Wahoo was a Gato-class submarine, SS-238, the first ship of the name. The name is a fish. Mare Island Navy Yard laid her down on 28 June 1941, launched her on 14 February 1942, and the Navy commissioned her on 15 May 1942. Marvin G. Kennedy had her.
He took her through two war patrols. On 31 December 1942 Dudley Walker Morton relieved him. Morton was called Mush. Richard H. O'Kane was the executive officer on the early patrols under Morton. O'Kane left her to commission Tang. He was not lost with Wahoo.
Under Morton she became the boat the submarine force told stories about. The Naval History and Heritage Command gives her six battle stars and a Presidential Unit Citation. The wartime tonnage claims do not agree with later counts, and no total is put on her here.
In September 1943 she went back into the Sea of Japan. She was to leave by La Pérouse Strait. On 11 October an air and surface attack caught her there. The submarine-loss account says she went down in that attack, and not on a mine. The ships and the aircraft are not credited to one of them. She was lost with all hands. Morton was aboard. The Naval History and Heritage Command counts seventy-nine men. Nothing was heard from her. She was declared overdue on 2 December 1943 and struck on 6 December 1943.