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USS ''Sealion'' (SS/SSP/ASSP/APSS/LPSS-315), a ''Balao''-class submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for the sea lion, any of several large, eared seals native to the Pacific. She is sometimes referred to as ''Sealion II'', because her first skipper, Lieutenant Commander Eli Thomas Reich, was a veteran of the first , serving on her when she was lost at the beginning of World War II. Her keel was laid down on 25 February 1943 by the Electric Boat Company of Groton, Connecticut. She was launched on 31 October 1943 sponsored by Mrs. Emory S. Land, and commissioned on 8 March 1944. ==World War II== Following the shakedown, ''Sealion'', assigned to Submarine Division 222 (SubDiv 222), sailed for the Pacific and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 17 May. Further training occupied the next three weeks, and on 8 June, she headed west on her first war patrol. Sailing with , she stopped off at Midway Atoll on 12 June, glanced off a whale on 15 June, and on 22 June, transited Tokara Strait to enter the East China Sea. On 23 June, she and ''Tang'' took up stations in the Ōsumi Islands, an island group to the south of Kyūshū. That afternoon, ''Sealion'' unsuccessfully conducted her first attack, then underwent her first depth charging. On 24 June, joined the two submarines; and the group moved northward to patrol the approaches to Sasebo. Patrolling in adjacent lanes, the submarines contacted a convoy on 25 June, but ''Sealion'' lost depth control on reaching attack position and was unable to fire. From the Sasebo area, the submarines moved toward the Korean peninsula. On 28 June, ''Sealion'' caught and sank a Japanese naval transport, ''Sansei Maru'', in the Tsushima Island area; then continued on into the Korean archipelago. On 30 June, she used her deck guns to sink a sampan, and, with the new month, July, she moved closer to the China coast to patrol the approaches to Shanghai. On the morning of 6 July, ''Sealion'' intercepted a convoy south of the Four Sisters Islands and, at 0447 commenced firing torpedoes at two merchantmen in the formation. Within minutes, ''Setsuzan Maru'' sank, and the convoy scattered. ''Sealion'' retired to the northeast to evade the convoy's escort, a destroyer, as it began its search for the submarine. At 0600, the destroyer closed ''Sealion'', and the submarine launched four torpedoes at the warship. All missed. An hour later enemy aircraft joined the search which was continued until mid-afternoon, and ''Sealion'' escaped unscathed. Three days later, ''Sealion'' moved northward again and commenced hunting between the Shantung peninsula and Korea. Dense fog blanketed the area and left her blind while her radar was out of commission. By midnight on the night of 10–11 July, however, her radar was back in partial operation; and, on the morning of 11 July, she conducted several attacks, sinking two freighters, ''Tsukushi Maru Number 2'' and ''Taian Maru Number 2''. The running surface chase with the second freighter involved three attacks over a period of almost seven hours. On the third attack, at 0711, ''Sealion'' fired her last torpedo; then, after debris from the explosion had flown over the submarine, she moved down the port quarter of the target, pouring 20 mm shells into the Japanese bridge. At 0714, the freighter disappeared, and ''Sealion'' headed south of Tokara Strait. On 13 July, she cleared that strait and, on 21 July, she arrived at Midway Island. Refitted by , ''Sealion'' departed for the Bashi Channel and her second war patrol on 17 August. Hunting with and , she transited the channel and moved into the South China Sea on 30 August. During the pre-dawn hours of 31 August, she conducted a night surface attack against a Japanese convoy and heavily damaged a tanker. As ''Rikko Maru'' billowed black smoke, other Japanese ships took ''Sealion'' under fire with deck guns. The submarine moved out of the area and executed an end-around to take position ahead of the convoy. At 0720, she again attacked the convoy. Within minutes, went down; enemy planes began circling the area and the convoy's surface escorts began their search. ''Sealion'' went deep and headed south. Later that day, she closed another target with a merchant ship appearance, but as she reached firing position, the target was made out to be an antisubmarine vessel. Three torpedoes were fired, but were spotted by the target's bow lookout. The target evaded the torpedoes and the hunter became the hunted. Depth charging followed without damage to the submarine; but ''Sealion'', low on fuel and torpedoes, headed for Saipan. There, the submarine rearmed and refueled. On 7 September, ''Sealion'' got underway to rejoin her attack group. On 10 September, she moved through Balintang Channel. On 11 September, she rendezvoused with two other submarines, and on 12 September, the group attacked and decimated a convoy en route to Formosa. At about 0200, ''Growler'' attacked the formation. ''Pampanito'' and ''Sealion'' followed suit. ''Growler''s torpedoes sent destroyer ''Shikinami'' to the bottom. ''Sealion'' launched two torpedoes, both misses, and was taken under fire by two of the escorts. The submarine went to top speed and managed to keep ahead of the escorts until they broke off to rejoin the convoy shortly before 0330. An hour and a half later, ''Sealion'' again closed the convoy. At 0522, she launched three torpedoes at a tanker; then swung to fire on ''SS Rakuyo Maru'', the last ship in the nearer column. At 0524, ''Zuihō Maru'', possibly hit by torpedoes from both ''Pampanito'' and ''Sealion'', burst into flames. ''Kachidoki Maru'' was disabled. She swung into the burning tanker and soon was also ablaze. ''Sealion''s second target was illuminated, and at 0525, she fired on ''Rakuyo Maru''. Both torpedoes hit and that ship began to burn. ''Sealion'' was then forced to go deep. After several attempts to get a better look at the scene, he cleared the area and started after the remainder of the convoy. On the morning of 15 September, the three submarines reformed their scouting line. That afternoon, ''Pampanito'' radioed ''Sealion'', and other submarines in the area, to return to the scene of the action on 12 September. ''Rakuyo Maru'' had been carrying Australian and British prisoners of war 1159 of whom were killed in the attack or by the effects of the attack.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Rakuyo Maru )〕 By 2045, ''Sealion'' had taken on 54 POWs and started back to Saipan. All of the POWs were coated with crude oil and all were in poor health suffering from malaria, malnutritional diseases such as pellagra and beriberi, and exposure. Three died before the submarine reached Balintang Channel on 17 September. On 18 September, rendezvoused with ''Sealion'' and transferred a doctor and a pharmacist's mate to the submarine. On 19 September, a fourth POW died, and on 20 September, ''Sealion'' arrived in Tanapag Harbor and transferred the surviving 50 rescued POWs to the Army hospital there. From Saipan, ''Sealion'' returned to Hawaii. Arriving at Pearl Harbor on 30 September, she departed again on 31 October, and with , headed west to patrol in the East China Sea. The two submarines stopped off at Midway Island on 4 November, then continued on to their patrol area. Ten days later, ''Sealion'' transited Tokara Strait. On 16 November, her number 8 tube was accidentally fired with both doors closed. Heavy seas prevented a thorough inspection of the damage. On 17 November, she began patrolling the approaches to Shanghai. On 18 November, there was a hydrogen explosion in the battery space of the torpedo in number 5 tube. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「USS Sealion (SS-315)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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