after a six-hour chase, she fired four torpedoes at a maru with one escort. All of her torpedoes missed. On the night of 8 September, she encountered a two-column, six-ship convoy with an escort on each wing, and closed in to the leading ship. Shortly after 2045, she fired four torpedoes at overlapping targets, then opened to the eastward as the torpedoes started hitting. Just before midnight, she again attacked the convoy, now comprising only four ships. One freighter took two hits. A second maru turned to chase Seal. Seal retired briefly, and just before 0300 on 9 September, hit the remainder of the convoy. Daylight brought antisubmarine aircraft to the scene, and Seal fishtailed at deep submergence until 1700. At 2026, having sunk Shonan Maru and damaged three or four other ships, she headed for Midway, arriving on 17 September. On her twelfth and final war patrol, from 10 October-29 November, Seal again hunted in the Kurils. Her 30 days in the area yielded only two contacts worthy of torpedo fire. On 25 October, she caught and sank (5,742 GRT) killing 1,415 as it ran down the convoy lanes away from Paramushiro. Three weeks later, she attacked and damaged another maru off Etorofu (now Iturup). During the last days of the patrol, she ranged off the coast of Sakhalin, scoreless. On 17 October, she cleared the area. Seal arrived at Pearl Harbor on 29 November, and after refit, assumed training duties in the Hawaiian area. In June 1945, she returned to New London where she continued her training duties through the end of World War II. Post-War After the war, she was ordered inactivated and disposed of. In early November, she proceeded to Boston, Massachusetts, where she was decommissioned on 15 November, and after a change in her orders, was retained in the Reserve Fleet. On 19 June 1947, she was placed in service and assigned to Boston as a Naval Reserve training ship, and in March 1949, she was transferred to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where she continued to serve the Naval Reserve until placed out of service and struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 May 1956. Six days later, she was removed from the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard for scrapping. Awards Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with 10 battle stars for World War II service References Salmon-class submarines World War II submarines of the United States Ships built in