USS Wahoo (SS-238) - The Search For and Locating of Wahoo

The Search For and Locating of Wahoo

Wahoo has long been believed to be resting in the Soya (La Pérouse) Strait between Hokkaidō, Japan and Sakhalin, Russia. Since 1995, the Wahoo Project Group (an international team of Americans, Australians, Japanese, and Russians, and led by a relative of Commander Morton) has been searching for her based on the available evidence. Japanese Vice Admiral Kazuo Ueda, working with the Wahoo Project Group, examined the historical record and correctly predicted the location of Wahoo. In 2005, electronic surveys in the region yielded what turned out to be a U.S. Gato-class submarine in the Strait; in July 2006, the Russian team "Iskra" investigated the site which contributed further evidence of location of Wahoo.

On 31 October 2006, the U.S. Navy confirmed that the images provided by the "Iskra" team are of Wahoo, the wreckage lying in about 213 ft (65 m) of water in the La Pérouse (Soya) Strait.

On 8 July 2007, the U.S. Navy conducted a wreath-laying ceremony at sea for the crew of Wahoo. The ceremony was held on the confirmed site of the sinking of the submarine as a joint exercise with the Navy of the Russian Federation.

On 11 October 2007, the U.S. Navy held an official remembrance ceremony for the crew of Wahoo, conducted at the USS Bowfin Museum and Submarine Park at Pearl Harbor, and followed by a presentation of the history of Wahoo search and discovery by the Wahoo Project Group.