Bruce
Jim Lucas, a realtive of Louis Doel found this photo on a website selling model subs, in particular Gato class ones. The officer in the middle looks like my dad. We were not able to find anything inconsistent with it being the Grunion. Does anybody recognize any of the crew?
To view click Search 07 Photos, then double click the “latest album”, then “sideshow”.
That is the picture of the Gato which I referenced in my e-mail to you. You can see it on Navsource under the Gato page. Of course it could be miss labeled (many on Navsource are) and so you should have everyone compare to their known relatives to acertain for certain.
As to A. Kidd’s speculation. I had also considered a hit to FTR by 8 cm sheel setting off torpedo but think it is unlikely. We are giving a lot of penetration credit to 3 inch shell to go through side of sub and hit torpedo. Also, look at pictures of Salmon and sisters surfacing on Navsource page. Very steep angle required for bow to surface without conning tower fairwater being visible too. Would have been very hard to stand, with ammo all around your feet, preparatory to joining in gun battle at such an angle. Also, look at pictures of Tarpon (SS-175) at periscope depth. I believe barely awash fairwater would be the only thing dscribed as “wave washing conning tower” by Aiura. The huge conning tower on Grunion would never have been described as such if fully exposed. But we cannot discount Mr. Kidd’s theory.
Bruce, hope you got my e-mail OK and my graphic was readable.
To John Hart. First off my apologies.. There was a sub named the GATO -SUB 212 -and not just a class of submarine. Bruce mentioned to me in a phone conversation, that there are too many officers in the photo for one sub crew. It is possible that more than just Gato crew was pictured
The open hatch picture with the line around the hatch wheel and the hand rail in place would indicate that the ship was on the surface probably to dump garbage. That does not seem to be consistant to activity during a runnung gun battle.
Since the ship was imploded, it may be possible that a tarpedo was set off internally when the sub hit the floor at about 50 MPH.
JIM LUCAS