Oddsconsin...where we explore peculiar and sometimes mysterious features of Wisconsin’s human landscape.
During World War Two, the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, built 28 submarines for the United States Navy. The company, known for producing lake freighters, received an initial Navy submarine contract in 1940 – before the United States entered the war – due to increased demand for these vessels. The 28 boats were the only World War Two submarines built at a freshwater shipyard.
The diesel-powered submarines – over 300 feet in length and weighing over 1500 tons – were launched sideways into the Manitowoc River. The submarines then travelled through the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal to the Mississippi River, then through the Gulf of Mexico to the Panama Canal and into the Pacific Ocean, where they joined the US’s Pacific fleet.
During the years the submarines were built, 1942 to 1945, the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company employed over 7000 workers – both men and women – as welders, metalworkers, electricians, cooks, custodians and for dozens of other purposes. The factory operated 365 days per year, 24 hours per day.
The last submarine, the USS Mero, was launched in 1945. The shipyard continued building civilian ships until 1972, when it closed. The facility was located on a point of land on the south bank of the Manitowoc River, visible today across the river from the corner of Chicago and North 11th Streets.
Of the 28 submarines built in Manitowoc, 25 saw action in the war. The submarines were all named after marine animals real and imaginary, including the Kraken (the legendary sea monster), the Hammerhead (for the hammerhead shark), the Loggerhead (a carnivorous turtle) and the Lagarto (a small reptile).
Four of the Manitowoc submarines were lost at sea – the USS Robalo, USS Golet, USS Kete and USS Lagarto.
The Lagarto was launched in May, 1944. It made two patrols and was sunk on the second of these in May 1945 – only three months before the end of the war – while attacking a Japanese convoy in the Gulf of Thailand (then called the Gulf of Siam) between Thailand and Cambodia. Through the efforts of veterans’ groups, crew members’ families and wreck divers, the Lagarto was discovered in 2005 submerged on the bottom of the ocean in 230 feet of water. Divers discovered a gaping hole in the port side of the boat, which was attributed to a Japanese depth charge (essentially, a large underwater bomb dropped from a destroyer). It is assumed that the boat’s pressure hull – which protects the crew – ruptured, filling the boat with water. All 86 crew members perished and, ultimately, the US Navy declared the wreck a war grave.
The wreck of the USS Robalo was found in May, 2019. The Robalo was sunk in July, 1944, north of the Island of Borneo, when it hit an enemy mine. Four crew members escaped to an island, but were captured by the Japanese military, taken prisoners of war, and never heard from again.
The idea of escaping from a sunken submarine may seem improbable, but in fact these submarines were equipped with an escape hatch that could be opened in emergencies. Crew members then breathed through a Momsen Lung, an early type of “rebreather” apparatus that recycled exhaled air to eliminate the carbon dioxide. Submarine crews practiced such escapes in tall water towers. Rebreathers are now used by professional divers to permit them to dive to greater depths and stay underwater longer compared to standard scuba equipment.
The USS Cobia (pictured) is moored in Manitowoc at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum and is open for guided tours. This submarine was built in 1944 at the Groton, Connecticut, General Dynamics Electric Boat Company, which is still a major builder of submarines for the Navy. The Cobia was brought to the Maritime Museum in 1970 as a memorial to submariners, restored to its World War Two condition, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark.
The Manitowoc submarines are proof that Wisconsin’s maritime heritage is not limited to the Great Lakes.