Rear Adm. Frederick Warder; WWII Sub Skipper

Frederick Burdett Warder, 95, a highly decorated Navy rear admiral credited with sinking at least six Japanese ships while commanding the submarine Seawolf during World War II. At a time when the crude submarines were not noted for torpedoes that fired with precision, Warder took charge of the Seawolf in 1939 and quickly became known as an “artist of submarining,” Theodore Roscoe wrote in his book, “United States Submarine Operations in World War II.” Known for an aggressive battle technique, Warder was reputed to be thoughtful even in the crucible of a battle zone. In one of the maneuvers that would earn him the Navy Cross, the Navy’s highest award for valor after the Medal of Honor, he decided not to blow up dock facilities at an inlet near Christmas Island as he waited to target the advancing Japanese navy. Not only would blasting the dock waste a torpedo, he figured, but it also would disrupt native life. The intact dock allowed the submerged Seawolf to remain undetected, and Warder sank two enemy cruisers while barely escaping a rain of depth charges. Roscoe wrote in his 1949 book that Warder was “a humane man who, in the teeth of hell and high water, could find time to think about the natives on a picayune island.” Roscoe also wrote that, on other occasions, when Japanese sailors from a sunken ship refused to be taken prisoner aboard the Seawolf, Warder would order life jackets and whiskey thrown to the seamen. He was promoted to rear admiral in 1952 and became assistant chief of naval operations for undersea warfare in 1955. He commanded the Submarine Force Atlantic Fleet in 1957, and retired in 1962 after two years as commandant of the 8th Naval District in New Orleans. Warder was born in Grafton, W.Va., and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1925 and from the Submarine School in 1928. He received a master’s degree in marine engineering from UC Berkeley in 1934 and graduated from the National War College in 1949. On Tuesday at his home in Ocala, Fla., of congestive heart failure.