@
 

On Eternal Patrol - Discrepancies in Numbers of Lost Submariners Found on WRECKsite (www.wrecksite.eu)

This page attempts to help bring those varying statistics into line, and serve as a guide for submarine veterans' organizations with accurate and consistent information to use in their memorial events.

 

Home

Presentation

WWII

WWII Boats

Pre-WWII

Pre-WWII Boats

Post-WWII

Post-WWII Boats

Additional Losses

Sources

Links

Privacy

Family Net

Contact Us

 


 WRECKsite Logo WRECKsite

From the WRECKsite home page: "The wreck site is the world largest online wreck database, we have 186.690 wrecks and 163.910 positions, 62.300 images, 2346 maritime charts, 30.940 ship owners and builders and a lot more..."

Part of the "a lot more" that WRECKsite presents is a "People on board" section for many of the lost vessels, listing names and a good amount of information for each person lost with the vessel. Here is an example of a listing on the site:

captainsMORTON, DUDLEY WALKER (35), Commander (no. O-063274), Navy Cross; Distinguished Service Cross; Purple Heart, USS Wahoo, US Navy, °07/17/1907 ~ †11/01/1943, [Family] Wife, Mrs. Harriet Nelson Morton, 1239 Post Rd., Scarsdale, NY. [Location] Sea Of Japan, missing, date of loss November 1, 1943, Memorial: Honolulu Memorial

Considering that over 3,600 men were lost in service to the U.S. Submarine Force alone, and hundredes of thousands (if not millions) of others have been lost at sea, this is an extremely ambitious effort, to say the least. WRECKsite is a private entity, not part of a govennmental agency, and the task they have taken on is literally monumental.

In order to assist them in this effort, we at On Eternal Patrol have offered them the results of our extensive research (albeit in much more limited confines) into U.S. submarine losses.



WRECKsite Website
When sites for men lost in U.S. submarines list figures that differ from ours, we make every effort to contact the responsible parties, provide them with the product of our research, and suggest changes.

WRECKsite maintains a remarkable number of listings, including the names and personal information of thousands of American submariners who were lost at sea, and missing in action. A recently completed man-by-man comparison of our World War II lost submariner listings with those shown on WRECKsite reveals a relatively small number of discrepancies between our sets of data, which we are presently attempting to rectify.

In summary, as of 21 May 2019, the main issues are:

WRECKsite does not list the names of any men lost with USS Grayling (77 men, including one U.S. Army passenger), USS Pickerel (74 men), USS Scamp (83 men), and USS Sealion (5 men, one of whom died in a POW camp).

WRECKsite lists only one name of the men lost with USS Trout (out of the toltal of 81 men lost), and two men lost with USS Golet (out of a total of 82 men lost).

WRECKsite omits two men lost with USS Runner, and one man lost with USS S-26. Please add Josiah Alexander Boone and Richard Harold Seligman of USS Runner, and Ray Amos Freeman of USS S-26.

WRECKsite mistakenly includes one man who was not lost with USS Albacore, one man who was not a crew member of USS Barbel, and one man who was not a crew member of USS Growler. Please remove Sylvester Wright of USS Albacore, Harry T. Eck, mistakenly listed on USS Barbel, and William Herbert Williams, Jr., mistakenly listed on USS Growler.

Other issues are relatively minor. Six men are double listed, and most of those are known to the creators of the site, but the duplicates have not yet been removed.


All suggested changes below refer specifically to the online database on WRECKsite.

Further details on the men below may be found on their respective personal memorial pages on this site. See also the more general Discrepancies in Numbers of Lost Submariners page on this site.

Issues listed in bold type are those that we feel should be addressed as soon as possible.


No. Submarine Lost Ws Notes for WRECKsite
1
ALBACORE (SS-218)
85 87 WRECKsite has a double listing (noted on the site) for Day, Fred Wallace (as Day, Fred E). (See Fred Wallace Day). The correct spelling of his last name is "Day" (not "Daye"), according to direct communication with his son. Also, Wright, Sylvester was not aboard the vessel when she was lost (also noted on the site).
2
AMBERJACK (SS-219)
72 73 WRECKsite Includes Arthur C. Beeman, who was killed by enemy gunfire 12 days before Amberjack was lost on the same patrol. If he is included, the number of men lost with the boat would be 73.
3
ARGONAUT (SS-166)
102 102  
4
BARBEL (SS-316)
81 82 Barbel crewmember Thomas John Eck was lost with the vessel and is correctly listed on WRECKsite. However, WRECKsite also mistakenly lists Harry T. Eck, F2, Service Number 249 74 99, who was lost while serving on the gunboat USS St. Augustine (PG-54) (see https://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?19969), which was accidentally rammed and sunk on 7 January 1944.
5
BONEFISH (SS-223)
85 85

 

6
BULLHEAD (SS-332)
84 84  
7
CAPELIN (SS-289)
76 76  
8
CISCO (SS-290)
76 76  
9
CORVINA (SS-226)
82 82  
10
DARTER (SS-227)
0 0  
11
DORADO (SS-248)
77 77

 

12
ESCOLAR (SS-294)
82 82  
13
FLIER (SS-250)
78 78  
14
GOLET (SS-361)
82 2 WRECKsite lists only two names (James Seerley Clark and Walter Maurice Kane, Jr.). See full list on our GOLET (SS-361) page.
15
GRAMPUS (SS-207)
71 71  
16
GRAYBACK (SS-208)
80 80  
17
GRAYLING (SS-209)
77 0 No names listed. See full list on our GRAYLING (SS-209) page, including the recently added U.S. Army man picked up by GRAYLING and lost with the vessel.
18
GRENADIER (SS-210)
4 4 POW losses
19
GROWLER (SS-215)
86 92 Double listing of Daughtrey, Gilbert Pryor (as Daughtrey, Gilbert P) (noted on the site). (Correct spelling of his last name is Daughtrey, not "Daugherty") WRECKsite includes Howard Walter Gilmore (Medal of Honor), Wilbert Fletcher Kelley, and William Wadsworth Williams, who were killed during an engagement with Japanese gunboat, twenty-one months before the loss of Growler. WRECKsite also includes Euin Melborn Jenes, who died in an accident ashore in December of 1943. WRECKsite mistakenly includes Williams, William Herbert, Jr., LT, USN. Service No. O-284929 (see photo below), who was not lost on Growler.
20
GRUNION (SS-216 )
70 71 Double listing of Van Woggelum, Marshall Frelinghuysen (as Van Voggelum, Marshall Frelinghuysen) (noted on the site)
21
GUDGEON (SS-211)
81 81  
22
HARDER (SS-257)
79 82 Double listing of Dealey, Samuel David; double listing of Fisher, George Eugene (as Fisher, George R Jr) (noted on the site); double listing for Lakey, George William (as Lakey, George B) (noted on the site)
23
HERRING (SS-233)
83 83  
24
KETE (SS-369)
87 87  
25
LAGARTO (SS-371)
86 86

 

26
PERCH (SS-176)
6 8 Along with the six men who died in POW camps, WRECKsite lists two men (Atkeison, Warren, and Greco, John) who survived the war (noted on the site), although a total of 53 Perch men actually survived the POW camps.
27
PICKEREL (SS-177)
74 0 No names listed. See full list on our PICKEREL (SS-177) page.
28
POMPANO (SS-181)
76 77

(Herbert Andrew Calcaterra - lost in non-sinking event)

29
R-12 (SS-89)
42 42 Includes the two Brazilian Naval Officers, but lists them as "U.S. Navy"
30
ROBALO (SS-273)
81 81  
31
RUNNER (SS-275)
78 76 WRECKsite mistakenly omits two men, Josiah Alexander Boone and Richard Harold Seligman.
32
S-26 (SS-131)
46 45 WRECKsite mistakenly omits one man, Ray Amos Freeman.
33
S-27 (SS-132)
0 0  
34
S-28 (SS-133)
49 49  
35
S-36 (SS-141)
0 0  
36
S-39 (SS-144)
0 0  
37
S-44 (SS-155)
56 56

 

38
SCAMP (SS-277)
83 0 No names listed. See full list on our SCAMP (SS-277) page.
39
SCORPION (SS-278)
77 78 (Reginald Marbury Raymond lost in a non-sinking event)
40
SCULPIN (SS-191)
63 63 WRECKsite does not distinguish among the various causes and dates of loss of the individual men
41
SEALION (SS-195)
5 0 No names listed. See full list on our SEALION (SS-195) page.
42
SEAWOLF (SS-197)
100 83 WRECKsite does not list the 17 Army personnel lost with Seawolf. See full list on our SEAWOLF (SS-197) page.
43
SHARK (SS-174)
59 59  
44
SHARK (SS-314)
87 87  
45
SNOOK (SS-279)
84 84  
46 SWORDFISH (SS-193) 89 89  
47
TANG (SS-306)
78 79 WRECKsite lists survivor Richard H. O'Kane, but not the other eight men who survived the sinking and POW camp.
48
TRIGGER (SS-237)
89 89  
49
TRITON (SS-201)
74 74  
50
TROUT (SS-202)
81 1

WRECKsite lists only Odell Hall; 80 men not listed. See full list on our TROUT (SS-202) page.

51
TULLIBEE (SS-284)
79 79  
52
WAHOO (SS-238)
80 80

 

 

LT William Herbert Williams, Jr. LT William Herbert Williams, Jr. (not aboard USS Growler when she was lost).

Note that other men that were lost in non-sinking events, and whose submarines were later lost, are generally not included in WRECKsite.


Note


Sources of our Statistics 
For a general listing of research sources, see our Sources page.

Primary Sources

The statistics presented above represent thousands of hours of original research into the records of more than 4,000 individual submariners.  Our findings are not a result of copying group listings from secondary sources. The evidence on which we base our information, in nearly every case of submariner fatality during World War II, is found by accessing individual personnel files in the National Archives' National Personnel Records Center, St. Louis.  This research was initially done almost entirely by World War II submarine veteran Paul W. Wittmer. Further research has been - and continues to be - done by Charles R. Hinman and William W. Bower, Jr.

We are also in touch with the families of hundreds of the men we seek to honor, many of whom have donated photos, documents, and information. 

The newly established Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) (part of which was the former Defense Prisoner of War - Missing Personnel Office (DPMO)), maintains a listing of 73,515 Americans who were buried with honor as unknowns, officially buried at sea, lost at sea, and missing in action, entitled "Service Personnel Not Recovered Following WWII" (http://www.dpaa.mil/Our-Missing/World-War-II/Service-Personnel-Not-Recovered-Following-WWII/). Approximately 3,500 of those were men of the U.S. Submarine Force. A recently completed man-by-man comparison of our World War II lost submariner listings with those shown on the DPAA website reveals a small number of discrepancies between our sets of data, which we are presently attempting to rectify. Note that all of the men that we suggest to Add to the listings of lost submariners of World War II appear on the DPAA lists, and none of the men that we suggest to Remove appear on their lists. Note that you may use their "Search Our Missing" page (https://dpaa.secure.force.com/dpaaOurMissing) to generate a lost personnel listing on any one submarine by typing in the name of the boat in their search bar. Unfortunately, some men, particularly officers, are occasionally not listed by unit (submarine) name.

U. S. Submarine war patrol reports in hard copy have been accessed in the Archives of the Pacific Fleet Submarine Museum (formerly known as USS Bowfin Submarine Museum), and online at http://www.hnsa.org/resources/manuals-documents/submarine-war-reports/ .

U. S. Navy Casualty Lists, Book 11, pp. #2042 - #2152, Submarine War Patrols, Pacific - 7 December 1941 to 2 September 1945, noted below as Navy Casualty. This listing was provided to us by Michael W. Pocock of the Maritime Quest website. A recently completed man-by-man comparison of our World War II lost submariner listings with those shown in Navy Casualt confirms complete agreement between our two sets of applicable data. In the Notes to the Discrepancy Table below, all of the men that we suggest to Add to the listings of lost submariners of World War II appear in Navy Casualty, and none of the men that we suggest to Remove appear on the lists.

Access to U. S. World War II Muster Rolls have recently been made available on Ancestry.com (subscription required) at http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1143 .

Secondary Sources

U.S. Submarine Losses - World War II, which was first published in 1946, then republished with some corrections (and a few mistakes of its own) in 1949, and finally republished in 1963 (unfortunately reinserting many of the errors in the 1946 edition).  See www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/u/united-states-submarine-losses.html on the website of the Naval History & Heritage Command for the online version of the 1963 edition. The online version on the NHHC website has recently been updated, and is now entirely consistent with On Eternal Patrol research. We have a seperate page detailing the now corrected Discrepancies in Submarine Losses that were found on the NHHC website.

State Summary of War Casualties from World War II for Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard Personnel -  (noted below as NARA) Immediately after the War, the Navy Department published their State SummariesThey are available online on the website of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) at http://www.archives.gov/research/military/ww2/navy-casualties/). Within this are also lists of POWs who were released from prison camps.

U. S. Rosters of World War II Dead, 1939-1945, available online on the Ancestry.com website (http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1102) Again, all of the men that we suggest to Add to the listings of lost submariners of World War II appear on these rosters, and none of the men that we suggest to Remove appear on their lists.

The Register of the Commissioned Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps (noted below as Officers) is available online on the late Patrick Clancey's HyperWar website at http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AMH/USN/Naval_Registers/.

American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) maintains files for the nearly 225,000 American war dead who are buried at their cemeteries or commemorated on their Tablets of the Missing.  Their website is a good source for obtaining Service Numbers, but is unreliable for their listings of medals and awards.  Search their listings at http://www.abmc.gov/search-abmc-burials-and-memorializations.


 

 


Discrepancies in Numbers of Lost Submariners

NHHC - Corrected Discrepancies in Submarine Losses

 Discrepancies in Numbers of Lost Submariners Found on the DPAA Website

Discrepancies in Medals Awarded to Lost Submariners as Listed on the ABMC Website

Lost Submarines by Month

Submarine Losses - Chronological

Home   Presentation   WWII   Pre-WWII   Post-WWII     Sources  

Related Links   Privacy   Contact Us

 Our Researchers

@

     

@