The Search for the Grunion Blog

With its exact location unknown, the search-and-discover mission to scour the ocean floor near the Aleutian Islands, 1,400 miles from Alaska’s mainland, could cover 800 square miles.

Yet, after more than 60 years of waiting to find out what happened to the 315-foot-long submarine, the sons of the vessel’s commander, Mannert L. Abele, are determined to find out. Abele and 70 crew members were last heard from on July 30, 1942.

The death of Mannert, who was called “Jim” by friends and family, left his wife, Catherine, with three young boys to raise, Bruce, Brad and John, and not much money. They moved to Newton in 1942 after living in Tiverton, R.I., for the summer, and she taught violin at the Hyde School for many years to support her family. Their life wasn’t extravagant, said Bruce, but they got by.

Today, the sons are able to fund their own adventure - to search and discover the missing Grunion. John, the baby of the three, founder Boston Scientific in 1979, is funding the adventure.

The story of Jim Abele isn’t new. In 1943, Abele received the Navy Cross, the Navy’s highest honor. The United States Navy named a destroyer, the Mannert L. Abele, in honor of the lost commander. That vessel, coincidentally, was commanded by a Newton resident, Alton Parker, but was sunk in 1945, while on picket duty near Okinawa.

Many historians and World War II buffs have exhaustively researched both naval events. But several years ago, the story of the Grunion began a new chapter.

Yutaka Iwasaki, a man from Japan, found a previously ignored document written by the commander of the vessel that is believed to have sunk the Grunion. Iwasaki then translated it into English for the Abele sons to use as a reference point.

The Abeles have procured a 165-foot boat and almost a mile of cable to drag the side-scan sonar above the bottom of the ocean floor looking for the Grunion.

With the sonar the Abeles hope to locate the submarine, but the work isn’t over if that goal is accomplished.

An automated underwater vehicle may go along for the ride to find the sub. The vehicle would travel a mile below the surface to record what lies on the ocean floor.

But while finding the submarine won’t be easy, it’s likely other vessels will turn up.

“I’m quite certain we’ll find something in the search area,” said Bruce, husband of the Newton History Museum’s Curator, Susan Abele, in a recent interview from his Newtonville home.

While the Japanese Navy was likely responsible for the Grunion’s destruction, Bruce and his brothers aren’t holding grudges.

“It’s a shared form of international compassion,” Bruce said of Iwasaki’s assistance in translating the Japanese text that helped locate the Grunion. “We want to return the favor.”

While searching for the Grunion, the 19 members aboard the boat from Alaska will also be seeking the two Japanese submarine chasers, which the Grunion sank, to honor their killed soldiers.

“What you do, when someone dies, you put a gravestone up … another way of remembering them is exactly what we’re doing now,” Bruce said.

Bruce isn’t alone in feeling that he didn’t have a chance to mourn the loss.

“I remember the day. It was an early fall, sunny afternoon, and my brothers and I were playing with a football in the road out in front of our house in Newton Highlands,” wrote Brad about the day he learned of his father being lost at sea. “Bruce reacted with some exclamations, but I remember being completely devoid of emotional feeling at hearing the news. At that age, I was emotionally extremely phlegmatic.”

The Abele brothers, now age 76, 73 and 70, may have a chance to finally know what happened to their father.

Daniel E. Black can be reached at dblack@cnc.com or at 781-433-8216.

originally published in the Newton, Massachusetts TAB newspaper