USS Sealion (SS-195), a Sargo-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the sea lion, any of several large, eared seals native to the Pacific.

That evening the commanding officer, LT J.K. Morrison Jr., was in the wardroom when he was accidentally shot in the upper abdomen by a target pistol he was cleaning.

[6] In the spring of 1940, she sailed, with her division for the Philippine Islands, arriving at Cavite in the fall to commence operations as a unit of the Asiatic Fleet.

Into October 1941, she ranged from Luzon into the Sulu Archipelago, then, with her sister ship Seadragon, another submarine in SubDiv 202, she prepared for a regular overhaul at the Cavite Navy Yard.

Four crewmen, working on the electrical controls and the motors for the overhaul, were killed instantly, Sterling Cecil Foster, Melvin Donald O'Connell, Ernest Ephrom Ogilvie, and Vallentyne Lester Paul.

Two Sealion men, MM 1c Howard Firth and SN 1c Harold Gearhart were subsequently captured by the Japanese and died as POW's.

Then, needing the valuable Machina Wharf for their own use, they raised the sub and moved it across Canacao Bay to a spot just off Sangley Point, dropping it in shallow water.