The Grayling Story

Grayling (SS-209) A US submarine was saved by a whale in October 1943. The USS Grayling was assigned to patrol duty off Corregidor. She found plenty of targets but plenty of opposition, too. When only two torpedoes remained in her tubes, she searched hopefully for a final objective. The one she picked turned out to be an enemy Q-ship, which escaped the torpedoes and proceeded to unload some well-placed depth charges. When a friendly whale ventured near the Grayling, the Japanese detection devices mistook it for the submarine and followed it while the Grayling escaped.