USS Sealion ( SS - 315 ) USS " Sealion " ( SS / SSP / ASSP / APSS / LPSS - 315 ) , a " Balao " - class submarine , was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the sea lion , any of several large , eared seals native to the Pacific . She is sometimes referred to as Sealion II , because her first skipper , Lieutenant Commander Eli Thomas Reich , was a veteran of the first , serving on her when she was lost at the beginning of World War II . Her keel was laid down on 25 February 1943 by the Electric Boat Company of Groton , Connecticut . She was launched on 31 October 1943 sponsored by Mrs . Emory Land , and commissioned on 8 March 1944 . World War II . Following the shakedown , " Sealion " , assigned to Submarine Division 222 ( 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 , she stopped off at Midway Atoll on 12 June , glanced off a whale on 15 June , and on 22 June , transited Tokara Strait to enter the East China Sea . On 23 June , she and " Tang " took up stations in the Ōsumi Islands , an island group to the south of Kyūshū . That afternoon , " Sealion " unsuccessfully conducted her first attack , then underwent her first depth charging . On 24 June , 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 25 June , 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 28 June , " Sealion " caught and sank a Japanese naval transport , " Sansei Maru " , in the Tsushima Island area ; then continued on into the Korean archipelago . On 30 June , 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 , " 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 launched four torpedoes at the warship . All missed . An hour later enemy aircraft joined the search which was continued until mid - afternoon , and " Sealion " escaped unscathed . 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 – 11 July , however , her radar was back in partial operation ; and , on the morning of 11 July , she conducted several attacks , sinking two freighters , " Tsukushi Maru Number 2 " and " Taian Maru Number 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 20 mm shells into the Japanese bridge . At 0714 , the freighter disappeared , and " Sealion " headed south of Tokara Strait . On 13 July , she cleared that strait and , on 21 July , she arrived at Midway Island . Refitted by , " Sealion " departed for the Bashi Channel and her second war patrol on 17 August . Hunting with and , she transited the channel and moved into the South China Sea on 30 August . During the pre - dawn hours of 31 August , she conducted a night surface attack against a Japanese convoy and heavily damaged a tanker . As " Rikko Maru " billowed 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 , went down ; enemy planes began 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 10 September , she moved through Balintang Channel . On 11 September , she rendezvoused with two other submarines , and on 12 September , 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 destroyer " Shikinami " to the bottom . " Sealion " launched 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 , launched three torpedoes at a tanker ; then swung to fire on " SS Rakuyo Maru " , the last ship in the nearer column . At 0524 , " Zuihō Maru " , possibly hit by torpedoes from both " Pampanito " and " Sealion " , burst into flames . " Kachidoki Maru " 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 15 September , 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 12 September . " Rakuyo Maru " had been carrying Australian and British prisoners of war 1159 of whom were killed in the attack or by the effects of the attack . By 2045 , " Sealion " had taken on 54 POWs and started back to Saipan . All of the POWs 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 17 September . On 18 September , rendezvoused with " Sealion " and transferred a doctor and a pharmacist ' s mate to the submarine . On 19 September , a fourth POW died , and on 20 September , " 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 , headed west to patrol in the East China Sea . The two submarines stopped off at Midway Island on 4 November , then continued on to their patrol area . Ten days later , " Sealion " transited Tokara Strait . On 16 November , her number 8 tube was accidentally fired with both doors closed . Heavy seas prevented a thorough inspection of the damage . On 17 November , she began patrolling the approaches to Shanghai . On 18 November , there was a hydrogen explosion in the battery space of the torpedo in number 5 tube . Sinking of battleship " Kongō " . At 0020 on 21 November , she made radar contact with an enemy formation moving through the Taiwan Strait at about and not zig - zagging . By 0048 , the pips were made out to be two cruiser s and two battleship s . At 0146 , three additional ships , escorts — one on either beam of the formation and one on the starboard quarter — became visible . " Sealion " had in fact intercepted a powerful fleet consisting of , , , , , , , and . 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 , " Kongō " . At 0259 , she fired three at " Nagato " . At 0300 , her crew saw and heard three hits from the first salvo , flooding two of " Kongō " s boiler rooms and giving her a list to port . " Nagato " , alerted by the explosions , turned hard and the " Sealion " s second salvo missed ahead , running on to hit and sink " Urakaze " ; the destroyer ' s magazines were hit by the torpedo . She blew up and sank quickly with the loss of all hands on board , including ComDesDiv 17 Yokota Yasuteru . " 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 Japanese 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 consisting of " Kongō " , " Isokaze " and " Hamakaze " . At 0524 , a tremendous explosion lit the area and " Kongō " disappeared . It was customary in American submarines to mark a name on the head of each torpedo as it was loaded into the tube nest . They usually bore the names of the torpedo crews ' wives or best girls . Some carried the names of the factory employee who had sold the most war bond s during a given period . That night , however , four of " Sealion " s fish , as they raced out of their tubes , were stamped with the names Foster , O ' Connell , Paul and Ogilvie — the men who had been killed in the bombing of " Sealion I " three years earlier . It was not customary for the crews of American submarines to make audio recordings of their attacks . However , the " Sealion " crew had obtained a sound recorder left behind by a CBS war correspondent who had debarked at Midway , and when ordered to battle stations after encountering the Japanese battle group , one sailor positioned the microphone by an intercom in the conning tower . That recording , along with a similar recording of an attack on a Japanese oiler during the " Sealion " s fifth patrol , were then preserved by the " U . S . Navy Underwater Sound Laboratory " , and are thought to be the only surviving sound recordings of World War II submarine attacks . Subsequent activity . During the next few days , " Sealion " continued to patrol between Mainland China and Formosa , and on 28 November , she headed for Guam . On her fourth war patrol , from 14 December 1944 – 24 January 1945 , " Sealion " returned to the South China Sea in a coordinated attack group with sister ships and . Poor weather plagued her , and of the 26 days spent on station , all but six were spent on the surface . On 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 , " Mamiya " was still afloat , and the submarine went in for a second attack . At 0032 on 21 December , she launched three torpedoes for two hits . The supply ship went under . That day , " Sealion " joined the Seventh Fleet , and from 28 December 1944 to 14 January 1945 , she performed reconnaissance duties in support of the reoccupation of the Philippine Islands . On the latter date , she cleared her patrol area and headed for Western Australia , arriving at Fremantle on 24 January . She departed Fremantle 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 " 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 , and on 6 April , she delivered her passengers to Subic Bay . By 30 April , " Sealion " was again ready for sea . With and , 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 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 . Post - War . From Pearl Harbor , " Sealion " continued on to San Francisco , California , 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 . A year and one - half later , however , " Sealion " , along with , 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 a tracked landing vehicle ( LVT ) . On 2 November 1948 , " Sealion " was recommissioned a Submarine , Transport , with the hull classification symbol 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 , Connecticut , area , then , in May , she commenced operations out of Norfolk , Virginia , as a unit of Submarine Squadron 6 ( SubRon 6 ) , SubDiv 6l . On 31 January 1950 , she was reclassified a transport submarine with hull classification symbol 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 – June 1950 , she underwent her first post - conversion overhaul at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard , 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 Team s 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 Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean from August – November 1957 . On 30 June 1960 , " Sealion " was decommissioned at Portsmouth , New Hampshire , where she remained as a reserve training submarine until reactivated a year later . In August 1961 , she was towed to Philadelphia , Pennsylvania for overhaul ; on 20 October , she was recommissioned , and on 18 December , she rejoined SubRon 6 at Norfolk . There , she resumed a schedule similar to that of the 1950s , interrupted by 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 . On 3 December , she returned to Norfolk and from then into 1967 she maintained her schedule of exercises with Marine Reconnaissance , Underwater Demolition Team s , and SEAL personnel . On 15 September 1967 , she changed homeports and administrative control , and for the next two years , she operated out of Key West , Florida , as a unit of SubDiv 121 . Reclassified an amphibious transport submarine with hull classification symbol LPSS - 315 in January 1969 , " Sealion " was ordered inactivated the following summer , and , in September , she proceeded to Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , where she was decommissioned and placed in the inactive fleet on 20 February 1970 . Stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 15 March 1977 , " Sealion " was sunk as a target off Newport , Rhode Island , on 8 July 1978 . Awards . " Sealion " earned five battle star s for her World War II service .