USS Grunion-- Continued

WHAT HAPPENED

It is now thought that on the morning of July 21, 1942, the Grunion attacked a Japanese troop transport, but only one of four torpedoes hit and detonated. The Grunion surfaced to finish off the Kano Maru with her deck gun, but the Japanese ship returned fire and allegedly hit the Grunion's conning tower and sank her.

A wreck was discovered in August 2007 and it was verified earlier this month as the wreck of the USS Grunion.


THE STATS

The Grunion was 311 feet 9 inches in length and had a 27 feet 3 inch beam.
Speed was 23 knots on the surface and 9 knots submerged. The Grunion had a range of 11,000 nautical miles.

Armament: ten torpedo tubes, 6 forward and 4 aft, 1x3 inch deck gun and 4 machine guns.



THE SONS

The Grunion's skipper, Lt-Cmdr Mannert L. Abele, had three sons by the name of Bruce, John, and Brad. For years it was their mission to find out what happened to the Grunion. This effort was funded mostly by John who is the founder of Boston Scientific, a major medical device company. In 2005, Forbes ranked him as the #132 richest person in the world with a net worth of $4 billion.

He began funding the effort after a discussion with undersea explorer Robert Ballard who declined to look for the ship.

In 2002, now armed with the information from Yataka Iwasaki, they began the search in earnest. They also searched for the wrecks of the Japanese subchasers SC-25 and SC-27 as well as the Japanese destroyer Arare.


The Grunion was found in 3,300 feet of water.

A memorial service was held in Cleveland, Ohio, at the USS Cod on October 11th.

Job Well Done Abele Brothers. --Cooter