Under Commander Fred Connaway, the USS Sculpin, SS 191, left Pearl Harbor on 5 November 1943, to begin her ninth war patrol. Assigned to support surface forces in the Gilbert Islands by intercepting and attacking enemy forces moving from Truk toward the Marshalls, the submarine refueled at Johnston Island and then set course for the Caroline Islands but was never heard from again after 7 November.
During this patrol, Captain John P. Cromwell had been embarked on Sculpin. He was to lead a coordinated attack group comprised of Sculpin, Searaven, and Apogon. On the night of 29 November, the group was ordered to form, with Apogon named as the third member. However, having received no rendezvous orders from Captain Cromwell even after 40 hours, new directives were issued by Commander Submarine Forces, Pacific. Sculpin was ordered to proceed to Eniwetok for close observation and report any enemy shipping. Although repeated attempts had been made to contact Sculpin on December 1 and succeeding days, no reply was received and by December 30 Sculpin was considered lost.
The harrowing details of Sculpin’s final days were pieced together from statements of surviving crew members out of enemy prison camps. In the darkness of the night of November 18, Sculpin picked up a fast convoy and began an end-around for a dawn attack. The submarine was detected and driven off by the zigzagging maneuvers of the convoy. Surfacing to try another end-around, Sculpin was immediately driven down again, coming under a merciless depth charge attack.
By noon on 19 November, a close pattern of 18 depth charges had badly damaged Sculpin, deforming the pressure hull and causing numerous leaks and electrical failures. Commander Connaway decided to surface and fight it out with the enemy gun to gun. In the subsequent gun battle, Commander Connaway, the Gunnery Officer, and many men were killed. Lieutenant G.E. Brown, the only surviving officer, took command and ordered the crew to abandon ship. Knowing he was aware of sensitive operational plans, Captain Cromwell elected to go down with the ship rather than risk having vital information fall into enemy hands. For this selfless act, Captain Cromwell would be posthumously recommended for the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Of the crew, 42 men were captured by the Japanese destroyer, although one badly wounded sailor was jettisoned into the water. The remaining 41 POWs were taken to Truk and eventually to Japan. As they were being taken to Japan, the transport Chuyo was torpedoed and sunk by the USS Sailfish on 31 December 1943. Only one American survived. This was ironic since Sculpin had assisted the Sailfish when that submarine sank off Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1939.
The rest of the prisoners of war also suffered much, including interrogation and forced labor in the copper mines of Ashio, until they were finally liberated by American troops on September 4, 1945.
For her part, Sculpin would conduct a total of eight patrols, sinking nine ships for 42,200 tons and damaging ten others for 63,000 tons. Among her highlights were the sinking of the 3,124-ton transport Kanko Maru and damaging several enemy ships during different patrols in the Pacific.
USS Sculpin’s story speaks for itself in bravery, sacrifice, and unyielding spirit—the hallmark of the United States Navy in World War II.