SS-168—USS Nautilus—was the pre-war flagship of Submarine Division 12 and operated out of Pearl Harbor throughout World War II. She was commissioned July 1, 1930, before international naval treaties limited future submarine size, and thus was among the largest submarines in the U.S. fleet. Over a football field in length and displacing 4,000 tons submerged, the boat was able to carry a large crew, ample cargo, two dozen torpedoes, cruiser-sized six-inch caliber guns, and cruise as far as 25,000 miles. She could dive to three hundred feet—though her crew was known to take her deeper. Throughout 1942-45 Nautilus engaged the enemy in fourteen war patrols, from the Battle of Midway to the liberation of the Philippines, earning fourteen battle stars and the U.S. Presidential Unit Citation. Her skipper, William H. Brockman, Jr., received not one but three Navy Crosses for heroism, the first for fighting through 42 depth charges at Midway. Nautilus did everything a submarine can do and was involved in most of the major actions of the Pacific theater. In Last Man Down, historical events documented in deck logs and patrol reports are told through the voices of the men who lived them.
Introduction
USS Nautilus (SS-168) was commissioned July 1, 1930, before international naval treaties limited future submarine size, and thus was among the largest submarines in the U.S. fleet. Over a football field in length and displacing 4,000 tons submerged, the boat was able to carry a large crew, ample cargo, two dozen torpedoes, cruiser-sized six-inch caliber guns, and cruise as far as 25,000 miles. She could dive to three hundred feet – though her crew was known to take her deeper.
SS-168 was the flagship of Submarine Division 12 operating out of Pearl Harbor, then a U.S. Territory. On May 24, 1942, Nautilus and her untested 93-man crew got underway for her first war patrol to Midway Island to help repel the expected Japanese attack. She returned to Midway on June 7, after shooting five torpedoes and having survived forty-two depth charges. As told in The Search for the Japanese Fleet, the dramatic tale of Nautilus and her actions during an eight-hour period early in that first patrol would rank among the most important contributions of a submarine to the most decisive engagement in U.S. Navy history.
Last Man Down continues the saga of the venerable warship and her service to our nation. Over her fourteen patrols through almost war’s end she sunk Japanese ships off Tokyo Bay; rescued civilians in the dead of night from enemy occupied islands; conducted reconnaissance ahead of the invasion of Tarawa; deployed commandoes to retake Attu in the Aleutians; and delivered vital supplies to resistance fighters in the Philippines. In short, Nautilus did everything a submarine can do and was involved in most of the major actions of the Pacific theater. Over the course of the war Nautilus traveled nearly 125,000 nautical miles, two-thirds of the way to the moon, which amounts to over 40,000 leagues under the sea.
In Last Man Down, historical events documented in deck logs and patrol reports are told through the voices of the men who lived them. Drawing on interviews with surviving crewmen (all since passed), contemporary writings, and consultation with family members, the story brings to life the drama of a torpedo attack, the fear of depth charging, the distress of evacuating wounded Marines, and the liveliness of R&R ashore in Australia. Major characters include a young sonar man who sat in the conning tower manning his gear during depth charge attacks, the gunnery officer whose periscope photos were featured in Life Magazine, a chief electrician who was on board for thirteen patrols, and the submarine’s most famous wartime skipper who earned the Navy Cross for heroism – three times.
Late December 1942 saw the evacuation of Manila, and Allied forces led by General Douglas MacArthur were in full retreat down the Bataan Peninsula. By January, just weeks after the Pearl Harbor attack that started the Pacific war, the situation in the Philippines was dire, with remaining forces preparing to make a last stand on the island fortress of Corregidor. The 13,000 American and Filipino troops and thousands of fleeing civilians were desperate for food, medical supplies, and ammunition. A particular need was anti-aircraft shells to stem the deluge of bombs falling on Allied positions. A naval and air blockade prevented supply ships from approaching, so the Navy called on the submarine force to help. USS Trout (SS-202), commanded by Mike Fenno, was loaded at Pearl Harbor with 3,500 rounds of vital munitions, and slipped into Manila Bay on 3 February under cover of darkness. Weaving a winding passage through a minefield, the boat reached the docks and quickly unloaded her cargo. Having removed most of her ballast and even torpedoes to make room for the cargo, Fenno had a problem: he needed to add weight to be able to submerge. He drew ten torpedoes from the stocks salvaged from the base at Manila, and 27,000 gallons of fuel oil, but was still over twenty tons too light. He requested twenty-five tons of sandbags but was denied, as sandbags were a precious commodity on Corregidor, used to construct defensive positions. The defenders offered an alternative, something very heavy that was quite valueless to them: twenty tons of gold and silver that had been removed from Manila banks to the island fortress for safekeeping.
Portland Maine author and historian Lincoln Paine’s award winning opus 
