Built by: Portsmouth Naval Yard
Design: Government
Keel laid: 7 September 1937
Launched: 27 July 1938
Sponsor: Mrs. J. R. Defrees
Commissioned: 16 January 1939
First Skipper: Lt. Warren D. Wilken

Several Members of SHARKHUNTERS rode USS SCULPIN at one time or another, including:
RADM CORWIN MENDENHALL (2771-1995)
Admiral PETE GALANTIN (4289-1995)
GEORGE ROCEK (828-1992)

“From Commander Asiatic Fleet to Asiatic Fleet – URGENT Japan has commenced hostilities Govern yourselves accordingly”

USS SCULPIN was yet another American submarine to receive this urgent message in the Pacific. She was one of four American submarines in the area of Manila taking supplies aboard and making ready for the action they all knew would come. They were taking on double the normal amount of torpedoes and ammunition.

SCULPIN, along with SEAWOLF, escorted a convoy headed south, away from the Philippines. The convoy consisted of the aircraft tender USS LANGLEY and the destroyer tender USS BLACK HAWK. The war had begun.

SCULPIN was patrolling Lamon Bay, then headed for Darwin where she was running submerged in daylight hours and running fast on the surface at night. However, on 10 January things got busy for her. The boat had surfaced at 1840 hours to begin her high speed surface run, when the Officer of the Deck called Chappell, the Skipper, to the bridge to look at a darkened ship about 2,000 yards distant. Chappell looked into the darkness and said: “I can’t see a damned thing. Are you sure there’s something out there?”

The Officer of the Deck was sure. Use of red lights to preserve night vision had not yet been introduced, and Chappell was not able to see the target. He had to rely on the OD’s excellent vision, so target bearing, distance and speed were more or less done by guess and by gosh method. They got the data they needed, came around to 290º and set a 30º right gyro angle on the torpedo. They were now about 1,000 yards from the target that only the OD could see.

Two torpedoes were launched…..the stop-watch counted off the seconds, and there was nothing. Both missed.

Chappell fed in a 45º right gyro angle on two more torpedoes and fired – but the torpedoes were hardly out of the tubes when the first ones reached the target and exploded.

SCULPIN turned to bring her stern tubes to bear on the second target, but suddenly they came under fire from pom-pom guns off the first ship, which was sinking. The sound operator heard breaking up noises as SCULPIN headed for the safety of the deep. They were not able to set up a clear shot by sound on the second ship and after hearing a few ineffective depth charges, they decided to head for Darwin.

Late in 1942, SCULPIN was one of 16 American submarines patrolling out of Brisbane and she scored victories in the Bismarck area, which had benefits for the Guadalcanal campaign. On 7 October she scored her first confirmed victim and a week later she got a small freighter in the same area.

Then November of 1943, during Operation GALVANIC, Captain J. P. Cromwell boarded SCULPIN with orders to form a patrol group consisting of SCULPIN, SEARAVEN and either APOGON or SPEARFISH. She departed Pearl Harbor on 5 November under command of Fred Connaway with Cromwell aboard, headed for Johnston Island & her patrol area in the Carolines on 7 November. That is the last SCULPIN was heard of. The story of her loss was reconstructed after the war in interviews with her survivors.

SCULPIN was to patrol north of Truk Island and she was to intercept and destroy any Japanese ships which came their way.

On the night of 18 November, SCULPIN made radar contact with a fast Japanese convoy and the commander ordered an end-around to get into an attack position. They were closing in for the attack at dawn, when they were detected and the convoy came at them at high speed. SCULPIN was forced to dive deep to safety.

An hour later, she surfaced and tried again to gain an attack position, but she was spotted by a destroyer, and she dived while receiving some depth charges. Damage was minor, but the depth gage was out of commission and when they tried to come to periscope depth, the gage continued to show 125 feet. The result was that the submarine broached and even though she dived again immediately, the Japanese escorts spotted her and resumed the attack with much greater vigor and continued them long and hard.

About midday on the 19th, a salvo of a dozen and a half depth charges bracketed SCULPIN close aboard, and hurt her badly. Her pressure hull was dented, she was leaking all ‘round, her steering gear and diving planes were damaged. Her Skipper decided to fight it out with the deck gun, and any further action submerged would have been sure death.

No matter how hard a submarine fights on the surface with her deck gun, she is no match for a heavily armed destroyer. One shell hit the conning tower while another destroyed her main induction. Her Skipper, Cdr. Connaway and Gunnery Officer Lt. Defrees were killed. Also killed was Lt. Allen in the conning tower – and other men died at their posts on the bridge and in the control room. It was all over for SCULPIN.

The Diving Officer, Lt. G. E. Brown, was suddenly in command with the death of all officers higher in rank, and he saw that there was no hope of surviving much longer in this battle so he gave the order to abandon ship. About twelve men rode the boat down. Some of the crew were taken aboard the Japanese destroyer, but one man, severely wounded, was thrown back into the sea by the crew of the destroyer.

Captain John Cromwell had vital secret information about Operation GALVANIC and, fearing that he might crack under torture and reveal this critical information to the enemy, he chose to remain aboard and go down with the ship. For his selfless decision to sacrifice himself for the good of the Navy, Captain Cromwell was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

The survivors were taken to Truk where they were grilled for ten days, then put aboard two aircraft carriers for the voyage to Japan. One of these groups made it to Japan and were used as slave laborers in the Ashio copper mines. The other men were not so fortunate, as they were shipped aboard the carrier CHUYO.

Only 21 crewmen of USS SCULPIN came home after they were rescued at war’s end.

War Patrols of USS SCULPIN
WP#	FROM	TO	DURATION	SINKINGS
1	CV N. Luzon	BJ	45 days	None
2	BJ Molucca S	FA	29 days	None
3	FA Molucca S	FA	45 days	None
4	FA S China S	FA	19 days	None
5	BA Solomons	BA	48 days	see note A
6	BA Truk	PH	51 days	None
7	PH Empire	MI	41 days	see note B
8	MI Yellow S	MI	51 days	see note C
9	PH Gilberts	***	44 days	None

A – on 5th patrol, sank 4,731 ton transport NAMINOUE MARU and the 1,921 ton cargo ship SUMIYOSHI MARU
B – Claimed two sampans sunk on 7th war patrol
C – on 8th patrol sank the 3,183 ton cargo ship SEKKO MARU

After USS SCULPIN was scuttled in the attack by the Japanese destroyer YAMAGUMO, 42 men made it off the boat to be picked up by the destroyer. Twenty of these men were aboard the ill-fated aircraft carrier CHUYO when she was sunk by American forces.

USS SCULPIN was awarded 8 battle stars and the Philippine Presidential Unit Citation.