Lost Subs - USS Grunion (SS-216)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Compiled July 2, 2008, by David Barth.
USS Grunion (SS-216) was a Gato-class submarine. 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. 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 Mannert L. Abele 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 a German U-boat, and
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; then headed 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 him 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 struck 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 her discovery in the Bering Sea in August of 2007. The reason for her sinking
is still a mystery.
Grunion received one battle star for World War II service.
The Web site maintained by the Public Affairs Office of Commander Submarine Force, Pacific Fleet (COMSUBPAC),
states that Yutaka Iwasaki, "a gentelman [sic] in Japan," had a Web site with information about Japanese ships sunk
during World War II. The numerous misspellings, bad syntax, and incorrect grammar make COMSUBPAC Public Affairs Office's
description of the site difficult to understand (and contrast sharply with the preceding Dictionary of American Naval
Fighting Ships entry). However, it may be possible that on the morning of 31 July 1942 a troop transport was attacked
by Grunion. Only one of the four torpedoes hit and detonated, and Grunion surfaced to finish her target by gunfire.
However, Kano Maru returned fire with her own three-inch deck gun and 50-caliber machine guns. Allegedly, a single
shell hit on Grunion's conning tower sank her.
The search for the Grunion
Lt. Cmdr Abele left three sons, Bruce, John, and Brad, when the Grunion disappeared in 1942. For years, they engaged
in a search for the final resting place of the ship. The search had been mostly funded by John Abele, founder of
Boston Scientific (who began funding it personally after discussion with Robert Ballard, who declined to take part).
The search was conducted mostly around the Aleutian Islands, an extremely volatile part of the sea.
In 2002, with Iwasaki's translation in hand, the search took on a new vigor, and with the enthusiastic cooperation of
Japanese officials and veterans, the Abele brothers also began to search for several lost Japanese subchasers, SC-25
and SC-27, and the destroyer Arare, all of which sank in the same area.
In August 2006, an expedition led by Williamson & Associates onboard the ship Aquila, relayed sonar images to Bruce
Abele. The images depicted a "smooth, oblong object with features that could be a conning tower and periscope mast."
Subsequent imaging passes have revealed more detail about the object that could be the long-lost USS
Grunion.
On August 22, 2007 USS Grunion was found by the search team in the Bering Sea off the coast of the Aleutians in about
1000 meters of water.