The Sealion flooded immediately and settled down by the stern with 40% of her main deck underwater and a 15 degree list to the starboard. The destruction of the Navy Yard made repairs impossible, and she was ordered to be destroyed. All salvageable equipment was taken off, depth charges placed inside and on 25 December, the explosives were set off to prevent her being useful to the enemy.
Eli Thomas Reich, who was executive officer and engineer on the Sealion when it sank, assumed command of the second Sealion (SS-315) when in March 1944. Four of the torpedoes that Sealion II fired to sink the Japanese battleship Kongo carried the names Foster, O'Connell, Paul and Oglivie-- the men who had died in the attack on the first Sealion three years earlier.
The sinking of the Sealion (SS-195) was incorporated into the plot of the 1959 Cary Grant film "Operation Petticoat" where the fictional submarine Sea Tiger was stationed at Cavite, suffers a similar fate, although in the film, she is re-floated and ordered to Cebu for a complete refit, thereby setting the stage for the film's storyline.
--GreGen
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