Bruce mbabele@999info.net
Thanks to Stan Kendrick (his wife Geraldine is sister to Edward Knowles of the crew) we have located the ship’s bell from the Grunion.
The story is rather incredible. In 1942 a Chaplin found in a rubbish barrel a bag which inside had a bell with the USS Grunion inscribed on it. He asked the Navy if he could keep it and they said no. About a year later they changed their mind and he got the bell. Somehow it got from from that point to the Visitor’s center in Greenville Missippi. It is apparently common practice to remove the bell before going into action.
Needless to say there is a effort going on to see if we can borrow it for the Memorial
According to my father’s classmate, who gradulated from the Naval Academy with my father and had command of submarines his whole career, claims the normal procedure during WW11 is that when submarines leave port for assignmant into a theater of war the ship’s bell stays intact but the clapper was removed and re-installed when crew returned back in port. I understand that the Grunion bell was located in Mississippi. This gentleman I spoke with today received the bell, from the USS Seawolf which he commanded, when submarine was disposed of some years after the war. It also was common practice that if submarines were scrapped or damaged but returned to port the Commander/Captain would receive the bell. The Abele Brothers should have ownership of the Grunion Bell if it does exist.
Peter Thomas Stephens