanese naval base at Truk. They were then placed
on board two aircraft carriers returning to Japan. The escort carrier Chuyo carried 21of the survivors in her
hold. On 2 December 1943, the carrier was torpedoed and sunk by USS Sailfish (SS-192) and 20 of the American
prisoners died. One man was saved when he grabbed a ladder on the side of a
passing Japanese destroyer and managed to haul himself on board. The other 21
survivors arrived at Ofuna, Japan, on 5 December and, after further
questioning, were sent as slave labor to the copper mine at Ashio, Japan, for
the duration of the war.
Ironically,
the carrier transporting Sculpin’s
survivors was sunk by Sailfish, which
Sculpin had helped to locate and
raise back in 1939. Sailfish was, in
reality, the old Squalus, which was
re-named Sailfish after she was
salvaged, re-built, and then re-commissioned in May 1940.
USS Sculpin received eight battle stars for
her service during World War II, in addition to the Philippine Presidential
Unit Citation. For his sacrificial heroism in preventing the enemy from
obtaining the critical information he possessed, Captain John P. Cromwell was
posthumously awarded the US Congressional Medal of Honor.
