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Found this article in the Chicago Tribune today...
Closure, WW II sub found under the sea
Family finally has place to put flowers
By Kelly Kennedy
Tribune staff reporter
Published August 8, 2005
In the ghostly blue lights of a video camera, sea snakes, squids and schools of blue and yellow fish swirl past five-inch battle guns of a World War II submarine 200 feet beneath the South China Sea.
"With all the fish and the coral covering the Lagarto, it's almost like someone put flowers on a grave," said Elizabeth Kenney-Augustine, whose grandfather, Bill Mabin of La Grange, was on the vessel.
For decades, no human knew where to put flowers for the 86 men who disappeared with the USS Lagarto somewhere between Thailand and Australia shortly before World War II ended.
In May, a diving team, following the hints of fishermen telling tales of snagged nets, discovered the Lagarto in the Gulf of Thailand. Experts say this is the missing boat because it is believed to be the only American Balao class submarine sunk in the Gulf of Thailand during the war, and because Japanese records released after the war show Japanese sailors sank a submarine in the area where the Lagarto disappeared.
"We believe the wreck to be the Lagarto," said Jamie Macleod, who, with the U.S. Navy's permission, dove down to look at the outside of the vessel...
The rest of the article can be read at the following site...
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...ck=1&cset=true
From the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships:
SS-371
Displacement:
Surfaced: 1,526 t.
Submerged: 2,424 t.
Length: 311’9”
Beam: 27’3”
Draft: 15’3”
Speed:
Surfaced: 20 k.
Submerged: 8.5 k.
Complement: 66
Armament: 1 5”; 10 21” torpedo tubes
Class: BALAO
LAGARTO (SS-371) was laid down 12 January 1944 by the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co., Manitowoc, Wis.; launched 28 May 1944; sponsored by Mrs. Paul H. Douglas, Congresswoman from
Illinois and wife of Capt. Paul H. Douglas, USMCR, (later U.S. Senator from Illinois); and commissioned 14 October 1944, Comdr. F. D. Latta in command.
After trial tests and training in Lake Michigan, LAGARTO entered a floating drydock 3 December 1944, was floated down the Mississippi River, and 2 days later departed New Orleans for the Pacific.
LAGARTO sailed from Pearl Harbor 7 February 1945 for her maiden war patrol in waters around the Nansei Shoto. In a coordinated attack 13 February with submarines HADDOCK (SS-231) and SENNET (SS-408), she engaged four heavily armed picket boats in a gun battle, sank two, and damaged the others. On 24 February, LAGARTO sank small freighter TATSUMONO MARU off Bungo Suido and not long afterward
spotted a Japanese submarine. She torpedoed and sank enemy submarine I-371 in a day periscope attack. LAGARTO arrived Subic Bay 20 March.
LAGARTO departed Subic Bay for the South China Sea 12 April and late in April was directed to patrol in the Gulf of Siam, where sister ship BAYA (SS-318) joined her 2 May.
That afternoon BAYA signaled that she was tracking a tanker traveling under heavy escort. That night BAYA tried to attack but was driven off by enemy escorts equipped with radar. The two submarines met early next morning to discuss
attack plans. BAYA made a midnight attack but was again driven off by the unusually alert Japanese escorts. Early next morning, 4 May, when BAYA tried to contact her teammate, LAGARTO made no reply. Since Japanese records state that during the night of 3-4 May, mine layer HATSUTAKA attacked a U.S. submarine in that location, it is presumed that LAGARTO perished in battle with all hands.
LAGARTO received one battle star for World War II service.
Transcribed by Michael Hansen
