Qualla: USS Wahoo (SS-238)

USS Wahoo (SS-238): Introduction

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit U.S. Navy, Public domain. Before his first patrol as commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander Dudley Walker Morton gathered the crew of USS Wahoo and made a speech that would become submarine legend. The boat, he told them, was expendable. Anyone who wanted to stay behind in Brisbane had thirty minutes to request a transfer, with no hard feelings. Not a single man accepted. That moment in January 1943 marked the beginning of the most aggressive patrol record in the U.S. submarine fleet, a run of destruction that would end ten months later in the cold waters between Japan and Russia.

Read more: USS Wahoo (SS-238) on Qualla

Image: U.S. Navy | Public domain

USS Wahoo (SS-238): From Timid to Lethal

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit United States Navy, Public domain. Wahoo was built at the Mare Island Navy Yard in Vallejo, California, her keel laid down on June 28, 1941, six months before Pearl Harbor. She was launched on Valentine's Day 1942 and commissioned on May 15 under Lieutenant Commander Marvin 'Pinky' Kennedy. Her first two war patro...

Read more: USS Wahoo (SS-238) on Qualla

Image: United States Navy | Public domain

USS Wahoo (SS-238): The Expendable Boat

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Wahoo's third patrol was a masterpiece of aggression. With no proper charts of Wewak harbor, a Japanese supply base on New Guinea's north coast, Motor Machinist's Mate Dalton 'Bird Dog' Keeter produced a cheap school atlas bought in Australia. From its tiny map of New Guinea, the...

Read more: USS Wahoo (SS-238) on Qualla

Image: Public domain

USS Wahoo (SS-238): The Cursed Sixth Patrol

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. Not every patrol was triumphant. In August 1943, Wahoo entered the Sea of Japan for the first time, hunting along the Hokkaido-Korea shipping route. Over four days, the crew sighted twelve Japanese vessels and attacked nine. Every attack failed. Torpedoes broached, ran erraticall...

Read more: USS Wahoo (SS-238) on Qualla

Image: Public domain

USS Wahoo (SS-238): The Last Patrol

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bryanmackinnon, Public domain. Morton asked to return to the Sea of Japan. Permission was granted. For his seventh patrol, he loaded a full complement of the newly available Mark 18 electric torpedoes, refusing to risk another round of defective Mark 14s. Wahoo departed Pearl Harbor, topped off at Midway on Se...

Read more: USS Wahoo (SS-238) on Qualla

Image: Bryanmackinnon | Public domain

USS Wahoo (SS-238): Found After Sixty-Three Years

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit United States Navy, Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Stefanie Broughton, Public domain. On October 11, 1943, as Wahoo attempted to exit through La Perouse Strait, Japanese antisubmarine forces were waiting. An aircraft spotted a wake and oil slick, and a combined air and sea attack with bombs and depth charges fatally holed the submarine. She sank with all seventy-n...

Read more: USS Wahoo (SS-238) on Qualla

Image: United States Navy, Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Stefanie Broughton | Public domain