USS Grouper (SS/SSK/AGSS-214), a Gato-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the grouper. Construction and commissioning Grouper was launched by the Electric Boat Company at Groton, Connecticut, on 27 October 1941, sponsored by Mrs. Albert F. Church, and commissioned at New London on 12 February 1942, with Lieutenant Commander C. E. Duke in command. 1942 After shakedown in Long Island Sound, Grouper sailed for Pearl Harbor on 30 March 1942 to join the Pacific Submarine Force, which was to play havoc on Japanese shipping. Before departing for her first war patrol, Grouper was assigned to the submarine screen which ringed the area as the American and Japanese fleets clashed in the decisive Battle of Midway. Patrolling the fringe of the fighting on 4 June, Grouper sighted two burning enemy aircraft carriers, but could not close for attack because of heavy air cover. On that day, she was strafed by fighter planes and driven deep in a series of aircraft and destroyer attacks which saw over 170 depth charges and bombs dropped on the novice submarine. The next day, as the battle still raged, Grouper crash-dived to avoid enemy bombers. She then put in at Midway for three days for fuel and provisions before sailing on her first war patrol on 12 June. She torpedoed and damaged two Japanese maru (civilian) ships before returning to Pearl Harbor on 30 July. On her second patrol (28 August – 9 October), Grouper under the command of Rob Roy McGregor sank two freighters, Tone Maru on 21 September and Lisbon Maru on 1 October. It was later learned that Lisbon Maru was carrying 1800 British POWs from Hong Kong; over 800 died in the sinking. On her third patrol (12 November – 31 December) to Brisbane, Australia, on 17 December, she encountered and sank Bandoeng Maru, a passenger-freighter headed for the Solomon Islands with troop reinforcements. 1943 During her fourth war patrol (21 January – 18 March 1943), Grouper rescued an aviator who had been stranded on Rengi Island, near Rob Roy Island in the Solomons, for several days; she also located several key Japanese radar installations in the Solomon Islands. On 4 February 1943, she penetrated between the two columns of a Japanese convoy and had just achieved a firing solution on a destroyer at a range of when Allied aircraft arrived and began bombing