Daily Event for October 27



One of the most famous submarines in the US Navy, the Sea Tiger SS-393 was launched on this day.
The USS Sea Tiger, under the command of Lt. Cmdr. Matt T. Sherman (Later Rear Admiral) almost missed the
war when she was sunk by Japanese aircraft at the Cavite Navy Yard in Manila on Dec. 10, 1941. Through
an amazing effort by the crew and one very resourceful supply officer, Lt. (jg) Nick Holden, the Sea Tiger
was raised and repaired enough to leave the Philippines in less than two weeks and head to Darwin, Australia for permanent repairs. Although a second attack by the Japanese almost sank her again before she could leave.

On the first day out of Cavite Sherman ordered the boat to dive since running on the surface was out of the
question, when submerged a leak in one of the sea connections caused a diversion to Marinduque Island for
repairs. While there five US Army nurses, who had been stranded there, boarded the Sea Tiger. Sherman
agreed to take them to Cebu and find them suitable transport out of the combat zone.

On Dec. 23 the Sea Tiger sighted a Japanese tanker riding low in the water and even though she was not in
full fighting trim Sherman ordered an attack. The accidental firing of the torpedo by one of the nurses caused
the fish to miss the tanker however, it ran up the shore and hit a Japanese Army truck destroying it.

When the Sea Tiger arrived at Cebu on Dec. 24 Sherman was told that the island would fall to the Japanese very
soon and that it was no place to leave women. He also found out that needed supplies were not available. The
supply officer used some creative activities to obtain the supplies including paint for the hull. The paint on Cebu was in short supply however there was enough red and white lead paint to cover the hull but only when mixed together. Of course this created a "strange color to be painting government property" but there was no option, besides the gray overcoat would cover it anyway. The Sea Tiger had to leave Cebu in a hurry due to a Japanese air attack, this before the gray paint could be applied. Sea Tiger, now colored pink, had to make for Darwin on
her own. The addition of several local women, wives of some of the men on Cebu who helped get the supplies
aggravated the situation, even worse, they were pregnant. Several babies would be born on the Sea Tiger before she made Darwin.

During a radio broadcast Tokyo Rose even mentioned the pink submarine and this alerted the US Navy to her
presence in the area. Since the US Navy had no pink submarines they were sure this was a diversion and that
the boat was in fact a Japanese sub they were trying to get into the shipping lanes. The following order was
given to the ships in the area "any unidentified submarine, pink or otherwise, is to be sunk on sight."

Sea Tiger sighted the USS Wren DD-568 and surfaced to contact her with the expectation of having an escort
the rest of the way to Darwin. However Wren opened fire on her as soon as she surfaced. The Sea Tiger made
a crash dive and Wren dropped depth charges on her. Sherman decided to load his torpedo tubes with debris
and send it to the surface in the hope of convincing the Wren that they had sunk the pink submarine. The
deception finally worked when a bra belonging to one of the nurses was picked up by one of Wren's crewmen.

Damaged by depth charges, listing to port, pink and full of women and children the Sea Tiger finally made
Darwin a few days later. No awards were given to the men on the Sea Tiger but Sherman was later promoted
to Rear Admiral and ironically later gave the order to scrap the submarine. Lt. (jg) Holden became a submarine
commander even commanding the new Sea Tiger.

Not much is known about what happened to the rest of the crew but a few details are known. One man Ens.
Stovall, the second in command, changed his name to Darrin Stevens and worked for the McMann and Tate advertising agency. Samantha, his wife, had had been married before but her husband disappeared in 1969.

Seaman Ernest Hunkle would go on to serve on the PT-73 under the command of Lt. Cmdr. Quinton McHale.
Later he would become the captain of a cruise ship named Pacific Princess. Lt. Colfax one of the nurses married
Howard Cunningham of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and raised a family in the Happy Days of America.

Of course some of the facts of this story are in dispute as there was never a submarine named Sea Tiger in the
US Navy and SS-393 was the USS Queenfish which was not commissioned until Mar. 11, 1944, over two
years after this story took place. Another problem is the USS Wren, she was not commissioned until
May 20, 1944.

The story is of course the plot of the 1959 movie Operation Petticoat, which starred Cary Grant and Tony Curtis
but the pink submarine used in the movie, the USS Balao SS-285 was launched on this day in 1942, almost
a year after the movie took place. During the real war she made ten war patrols sinking six ships. She was sunk
as a target in 1963 but her sail is on display at the Washington Navy Yard.

In fact three submarines were used in making the film. USS Balao SS-285 was the pink submarine, USS
Queenfish SS-393 was used in the opening and closing scenes and the USS Archerfish SS-311 was used in
the action scenes when the boat was painted gray.