USS Grampus (SS-523)

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Career
Ordered:
Laid down:	8 February 1944
Launched:	16 December 1944
Commissioned:	26 October 1949
Fate:	sold to Brazil
Stricken:	13 May 1972
General Characteristics
Displacement:	1570 tons surfaced, 2414 tons submerged
Length:	311 feet 8 inches
Beam:	27 feet 3 inches
Draft:	15 feet 3 inches
Range:	11,000 miles surfaced at 10 knots, 48 hours submerged at 2 knots
Endurance:	75 days
Propulsion:	Fairbanks-Morse 5400 horsepower diesel engines, four Elliot 2740 horsepower electric motors, two propellers
Fuel:	113,510 gallons, two 126-cell main storage batteries
Speed:	20.25 knots surfaced, 8.75 knots submerged
Depth:	400 feet
Complement:	seven officers, 69 men
Armament:	ten 21-inch torpedo tubes (six forward, four aft), 24 torpedoes, one five-inch/25-caliber deck gun, two single 20mm guns, two 30-caliber machine guns

USS Grampus (SS-523), a Tench-class submarine, was the seventh ship of the United States Navy to be named for two members of the dolphin family (Delphinidae): Grampus griseus, also known as Risso's Dolphin, and Orcinus orca, also known as the Killer Whale. Her keel was laid down on 8 February 1944 at Boston Navy Yard. She was launched on 16 December 1944, but World War II ended before she was completed, and she sat idle until construction resumed in 1948. On 26 October 1949 she was both christened, by Mrs. Clark H. Woodward, who also sponsored the previous Grampus, and commissioned, with Commander George F. Sharp in command.

With her new snorkeling equipment, which permitted her to remain submerged for periods far longer than the World War II fleet submarines, Grampus served as a prototype for the GUPPY submarines and also incorporated many features to appear later in nuclear submarines. Attached to SubDiv 61 at Norfolk, Virginia, she participated in a variety of exercises along the East Coast and in the Caribbean Sea, including torpedo and attack exercises, snorkeling tests and demonstrations, and antisubmarine training. Grampus also did a great deal of work with the early HUK (Hunter-Killer) antisubmarine patrols, now a vital part of American defenses, to whose development she greatly contributed.

From 5 January to 2 April 1955 Grampus proceeded independently to the Mediterranean Sea, where she "showed the flag" at Algiers, Naples, Barcelona, Malta, Beirut, Monaco, and Gibraltar before returning to Norfolk and her routine of exercises and tests, spaced with regular overhauls at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During the late 1950s and early 1960s Grampus operated out of Norfolk in the North Atlantic.

Under the command of Lieutenant Commander D.A. Kilmer, Grampus sailed with Task Force "Alfa" for six weeks prior to 13 February 1964. On 3 April, she deployed with the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea until 3 August.

She operated out of the Virginia Capes until entering Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in mid-April 1965 for overhaul. After refresher training and shakedown in the fall, Grampus operated along the East Coast engaging primarily in ASW exercises.

She departed Norfolk, Virginia, on 13 May 1966 for the eastern Atlantic and Northern European countries to participate in NATO ASW exercises. Back in Norfolk on 30 August, she resumed operations in the Virginia Capes area and Caribbean Sea until sailing 29 December to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for repairs in the naval shipyard. Shipshape again, she resumed operations with the Atlantic Fleet.

six more years of history go here

Grampus was decommissioned and struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 13 May 1972, and sold under the Security Assistance Program to Brazil, where she was renamed Rio Grandedo Sul. Her final disposition is unknown.

See USS Grampus for other ships of the same name.

References

This article includes information collected from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.