On October 4th, I had an entry about the submarine USS Grunion being found in the Aleutian Islands. I did a follow-up thanks to Wikipedia.
The Grunion was a Gato-class submarine and the only naval vessel ever named after the grunion, a small fish found off the US west coast. It was built and launched December 22, 1941 (15 days after Pearl Harbor) by the Electric Boat Company in Groton, Connecticut, and commissioned April 11, 1942.
The Grunion picked up 16 survivors of the USAT Jack as it exited the Panama Canal on its way to Pearl Harbor. I was unable to find out any other information as to this ship sinking or even what a USAT was. I was also unaware that German U-boats might have been sinking US ships in the Pacific.
After Pearl Harbor, the Grunion took up station off the Aleutian Islands and engaged a Japanese destroyer with no results. During July, it sank two Japanese patrol boats.
MISSING
The Grunion reported encountering heavy anti-submarine efforts and was ordered back to Dutch Harbor on July 30, 1942 and was never heard of again.
A big search was conducted and on October 5th, was reported as overdue from patrol and assumed lost with all hands. It was stricken from the Naval Register on November 2, 1942.
And, That was how it remained for the next 65 years, until this month.
More to Come. --Cooter
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