The USS Grouper

The USS Grouper was a Gato class submarine (later re-designated Balao class) which was the standard submarine used by the American Navy throughout Word War II. It measured over three hundred feet from bow to stern with a width of twenty seven feet and could manage nine knots submerged and twenty-two on the surface. She had a crew of sixty officers and men and fully loaded could carry twenty-four MK 14 torpedoes. She was also fitted with a three inch deck gun.

Grouper had been constructed by the Electric Boat Company at Groton, Connecticut and was launched on 27 October 1941 being commissioned on 12 February 1942 at New London. She then shook down before sailing to Pearl Harbour on 30 March 1942 to join the Pacific Submarine Force whose task was to harry the Japanese shipping fleet.

Following completion of her first war patrol, Grouper returned to Pearl Harbour for repairs and replenishment plus a change of her captain to Lieutenant Commander Rob Roy McGregor. She departed harbour on the 28 August 1942 for her second war patrol sailing via Midway Island to join Task Force 7's Offensive Patrol Group and her patrol position around 100 miles east of Shanghai. During this patrol she would torpedo the Lisbon Maru.

The Grouper undertook a further ten war patrols and following her 12th patrol returned to Pearl Harbour on the 26th April 1945 only to be ordered back to San Francisco for overhaul. She returned to Pearl Harbour on the 6th August however VJ Day cancelled plans for any further patrols. The USS Grouper continued to serve after WWII and in May 1965 gained the record for the longest serving submarine within the U.S. Navy. She was eventually decommissioned on the 2nd December 1968 and sold for scrap on the 11 August 1970.