Tag: World War II submarines

The Last Dive of the Bullhead: Martin Sheridan and the Price of Silence

In the summer of 1945, Martin Sheridan was no stranger to the silent, steel corridors of a submarine. As a war correspondent, he’d seen more than most. But aboard the USS Bullhead, he’d seen it all: the crack of deck guns, the eerie shimmer of a drifting mine, the close-call scrape with a Japanese convoy, and the pale dawns when a depth charge’s echo still rang in the ears. His Boston Globe article, published June 29, 1945, reads like a love letter to that boat and her men; a mosaic of danger, camaraderie, and cool defiance beneath the Pacific sun.

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Legacy of Sailfish

On June 24, 1948, readers of The North Adams Transcript opened their paper to find a quiet notice tucked amid the day’s dispatches: the old submarine Sailfish had been sold for scrap. No fanfare, no ceremony. Just a line confirming that one of the most storied submarines in American naval history had reached her end. To most readers, it might have meant little. But to those who knew her story—those who had followed her transformation from the sunken Squalus to the battle-hardened Sailfish—it marked the closing chapter of a saga that began with tragedy, rose through heroism, and sailed deep into the waters of legend.

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There’ll Be a Commotion Down Under The Ocean

With the war over and things finally settled down, US Submarine Veterans began to return to their homes and family. They were still keenly aware of the deep sacrifice the Sub Force had made, and the reasons why so many had died there was still a reluctance to talk about how they had carried out the destruction of the Japanese Empire.

But in newspapers around the country, stories began to appear that gave the public a taste of what the Sub force had been through and what it had accomplished. In Bogalusa, LA, a multi-part series was run, telling the stories of submarine veterans from the area who had served on the USS Ray SS-271.

On June 6, 1946, almost a year after the war had ended, one of these articles appeared. In it were the lyrics to “The Submarine Song,” without attribution or any author listed.

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