USS Grayling (SS-209)

History
Builder:	Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine
Laid down:	15 December 1939
Launched:	29 November 1940
Commissioned:	1 March 1941
Fate:	Lost off Manila around 9 September 1943
General characteristics
Class and type:	Tambor class diesel-electric submarine
Displacement:	1,475 long tons (1,499 t) standard, surfaced 2,370 long tons (2,410 t) submerged
Length:	307 ft 2 in (93.62 m)
Beam:	27 ft 3 in (8.31 m)
Draft:	14 ft 7 1⁄2 in (4.458 m)
Propulsion:	4 × Fairbanks-Morse Model 38D8-⅛ 9-cylinder opposed piston 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:	20.4 knots (38 km/h) surfaced 8.75 knots (16 km/h) submerged
Range:	11,000 nautical miles (20,000 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h)
Endurance:	48 hours at 2 knots (3.7 km/h) submerged
Test depth:	250 ft (76 m)
Complement:	6 officers, 54 enlisted
Armament:	10 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 6 forward, 4 aft 24 torpedoes 1 × 3-inch (76 mm) / 50 caliber deck gun Bofors 40 mm and Oerlikon 20 mm cannon

USS Grayling (SS-209), a Tambor-class submarine, was the fourth ship of the United States Navy to be named for the grayling.

Her keel was laid down at the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine on 15 December 1939. She was launched on 4 September 1940 sponsored by Mrs. Herbert F. Leary, and commissioned on 1 March 1941 with Lieutenant Commander Eliot Olsen in command.

After conducting tests and sea trials, she was called upon 20 June 1941 to assist in the search for submarine O-9 (SS-70), which had failed to surface after a practice dive off Isles of Shoals. O-9 was subsequently discovered on the bottom, but rescue efforts failed; Grayling participated 22 June in the memorial services for those lost.

Joining the Atlantic Fleet, Grayling sailed on shakedown cruise on 4 August to Morehead City, North Carolina, and St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, returning to Portsmouth on 29 August. After final acceptance, she departed 17 November, armed at Newport, Rhode Island, and sailed for duty with the Pacific Fleet. Grayling transited the Panama Canal on 3 December and moored at San Diego, California, on 10 December.

Grayling sailed for Pearl Harbor on 17 December, arrived 24 December, and had the honor of being chosen for the Pacific Fleet change of command ceremony on 31 December 1941. The ceremony would normally have taken place on a battleship, but all the fleets battleships had been either sunk or damaged during the attack 3 weeks earlier. On that day, Admiral Chester Nimitz hoisted his flag aboard Grayling as Commander, Pacific Fleet and began the United States Navy's long fighting road back in the Pacific.

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Wikipedia