Official U.S. Navy photo by Margo Turner Author Jonathan J. McCullough explains the fascinating story of USS Sculpin (SS 191) and USS Sailfish (SS 192) and their intertwining fate during combat operations in the Pacific theater of World War II.

‘‘What happened with these subs is bizarre,” said Jonathan J. McCullough, who selected Sculpin and Sailfish as the subjects of his first book. ‘‘Truth is stranger than fiction.”

McCullough, an editor at Lyons Press, shared the story about the Sculpin and Sailfish during the lecture and read excerpts from the book, ‘‘A Tale of Two Subs: An Untold Story of World War II, Two Sister Ships, and Extraordinary Heroism” (Grand Central Publishing, 2008).

The two subs were built side by side at the Portsmouth Navy Shipyard in Kittery, Maine. Sculpin was launched on July 27, 1938. That same year, a submarine named Squalus was launched Sept. 14. Unfortunately, Squalus sank during a shakedown cruise on May 23, 1939. Sculpin helped locate and raise Squalus, which was subsequently renamed and re-commissioned as Sailfish on May 15, 1940.

Both submarines were assigned to the Pacific Fleet, where each participated in multiple combat missions.

Sculpin was on her ninth war patrol when the Japanese destroyer Yamagumo sank the submarine on Nov. 19, 1943, near one of the northern approaches to Truk, a Japanese stronghold in the middle of the Pacific.

The 42 Sculpin survivors were transferred to Japanese aircraft carriers Unyo and Chuyo, bound for Japan.

Sailfish was on her 10th war patrol in late May, 1943, when the submarine was alerted by British intelligence of a Japanese convoy 240 miles southeast of Yokosuka. On the night of Dec. 3, Sailfish torpedoed and sank Chuyo, not knowing there were American prisoners onboard. The lone surviving American from Chuyo managed to get picked up by a passing Japanese destroyer. Unyo delivered the other 21 American survivors to Ofuna, Japan, on Dec. 5. These survivors spent the remainder of the war at the Ashio copper mines.

McCullough spent two years researching for his book about the Sculpin and Sailfish. He read every book on the subject and located interview subjects, documents, maps and images on the Internet.

‘‘Since some of the top secret aspects of the story required real primary-source historical research, I couldn’t start writing until I accessed every available document,” he said. McCullough also conducted interviews with Sculpin survivors over the phone and in person across the United States.

Bill Cooper and George Rocek were the principle sources for what happened when the Sculpin sank, he said.

‘‘Cooper was a quartermaster and saw everything that happened in the control room and conning tower,” he said. ‘‘Rocek was a motormac, who not only survived the sinking of Sculpin, but also the sinking of the aircraft carrier when their sister ship attacked it during a massive storm. I also spoke to the sons and daughters of several of the participants, such as John Cromwell and Eric Holmes. Their memories and leads were invaluable.”

Sailfish served out the rest of the war and was eventually scrapped, said McCullough. The Navy removed the conning tower and bridge, which is now a memorial at Portsmouth Navy Shipyard.

McCullough said he doesn’t know of any effort to locate the Sculpin. He doesn’t believe studying the remnants of the Sculpin would add much to what is already known about the sinking of the Sculpin from eyewitness accounts.

‘‘Sculpin is now a grave; something that perhaps would be best left undisturbed,” he said.