The Lost USS Wahoo / SS-238

TheSatyr · 04-06-07, 05:49 PM

Morton was worn out,had combat fatigue and had lost at least 25% of his veteran crew...including the ones he counted on the most. It's not really THAT big a surprise that she finally got caught on that patrol.

Why he tried to get through La Perouse in daylight is something we will never know...I'm guessing it was just a bad judgement call by a very tired and worn out man. One thing I do know,had O'Kane still have been on that boat at the time he wouldn't have let Morton do it.

As an aside,according to Forrest Sterling ("Wake of the Wahoo") O'Kane wasn't very well liked when he was XO of the Wahoo...the crew considered him to be a bit of a martinet. He seemed to change ALOT between the time he left the Wahoo and the time he took command of the Tang. (Of course,it couldn't have been easy being an exec to a free spirit like Morton was. He spent as much time with the enlisted men as he did with the officers...including wrestling matches in the forward torpedo room...which Morton almost always won. I think he may have been the wrestling champion when he was at Annapolis...I could be wrong though.).

It was a crime to send Morton back out there when so many people knew he wasn't quite right...including Lockwood who did have second thoughts about it...which proved to be correct.

At least one good thing came out of it. After losing Morton,Lockwood made the decision to limit the number of patrols of his sub skippers so what happened to Morton wouldn't happen to any one else.

04-06-07, 05:49 PM	#12
TheSatyr Captain Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 545 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	Morton was worn out,had combat fatigue and had lost at least 25% of his veteran crew...including the ones he counted on the most. It's not really THAT big a surprise that she finally got caught on that patrol. Why he tried to get through La Perouse in daylight is something we will never know...I'm guessing it was just a bad judgement call by a very tired and worn out man. One thing I do know,had O'Kane still have been on that boat at the time he wouldn't have let Morton do it. As an aside,according to Forrest Sterling ("Wake of the Wahoo") O'Kane wasn't very well liked when he was XO of the Wahoo...the crew considered him to be a bit of a martinet. He seemed to change ALOT between the time he left the Wahoo and the time he took command of the Tang. (Of course,it couldn't have been easy being an exec to a free spirit like Morton was. He spent as much time with the enlisted men as he did with the officers...including wrestling matches in the forward torpedo room...which Morton almost always won. I think he may have been the wrestling champion when he was at Annapolis...I could be wrong though.). It was a crime to send Morton back out there when so many people knew he wasn't quite right...including Lockwood who did have second thoughts about it...which proved to be correct. At least one good thing came out of it. After losing Morton,Lockwood made the decision to limit the number of patrols of his sub skippers so what happened to Morton wouldn't happen to any one else.