Its 2,000-some residents lived along the banks of the Illinois River surrounded by farms raising cattle and corn. As he told the only officer to survive: “I know too much.”Ĭromwell’s decision was perhaps rooted in his upbringing in the patriotic town of Henry, Illinois. But one man, 42-year-old Captain John Philip Cromwell, a senior submarine officer, chose to go down with Sculpin. “She made a beautiful dive.” Some of the men were still aboard-dead, trapped, or so badly injured they could not escape. “The last I saw of her was the radar mast going under,” said Torpedoman Harry F. Then came the order to abandon ship.īaker jumped overboard, joining 41 others-half the crew-as they swam away from Sculpin and toward the destroyer, watching their ship slowly slip beneath the waves. The first volleys killed the sub’s skipper and two-dozen officers and men topside.
They were able to get off a few inconsequential three-inch rounds before the destroyer opened fire. Sailors dashed to the deck guns, Joe Baker among them. The enemy had dropped more than 50 depth charges, finally forcing the submarine to the surface. All morning the two vessels had played a deadly game of cat and mouse some 250 miles northeast of Truk Atoll. Baker’s clear memory of the November 1943 afternoon when an aggressive, infinitely persistent Japanese destroyer attacked the submarine USS Sculpin. “ The day was a pretty one, with whitecaps coming over the decks.”Īfter seven hours of fire and fury and fear, that was Fireman 1st Class Joseph N. Cromwell went to extraordinary lengths to protect a vital American secret from the enemy Why Captain John Cromwell Chose To Go Down With the Ship | HistoryNet Close
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