USS Grunion (SS-216)

Career
Builder:	Electric Boat Company, Groton, Connecticut
Laid down:	1 March 1941
Launched:	22 December 1941
Sponsored by:	Mrs. Stanford C. Hooper
Commissioned:	11 April 1942
Struck:	2 November 1942
Fate:	Sunk off of Kiska around 30 July 1942, cause unknown
General characteristics
Class and type:	Gato-class diesel-electric submarine
Displacement:	1,525 long tons (1,549 t) surfaced 2,424 long tons (2,463 t) submerged
Length:	311 ft 9 in (95.02 m)
Beam:	27 ft 3 in (8.31 m)
Draft:	17 ft (5.2 m) maximum
Propulsion:	4 × General Motors Model 16-248 V16 diesel engines driving electrical generators 2 × 126-cell Sargo batteries 4 × high-speed General Electric electric motors with reduction gears two propellers 5,400 shp (4.0 MW) surfaced 2,740 shp (2.0 MW) submerged
Speed:	21 kn (39 km/h) surfaced 9 kn (17 km/h) submerged
Range:	11,000 nautical miles (20,000 km) surfaced at 10 kn (19 km/h)
Endurance:	48 hours at 2 kn (3.7 km/h) submerged 75 days on patrol
Test depth:	300 ft (91 m)
Complement:	6 officers, 54 enlisted
Armament:	10 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes  (six forward, four aft)  24 torpedoes 1 × 3-inch (76 mm) / 50 caliber deck gun Bofors 40 mm and Oerlikon 20 mm cannon

USS Grunion (SS-216) was a Gato-class submarine that was sunk at Kiska, Alaska, during World War II. She was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the grunion, a small fish of the silversides family, indigenous to the western American coast.

Her keel was laid down by the Electric Boat Company in Groton, Connecticut on 1 March 1941. She was launched on 22 December 1941, (sponsored by Mrs. Stanford C. Hooper, wife of Rear Admiral Hooper), and commissioned on 11 April 1942 with Lieutenant Commander (Lt. Cmdr.) Mannert L. Abele, USNA class of 1926 in command.

After shakedown out of New London, Grunion sailed for the Pacific on 24 May. A week later, as she transited the Caribbean Sea for Panama, she rescued 16 survivors of USAT Jack, which had been torpedoed by the German U-boat U-558, and she conducted a fruitless search for 13 other survivors presumed in the vicinity. Arriving at Coco Solo on 3 June, Grunion deposited her shipload of survivors and continued to Pearl Harbor, arriving 20 June.

Departing Hawaii on 30 June after ten days of intensive training, Grunion touched Midway Island before heading toward the Aleutian Islands for her first war patrol. Her first report, made as she patrolled north of Kiska Island, stated she had been attacked by a Japanese destroyer and had fired at her with inconclusive results. She operated off Kiska throughout July and sank two enemy patrol boats while in search for enemy shipping. On 30 July the submarine reported intensive antisubmarine activity, and she was ordered back to Dutch Harbor.

Grunion was never heard from nor seen again. Air searches off Kiska were fruitless; and on 5 October Grunion was reported overdue from patrol and assumed lost with all hands. Her name was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 2 November 1942. Captured Japanese records show no antisubmarine attacks in the Kiska area, and the fate of Grunion remained a mystery for 65 years until discovery in the Bering Sea in August 2007 of a wreck believed to be the boat. In October 2008, the U.S. Navy verified that the wreck is the Grunion. The reason for her sinking is still not known, though there are two possible explanations.

Grunion received one battle star for World War II service.

The search for the Grunion

USS Grunion wreckage as found in 2008

When the Grunion disappeared in 1942 the skipper Lt Cmdr Abele left behind three sons, Bruce, Brad, and John. For almost 65 years we searched for information about the loss of our father’s submarine. In 1998 a Lieut. Col. Richard Lane purchased for $1 a wiring diagram that came from a Japanese cargo ship, Kano Maru that had been involved in World War II activities. Some time later in an attempt to authenticate that document Lane posted it on a Japanese naval historical website asking if anybody could provide help. He received a reply from a Japanese naval historian, Yutaka Iwasaki who not only authenticated the document but suggested that he knew what happened to the Grunion. Lane contacted COMSUBPAC, and their public affairs officer Darrel Ames put that information on COMSUBPAC’s Grunion website. A few years later when the Abeles discovered that information they were able to contact Yutaka Iwasaki, who provided them with a translated article by the military commander of the Kano Maru. He described a confrontation with a submarine near Kiska Island in the Aleutians that took place at the same time the Grunion was reported missing. A few years after the Yutaka discovery, John, who is cofounder of Boston Scientific, had an opportunity to meet Robert Ballard of Titanic fame. Robert provided the Abeles with an introduction to finding a wrecked submarine. John Abele decided to fund an expedition to find the Grunion. In 2006, Williamson Associates, using side-scan sonar, located a promising target that was almost exactly where predicted by the commander of the Kano Maru, and that had many other characteristics of a submarine wreck. In 2007, using a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), DSSI/Oceaneering returned to the site and videoed the imploded remains of a submarine that had English markings, propeller guards, and limber holes identical to those on the Grunion. In 2008, the U.S. Navy acknowledged that the find was, in fact, the Grunion. Although there is no absolute certainty the evidence points strongly that the Grunion was lost as a result of horrific torpedo performance in that confrontation with the Kano Maru. One went low and in spite of a magnetic exploder did not explode, two bounced off the Kano Maru without exploding and the last one circled back, hitting the periscope supports on the submerged sub without exploding. That event, coupled with a jammed rear dive plane, triggered a sequence of events that led to loss of depth control. At about 1000 feet the sub imploded, hit bottom breaking off about 50 feet of the bow, then slid 2/3 mile down the side of an extinct volcano finally resting on a notch on that underwater mountain.--MannertB 17:43, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

References

This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

External links

• navsource.org: USS Grunion
• hazegray.org: USS Grunion
• On Eternal Patrol: USS Grunion
• Search for the Grunion - ussgrunion.com- A team organized by LCDR Abele's three sons search the ocean floor for the lost submarine near Kiska, Alaska.
• The USS Grunion may have been Found a story at NPR.org
• ABCNews.com, 10/3/2006."Object Off Alaska Coast May Be WWII Sub" viewed 10/3/2006.
• After 64 years, relatives may have answers in sub sinking viewed 10/05/2006 Defunct site prior to 1/11
• Detroit sailor only one of WWII crew whose relatives can't be located Detroit News from August 24, 2007
• Wreckage of WWII submarine found off Aleutian Islands dated August 24, 2007