Another Salty HMCS Grilse Story

Here is another tale about life on board HMCS Grilse, Canada's first submarine in many years. It would have taken place in th 1960's, and is courtesy of retired Chief ERA Hal Zerbin. The daily rum issue was then a fact of life in Canadian navy ships and submarines. The "tot", as it was known, was highly prized by the seamen, some of whom would go to great lengths to get a little extra. 


“TOT” time on HMCS Grilse_-

It was a beautiful Sunday morning and the crew was enjoying a break from their demanding schedule, in their home port of Esquimalt. With only a reduced crew on board, and the rum now packaged in clean glass bottles, un-adulterated with the old wax and camel hair of Royal Navy days, it was not really much of a task to bring up a couple of bottles, with their measures and a little water for dilution purposes. This last being hardly necessary as the crew was now allowed to bring their mug  to the table already pre-filled with coke to enable them to enjoy their “Tot” in a much more civilized manner than in the past.

“Up-spirits" had been piped and myself, as the Duty Chief, and Lt. (Later Admiral), Jim Wood were guarding the rum, ready for issue. As luck would have it, the crew-member approaching the issue table was a well-known “shit-disturber” in navalese, who was always planning and preparing for another try at squeezing some additional rum from the issuing officer. He was never nasty about his efforts, but it was easy enough to see he ‘had a plan’ as his body language was a dead give-a-way.

*A word here about the construction of the Grilse. Built as the USS BURRFISH, one of the many USN ‘Fleet’ boats of the last war, she carried a large amount of diesel fuel when fully loaded, and her external Fuel Ballast tanks were the main storage place. To enable a closer watch on fuel consumption, these Fuel Ballast tanks had been fitted with pads of  small square-spindled valves, arranged in groups of 10, I believe, on the inboard side of the pressure hull, at approximately the centre point of each of the fuel tanks, both port and st’b’d. On the outboard side, inside each tank, small-gauge copper lines were fitted to each valve and led off to a different vertical location in the tank and fastened in place. Thus, if the tank was half full you could open the appropriate  valve inboard and if the tank was indeed at that level, fuel would come out, and, if not, water would come out, giving you a pretty accurate estimate of how much fuel was in that tank. It worked! Now every submariner knows how hard it is to stop diesel fuel from ‘weeping’ from any valve stems, and these little valves were no different and a constant source of diesel drips regardless of how tight you kept the little packing nuts. All submariners also know how short of storage space every submarine is, and the Grilse was no exception. The crew had found that if they kept their rum mugs stored close to the pressure hull they were quite conveniently situated, but, they had not counted on the diesel fuel weeping thru the valve stem packing and dripping into their carefully stowed rum mugs, thereby contaminating the mug, and making any contents, even rum, almost unfit to drink!

Back to the rum table-

Dan approached the issue table, fairly quivering with the thought that he was about to put one over on us, but we were ready for him. I poured him a good tot and poured it into his coke-ready mug and waited. Dan stepped back with his mug, then raised it for a tentative sip, then another, and another as a look of disgust appeared on his face. "It’s contaminated, Chief," he proclaimed loudly, "you try it and see," as he offered me his mug. I took his mug and managed to turn my back on Dan while I caught Lt. Woods’ eye and winked at him, then I raised the mug and had a good sip. Then I tuned to Dan and said, “Tastes all right to me, Dan”. Then I turned to Lt. Wood and passed the mug to him as I said, "You try it, sir!” Which he did, and had a second sip for good measure, then passed it back to me saying, "Tastes fine to me too Chief! You better try it again”. As I reached for the mug, Dan realized he had been caught out and  tore his mug out of my hand, saying “Gimme the G—Da—thing!” as he retired to a safe place to enjoy his contaminated and depleted tot, to the utter enjoyment of  the few onboard duty watch.

A little later , while I was enjoying my own tot in the Goat locker, I sent for Dan and poured him a drink in compensation for his loss! He was, after all, a good shipmate!!

USS Burrfish aka HMCS Grilse--A Two-Navy Warrior (Part 5)

Like her sisters in the USN submarine fleet, USS Burrfish continued to seek out the enemy in the far-flung reaches of the Pacific. Her third war patrol was a historic one, commencing on 11th of July and continuing until he 27th of August, 1944.

Sailing from Pearl Harbour in the Hawaiian Islands, the boat had on board five members of Underwater Demolition Team 10 as well as a chief petty officer and a lieutenant from the UDT training staff. The UDT had with them inflatable rubber boats which were carried in free-flooding tanks on Burrfish's after deck.

On the 9th of August two teams of two men each swam ashore and gathered intelligence on the beach of Peleliu. The four swimmers plus their fifth member who had stood by in the inflated boat returned safely to Burrfish, waiting in deep water.

A second beach reconnaissance was carried out on August 18th, but was ill-fated. One team of two did not return to the waiting inflatable, and one of their mates swam in to try to assist. The men were not seen again. Burrfish searched for the three men until the night of August 20th to no avail, and was forced to leave the area. All three were captured by the Japanese and reportedly tortured and executed.

The Burrfish had carried out the only USN submarine-launched Underwater Demolition Team beach reconnaissance of the Second World War.

USS Burrfish aka HMCS Grilse--A Two-Navy Warrior (Part 4)

When the Royal Canadian Navy took command of USS Burrfish in 1961, it borrowed a bloodied and proud World War II combatant.

Burrfish took part in six war patrols against the Japanese in the Pacific theatre between February 2nd 1944 and May 13th 1945. In reviewing her activities during the first two, it appears there was a steep learning curve.

The boat's first patrol began when she sailed from Pearl Harbour and ended seven weeks later as she came alongside at Midway Island. During that time she fired torpedoes at a tanker, missed, and was depth-charged for her trouble. Having surfaced to repair a dangerous leak, she again attacked a freighter and suffered some damage from depth charges. Once again, she attacked a destroyer, missed, and proceeded to Midway.

Undaunted, Burrfish proceeded on her second patrol. She fired three torpedoes at a tanker, and was rewarded with three hits. It seemed her luck had turned, as the boat returned once more to Pearl Harbour for a well-earned month-long break.

Next: a historic third patrol.

USS Burrfish aka HMCS Grilse--A Two-Navy Warrior (Part 3)

The United States Navy SS-312, USS Burrfish, was launched at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Maine, on June 18th, 1943, and was commissioned on September 14th the same year. One hundred nineteen Balao class boats were completed; eleven were lost during World War II. (A lower loss rate than for previous boats, the Balao class for the most part coming later in the war when Japanes forces were on the run.)
Burrfish's complement was six officers and sixty enlisted men.
She bristled with weapons: ten 21" torpedo tubes, six forward and four aft; a 5" deck gun, and antiaircraft armament consisting of one 40-mm, two 20-mm, and two .50 calibre machine guns.
On the surface the Burrfish could pound along at 20.25 knots, and dived at 10.
She set out on her first war patrol on February 2nd, 1944.

Next: The War Patrols

USS Burrfish aka HMCS Grilse--A Two-Navy Warrior (Part 2)

USS Burrfish had a remarkable career, which can be divided into three main phases.
First phase: Operations against the Japanese in World War II. (designated SS-312).
Second phase: Conversion to and operations as a radar picket submarine (SSR-312).
Third phase: On loan to the Royal Canadian Navy as HMCS Grilse (SS-71).

Here is a photo of Burrfish under way during the second phase of her life. She has been converted to carry early warning radar in order to serve as a radar picket for large warships such as aircraft carriers. In that role she served extensively in east-coast American areas, the Baltic, and the Mediterranean on three extended assignments. She had been fitted with her radar equipment and operated with it from 1950 to 1956, when she decommissioned.

Next up on my series about the Burrfish: her distinguished wartime service.

USS Burrfish aka HMCS Grilse--A Two-Navy Warrior (Part 1)

I wrote a brief item here about HMCS Grilse, which in 1961 became the Royal Canadian Navy's first submarine in forty years, apart from a pair of surrendered German U-boats. As I described, she was in her first life an American boat. In fact she had an illustrious career, long before she flew the maple leaf.
United States Submarine Burrfish (SS-312), as she then was, was a "Portsmouth boat", built in the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Maine in 1943. A Balao class boat, she was externally virtually identical to the earlier Gato class, which no doubt stood her in good stead when pursued by antisubmarine forces of the Japanese navy. One of the major differences compared to her earlier sisters was a diving depth of 400 feet, as opposed to 300. Perhaps her survival was at least in part due to the extra, highly classified  depth she could attain when under attack, as the enemy depth charges would explode shallow enough that she could creep away, unharmed.
More about the Burrfish soon.

My second historical novel, set in a Cold War submarine, is in the publishing pipeline. It will surface in late summer, 2014.