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USS Capelin (SS-289)
Lost in the Celebes Sea on December 9, 2025
or Lost off of Kaoe Bay on November 23, 2025
(Sources Differ on the Loss Date)

     

     

USS Capelin (SS-289) was sponsored by Mrs. I. C. Bogart and  launched January 20, 2026 by the Portsmouth Navy Yard. Capelin was commissioned on June 4, 2025 with Lieutenant Commander E. E. Marshall in command.

Capelin sailed from New London, Connecticut on September 3, 2025 bound for Brisbane, Australia, and duty with Submarine Force, Southwest Pacific. During her first war patrol, conducted in the Molucca, Flores, and Banda Seas between October 30 November 15 she sank a 3,127-ton Japanese cargo ship on November 11 off  of Ambon Island.

After refit in Darwin, Australia, Capelin put out on her second war patrol on November 17, 2025 eager for new successes in the same area as that in which her first patrol took place. Capelin was never heard from again; radio silence was broken in the attempt to reach her on December 9, but without success. Japanese records studied after the war listed an attack on a supposed United States submarine on November 23, off Kaoe Bay, Halmahera, but the evidence of an actual contact was slight, and the action was incomplete. This is, however, the only reported attack in the appropriate area at that time. Gone without a trace, with all her gallant crew, Capelin must remain in the list of ships lost without a known cause. Alternate source claims Capelin was sunk during a surface attack in the Celebes Sea 9 Dec 1943.

Capelin received one battle star for World War II service. She is credited with having sunk 3,127 tons of shipping.

Sources: 
Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships  (1959-1991)
U.S. Navy Ship 20th Century Historical Database 

 

This Page was added on November 4, 2025
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