SubVet Artist Depicts Wahoo's Loss

Coincidentally timed with the 60th anniversary of her loss, Wahoo aficionado Jim Hanson recently forwarded to Legends of the Deep prints of a painting depicting the famous boat's final resting place. Created by noted artist, and WWII SubVet, Stephen Petreshock, the vivid painting depicts SS-238 at the bottom of Soya Strait.

Jim's gift to LOTD was part of a limited run he donated to the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc, home of USS Cobia, as a fund-raiser. The proceeds go to help the Wisconsin Maritime Museum and U.S. SubVets of WW II. One of these prints currently hangs above the bar in the Skipper's Lounge in Lockwood Hall at Pearl Harbor. It faces a wall of pictures of every sub sailor that won the Medal of Honor or the Navy Cross.

The painting itself is quite moving. Wahoo lies on the bottom rolled slightly to starboard, bow planes extended. Battle damage is evident on her superstructure and her periscopes are bent, trailing torn nets lost by an unlucky fisherman plying the shallow waters. A trail of bubbles leads up to the surface which she will never reach. Jim relates, "I had mine matted on a seafoam green backing, and it really looks good under glass."

The artist Petreshock, himself a veteran of war patrols aboard USS Redfin, Angler and Darter, entitled his work "Wahoo is Expendable" after the words of Mush Morton. Her CO uttered the famous phrase during a flaming, pre-patrol pep talk in which he told each member of his crew to request a transfer if he was not prepared to go in harm's way and take the fight to the enemy. As the inscription on the print testifies, "There were no requests for transfers!"

To obtain your copy, contact the Wisconsin Maritime Museum toll free at 1-866-724-2356 or online at http://www.wimaritimemuseum.org.