Historic Naval Sound and Video (2024)

Below are some real (nothing from Hollywood) underwater sounds and some video. These are in MP3 format which should work on most modern browsers.

We are always looking for additional real underwater sounds of interest to the historic naval ship community (or better copies of what we have). Please contact us with the Feedback Form if you have any interesting sounds you wish to share.

Recordings Made on USS Sealion During WW II:
On 21 Nov 1944, Imperial Japanese Navy Battleship Kongo was sunk by USS Sealion. The crew of Sealion made sound recordings in the conning tower of the submarine during the attack. They also recorded another attack during their 5th war patrol in March of 1945. Very, very few sound recordings of any kind where made aboard submarines during the war. These truly remarkable recordings may be the only audio or video from within a submarine during an attack that has survived. The sound you hear on the links below has been copied many times and is at times hard to understand. The Kongo attack was first recorded on a portable film optical recording machine. It was later transferred with a narrators voice at the beginning and end to 78 RPM records by Columbia University Division of War Research at the U.S. Navy Underwater Sound LaboratoryFort Trumbull, New London, Connecticut. Later, one of Sealion's crew, Fred Schuler, acquired a copy of the training records and added his own music and narration and transferred the sounds to cassette tape. A copy of this was discovered in the collection at the Mariners' Museum in 2004. In May of 2005 the original of this tape was found by Mr. Schuler's son and was digitized for long term preservation. Then in July we found copies of these records in the collection of the Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport, WA.

Shipboard Calls and Commands:
USN Bureau Of Naval Personnel Training Aids, Shipboard Calls And Commands, Recorded 11 May 1950 By Empire Broadcasting Corp. New York.

These training records introduce calls, command, bugles and pipes. More detail and the text of the calls and some explanation may be found in the album lining information. These records are from the collection of the U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command.

Expendable Radio Sonobuoy Training Records, 15P3:
U.S. Navy, Bureau of Aeronautics - Special Devices Division
Device 15P3
These are 78 RPM records prepared by Columbia University, Division of War Research at the U.S. Navy Underwater Sound Laboratory, Fort Trumball, New London Conn.
A cassette tape containing a copy of these records was discovered by a group researching I-52 for potential salvage. They were kind enough to provide a copy for our use. Most extraordinary are the final records (XIX and XX) which are pieced together from an actual attack on Imperial Japanese Navy submarine I-52 during 1944.
The user manual including instructions on how to use the records and the text of the records is available here.
An illustration and short description of the WW II radio sonobuoy hardware may be found at:https://maritime.org/doc/sonar/chap16.htm#fig16-19 and
https://maritime.org/doc/sonar/chap16.htm#pg299

Attack on Imperial Japanese Navy submarine I-52:
These are two wires recording by the second aircraft sent by USS Bogue. Note that I-52 had already been sunk by the first aircraft. The propeller noise heard are from a German submarine in the area. However, the crew of the aircraft did not know this. It is interesting to hear the real rhythm of the 3 man crew working to find the target. It is also interesting how the training record above mixed the sounds from these recordings with those from the first plane's attack for dramatic effect. These two wires survived in the collection of the NUWC Division Newport and later transferred to the US National Archives in College Park, MD. The NARA reference information is RG-38, 273, 1 and RG-38, 273, 2.

Sonar Training Record Series D16:
These are declassified training recordings of USN submarines on an early radio sonobuoy system. These were provided by NUWC Newport.

JP Sonar Training Records:
The JP was the most important and most frequently used submarine passive sonar used during WW II. These 78-RPM training records were created for the Bureau of Naval Personnel by Columbia University - Division of War Researchat the U.S. Navy Underwater Sound Laboratory, Fort Trumbul, New London, Connecticut.

The use of filters to manipulate the sound is described in the records, and also in Submarine Sonar Operator's Manual, NavPers 16167. Some technical information about this equipment is at available in the Naval Sonar Manual. These records are from the collection of the U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command.

Sound In the Sea:
These declassified sounds from the USN were collected together by sonar development company in the 1960s.

USS Pampanito Operating Equipment:
These recordings of equipment operating were recorded on WW II submarine USS Pampanito in 1995. Pampanito is now a museum in San Francisco. These sounds are Copyright (C) San Francisco Maritime National Park Association and may be used only for non-commercial purposes. Please contact Pampanito directly for any other use.

It is interesting to compare these through the air in the boat recordings to the sonobuoy "sounds other than propulsion" recordings taken through the water above.

Video from 1951 built ex-USS Tang, now TCG Pirireis made in 2004:
Background information and photos from this project to document US diesel submarines may be found at: https://maritime.org/sound/turkey/index.htm

Video from 1945 built ex-USS Steinaker, now ARM Netzahualcoyotl (Netza) made in 2006:
Background information and photos from this project to document a US steam destroyer may be found at: https://maritime.org/sound/mexico/index.htm

WW II POW Rescue Video:
During September of 1944, submarines USS Growler, USS Pampanito and USS Sealion attacked an Imperial Japanese convoy. Unknown to the Allies, there were over two thousand British and Australian prisoners of war aboard these ships. These were the survivors of the fall of Singapore and forced labor on the Burma-Thailand railroad ("Railway of Death"). Four days after the attack Pampanito returned to the area and found and rescued 73 of the prisoners of war. Sealion, Queenfish and Barb, were alerted and returned to rescue 86 more men. The boats had 16 mm periscope cameras that they used to film some of the rescue. The un-edited clips below are now in the US National Archives. RG 428-NPC-5864 (We are unsure which boat this is from.), RG 428-NPC-5865 (Pampanito), RG 428-NPC-5743 (Pampanito). Note that film clips appear in the order they were pieced together by the Navy and are now in the archives, not in the order in which events occurred. So for example, the film clips of the survivors being delivered safely in Saipan appear before their rescue.