16th Annual Lost Boats of Mare Island Memorial
On Sunday, November 13, 2022, an afternoon memorial service will be held on Mare Island to honor the 575 crewmen of seven Mare Island-built submarines lost during WWII.
For the past 16 years, the Mare Island Heritage Trust has hosted a free public memorial event in the month of October when both the USS Wahoo and the USS Tang were lost at sea.
The event will be held at the historic WWII Landing Craft Support Gunboat 102 berthed at Berth 6 A St. and Nimitz Ave where the dockside service of music and history and the laying of the memorial wreath in the Napa River/Mare Island Strait, will take place.
As guests cross the "Blue Bridge" Causeway onto the former naval base, they will see the historic Navy submariners football field to the left, named for Commander Dudley W. “Mush” Morton. After the Wahoo’s loss at sea on October 11, 1943, Mare Island Naval Shipyard honored the Commander by naming its sports field at the entrance of Mare Island, Morton Field, after the famous World War II submarine skipper.
The memorial service will take place dockside at the Landing Craft Gunboat 102. The Gunboat's flag will be raised at the beginning of the program of music and history with a traditional casting of the wreath ceremony following the service. The event is rain or shine and takes place alongside the last WWII landing craft support gunboat the LCS 102 at Berth 6, located at the intersection of A St. and Nimitz Ave on Mare Island in Vallejo, CA.
“We hope people will join us in honoring these men who gave their lives during WWII in service of the U.S.Navy and the people of this nation”. We have a privilege and responsibility to remember the lost crewmen and to honor all of those who have served our country in the submarine force. And, as importantly, we owe the men and women who built and maintained ships such as these seven submarines at Mare Island a debt of gratitude,” said Myrna Hayes, Lost Boats of Mare Island Memorial organizer.
Mr. Larry Maggini, Co-Founder of the annual lost submarine memorial, will give a presentation featuring the seven vessels built, launched and overhauled and repaired at Mare Island Naval Shipyard during WWII. Mr. Maggini is a Yountville, CA resident, Lost Boats of Mare Island Memorial Co-founder and a former submarine combat systems engineer at Mare Island Naval Shipyard until the base closure in 1996. Following the closure of the Mare Island Naval base, Mr. Maggini was employed by Weston Solutions, Inc. one of the U.S. Navy’s environmental cleanup contractors for Mare Island and a founding corporate sponsor of the USS Wahoo and Lost Boats of Mare Island Memorial events.
Mr. Maggini has researched and compiled two books about Mare Island’s lost submarines. His first book entitled: “USS Wahoo (SS 238) in Memoriam”, was written for the first Mare Island service held 15 years ago in October of 2007 when USS Wahoo memorial services were held simultaneously at Pearl Harbor and at Mare Island after the final resting place of the vessel and her crew was located. Mr. Maggini has also written a book featuring details about all 7 submarines built at Mare Island and lost at sea during WWII, entitled, “On Eternal Patrol—The Lost Boats of Mare Island”. The books will be available for sale in print and DVD version.
The dockside service will honor the 575 crewmen of the Mare Island submarines lost during WWII, including USS Wahoo and USS Tang, both lost at sea in October. The service will provide an opportunity for those in attendance to share memories and recollections. A hand-made wreath made by volunteers from materials found on Mare Island will be placed in the Mare Island Strait to honor the boats built at Mare Island and their crews, which were lost at sea during WWII. The tradition of the playing of Taps and Amazing Grace will conclude the service.
The U.S. Navy submarine force went to war against the Japanese Empire in December 1941 with orders to “…conduct unrestricted submarine warfare…”. By the end of World War II in September 1945, it had sunk a significant portion of the Japanese Navy and virtually wiped out their merchant fleet, effectively strangling the island nation. According to submarine history of the Pacific Fleet, the submarine force supported all major fleet operations and made more than 1,600 war patrols. Pacific Fleet submarines, like USS Wahoo, accounted for 54 percent of all enemy shipping sunk during the war although the price paid in loss of lives and vessels was high. Fifty-two of the 325 U.S. submarines that departed on war patrols during World War II were declared, “overdue, presumed lost”. Their 3,500 crewmen representing an estimated 19 percent of the lives lost during WWII, today remain on what surviving shipmates reverently term “eternal patrol”, their final resting places in most cases known only to God.
The Mare Island service will honor all submariners who have served in the U.S. Navy and those who have died as submariners. Seven of the twenty-three submarines built at Mare Island that took part in World War II combat operations were among the fifty-two that never came home: USS Pompano (SS-181), USS Swordfish (SS-193), USS Gudgeon (SS-211), USS Trigger (SS-237), USS Wahoo (SS238), USS Tullibee (SS-284), and USS Tang (SS-306). For more than 63 years the final resting places of the lost boats and their crews had remained unknown. Then, in October 2006, the Navy confirmed that USS Wahoo, lost at sea on October 11, 1943 with her crew of eighty men, had been located in La Perouse Strait off the Japanese island of Hokkaido.
For more than 60 years the search continued for the legendary World War II submarine USS Wahoo (SS 238) lost at sea on her 7th and final war patrol in the fall of 1943. On October 31, 2006 the Commander, U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet issued a press release confirming that a wreck off Japan in Soya (La Perouse) Strait in Russian waters between Hokkaido, Japan and Sakhalin, Russia is the Wahoo, lost at sea, October 11, 1943 with her crew of eighty men.
That announcement and planned memorial service at Pearl Harbor in October 2007, was the inspiration for Maggini and Hayes to found the first Mare Island memorial service to honor the Mare Island built USS Wahoo. Sixteen years ago, on October 11, 2007, volunteers of the Mare Island Heritage Trust held the first of the annual flag raising and wreath-laying dockside memorial services it hosts on Mare Island in Vallejo. The USS Wahoo was built at Mare Island and launched from Berth 19, near Building 678, at the southern end of the Naval Shipyard, February 14, 1942. After retrofitting, the vessel left Mare Island Naval Shipyard bound for her 6th and later 7th and final patrol, on July 21,1943.
The October 11, 2007 memorial service at Mare Island coincided with a memorial event, “On Eternal Patrol – Memorial Ceremony for the Men of USS Wahoo (SS-238)” for the families, friends and former crew members of the USS Wahoo at the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. www.bowfin.org
On July 8, 2007, the U.S. Navy, while conducting routine operations off the coast of Wakkanai, Japan, held a Ceremony-at-Sea for USS Wahoo.
In July of 2006, the Russian dive team “Iskra” photographed wreckage lying in about 213 feet (65 meters) of water in the La Perouse (Soya) Strait between the Japanese island of Hokkaido and the Russian island of Sakhalin. The divers were working with The Wahoo Project Group, an international team of experts coordinated by Bryan MacKinnon, grand-nephew of Wahoo’s last Commanding Officer, Dudley W. “Mush” Morton.
The discovery of Wahoo was the culmination of more than a decade of work by an international team dedicated to finding the ill-fated submarine. In 2004, electronic surveys sponsored by a major international energy company (The Sakhalin Energy Investment Corporation) identified the likely site.
Japan Maritime Self Defense Force retired Vice Adm. Kazuo Ueda assisted the group with providing historical records from the Imperial Japanese Navy that identified the location where Wahoo was sunk.
The U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet Submarine Force reviewed analysis and photos provided by the Bowfin Museum and agreed the wreck is USS Wahoo. The wreck had several characteristics consistent with USS Wahoo, and the submarine was found very near those reported in Imperial Japanese Navy records. Photographs are available at www.warfish.com and www.OnEternalPatrol.com. General information about the USS Wahoo Project is available at www.usswahoo.org.
According to Navy press releases, the Navy has no plans to salvage or enter the Wahoo wreck. A long naval tradition has held that the sea is a fitting final resting place for Sailors lost at sea. The Sunken Military Craft Act protects military wrecks from unauthorized disturbance.
The vessel was overhauled at Mare Island beginning in late May of 1943 and after a period of post-repair trials and training ending with a U.S. Navy award presentation to members of the crew, the Wahoo departed Mare Island for Pearl Harbor on July 21, 1943.
Wahoo was last heard from Sept. 13, 1943, as the Gato-class submarine departed the island of Midway en route to the “dangerous, yet important,” Sea of Japan. Under strict radio silence, Morton and his crew proceeded as ordered. Radio contact was expected to be regained with Midway in late October upon Wahoo’s departure from the Sea of Japan, but contact was never made. Following an aerial search of the area, Wahoo was officially reported missing Nov. 9, 1943.
At the time, the loss of Wahoo was believed due to mines or a faulty torpedo. But Japanese reports later stated that one of its planes had spotted an American submarine in the La Perouse Strait on Oct. 11, 1943. These reports indicate a multi-hour combined sea and air attack involving depth charges and aerial bombs finally sunk Wahoo.
Morton is credited with sinking 19 ships totaling nearly 55,000 tons during his four patrols in command of USS Wahoo. During Wahoo’s rare foray in the Sea of Japan, Morton reportedly sunk at least four Japanese ships. For the patrol, Morton was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross – his fourth.
In Larry Maggini’s photo narrative book he cites a quote by the historian Fletcher Pratt who wrote: "There is a poetry in ships' names. It can still be heard in the quiet watches of the night..., when mist obscures the waterfront and foghorns call mournfully through the darkness. Out across the bay, blinking lights mark the channel down which Navy ships have sailed for a hundred years, and bells sound a knell for those that never came back." “The names of Mare Island's lost boats are honored names—Pompano, Swordfish, Gudgeon, Trigger, Wahoo, Tullibee, and Tang. Some were old and some were new, but the sweat and the skill and the steel of Mare Island were a part of each of them to the end. The memories of them will live so long as the bells still toll. I sincerely hope the public will join us once again on Sunday, November 13 to remember the crewmen of our lost boats”, said Larry Maggini.
The Lost Boats of Mare Island Memorial is hosted by the Mare Island Heritage Trust, whose mission is to work within the community of Vallejo and throughout the region to raise the public’s awareness of, and access to, Mare Island. Organizers of the Lost Boats Memorial have hosted events on Mare Island including the annual San Francisco Bay Flyway Festival for the past 28 years, and they founded the San Francisco Bay Osprey Days and the Mare Faire at the Mare Island Shoreline Heritage Preserve. The Mare Island Heritage Trust also founded and provided regular public access every weekend at the Mare Island Shoreline Heritage Preserve in cooperation with the City of Vallejo from 2007-2019. The Trust continues to manage the Mare Island San Pablo Bay Trail, which it has day-to-day managed for the past 12 years. The Mare Island Aglow Holiday Lights at the Mare Island Preserve gate, will be offered each night during the week between Christmas and New Year’s.
The Lost Boats Memorial service planned at Mare Island is free of charge. It is a rain or shine event. The dockside service will be under a tent. If planning to attend, dress for all possible weather including warm midday sun, cool skies and even rain or fog and bring an umbrella.
Organizers gratefully acknowledge the support of the WWII Landing Craft Support Gunboat LCS-102 for use of Berth 6 for the memorial and wreath-laying service. The WWII boat will be open for limited access tours before and after the dockside memorial service.