The USCG cutter USCGC Benjamin Bottoms (WPC-1132)recently participated, with maritime forces from 13 other countries, in GALAPEX 2024.
Put on by the Ecuadorian Navy around the Galapagos Islands, the two-week multinational naval exercise is “designed to improve interoperability and cooperation between the navies of different countries. Through simulations and joint maneuvers, participants practice coordination in maritime security operations, combating common threats such as illegal fishing, and responding to emergencies.”
Participants included the Ecuadorian Esmeraldas class corvette BAE Loja (CM 16), patrol ship BAE Hualcopo, tanker BAE Atahualpa, and fleet tug BAE Imbabura (RA 72); the new Dutch (Damen Stan 5009) built Ecuadoran Guardacostas patrulleras LAE Isla San Cristobal (LG-30) and LAE Isla Isabela (LG-31), Peru’s South Korean (STX) made Guardacostas patrulleras BAP Río Huarmey (209), and the Colombian Navy’s CPV-46 class patrullero costero ARC Punta Ardita (PC-147).
Bottoms, the 32nd Sentinel-class cutter, was commissioned in 2019 and is based out of San Pedro, California– some 3,500 nm north of the Galapagos.
This shows the legs these 154-foot cutters have, with a little bit of help downrange. The class has been ranging around the South Pacific as far as Australia (from Hawaii) and has largely self-deployed from the East Coast to the Persian Gulf.
As noted by USCG PAO:
Transiting 3,500 miles from homeport to Ecuador and Galapagos Islands, the crew pushed the boundaries of mission sets and downrange operations. The ability to conduct expeditionary operations in support of our Central and South American partners could only be possible with the support of the Coast Guard’s Expeditionary Logisitics Element (LOG-X), providing foreign port contracting services and advanced medical staffing through the deployable independent duty health services technician billet.
Operation Nasse
Speaking to engaging with small maritime forces in the Pacific, one of the Coast Guard’s precious Hawaii-based HC-130J Super Herks is just coming off a tour around the West Pac.
U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Junior Grade Nick Fuist and Lt. Cmdr. Keith Arnold , two pilots at U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point, man the controls of aHC-130 Super Hercules in the skies above Auckland, New Zealand, Jul. 9, 2024. The U.S. Coast Guard completed participation in Operation Nasse, a three-month operation conducted by Australia, France, New Zealand, and the U.S. to safeguard the invaluable marine resources of Pacific Island nations and the Western Central Pacific Ocean (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Nicholas Martino) 240709-G-G0214-1003
USCG PAO:
From July 1-12, an HC-130J Hercules airplane crew from Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point patrolled the South Pacific High Seas in and around the Exclusive Economic Zones of Australia, New Caledonia, Fiji, New Zealand, Tonga, Niue, and the Cook Islands to detect, investigate and report any illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing activity.
Joint efforts for Operation Nasse covered over 16,000 square miles, with the U.S. Coast Guard contributing:
Over 58 hours of flight time 37 vessels sighted and analyzed Four potential Conservation and Management Measures (CMM) violations reported 240 hours of analyst-to-analyst collaboration and training
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Warship Wednesday, July 24, 2024: To the Sea, to the World
Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the Naval History and Heritage Command collections. Catalog #: NH 97002
Above we see khaki-clad officers of the newly-formed Republic of Korean Navy standing by as their country’s first large warship, the PC-461-class subchaser Baekdusan (also seen as Bak Dusan, Bak Du San, Pak Tu San, and Paktusan) (PC-701) has her teeth installed– a 3″/50 DP gun– at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, March 1950.
Bought via subscription and a tax on the service’s sailors (!) she would soon sail into harm’s way and the history books.
The PC-461 Class
Designed to provide a beefy little sub-buster– similar to Britain’s corvettes and sloops– that could float in shallow enough water (10-foot draft) to perform coastal operations but still have enough sea-keeping abilities and range (4,800 nm at 12 knots) to escort cross-ocean convoys without needing the same anti-ship capabilities as found on patrol frigates and destroyer escorts, the Navy ordered some 400 small submarine chasers based on a modified design of one of the pre-war Experimental Small Craft program’s “X-boats” the diesel-powered USS PC-451.
USS PC-451 was designed in 1938 and commissioned on 12 August 1940. Some 173 feet long, the 270-ton steel hulled diesel-powered subchaser could carry two 3″/50 DP guns, six 20mm guns, two Mk 20 Mousetrap projectors, two depth charge racks, and two K-gun depth charge throwers, all while making nearly 19 knots and just requiring a 65-man crew.
The follow-on PC-461 went a bit heavier and, carrying twin 1,440 bhp diesel engines, could break 22 knots (when clean) and tote essentially the same armament, and ship out with QHA sonar (as well as small set SF or SO or SCR-517A radars after 1942).
PC-461 was laid down in July 1941– just five months before the attack on Pearl Harbor– and eventually, some 343 of her class would be constructed by March 1945 across 13 small shipyards, all non-traditional to the Navy.
Camouflage Measure 32, Design 12P drawing prepared by the Bureau of Ships for a camouflage scheme intended for application to 173-foot submarine chasers (labeled on the drawing as PC-578 class). This plan, approved by Captain Torvald A. Solberg, USN, is dated 19 July 1944. It shows the ship’s starboard side, exposed decks, and the superstructure ends. 19-N-73643
USS PC-483 is underway in a Navy Kodachrome. Note the ship’s camouflage pattern. 80-GK-00428_001
USS PC-546 underway off the U.S. East Coast, circa 1942. Interestingly, these ships carried a false stack, as the diesel exhaust was routed through the hull sides. 80-G-K-13278
USS PC-546 from the stern.
Another stern shot of the 546 boat, note her thin 23-foot beam, welded hull, and already thinning hull black applied in a rush, sloppy fashion.
USS PC-472 underway near Hampton Roads, Virginia, 31 August 1942. Note her armament layout including a 3″/50 forward, another aft, two 20mm Oerlikons on the bridge wings, two stern DC racks, and two K guns. NH 96481
The PC-461s were some of the smallest U.S. Navy ships to carry a legit sonar listening set.
Undergoing a course of instruction with Naval sonar equipment aboard the USS PC 592 are two Naval Reservists, Seaman First Class F.C. Semkin and Apprentice Seaman G.S. Jackson, Naval Base, SC. Accession #: L55-03
Depth Charges (probably Mk. 6 type) mounted on a “K-gun” projector, and on ready service holders, on the stern of a 173-foot submarine chaser (pc). Taken at the sub-chaser training center, Miami, Florida, 11 May 1942. Note depth charge racks in the background. 80-G-16048
Depth Charge explodes in the wake of a U.S. Navy submarine chaser (PC) during World War II. The photo was taken before April 1944. The 173s could carry as many as 30 depth charges, with a cumulative “throw” of some 5 tons of high explosives. 80-G-K-13753
Submarine chasers and crew. (PC-483, 461, 466), Key West. As the number of AAA guns expanded, crews would grow to as many as 80 officers and enlisted, against a planned complement of 65. 80-GK-00427_001
A motor whaleboat was carried amidships along with a small crane to launch and recover it.
USS PC-620 is seen in Key West in this LIFE Kodachrome. Note her whaleboat, crane, after 3″/50, and depth charges galore.
“Easy Does It!” Crewmen of A 173-foot submarine Chaser (PC) stowing their craft’s dory, after hoisting it from the water, circa 1942. Note Camouflage paint on the boat. The photo was received from the Third Naval District on 17 May 1943. 80-G-K-16426
The PC-461s ranged far and wide, seeing service in every theatre. Four (PC 566, PC 565, PC 624, and PC 619) claimed kills on German U-boats, two (PC 487 and PC 1135) with sinking Japanese fleet boats, three (PC 558, PC 626, and PC 477) with scratching German and Japanese midget subs, two (PC 545 and PC 627) with killing Italian torpedo boats, and two (PC 1129 and PC 1123) with stopping Japanese suicide boats.
“USS PC 565 shown a short time after sinking German U-boat, U-521, with a depth charge, only the Commanding Officer escaped. The vessel fell away from his feet as he climbed out of the conning tower, June 2, 1943.” 80-G-78408
When it comes to the butcher’s bill, six PC-461 class sisters were lost to a combination of enemy action and accidents during WWII while another 24 were seriously damaged.
Meet PC-823
Laid down by the Leathern D. Smith Shipbuilding Company, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, on 8 November 1943, USS PC-823 was launched the following January and commissioned on 24 July 1944. The yard was very busy, cranking out Type N3 and Type C1 Liberty ships, Tacoma-class patrol frigates, and net layers besides 42 PC-461s.
Smith Shipbuilding in 1944, with at least eight PCs under varying stages of construction. Today the yard is run by the Fincantieri Marine Group and builds LCSs and the Navy’s new Constellation-class frigates. (Photo: Andy Laurent, Greenbay Route)
PC-843, early after her commissioning, likely still on the Great Lakes in the summer of 1944. via the Historical Collections of the Great Lakes.
War!
Assigned to the western Atlantic during the tale-end of World War II, apparently assigned to air-sea rescue duties, PC-823 doesn’t have a page in DANFS nor any war diaries/history on file with the NARA, but it is known that she was in Bermuda on VJ Day.
She did not earn any battle stars and was decommissioned on 11 February 1946, custody transferred to the Maritime Commission for further use, while retained on the Navy List.
Rather than pick up the now-traditional name of TS Kings Pointer, she was instead re-named Ensign Whitehead, in honor of one of the alumni of the USMMA who had been lost during the war while serving with the Navy.
Via the King’s Point Alumni Association:
The Wall of Honor includes the name of Fredrick Cowper Whitehead, Jr., a Kings Pointer who graduated on December 24, 1943. Soon after graduation, he was sworn in as an Ensign, USNR. On January 27, 1944, he was assigned to the USS Lansdale (DD 426), currently operating in the Mediterranean. Whitehead reported aboard the Lansdale on March 26 in Oran. The ship was serving as a convoy escort with radio jamming equipment intended to thwart German radio-guided bombs.
On April 20, about two dozen German bombers attacked the convoy. The bombs and torpedoes hit the SS Paul Hamilton. Silhouetted by the explosion of the SS Paul Hamilton, the Lansdale became the target of the second and third wave of bombers. The torpedoes struck the Lansdale in the starboard engine room, where Whitehead was on watch. The ship ultimately foundered and the Captain ordered the crew to abandon ship. A count of the survivors showed 47 men, including Fredrick Whitehead Jr., as missing and presumed dead.
Ensign Whitehead, USNR was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and the European-African-Middle East Area Campaign Medal. Based on his service as a Cadet/Midshipman, he was also awarded the Atlantic War Zone Bar, the Mediterranean-Middle East War Zone Bar, the Victory Medal, and a Presidential Testimonial Letter.
However, the USMMA soon found better ships available for use and by the end of 1949, she was laid up at the Academy, pending disposal.
Meanwhile, in Korea…
The South Korean Navy (Daehan-minguk Haegun) was formed on 11 November 1945 as the “Maritime Affairs Association” (Haebangbyeongdan) in the American-occupied zone of the formerly Japanese-occupied Korea. As such, it is the senior service of the Republic, with the ROK Army not formed until 1948 and the ROKAF in 1949. Numbering just 70 members led by former merchant mariner Sohn Won Yil, it inherited a series of small coastal craft at the former IJN yard at Jinhae and served in a brown water coast guard role with a modicum of American support until South Korea became independent in August 1948. It was then that it morphed into the Republic of Korea Navy (ROKN), with now-Admiral Sohn becoming its first CNO.
By early 1950, the force had grown to 7,500– including 1,200 ROK Marines. Its naval list counted 11 former Japanese Cha-1 class 85-foot wooden-hulled auxiliary submarine chasers (the Daejeon class in Korean service), two slow 13-knot 140-foot Japanese-designed gunboats (Chungmugong I & II) left incomplete on the ways at Jinhae that were finished in 1947, as well as 17 YMS-type small minesweepers (dubbed the Kang jim or Geumgangsan class in Korean service, with MSC pennant numbers) from the U.S. Navy. The largest weapons were single-barreled 40mm Bofors fitted on the YMSs in place of their original 3″/50s.
Between 1947 and 1950, the backbone of the nascent ROKN was 17 136-foot wooden-hulled coastal minesweepers transferred from the U.S. Navy. The first two are seen here, Geumgangsan (MSC 501) ex-YMS354; and Gyeongju (MSC-502) ex-YMS358. Of the 17 transferred, two defected to the DPRK in the late 1940s, two were lost at sea, and two were lost to mines in 1950. Those left would remain in service into the 1970s.
In short, it was still firmly a near-shore operation. Their primary concern was to clear the thousands of sea mines left over in their local waters dating as far back as 1904, police against Chinese pirates, and keep roaming Japanese fishing boats away.
By late 1949 the five-year-old ROKN felt it was ready for some blue water, or at least some green water, ships.
Headed Home
The solution for the cash-strapped force was to hit everyone’s paycheck for seed money which would be augmented by selling scrap metal left over from the war, officer’s wives tending laundry, and donations from lawmakers including President Syngman Rhee himself.
A year ago a group of Korean enlisted men at Navy headquarters in Seoul got the idea of chipping in each month to buy a man-o’-war. They sounded out Commander in Chief Admiral Sohn Won Yil, who promptly queried his base commanders to see what their enlisted men thought of the idea. They liked it.
Soon afterward 5% of each enlisted man’s $10 a month and 10% of each officer’s pay was deducted to fill the purchase kitty. Meanwhile, Korea’s ambassador to Washington was told to start looking for a ship. Last September Korea’s government plunked down $18,000 of hard-won cash to buy a sturdy little 175-ft. patrol craft, the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy’s training ship Ensign Whitehead.
Some 16 hand-picked officers, led by Captain (future CNO) Park Ok-gyu, were flown to New York and then spent two weeks at King’s Point getting the gist of how to run their new sub-chaser. With their ship moored at Harbor Boat Building Company’s yard, the officers invested sweat equity into a new coat of haze gray and a new hull number, PC-701. Shifted to the USCG’s Pier 8 (Rector Street) in New York on Christmas Eve, custody was transferred on 26 December 1949 in a small ceremony that included the South Korean Ambassador (and future prime minister) Chang Myon.
The ROKS Baekdusan, named for the highly revered Baekdu (Paektusan) or “white-head mountain,” was Korean.
Fantail of the Baekdusan the day the ship transferred from the USN to the RoK Navy in 1949, with ROKN officer raising the Taegeukgi. (RDML Lauren McReady, USMS – Lauren McReady Collection, American Merchant Marine Museum, Kings Point, NY.)
Spending New Year in Miami and transiting the Panama Canal, the little ship put into Hawaii on 24 January where one 3 anti-aircraft gun and six .50 caliber machine guns, authorized for transfer by the Secretary of Defense, were installed at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard.
Leaving Pearl for Korea on 20 March 1950, she stopped briefly at Guam to purchase a whopping 100 3-inch shells and fuel from the U.S. Navy base there before heading to South Korea. When she arrived at Jinhae Bay on 10 April, she was the first significant warship under Korean control since the country’s Joseon-era navy was disbanded in 1905.
Note the Taegeukgi stenciled on her wheelhouse
Photo of the 60-strong crew of the Baekdusan ship taken at Jinhae Pier 2 on 20 May 1950. Note the mix of American-style officer’s khakis and blues balanced by Japanese-style jumpers and flat caps for the ratings.
And just in time, too, because then came…
Another War!
When the North Koreans unleashed their military against their neighbors to the South, Baekdusanearned the distinction of sinking a 1,000-ton Soviet-supplied transport ship that was trying to destroy the Pusan Port wharf facilities in the Korean Strait.
Vectored to the mystery ship in the late hours of 25 June, she chased it down between the Oryukdo Lighthouse and the Tsushima Lighthouse and began hailing it repeatedly to stop. Closing to within 90 meters of the interloper, the two ships soon began exchanging fire, swapping 3-inch shells for incoming 85mm shells and heavy machine gun fire from the Nork vessel. After a four-hour running fight, in which Baekdusan fired 50 shells before her main gun seized up, the black smoke-belching mystery ship sank at 0:30 a.m. on 26 June, reportedly carrying some 600 highly-trained North Korean commandos of the 766th Independent Infantry Regiment with it to the bottom.
Baekdusan, riddled with shrapnel and machine gun hits, suffered four wounded and two– Private First Class Kim Chang-hak and Private First Class Jeon Byeong-ik– killed.
Battle of the Korea Strait (Photo source: War Memorial of Korea, Korean Cultural Information Service)
Has Pusan been wrecked by a battalion-sized assault on the first day of the war, the 400,000 shells and 2.5 million rounds of ammo landed there by USAT Sgt. George D. Keathley and USNS Cardinal O’Connell on 28 June, followed by the 24th Infantry Division starting on 3 July, probably wouldn’t have happened. Had that not occurred, the war may have been lost in the first month.
The “Battle of the Korea Strait,” as the ROKN would call it, had major strategic importance. At the time, the port of Pusan was very poorly defended. Had the North Korean surprise operation succeeded, the outcome of the war might have been very different, because by the beginning of August, Pusan was the last remaining port in South Korea that had not fallen to the North Koreans. It would be the only initial entry point for the U.S. forces that prevented the North Koreans from overrunning the entire Korean Peninsula.
She would go on to perform yeoman work for the rest of the war, including at the pivotal Inchon Landings (Operation Chromite) in September.
Inchon Invasion, September 1950. The first wave of U.S. Marines headed for the landing beach in LCVPs, on 15 September 1950. This landing is probably on Red Beach, on the northern side of the Inchon invasion area. PC at the far right is a unit of the Republic of Korea Navy. NH 96877
Ultimately, the U.S. Navy transferred another five PC-461s to the ROKN during the war– no cash required! These included ex-PC 799 (Geumgangsan), ex-PC 802 (Samgaksan), ex-PC 810 (Jirisan), ex-PC 485 (Hanlasan), and ex-PC 600 (Myohyangsan), added to the South Korean naval list as PC-702 through 705. Of these, Jirisan was sunk by a mine off Wonsan in 1951 while Hanlasan was later lost in a typhoon.
Kum Kang San/Geumgangsan (South Korean submarine chaser, formerly USS PC-799) At the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, California, on 16 June 1950, following transfer to the South Korean Navy. She is flanked by her sister ships Chiri San/Jirisan (Korean PC-704) to the left and Sam Kak San/Samgaksan (Korean PC-703) to the right. USS Polaris (AF-11) is in the right background. Note men working on a 3″/50 dual-purpose gun mounted on Kum Kang San’s foredeck as well as American ensigns from the mainmast and small Taegeukgi on the bridge wings. NH 85494
Kum Kang San/Geumgangsan P-702 (South Korean submarine chaser, formerly USS PC-799) with her Taegeukgi flying off the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, 17 June 1950, following transfer to the South Korean Navy. NH 85482
Chiri San/Jirisan P-704 (South Korean submarine chaser, formerly USS PC-810) underway off the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, California, 17 June 1950, with her Taegeukgi in the wind following transfer to the South Korean Navy. NH 85490
Sam Kak San/Samgaksan (Korean Submarine Chaser, # 703, formerly USS PC-802). The crew fires the ship’s 3″/50 gun “at the Communist-led North Koreans along the west coast of Korea” (quoted from the original caption). The photograph is dated 18 December 1951. Note the American kapok life jackets, Army OD fatigues, and M1 helmets. NH 97332
Baekdusan along with sisters Geumgangsan and Samgaksan, were decommissioned on 1 July 1959, due to corrosion and the general aging of the ships. Myohyangsan, found to be in better condition, was retained.
The ROK Navy’s 173s via the 1960 edition of Janes
The three stricken subchasers were soon stripped of usable equipment and scrapped, their place on the ROKN naval list taken by three newly transferred sisterships: ex-USS Winnemucca (PC 1145), ex-USS Grosse Pointe (PC 1546), and ex-USS Chadron (PC 564) giving the South Koreans a four-pack of PC-461s on patrol into 1975, by which time they were replaced by a six-pack of larger (1500-ton, 306-foot) Rudderow-class destroyer escorts.
Epilogue
The “disposable” PC-461 class, besides the U.S. and ROK navies, served under the flags of more than 20 other countries. They remained in service around the globe until the late 1980s when the last two in active, ex-USS Susanville (PC 1149) and ex-USS Hanford (PC 1142), were retired by Taiwan.
Some 40,000 bluejackets sailed on the PCs during the “Big Show” and immediately after. The chronicle of their war is the 400-page PC Patrol Craft of World War II: A History of the Ships and Their Crews by William J. Veigele, a former PC sailor, first published in 1998.
The two ROKN bluejackets killed on Baekdusan that night in June 1950 had their names given to new Yoon Youngha class missile boats, ROKS Kim Changhak (PKG-727) and ROKS Jeon Byeongik (PKG-732).
ROKS Kim Changhak (PKG-727)
The ROKN very much remembers their story and that of their ship.
Today, the ROKN has grown to over 70,000 personnel and operates 160 vessels, putting it squarely as one of the largest and most modern naval forces on the planet.
The country’s first flat-top, the 45,000-ton Kyunghyang CVX-class lightning carrier, is planned to be named after the humble Baekdusan and her fearless crew.
The motto of the ROK Navy is 바다로, 세계로 (badalo, segyelo= To the sea, to the world).
Ships are more than steel and wood And heart of burning coal, For those who sail upon them know That some ships have a soul.
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The ROK Marine Corps ordered the LIG Nex1 Poniard (Bigung) light “fire and forget” surface-to-surface missile in 2016 for coastal defense use, specifically to zap North Korean landing craft and small high-speed boats in the littoral.
Using the same footprint as the 2.75-inch rocket, it can be fired from 18-cell pods, similar to those used on helicopters, and carried by truck. The key to the system is that the target detection, launcher, launch control, and rockets can all be mounted on a single vehicle rather than needing a whole battery of trucks and vans for to sling a few warheads.
South Korea’s Poniard (Bigung) road-mobile guided rocket system seen in two 18-cell launchers on the back of a truck in 2020. The ROK Marine Corps already operates an unknown number of Bigung launchers on the Western island chain garrisons.
A big development on Poniard is that we have seen this week during RIMPAC, its use by a small unmanned surface vessel.
The U.S. Navy achieved a significant milestone at the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2024 exercise with the successful launching and testing of Poniard rockets from a 39-foot Textron Common Unmanned Surface Vehicle (CUSV). The 12 July test is part of the Navy’s mission to continually enhance and expand its maritime capabilities and operational flexibility via security cooperation and innovation with allies and partners.
Multiple Poniard rockets, low-cost guided munitions, were fired from the CUSV during a series of exercises conducted off the coast of Hawaii. The live-fire demonstration was the culminating event of an ongoing Foreign Comparative Test (FCT) project under the auspices of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD R&E). This innovative capability test demonstrates the Navy’s commitment to integrating mature cutting-edge technology into its operations to maintain maritime superiority and readiness.
The rocket-armed CUSV was apparently launched and recovered from a 4,000-ton Korean LSD, ROKS Cheon Ja Bong (LST-687) but obviously could be done from an LCS, which may be a bit of a game changer for that platform.
A Common Unmanned Surface Vehicle (CUSV), heads out to sea for the Poniard launching test from ROKS Cheon Ja Bong, on 12 July. Multiple Poniard rockets, low-cost guided munitions, were fired from the CUSV during a series of exercises conducted off the coast of Hawaii during RIMPAC 2024.
240712-N-N2201-001 (July 12, 2024) A Common Unmanned Surface Vehicle (CUSV), heads out to sea for the Poniard launching test from ROKS Cheon Ja Bong as part of the Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC), 12 July. This innovative capability test demonstrates the Navy’s commitment to integrating mature cutting-edge technology into its operations to maintain maritime superiority and readiness.
A Poniard fired from a Common Unmanned Surface Vehicle (CUSV) successfully strikes a target vessel during the Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC), 12 July. This live fire demonstration was part of the RIMPAC exercise, held biennially in and around the Hawaiian Islands, which is the world’s largest international maritime warfare exercise hosted by the U.S. Third Fleet.
How about this for “the way of the world” in 2024? Below you have a bilateral U.S.-Philippine search and rescue exercise conducted on 16 July between the U.S. Coast Guard Bethoff-class cutter USCGC Waesche (WMSL 751) and the Philippine Coast Guard ‘s Teresa Magbanua-class patrol vessel BRP Melchora Aquino (MRRV-9702). Operations included a joint sail and conducting search and rescue (SAR) training, personnel transfer evolutions, and bilateral sailing.
“It was an honor to train with our partners in the Philippine Coast Guard to ensure that we are always ready to respond to save lives on the high seas,” said Capt. Tyson Scofield, commanding officer of Waesche. “We look forward to fostering our relationship as we strive to preserve a free and open Indo-Pacific. Sharing lessons learned and best practices through person-to-person exercises is the best way to improve our ability to operate together on the unforgiving ocean.”
The 418-foot Waesche is under the operational control of Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 15, the Navy’s largest DESRON and the U.S. 7th Fleet’s principal surface force.
She is the second Legend-class cutter of the U.S. Coast Guard and is homeported at Coast Guard Island in Alameda. With a 4,600 long-ton displacement, these frigate-sized cutters have a top speed “in excess of 28 knots” a seriously long range of 12,000 nautical miles, and carry a crew of up to 170 including an aviation det, and, when deployed on such a mission, typically some USN and USMC commo and language specialists. Armament is limited to a 57mm DP Bofors, a CIWS, some crew-served MGs, and passive countermeasures (Mk 53 Nulka decoy, Mk 36 SRBOC, AN/SLQ-32B(V)2 EW). I’d like to see at least some NSMs and ASW capabilities added as well as CIWS dropped for a SeaRAM or an ADL ESSM system, but hey…
Republic of Korea Coast Guard vessel KCG Taepyongyang (KCG-3016), U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Waesche (WMSL-751) and Japan Coast Guard vessel JCGC Wakasa (PL-93) patrol in formation during a trilateral exercise in the East Sea, June 6, 2024. Coast Guardsmen from Japan, Republic of Korea and the United States used the trilateral exercise as an opportunity to rehearse cohesion between the nations when operating together. U.S. Coast Guard missions in the Indo-Pacific focus on issues directly supporting and advancing our regional partners’ efforts to protect fish stocks, ensure the safety of life at sea, support environmental response, and provide disaster relief. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Elijah Murphy)
How about this great original Kodachrome of Type G class torpedo boats of the 29th Canadian Motor Torpedo Boat Flotilla. The lead boat, MTB-460, was lost to a German mine off the coast of Normandy on 2 July 1944, some 80 years ago this month, with a loss of 10 officers and men.
Library & Archives Canada MIKAN No. 4950981
As well as two more taken at the same time:
MIKAN 4821111
MIKAN 4821109
Displacing some 44 tons, these 71.75-foot MTBs had a beam of just 20 feet and could operate in anything over 6 feet of water at a combat load. Capable of 39 knots on a trio of Rolls-Royce V-12s running on 100 octane avgas, they carried a single 6-pounder forward, a twin 20mm AAA DP gun aft, and a pair of forward-firing 18-inch torpedo tubes. Complement was 3 officers and 14 men, about the same as the standard American 80-foot Elco PT boat which had a heavier armament. They were constructed by the British Power Boat Company at their Hythe, Southampton boat yard and originally designed as motor gun boats (MGBs) but modified to carry torpedoes.
The RCN fielded two squadrons of MTBs during the last two years of WWII, the aforementioned 29th Flotilla which exclusively used BPB-made G-Type MTBs (No. 459, 460, 461, 462, 463, 464, 465, 466, 485, 486, and 491) and the 65th, which used earlier Fairmile D types (Nos. 726, 727, 735, 736, 743, 744, 745, 746, 748, and 797).
As detailed by the Royal Canadian Navy:
Motor torpedo boats (MTBs) were small warships about 22 metres long and six metres wide. Equipped with powerful engines, torpedoes, light naval guns, and machine guns, the Canadian MTBs operated chiefly at night in the English Channel as fast attack boats that disrupted enemy shipping off the coast of occupied Europe and defended Allied shipping from the German’s own fast attack boats and midget submarines. The MTBs also played an important role on D-Day when they helped protect the huge Allied fleet from German warships.
The MTB crews had an extremely dangerous job – their boats were small, the seas of the English Channel were rough, and German guns and mines were never far away.
The worst day in the history of the 29th MTB came on 14 February 1945 when five boats of its remaining eight boats were destroyed in a conflagration in Oostende which left 26 of its members dead.
Of note, I was able to see the 18th Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ship, the future USS Kingsville (LCS 36), in post-delivery availability while the 19th (and final) Indy, PCU USS Pierre (LCS 38), is fitting out right outside Austal’s covered slipway. Kingsville, delivered to the Navy in March, is set to be commissioned across the Gulf on 24 August in Corpus Christi, Texas. Meanwhile, Pierre, christened in May, is scheduled to be delivered in FY25, closing the line as Austal pivots to make OPCs for the Coast Guard.
PCU USS Kingsville (LCS 36) Eger June 8 2024
PCU USS Pierre (LCS 38) Eger June 8 2024. Note that she doesn’t have her C-RAM fitted yet.
The Navy went big on Motor Torpedo Boat (PT) models in World War II, producing an amazing 690 PT boats between 7 December 1941, and 1 October 1945— and that’s not counting the early PT-1 through PT-9 prototype boats, the 10 Elco 70s (PT-10-19), 48 early Elco 77s (PT-20 through 68), two prototype 72-foot Huckins boats (PT-69 and 70), and 69 reverse Lend-Lease 70 foot Vospers.
PT 76, a 78-foot Higgins-made boat in Womens Bay, Kodiak Island, Alaska circa 1943. NARA
The thing is, while these mosquito boats covered themselves in glory during their very up-close and personal war in the Med, Pacific, and English Channel, they very rarely got in solid torpedo attacks on enemy vessels. Their best employment came as fast scouts, lifeguard boats for downed aviators, running agents and commandos in the bad guy’s littoral, and in (typically nighttime) surface gun actions against enemy barges and coastal craft.
With that, the Navy got (almost) entirely out of the PT boat biz after 1945, torching or otherwise disposing of hundreds of boats overseas in the PTO and ETO and only keeping a few around for auxiliary purposes.
Then in the 1960s, with the Navy involved in littoral operations in Vietnam and not having anything smaller than 164-foot Asheville-class gunboats and leftover WWII 180-foot PCE-842-class patrol craft that needed 10 feet of water under their hulls to operate, the call went out for Fast Patrol Craft (PTF) which were basically nothing but PT boats sans their torpedoes.
At first the last remaining 1940s PT-boats were simply converted: the 89-foot Bath-built aluminum hulled PT-810 was pulled out of mothballs on 21 December 1962 and reclassified as PTF-1 while the Trumpy-built aluminum hulled 94-foot PT-811 became PTF-2 on the same date.
These were soon augmented by 14 Norwegian-built 80-foot Nasty boats (PTF-3 through PTF-16) ordered between 1962 and 1965.
Bow shot of Norwegian built, (left) and a U.S.-built PTF boat running at high speed together during trials off Virginia Capes, Early May 1963. “First Action Photographs of U.S. Navy PTFs. The U.S. Navy recently placed into service four patrol torpedo boats. The four boats, PTF-1 through PTF-4, are the only PT Boats in active service with the Navy. Assigned to Commander, Amphibious Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, the four boats are based at Little Creek, Virginia, and are used in amphibious support and coastal operations, and with the Navy’s SEAL (Sea-Air-Land) teams. SEAL Teams are units specifically trained to conduct unconventional and paramilitary operations and to train personnel of allied nations in these techniques. PTF-1 and PTF-2 are reactivated U.S. Navy PT Boats with torpedo tubes removed, their armament consists of 20-millimeter and 40-millimeter guns for surface and anti-aircraft action. The top speed is more than 45 knots. PTF-3 and PTF-4 were purchased from Norway to fulfill an immediate requirement by the Navy.” Photograph released May 13, 1963. 330-PSA-101-63 (USN 711287)
Following the success of these new mosquito boats in the coastal waters of Southeast Asia, the Navy ordered six Trumpy-built Nasty boats (PTF-17 through PTF-22), which were delivered by 1970.
Then came an updated design, the four-strong (PTF-23 through PTF-26) 95-foot aluminum hulled Osprey class, built by Sewart Seacraft of Berwick, Louisiana.
PTF-23 class fast patrol boat Under construction at Stewart Seacraft, Inc., Berwick, Louisiana, 24 October 1967. Note engines on the floor at right and PCF in the right background. NH 95839
Entering service in 1968, PTF-26 spent three years in Vietnamese water with her sisters then was retrograded to the West Coast where she was assigned to Coastal River Squadron One at Coronado, then later used as a range control boat at the Pacific Missile Test Center. Finally retired from the Navy in 1990, she then spent most of the next 30 years as a school ship first for the Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco and then for the non-profit as T/V Liberty.
More recently acquired by the Maritime Pastoral Training Foundation Ltd, PTF-26 has returned to its camouflage livery and is on her way to becoming an inland waterways training boat located in Golconda, Illinois where she will be offered to cadets from 164 different NJROTC and Sea Scout units across the Midwest.
The last of this line of more than 800 PT boats and follow-on PTFs, PTF-26, recently appeared in Mobile opposite Austal and I was able to grab a few snapshots of her.
The deck gun is fake, btw. Chris Eger photo
Chris Eger photo
Note her stern still has the T/V Liberty name. Also, that is the PCU USS Pierre (LCS-38) fitting out across the river at Austal, the last of the Independence-class littoral combat ships. Kind of a nice bookend with the last Indy LCS and last PTF in the same frame. Chris Eger photo
“Each weekend, 12-15 cadets or scouts will do more than take a tour of a U.S. Navy PT boat,” said Rev. Kempton Baldridge, MPTF’s managing director and a retired Navy chaplain, in a January interview. “They will eat, sleep, and train aboard as crew trainees. With a USCG licensed captain in command, PTF-26 will get underway with cadets or scouts as crew, guided by adult officers of their own unit. In port, cadets will learn everything there is to know about PTF-26. When ‘visit ship’ is held on Saturdays and Sundays for members of the public, qualified uniformed cadets and scouts of the crew will conduct tours, just as on board Navy and Coast Guard vessels.”
Fair winds and good luck, Two-Six Boat, there aren’t that many mosquitos left.
A port view of the Point class patrol boat USCGC Point Glass (WPB 82336) as it passes the starboard side of the harbor tug USS Arcata (YTB 768), Jan. 1983, likely in the Bremerton, Washington area. U.S. Navy Photo DNSC8506808 by PH3 F. Davidson, NARA 6392124
So this listing popped up for sale for a retired 82-foot USCG Point-class patrol cutter which appears to still be in very good shape:
The ad (for posterity):
Coast Guard cutter . Point glass. 82foot patrol boat. With a 4 foot dive platform which has a total length of 86 feet. Twin catipillar 3412 800hp turbocharged diesel motors. Hours are right over 2000 hours. Cummins twin diesel generators with around 600 hours…. History is from the us coast guard to NOAA. From NOAA to the Sea Scouts to myself. Always maintained. Many upgrades. Diver inspected. New zincs. Bottom, shafts and props are in good condition. Asking $150,000. Engines /trans/ alone worth $200,000. Reasonable offers considered.
USCGC Point Glass (WPB-82336) was built by the USCG Yard in Maryland and commissioned on 29 August 1962. Her Coast Guard service saw her stationed at Tacoma, Washington, from 1962 to 1970; Gig Harbor, Washington, from 1971 to 1989; and at Fort Lauderdale, Florida from 1990 until she decommissioned in 2000 when she was transferred to NOAA for use as a survey ship in the Gulf of Mexico.
Point Glass in her original early 1960s configuration without the racing stripe. Note the wooden punt.
Point Glass had a key role in fighting the 1963 Tacoma dock fire, as noted by USCG History: July 14, 1963 — Pier 7 at Tacoma, Washington was engulfed in flames. CG-82336 (later designated USCGC Point Glass WPB 82336) based at Tacoma, proceeded immediately to the scene to assist the first department in fighting the blaze. The cutter towed the M/V Sanyo Maru away from the pier and was relieved of the tow by a tug. CG-82336 returned to the pier and towed the M/V Kikulo Maru to a safe anchorage. The Tacoma Fire Department then requested CG-82336 to coordinate firefighting efforts on the bay side of the pier, as the fire department was unable to cover the entire area because of the intensity of the fire. Unable to fight the fire under the pier, CG-82336 proceeded to a local boat mooring and acquired seven rental boats to assist. These boats, manned by local firemen and Coast Guard personnel, fought the fire under the pier. The fire was brought under control the next morning and Coast Guard units were secured. A fire Battalion Chief died and seven firemen were injured, but there were no Coast Guard casualties.
Point Glass in her later 1970s configuration with racing stripe and 81mm mortar/M2 .50 cal piggyback forward mount along with ready boxes.
S/V Point Glass in her early 2000s NOAA configuration
She used to support the Sea Scouts on the Texas Gulf Coast from at least 2014 until 2020 when COVID basically killed the program.
As detailed in an On-the-Record Press Briefing by Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh Holds, the current count of Iranian-backed Houthi attacks in the Red Sea area since 19 November stands at over 190 incidents. Two of the latest were very successful.
Last week, the Yemen-based Houthis struck two cargo ships: the bulk carrier M/V Tutor (82,357 DWT), which is Liberian flagged, Greek-owned, and Filipino-operated as well as the M/V Verbena (20,518 DWT), which is Palauan flagged, Ukrainian-owned and Polish operated.
The June 12 attack on the Tutor resulted in severe flooding and damage to the engine room.
The guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea (CG-58) responded to distress calls from the Tutor. Aircraft from the cruiser and partner forces helped evacuate 21 of 22 personnel from the vessel. This operation took place in the Red Sea and within range of Houthi weapons, making it a risky and complex operation, she said.
Iranian, Russian, and Chinese naval vessels were among the ships within response distance that did nothing to assist the Tutor, Singh noted.
Tutor was hit by “an unknown airborne projectile” after being hit in the stern by a drone boat, with one of her Filipino crew left missing and later confirmed deceased.
She was carrying an armed guard detachment which apparently shrugged off the drone boat– a converted local fishing craft– until it was too late.
An update from the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) office on Tuesday said that military authorities reported seeing debris and oil in the last known location of the Tutor and then sunk in position 14’19’N 041’14’E.
This is the second incident resulting in the death of mariners in the conflict, following the deaths of three crew members on the Barbados-flagged bulk carrier M/V True Confidence (29,104 GT), struck by a Houthi anti-ship missile in the Gulf of Aden in early March while carrying steel products and trucks from China to Jordan.
It is also now the second confirmed sinking in the conflict, following the Belize-flagged bulk carrier MV Rubymar (19,420 GT) which, hit by a Houthi anti-ship ballistic missile on 18 February 2024, was abandoned and subsequently sank in foul weather 12 days later. All 24 crew members of Rubymar were rescued and landed at Djibouti.
Meanwhile, Verbena, carrying cargo from Songkhla (Thailand) to Venice, was reportedly hit by two missiles, causing fires and extensive damage, which left one civilian mariner severely injured and later airlifted for medical treatment. The crew later abandoned the ship due to the inability to contain the fires.
Central Command in the past 72 hours since then has advised they have destroyed: two Houthi uncrewed surface vessels (USV) in the Red Sea, eight Houthi uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) in a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen, as well as four Houthi radars and one uncrewed surface vessel (USV) in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.
Shipping and mariner advocacy groups are calling for more action. Expect an increase in diversions around the Cape of Good Hope.
How about this great circa 1988 shot of an unidentified sailor in UDT shorts and a chocolate chip boonie firing from the hip at a target floating behind the wooden-decked Aggressive/Agile-class ocean minesweeper USS Esteem (MSO 438), “somewhere in the Persian Gulf.” The rifle seems to be an XM177.
USN Photo 330-CFD-DN-ST-89-02593 by PH2 Alexander C. Hicks, Jr., USN, via NARA 6443568
The 172-foot Esteem, one of 93 members of her class, was built by the Martinolich Shipbuilding Co. of San Diego in the days after the U.S. Navy had an abrupt experience with sea mines off Korea in 1950 and she joined the fleet in 1955.
After lots of service in the Far East through the Vietnam era (earning six Vietnam Service Medals as well as the Republic of Vietnam Meritorious Unit Citation), by 1987 she was sent to the Persian Gulf, based in Bahrain with a lot of her sisters to combat a rash of mines left bobbing around in the wake of the Iran-Iraq War, a page in the largely forgotten story of Navy MCM during that period.
Decommissioned and struck from the Naval Register on 30 September 1991 after 36 years of service, she was laid up at Bremerton until disposed of for sale in 2000 and scrapped soon after.
