USS WAHOO

[Von Tonner]

Can anyone tell me how USS Wahoo got its name, and is the search engine Yahoo a play on this name?

Reading a little on USS Whahoo's captain some say he was unhinged but a brave and excellent submariner.

"The artist Petreshock, himself a veteran of war patrols aboard USS Redfin, Angler and Darter, entitled his work "Wahoo is Expendable" after the words of Mush Morton. Her CO uttered the famous phrase during a flaming, pre-patrol pep talk in which he told each member of his crew to request a transfer if he was not prepared to go in harm's way and take the fight to the enemy. As the inscription on the print testifies, "There were no requests for transfers!"

Maybe the arcade type players among us are modelling themselves on him

[CaptainCox]

USS Wahoo (SS-238) was a Gato-class submarine, the first United States Navy ship to be named for the wahoo, a dark blue food fish of Florida and the West Indies.

Like most subs in the US WWII NAVY, they where named after fish, nothing to do with "Yahoo"

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Wahoo_%28SS-238%29

[Von Tonner]

Thanks for that link Capt Cox, most interesting. I see that in some instances destroyers escourted subs home, pity that is not modelled into the game.

And here I always thought that it was only the U-boats that practiced killing off sailors in the life boats of ships they had sunk.

"Returning to periscope depth, Wahoo observed the first target had sunk, the second target was still moving, evidently with steering trouble; and the transport, Buyo Maru, was stopped but still afloat. Wahoo headed for the transport and fired a bow tube; the torpedo passed directly under the middle of the ship but failed to explode. She then fired another torpedo which headed right for the stack and blew her apart her midships. The submarine then headed for the crippled second target which had joined with a tanker. Wahoo decided to let these two ships get over the horizon, while she surfaced to charge her batteries and destroy the estimated twenty lifeboats now in the water. (Controversy still attaches to this action and the extent that troops in the water were deliberately targeted by the Wahoo crew.)"

Was this only Morton that did this or did all US sub captains do this if the opportunity presented itself?


I remember on the the boards of SH111 when it came out, some players were asking for life boats and it was felt that the devs did not want to put them in as it would be kinda sick to go around shooting them up.

[AVGWarhawk]

Morton was the only notable skipper to open up on the Japanese and Indian POW that were in the water. As described in "Unrestricted Warfare", Morton had a vengence like no other. His posted signs throughout Wahoo, "Sink the Sunza B!tches" would pretty much wrap up how Morton felt about the Japanese and how he was going to handle it. He never hid the fact of his outright hatred of the Japanese. In fact, on one patrol Morton exacted so much damage and sinking of everything he saw that the Japanese thought there was a wolfpack and to avoid the area Morton was patrolling.


Anyway, as read in the link, US subs named after fish. When these names ran out, they used the same fish but the names used in other countries. For example, USS Torsk. Torsk I believe is Belgium as name of a fish.

[ReallyDedPoet]

http://www.fleetsubmarine.com/ from there, great site

RDP

[daft]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

[...Snip...]

Anyway, as read in the link, US subs named after fish. When these names ran out, they used the same fish but the names used in other countries. For example, USS Torsk. Torsk I believe is Belgium as name of a fish.

Torsk in Swedish means cod. Don't know what they call cod in Belgium though.

[gclarkso]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

For example, USS Torsk. Torsk I believe is Belgium as name of a fish.

The USS Torsk is afloat in Baltimore, Maryland...in their Inner Harbour...as a tourist attraction. As I am close by, I visit often. They usually have a Korean War vet as a guide.

Gordon

[CaptainCox]

I even heard they eat what they call "lutefisk" (in Swedish, Lutfisk, dried cod, boiled with white sauce...for Christmas only, not for me but ) in North Dakota, have it from a ND guy at work...I guess we Swedes/Norwegians did make a difference to to the US customs after all :p

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by gclarkso

The USS Torsk is afloat in Baltimore, Maryland...in their Inner Harbour...as a tourist attraction. As I am close by, I visit often. They usually have a Korean War vet as a guide.

Gordon

Yep, I'm in Point Pleasent sitting by Marley Creek. I will be making my 20 minute drive to the Torsk in a week or so. I'm signing up to be a volunteer to help keep the sub up! She is so close so what is a few weekends out of the year? Plus, I get to wonder all over the sub

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

His posted signs throughout Wahoo, "Sink the Sunza B!tches" would pretty much wrap up how Morton felt about the Japanese and how he was going to handle it.

"The Mare Island waterfront was packed with well-wishers and a band played 'California, Here I Come.' As Wahoo prepared to tie up, Captain Morton nodded to Signalman Simonetti who broke the pennant free from the scope, the breeze snapping the same message it delivered in Pearl Harbor.

On the crowded dock, the wife of Rear Admiral W.L. Friedell, the Navy Yard Commandant and chief greeter, peered through her glasses and asked her husband what the pennant said.

'Madame," the Admiral replied, 'that reads 'Shoot the Sons of Bitches!''"

Here you can see the pennant, a broom attached to the periscope (indicating a "clean sweep" patrol), Captain Morton on the bridge, and then-XO Dick O'Kane on the cigarette deck.

[CaptainCox]

BRILLIANT! and a good find man! Maybe an idea for a pennat mod :p