USS Grunion (SS-216)

History
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 6 forward, 4 aft 24 torpedoes 1 × 3-inch (76 mm) / 50 caliber deck gun Bofors 40 mm and Oerlikon 20 mm cannon

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

Departing Hawaii on 30 June after ten days of intensive training, the 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 torpedoes at her with inconclusive results. She operated off Kiska throughout July and sank two enemy patrol boats as she waited for enemy shipping. On 30 July the submarine reported intensive antisubmarine activity and was ordered back to Dutch Harbor.

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