| Subject: Growler (SS-215)
I writing here as I am interested in getting more information on the Growler (SS-215). My mother's brother (MoMM3 LaVerne Charles Clark) died in that boat's sinking. I've emailed Lorraine Woods to see if I can get a much higher resolution scan of the photo on the Growler page on this site in order to see more clearly my uncle's face, but she hasn't responded yet. I think I can see my uncle in the photo! My family has never seen this picture before. If this is right, this picture was taken at the US Navy base in Freemantle, Australia (on the west coast of Australia). My uncle, LaVerne Clark, is (as you look at the photo) left of Carl Suba and just to the right of the guy wearing the brown hat (I think). LaVerne might have worked with Carl on the Growler, as they are both rated as Motor Machinists' Mate. Carl was a Chief MoMM (right?), while LaVerne was 3rd Class MoMM. I think this is right, but I'm not sure (I don't know Navy ranks very well, I was in the Army). You say on your webpage that their last patrol was their sixth patrol, but I've seen it at Wikipedia as their 11th war patrol.
I was wondering if anyone here would know how to find the last known location (latitude/longitude) of the Growler (or even the last contact made with her from the Hake or Hardhead) before Growler was lost. I think I might have seen it on the internet somewhere, but I can't seem to find it now. I know it was lost west of Mindanao in the China Sea.
Through a collegue of Dr. Robert Ballard, I received the contact information for the skipper of the MV Empress, the Australian ship that took Kevin Denlay to the discovery of the USS Perch last November. Vidar Skoglie, the skipper of the Empress, replied to my inquiry about the location of the Growler. A copy of his email reply is below.
If you think you would know where the information on the Growler's location is, and/or how I could obtain a higher resolution image of that photo, please let me know!
Mark Lovmo
*************************************************
Vidar Skoglie wrote this:
I'm a dive charter boat
operator, with a personal interest in shipwrecks, and technical diving.
Kevin Denlay is a client who has become a personal friend because of our
common interest in wrecks. Kevin most specifically in WW2 wrecks, about
which he writes a lot of articles for various dive magazines and internet
sites. I usually like to keep a low profile, but have been very succesful in
my private searches.
Over the years, my searches have led me to find more than 400 wrecks in our
general area. Many WW2, modern cargo ships, and a host of fishing boats and
junk. One of our more recent finds was the sub,USS Perch located last
November,and reported to the relevent US naval deparments. This has probably
given some focus on my/our search activities. It now seems there is some
interest to make some documentary films for televsion over the next couple
of years, on some of my more important finds.
I have heard of the USS Growler,and have some general records, but have not
given any serious thought to trying to locate it.
I do not have any details of it's position, other than west of the
Philippines. The sea on the west coast of the Philippines is mostly very
deep, and often the weather is too bad to comfortably operate my small
vessel there. Therefore it has been outside of my area of interest, and
unable to help about it's exact location.
I could consider a search at some time, but would need specific details to
work with. Depth will be a constraint too. My search equipment is limited to
around 600-700 ft water depth. I do not have my own Remote operated Vehicle
(ROV) All our investigations are done by divers, some using re-breather
technology to dive to around the same depth of 700 ft. Mostly we try to keep
our depths to less than 300 ft, where lesser trained divers can also
participate.
Time is another factor. I am fairly tied up till end of next year. The
"weather window" would then be best around April May 2009.
I'm sorry that I can't be more helpfull.
All the best,
Vidar,
owner skipper, MV Empress.
Edited by MSL 2007-07-14 10:42 AM
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Growler (SS-215)
