USS Sea Owl (SS/AGSS-405), a Balao-class submarine, was a ship of the United States Navy named for the sea owl, a lumpfish of the North Atlantic Ocean.
During World War II, the United States operated two ships named Sea Owl in commission at the same time, the Navy′s SS-405 and the War Shipping Administration′s , a .
Construction and commissioning
Sea Owl was laid down by the Portsmouth Navy Yard at Kittery, Maine, on 7 February 1944; launched on 7 May 1944, sponsored by Mrs. Thomas L. Gatch; and commissioned on 17 July 1944.
World War II
After shakedown off Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and New London, Connecticut, Sea Owl transited the Panama Canal and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 23 October 1944. Her first war patrol commenced on 19 November and was conducted in the East China Sea as part of a coordinated attack group with and . She carried trial versions of Mark 18 electric and Mark 27 ("Cutie") homing torpedoes. After three weeks of searching for worthwhile targets, Sea Owl sank her initial victim, a Japanese destroyer escort, with one Mark 27. She followed with a second escort, stopped by a Mark 27 and finished off with one Mark 18, from about 1000 yd (910 m). This was the first combat success for both weapons. The remainder of the patrol was uneventful, and the submarine put into Guam on 15 January 1945.
For her second war patrol, Sea Owl joined Piranha and in patrolling in Luzon Strait and the South China Sea. She was off Wake Island early on the morning of 18 April when she attacked a Japanese submarine. She is often credited with sinking or in this attack, but Ro-46 and Ro-56 were sunk in the vicinity of Okinawa during the first half of April 1945 and neither ever visited the Wake Island area. The submarine Sea Owl attacked on 18 April was — and I-372 survived the attack. Sea Owl′s second patrol ended at Midway Atoll on 21 April 1945.
Sea Owl got underway for her third and final war patrol on 20 May in concert with Puffer and . This patrol was concentrated in the Yellow and East China Seas and was devoted to both lifeguard duties and offensive patrol.
After 19 days, two Japanese destroyers were contacted and six torpedoes were fired from a perfect set-up. The first torpedo hit one of the destroyers in her magazine amidships, blowing her up in the water and allowing the other torpedoes to pass under the target and miss. The other destroyer joined forces with two patrol craft and vengefully dropped 84 depth charges during the following 14 hours but inflicted no material damage.
Four days later, Sea Owl, in a gun attack, destroyed a large, rice-laden, four-masted schooner from which she captured two prisoners of war. On 2 July, she rescued six downed aviators after a race against darkness. All six were treated for wounds and were included in the crew for the remainder of the patrol.
When the Japanese surrendered on 15 August, Sea Owl was in Pearl Harbor preparing for her fourth war patrol.
1945 – 1951
Upon returning to the United States in September, Sea Owl was assigned to the Atlantic Fleet and was based at Balboa in the Canal Zone as a unit of Submarine Squadron 6 (SubRon 6). From October 1946 through March 1947, she made a cruise along the west coast of South America and joined the other submarines of SubRon 6 in fleet exercises off Culebra Island in the West Indies. She next supported antisubmarine training at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Key West, Fla.
Sea Owl underwent overhaul at the Philadelphia Navy Yard from September 1947 to January 1948 followed by a brief period of refresher training in the Caribbean. She resumed her duties at Balboa on 12 January and, for the next 18 months, operated in the Panama area and Caribbean Sea participating in fleet training exercises.
On 27 June 1949, Sea Owl arrived at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard for a regularly scheduled overhaul and, upon completion in October, was assigned to SubRon 8 in New London, Conn. For the next two years she operated in the Atlantic, participating in fleet exercises and antisubmarine training.