Welcome and Introduction to the Lost Boats of Mare Island Story
by Myrna Hayes
![I invite you to help us commemorate a part of Mare Island’s rich maritime and military history; it is a sad and yet triumphant story in which hundreds and maybe thousands of Mare Island shipyard workers played a role. The “Lost Boats of Mare Island” are the 7 submarines that were built at Mare Island between 1939 and 1943 and lost at sea during WWII. I was first introduced to the Wahoo story by Larry Maggini, a former Mare Island “yard bird” who was employed by the Navy in Combat Systems Command up until the based closed and who still works here on the Island. Shortly after he learned that following many years of international effort, the Wahoo’s final resting place had been located, he excitedly showed me photos that are now forever embedded in my heart and soul. For your own experience of those photos visit www.oneternalpatrol.org
My own association with the Shipyard is as a volunteer both now and when it was an active Navy base. I have learned to love this place and the people who toiled and served our country at the Shipyard. I do believe that this community deserves the opportunity to remember and to embrace one of the sources of their justifiable pride in work well done over the past more than 150 years. On behalf of my fellow members of the board of the Mare Island Heritage Trust, I invite you to join me in honoring not only the crew of our 7 boats “on eternal patrol”, but all submariners and their families. There are many submariners who live in the region still, and who worked at the Shipyard. It is likely that many family members of submariners who are now “on eternal patrol” live in the region, too. Just as significantly, we aim to honor the countless “yard birds” who built and repaired the vessels that are forever in our collective hearts and memories. We will honor all of these good people.
Schedule of October 11, 2009 Memorial Services
I invite you to attend one or all of our 3rd Annual “Lost Boats of Mare Island” memorial services planned at Mare Island. First in the schedule is the flag-raising to commemorate the 66th anniversary of the loss at sea of Commander Morton and the crew of the Wahoo and to honor the crews of the other submarines built at Mare Island also “on eternal patrol”. The flag-raising will take place at Morton Field on Mare Island, Sunday, October 11, 2009 at 1pm, followed by a service of music, history and memories at St. Peter’s Chapel, 2–3:30pm. Our featured speaker will be Larry Maggini who has compiled photos and written a truly remarkable story of “The Lost Boats of Mare Island”. His slide show at the Chapel program is entitled “Moments in Time” based on excerpts from his book. Both the Lost Boats book and Larry’s book, “USS Wahoo (SS-238), In Memoriam” will be available for sale at the events of the day and VERY SOON here on our website. A reception is planned Immediately following the Chapel service at Quarters C on Captain’s Row. Finally in the evening beginning at 5:30pm, join us as we lay a wreath for each vessel in Mare Island Strait at Berth 6 where Mare Island’s “lost boats” were moored while being overhauled at Mare Island between patrols. [Click here for a PDF flier about the Memorial service schedule] We wish to thank so very much our friends, the Vallejo Rugby Club and the WWII Landing Craft Support Gunboat LCS-102 folks for use of Morton Field and Berth 6 and Lennar Mare Island for use of Quarters C.
Whether you or a member of your family or a neighbor or friend worked at the base during that time, or if you have served as a submariner, or maybe you never knew the story of the Wahoo and the other “Lost Boats of Mare Island” and want to learn more, you are welcome to join us in paying respects to the crews and their families. Like the other events we at the Mare Island Heritage Trust host on Mare Island, our Lost Boats memorial calls you and us together to continue to honor the service of the Shipyard. Yet, we believe that Mare Island is more than a place of the past; it is a place of the present, too. We believe that it is our special calling to offer opportunities for all of us to remember the stories of Mare Island’s past and to ensure the public’s access to and enjoyment of the island today.
Together, during our Lost Boats of Mare Island Memorial, we will celebrate the spirit of those who built and served aboard the Wahoo and the Gudgeon, Pompano, Trigger, Tang, Tullibee and Swordfish. May the spirit of these vessels and their crews together with the thousands of other submariners “on eternal patrol” sense our embrace across the waters and may we never forget to what lengths they and others who have gone before us went, that we might enjoy freedom. And, just as importantly, this is an opportunity to send our collective desire for protection for those women and men who today are in harm’s way in service of our nation.
Help us hold the Memorials to Mare Island’s Lost Boats and continue to tell the story
We welcome your donations which are considered tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. Arc Ecology’s tax ID # is # 94-3201661. We accept checks by mail and cash and checks at our services at this time. Checks must be made out to Arc Ecology. Our mailing address is Mare Island Heritage Trust, c/o Arc Ecology, P O Box 1573, Vallejo, CA 94590
My warmest regards,
Myrna Hayes, Memorial Coordinator
The Lost Boats of Mare Island Memorial
Mare Island Heritage Trust – a project of Arc Ecology](Welcome_files/shapeimage_3.png)
We remember to remember
Photo: Sue Young
I am joined at the 2007 Wreath-laying by Eleanor Nemzura, sister of Lt. Richie Henderson, one of the 80-man crew “on eternal patrol” aboard the USS Wahoo.