A crowd of nearly 300 people from all walks of innovation sashayed through the Broad Institute lobby and auditorium for Xconomy’s Gala Launch party last night.

Founders of billion-dollar corporations, Nobel Prize winners, CEOs of public companies and startups alike, angel investors, venture capitalists, professors, students, legal and management execs, and scores of entrepreneurs in areas from life sciences to Web 2.0 to energy were on hand for the festivities. An inspiring first-hand account by Boston Scientific founder John Abele about his family’s successful search for the USS Grunion, his father’s lost WWII sub found this summer in the Aleutians, started the ball rolling. By all accounts (okay, we only asked ourselves), a good time was had by all.

But we forgot to write our lead story for this morning. Our bad.

The faux-pas was not discovered until around 10:30 last night, when the core Xconomy staff ambled across Ames Street from the Broad to Legal Seafood’s bar for a celebratory round of Guinness and Grey Goose (and tonic). Executive editor Rebecca Zacks, whose job it is to keep the trains running, sipped her drink and asked, calmly: “Do we have a story for tomorrow morning?”

Bob Buderi, editor in chief and train conductor, looked slightly ruffled and replied, “Wade, did you finish the uLocate piece?”

All eyes turned to Chief Correspondent Wade Roush, who is the train. An awkward silence fell over the table; you could hear a drop of clam chowder hit the floor back in the kitchen. “Not yet.”

The editor in chief made an instant executive decision. “Don’t worry about it.” And attention returned to the calamari and popcorn shrimp.

Innovation is all about adaptability, though, hence this account… We will be bringing you more details and a full-out spread about the party early next week.

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The blogosphere and newswires are alive this morning with news that a team led by brothers John, Bruce, and Brad Abele have located their father’s submarine, the USS Grunion, which had been lost in the Aleutians during World War II.

The following notice appears on the Grunion blog: “Just got the first set of 8 Grunion photos. Submariners, we would appreciate your analysis and comments.” The photos it mentions are here.

John Abele is a founder of Boston Scientific (and an Xconomist). Last summer, in part by using clues gleaned from Japanese records, he and his brothers launched a hunt for the Grunion. About a mile down in the Aleutian chain, they located an object that appeared to be the right size and shape for the vessel. According to the Grunion‘s website, “they were able to locate the three Japanese wrecks in the area so it seems unlikely that there is confusion between wrecks.”

The Grunion, commanded by Lt. Cmdr. Mannert L. Abele, left Pearl Harbor for Aleutian theater patrol duty on June 20, 1942. Again according to the website:

“On 10 July GRUNION was reassigned to the area north of Kiska. GRUNION made her first report on 15 July: Dutch Harbor received her message that, attacked by an enemy destroyer, she had fired three torpedoes at it, and missed with all.

Shortly after this message was received GRUNION sent another relating that she had sunk three destroyer-type vessels on 15 July. This message was garbled to the extent that details of the attacks were never learned (Japanese information reveals that GRUNION sank patrol boats 25 and 27 and damaged a third patrol vessel).

On July 28, the account continues:

“GRUNION reported an attack on unidentified enemy ships six miles southeast of Sirius Point, Kiska. She had fired two torpedoes, made no hits, and been depth charged, but sustained no damage.

GRUNION’s last transmission was received 30 July 1942. She reported heavy antisubmarine activity at the entrance to Kiska, and that she had ten torpedoes remaining.”

John Abele told us he was heading out on Sunday to resume the hunt. We are still trying to get through. In the meantime, we heard a report on NPR this morning, confirming the find.

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