USS Grouper (SS-214)

USS Grouper (SS-214) was an American submarine used by the US Navy in the Pacific Theater of Operation of World War II. She belonged to the Gato class, which was composed of 77 attack submarines. Having an extensive and long career, she survived the war and, in 1950, she would be upgraded and converted into a hunter-killer submarine, which was fitted with a new powerful sonar. She was given the new classification number SSK-214. This new type of boats was highly-specialized to search for, track, and destroy enemy submarines. She was decommissioned on December 2, 1968.

Built by the Electric Boat Company, in Groton, Connecticut, USS Grouper was laid down on December 28, 1940, and launched on October 26, 1941. After more than three months of sea trials, she was commissioned into service with the US Navy on February 12, 1942. Her first assignment was the Pacific Submarine Force, which she joined on March 30, 1942. That year, in early June, she patrolled the waters near and around US Navy's Task Force 16 during the Battle of Midway. On February 12, 1943, she sank a Japanese destroyer near the Solomon Islands and, couple of days later, two merchant ships.

In July 1943, USS Grouper (SS-214) was damaged by two depth charges dropped by an America B-25 Mitchel, which mistook her for a Japanese submarine. Thus, she ended her patrols due to damage and headed for Brisbane, Australia, for repairs. On June 24, 1944, she attacked and sank the merchant ship Kumanoyama Maru, which was her last kill of that armed conflict. On April 6, 1945, after her last patrol of the war, USS Grouper sailed to Pearl Harbor.

Specifications

Type: attack submarine

Displacement: 2,415 tons (submerged); 1,525 tons (surfaced)

Length: 95 m (311 feet, 9 inches)

Beam: 8.31 m (27 feet, 3 inches)

Draft: 4.65 m (15 feet, 25 inches)

Propulsion: diesel-electric, with four General Motors Model 16-248, 16-cylinder, diesel engines, four electric motors, and two shafts, generating 2,740 SHP.

Compliment: 80 sailors and officers

Armament: twenty-four Mark-14 torpedoes launched from ten 533-mm (21-inch) torpedo tubes; one 76-mm deck gun.

Below, USS Grouper on January 24, 1942, about two weeks before she was commissioned. Notice the 214 number painted on the tower and bow hull.

Grouper sailing off the coast of a Pacific island in 1944.