An Old Fleet Boat Submariner's Remembrance Story

"I Love The Smell Of Diesel Fuels In The Morning!"

"That smell... those diesel smells... smells like...

VICTORY!"

DBF (Diesel Boats Forever)

Following her 1942 commissioning as USS GROUPER (SS-214) 

USS GROUPER as SSK-214 (Hunter-Killer conversion)

USS GROUPER (AGSS-214) serving as an

Underwater Sound Labatory sonar test platform.

Recall now that Grouper's six torpedo tubes forward were removed and the Forward Torpedo Room (FTR) was simply renamed the Forward Room Compartment... a massively large power supply and associated SONAR electronic devices were then installed in the Forward Room to support the various Underwater Sound Lab SONAR equipment under Test and Evaluation. That array aft of the sail (right over the After Battery Compartment [ABC]) – was called "The Colossus." One of the trick qualification questions was how many hydrophones are mounted on the Colossus [??] – the answer remembered is 196.  Not sure why that was important to SS qualification, except to make an unqualified new-bee submariner fail testing on his first SS qualification attempt. When that Colossus was lighted off... a very loud sound resonated through the boat indeed and any sleep was near impossible in ABC where my rack was located. The Colossus sounds like a super-amplified 100k+ flight of Yellow Jacket Bees might sound. Another Grouper anomaly... main ballast tank #7 (MBT-7) originally surounding the After Torpedo Room (ATR) pressure hull was somehow closed off to sea... that space brought inside the pressure hull with an access hatch in the ATR deck. This new space creation inside pressure hull was used for dry storage of food, spare parts, and general dry goods. Don't know just how the MBT-7 conversion was done in the ship yards, but obviously the new #7 storage room was somehow configured inside Grouper's pressure hull as part of the AGSS conversion. This MBT-7 conversion had to be done since whatever dry storage space formally available in the FTR was unavailable for ship's company use, the Forward Room conversion space was now reserved exclusively for the Underwater Sound Lab gear and work/bearthing space. Grouper simply had 4 aft torpedo tubes in the ATR. Funny, Grouper still got the Battle E as evaluated shooting when running away.

DJ Paul, "Submarine Qualified" in December 1963 as

ship's company aboard USS GROUPER (SS/SSK/AGSS-214),

for a "Wikipedia" historical trip down memory lane, click HERE.

For another historical look at the Fleet Boat Story

(aka Pig Boats),

view some insightful writing by clicking HERE