Lagarto (SS-371)
Discovery - 2005

Launching - Sinking
Verification - 2006
Crew Members
Dive Photos by Dr. Mike Gadd

If any members of the families of the crew wish to contact one another using this page as a bulletin board, please mail Nancy Kenney. Her father, SM1 William T. Mabin, was lost with the boat.

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	77k	The Lagarto (SS-371) was found just a few days ago (late April 2005) by local wreck divers Jamie Macleod & Stewart Oehl of MV Trident near it's reported last siting. The Lagarto was found by comparing it's last known position against hundreds of fisherman's 'net snag' marks in the area of interest. 5 fisherman's marks in particular, were close to the sinking site. Normally it might take days or weeks of Sidescan sonar runs to locate a new wreck in this depth of water, but in an extraordinary stroke of good luck, the Lagarto appeared at the closest of these fisherman's marks. For 60 years the Lagarto rested untouched on the seabed in 70 meters of water about 150 kilometers off the southeast coast of Thailand. The top of the conning tower is at 55 meters. Local dive operators on the tiny resort island of Koh Tao knew of the submarine's fate, but couldn't pinpoint her location until recently. "We've always known that since the end of the war there's been a submarine missing around there," said British wreck diver Jamie MacLeod, who discovered the 110-meter submarine. "We went into all the war-time records, cross-referenced them with fishermen's marks and then searched with sonar and it came up trumps - we found a bump on the bottom, went down the line and there it was." MacLeod said, "It looks to me like it's intact and it's sitting upright on the bottom in very clear water, so you can get a good idea of what it looks like. Everything is still on it - all the armaments, the brass navigation lights. It's beautiful." It is planned to revisit the Lagarto in July, this time to further document the vessel. Jamie has informed Roy Leonhardt that he is honored to lay a wreath or place a memorial plaque on the Lagarto on behalf of United States Submarine Veterans of World War II. Jamie's first view of the Lagarto was of the bow area which appeared exactly as in the black and white image that remains as one of the few pieces of evidence documenting the Lagarto when still afloat. To the left is a Google Earth satellite photo of the site and surrounding islands of Lagarto's final resting place and her crew.		Courtesy of Steve Burton "B2" Diver/Engineer, Director, Technical Diving, Mermaids Dive Center Scuba Technician Resource Web Site Thailand Shipwreck Information Web Site Submitted by Jack Treutle. Partial text courtesy of Asia Times Online / usslagarto.org. View courtesy of Google Earth.
	272k	Drawing of the Lagarto (SS-371) made on the second dive on her, dated 29 July 2005, at a depth of 230 feet. This drawing shows massive damage to her portside bow area, with outer plating destroyed and a hole blown inward into the forward battery room, wardroom area, & normal fuel oil tank No. 1, probably from the result of depth charging. Simply speculating, but due to reports that the Lagarto was sunk at night (00:10), she may have been making a night surface attack when the radar equipped Japanese netlayer Hatsutaka detected her and possibly put two shell holes through her conning tower (see drawing) and then delivered her lethal depth charge attack which sunk the Lagarto.		Drawing courtesy of Steve Burton "B2" Diver/Engineer, Director, Technical Diving, Mermaids Dive Center Scuba Technician Resource Web Site Thailand Shipwreck Information Web Site
	272k	Drawing of the Lagarto (SS-371) made on the second dive on her, dated 29 July 2005, at a depth of 230 feet.		Drawing courtesy of Steve Burton "B2" Diver/Engineer, Director, Technical Diving, Mermaids Dive Center Scuba Technician Resource Web Site Thailand Shipwreck Information Web Site
	405k	The following article appears in its entirety from the August 8th chicagotribune.com, link courtesy of usslagarto.org. In the ghostly blue lights of a video camera, sea snakes, squids and schools of blue and yellow fish swirl past five-inch battle guns of a World War II submarine 200 feet beneath the South China Sea. "With all the fish and the coral covering the Lagarto, it's almost like someone put flowers on a grave," said Elizabeth Kenney-Augustine, whose grandfather, Bill Mabin of La Grange, was on the vessel. For decades, no human knew where to put flowers for the 86 men who disappeared with the Lagarto somewhere between Thailand and Australia shortly before World War II ended. In May, a diving team, following the hints of fishermen telling tales of snagged nets, discovered the Lagarto in the Gulf of Thailand. Experts say this is the missing boat because it is believed to be the only American Balao class submarine sunk in the Gulf of Thailand during the war, and because Japanese records released after the war show Japanese sailors sank a submarine in the area where the Lagarto disappeared. "We believe the wreck to be the Lagarto," said Jamie Macleod, who, with the U.S. Navy's permission, dove down to look at the outside of the vessel. Macleod and Stewart Oehl of the MV Trident dive boat in Thailand discovered the missing submarine. Author Clive Cussler has spoken with the men about a documentary on the Lagarto, as well as their discovery. U.S. Rep. Daniel Lipinski (D-Ill.) has called on the U.S. Navy to confirm the submarine's identity. After talking with the family, Macleod took Kenney-Augustine and her brother, John Kenney Jr., off the shores of Thailand last week to read letters and poems from family members in the first burial ceremony the missing men have had. On July 31, a diver tucked a dozen white roses into the conning tower, or attack center, of the Lagarto. Minutes later, the flowers had disappeared. "We thought that was nice," said Kenney-Augustine, of Chicago's Wicker Park neighborhood. "Like they accepted our offering." For 60 years, Mabin's daughter, Nancy Kenney of Lake Leelanau, Mich., wondered if her father had somehow come out of the war alive. She waited for him to be released from a prisoner-of-war camp. Or to appear on a remote island. Or to pop through the front door after a top-secret mission. She knows the families of the other 85 men on board the submarine must have wondered the same things. "From the letters between my mother and the other wives, I can see there was great confusion," Kenney said. "They were hoping their husbands were in prison camp. Imagine that--seeing that as the best-case scenario." Kenney was 2 when her father was lost. She said her mother, Margaret Chambers of Glen Arbor, Mich., was pleased to hear her husband's resting place had been found. "He was the love of her life," Kenney said. "She's been shaken by this." The Lagarto was one of 28 submarines built in Manitowac, Wis., and the Wisconsin Maritime Museum has adopted the submarine and created a memorial to it. According to the museum, the submarine was tested in Lake Michigan. It left Subic Bay in the Philippines on April 12, 1945, for the Siam Gulf, now the Gulf of Thailand, for its second trip. Baya (SS-318) officers reported at the time that they were to rendezvous with the Lagarto to discuss plans to attack a Japanese convoy on May 3, 1945. At 1 a.m. May 4, 1945, the Japanese convoy drove off the Baya, but nothing was ever heard again from the Lagarto. It was supposed to dock in Australia at the end of May, but it never arrived. In June 1945, Mabin's family received a letter saying he was missing in action. A year later, another letter arrived describing him as "presumed dead." "This will give you a real glimpse into World War II," Kenney said. "This is what I grew up with. That's the last correspondence any of the families had with the Navy." After the war ended, the Japanese released records showing the minelayer Hatsutaka sunk a submarine at the same time and same place the Lagarto was believed to be during the war, but there was no confirmation. Kenney's children grew up with Mabin's ghost. Every year on Memorial Day, John Kenney has searched the Internet for some sign of his grandfather. "This year, I did a Google search, and someone had posted that it had been found," John Kenney said. "Two divers had found it. It's considered one of the holy grails of Asian diving because it's one of the only U.S. subs lost anywhere near the Gulf of Thailand." Kenney said he immediately called her mother and asked if she were sitting down. After he told her, she began to cry. "I went through so many emotions," Nancy Kenney said. "It's an odd feeling to grieve for someone 60 years after they're gone." She began to contact the families of the missing men. Kelan Spalding's brother R.B. Spalding of Springfield, Mo., was also on the Lagarto. "My wife heard about it on the news and said, `Do you suppose that could be Bobby's sub?'" Spalding said. "But I thought it would be in deeper water." Then he got the call from Nancy Kenney. "I was 9 years old when it went down," he said. "I'm relieved to know exactly why and how and where. I hope they allow the divers to film it." But he doesn't want anyone to go inside the sub. And no one will. According to the U.S. Navy, all sunken U.S. ships are considered gravesites and are off-limits. But Macleod said the divers don't want to go inside the submarine. "We have no plans to explore the wreck," Macleod said. "We hope to be able to conduct non-intrusive filming only." For the families, seeing the outside of the submarine has provided closure. "I thought there would be a moment when they scraped the coral off and found letters: Lagarto," Kenney-Augustine said. "But it wasn't like that. We just sat above as they dove beneath, and I thought, `How wonderful.' It was similar to going to a cemetery and visiting a loved one who has passed and standing over his grave." John Kenney said the submarine is sitting upright as if it sank straight down. There are no numbers or names on the side, and research shows the only place divers could find the name of the ship is inside the captain's quarters. Instead, they used the five-inch guns--an upgrade from previous subs and a good marker for the Balao class and the slant of the bow to determine its make. The teak deck and outer superstructure have deteriorated and been torn away, leaving the pressure hull, the conning tower, and a perfectly preserved light. On the port side, the middle torpedo bow tube remains open. The torpedo is missing. "It looks like they went down fighting," John Kenney said. "I can't tell you how wonderful the divers have been--so sensitive to the families," Nancy Kenney said. "They even attached an American flag at the top of the tower. I thought, `God bless them for that.'"		Photo courtesy of Steve Burton "B2" Diver/Engineer, Director, Technical Diving, Mermaids Dive Center Scuba Technician Resource Web Site Thailand Shipwreck Information Web Site
	221k	One of the two deck guns (a key identification feature of the Lagarto (SS-371). Fishing net debris is clearly visible in this case. Much of the Lagarto was shrouded in fishing net and line, in low visibility water, and with an oceanic current sweeping the vessel from bow to stern, making the research dives a particularly hazardous activity for all involved. 4 dives were necessary just to swim around the Lagarto. Each dive team member wore more than 200 pounds of equipment. Visibility on the Lagarto during the first dive was such that I used a line and reel to swim out and back from the conning tower to the bows. On the 4th dive as I got to know the wreck layout better, I still missed the conning tower swimming back from the props on one occasion. Above the thermocline, the visibility improved dramatically to more than 200ft. Divers could see the sunlight twinkling on the surface as soon as they started their lengthy decompression stops. One team diver used a former US-Navy MK15 rebreather for the Lagarto dives. This 'NATO-Stock number' item is currently listed as costing US$17,500, has his particular variant has a depth rating of 450m/ 1,500ft. A picture from directly above the wreck unfortunately only shows the very tip of the conning tower reaching up out of the silty thermo-cline. The visibility over the wreck of the Lagarto varies according to what time of the year she's dived. On the first visit, visibility on the bottom was approx 50ft. Sadly on the last visit, visibility above the wreck was a fantastic 200ft, but below the tip of the coning tower, visibility was only maybe 15ft. These conditions are typical in the South China Sea region.		Photo & text courtesy of Steve Burton "B2" Diver/Engineer, Director, Technical Diving, Mermaids Dive Center Scuba Technician Resource Web Site Thailand Shipwreck Information Web Site
	136k	The top of the conning tower appearing out of the thermocline at approx 200ft. The number 1 & 2 periscopes shears and the remains of the SJ radar post are clearly visible. The 'stars & stripes' was sent by one of the families of the crew lost during the sinking, and was attached during a memorial service held at the Lagarto (SS-371) site conducted by John and Beth (Grandchildren of Mabin, W. T. SM1). A Memorial Service sponsored by American Legion Post 639 was held on Saturday, Sept. 17 in Springfield Missouri. Note: Coincidence or not, that week's Bible portion was in Deuteronomy, 21:10 to 25:19. In Chapter 22, verse 3, "You shall return every lost thing of your brother's...". Rabbi Zev Leff of Moshav Mattityahu in Israel mentioned that this includes helping to return a lost soul as well. In this case the 86 crew members of the Lagarto.		Photo & text courtesy of Steve Burton "B2" Diver/Engineer, Director, Technical Diving, Mermaids Dive Center Scuba Technician Resource Web Site Thailand Shipwreck Information Web Site
	62k	In memory of the Lagarto (SS-371).		Courtesy of Tom Kermen.
	440k	U.S. Navy submarine veterans are honored in a Veterans Day ceremony held on board Naval Station Pearl Harbor at the Parche Memorial, Nov. 11, 2005. Among those honored included the 86 lost aboard the recently discovered missing World War II submarine Lagarto (SS-371). It was discovered in May 2005 off the coast of Thailand where it was sunk on May 4, 1945.		U.S. Navy photo & text of N-0879R-001 by Chief Journalist David Rush, courtesy of news.navy.mil.