U.S.S. Seawolf Memorial

U.S.S. Seawolf (SS-197) was lost in action on October 3, 1944, during her fifteenth patrol after leaving Brisbane on September 21, 1944, arriving at Manus on September 29, and departing the same day with stores and U.S. Army personnel bound for the east coast of Samar. Seawolf and Narwhal exchanged SJ radar recognition signals at 0756 on October 3, and when Seawolf was directed to report her position on October 4, she failed to do so. Before her loss, Seawolf had been awarded two Presidential Unit Citations and 13 battle stars, and in her first fourteen patrols she sank 27 enemy ships and damaged 13, totaling 108,600 tons sunk and 69,600 tons damaged. Her wartime service included patrols near northern Luzon, a passage from Manila to Port Darwin, delivery of .50 caliber antiaircraft ammunition to Corregidor in January 1942 and transport of passengers to Surabaya, attacks in Lombok Straits that earned her the Navy Unit Commendation, operations in the Philippine area and Makassar Strait, a patrol from Fremantle to Pearl Harbor via Davao Gulf, Palau, and Yap, the sinking of Sagami Maru in Davao Gulf on November 3, 1942, combat in the Bonins-Formosa area, patrols off the China coast and in the East China Sea and South China Sea, a photographic reconnaissance of Palau during which she rescued two downed aviators, and delivery of cargo to guerrilla activities in the Philippines on her fourteenth patrol. The dead included the Seawolf crew and U.S. Army personnel lost in the sinking.

Galveston, Texas · United States