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Warship Wednesday 28 January 2026: Juliana’s Enforcer

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Here at LSOZI, we take a break every Wednesday to explore the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period, profiling a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger

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Warship Wednesday 28 January 2026: Juliana’s Enforcer

U.S. Navy photo 80-G-708163

Above we see the Dutch S (Saumarez/Savage)-class destroyer Hr.Ms. Evertsen (D 802) at Yokosuka some 75 years ago this month, in January 1951, while deployed with the UN Blockading and Escort Force off Korea.

She had been ordered under a different name by the British some 10 years prior, in January 1941, for a very different war, and gave good account not only in the Atlantic against the Germans but would also draw blood in a third conflict in 1962– oddly enough against a German-built warship.

The S-class

The 16 wartime British “S” & “T” class destroyers were long ships (363 feet) but thin (just 35 feet), giving them a 10:1 length-to-beam ratio, making them a knife on the water.

Tipping the scales at just 2,500~ tons, they were slender stilettos made for stabbing through the waves at nearly 36 knots on a pair of Parsons geared turbines generating 40,000 shp. Armed with a quartet of shielded 4.7-inch QF Mk IX guns for surface actions, U-boat busting depth charges, and two four-packs of anti-ship torpedo tubes along with a mixed battery of AAA guns, they were ready for a fight.

Class leader HMS Saumarez (G12) was completed in July 1943, right in time for the crucial part of the Battle of the Atlantic, and the 15 ships that followed her were made ready to go into harm’s way as soon as they could leave the builders’ yards. The class proved so successful that the design was essentially reused for the only incrementally improved “U” & “V” and “W” & “Z” destroyer classes, a further 32 greyhounds.

Saumarez would cover herself in glory, being instrumental in the sinking of both the German battleship Scharnhorst and the Japanese cruiser Haguro.

Beam view, HMS Saumarez (G12). IWM A 18404

Another S-class, HMS Success, was transferred on completion to the Free Norwegian forces on 26 August 1943 as KNM Stord (G26), and soon got to chasing the Germans, helping scrap with Scharnhorst just four months after transfer. A third, HMS Shark, while serving as KNM Svenner, was lost on D-Day off Sword Beach by torpedoes from a German S-boat. A fourth, HMS Swift (G46), was sunk by a mine off Sword on 24 June 1944.

But we are getting slightly ahead of ourselves.

Meet Scourge

Our subject was ordered from Cammell Laird, Birkenhead, on 9 January 1941 as Yard No 1095, the future HMS Scourge (G01). Laid down on 26 June 1941– the same week the Axis invaded the Soviet Union– she would be constructed at the yard alongside wartime sisters HMS Scorpion, Teazer, and Tenacious, as well as near-sisters Ulysses and Undaunted.

Christened 8 December 1942, she was the 10th (and, sadly, the last) to carry the splendid name of Scourge in the Royal Navy, going back to a 14-gun brig-sloop launched in 1779. Notably, the eighth Scourge, a Beagle-class destroyer, landed ANZACs at Gallipoli. This allowed our final Scourge to begin life carrying the past battle honors Crimea 1855, and Dardanelles 1914-15.

Adopted by the civil community of Bexhill, East Sussex, who held a “warship week” to raise money for her completion, HMS Scourge was commissioned on 14 July 1943, LCDR George Ian Mackintosh Balfour, RN, in command. A regular who earned his sub-lieutenant stripe in 1932, Mackintosh Balfour had seen much of the war already, having commanded the destroyers HMS Decoy (H 75) and HMS Tuscan (R 56).

As completed, beside her main and torpedo batteries, she carried a twin 40/56 Bofors Mk VIII and four twin 20/70 Oerlikon Mk IIs for AAA defense, as well as four depth charge throwers and two racks with room for as many as 130 “ash cans” for ASW. Her sensor suite included Type 271, 285, and 291 radars, as well as Type 144 sonar.

HMS Scourge (G01) S-class destroyer 12 October 1943. Note the great layout view of her twin quad torpedo turnstiles and four 4.7/45 guns. IWM A 19638

HMS Scourge (G01) S-class destroyer 12 October 1943. IWM A 19639

A very clean HMS Scourge (G01) S-class destroyer, undated, likely soon after delivery. Photo by Stewart Bale Ltd, Liverpool IWM FL 18828.

Getting into the war!

Her construction was drawn out nearly three years due to the late delivery of armament and fire-control equipment.

Scourge began her shakedown with the 23rd Destroyer Flotilla just in time to take part in Convoy TA 58 (Operation Quadrant), whose primary mission was to zip HMT Queen Mary, with Churchill aboard, to the Quebec Conference in August 1943.

By 20 October 1943, she took part in Operation FR, the movement of 10 wooden-hulled American Admirable-class minesweepers and SC-class submarine chasers for Lend Lease to the Soviet Navy from Iceland to the windswept Kola Peninsula in Northern Russia.

Scourge then picked up Convoy RA 054A, her first of a dozen such runs between Archangel/Murmansk and Britain and back. Often traveling in conjunction with her sisters, she braved the harsh Barents Sea weather, U-boat attacks, a near brush with Scharnhorst, and long-ranging German Condor aircraft.

Taking a break from her convoy work after her initial five runs (besides RA 054A, she was on JW 054B, JW 055B, JW 056B, and RA 056), Scourge was nominated to join the great Neptune flotillas for the Overlord (D-Day) landings in Normandy.

On hand with the Sword Bombardment Group, she fell in with the battleships HMS Ramillies and Warspite, the heavy cruiser Frobisher, the light cruisers Arethusa, Danae, Mauritius, and Dragon (Polish), and 13 destroyers, including sisters Saumarez, Scorpion, Serapis, Stord, Svenner, and Swift. Scourge lent her guns to the cacophony on 6 June 1944 and continued to defend the beachhead as the fight moved inshore.

Just days later, Scourge joined with near-sister HMS Urania and the K-class destroyer HMS Kelvin to escort first Churchill and later King George VI himself, then aboard Arethusa, to Sword. Keep in mind that the control of the Channel was still very much in question at the time, with German U-boats below and S-boats above frequently encountered along with mines, midget submarines, and the occasional Luftwaffe aircraft.

The Navy lands supplies in Normandy, 13 June 1944, on board HMS Kelvin during Mr. Churchill’s crossing to France. At 30 knots in the Channel, HMS Scourge is seen from the destroyer HMS Kelvin. Photo by LT CH Parnall, RN, IWM A 24090.

The Navy lands supplies in Normandy, 13 June 1944, on board HMS Kelvin during Mr. Churchill’s crossing to France. At 30 knots in the Channel, HMS Scourge is seen from the destroyer HMS Kelvin. Photo by LT CH Parnall, RN, IWM A 24089.

The King goes to France. 16 June 1944, on board the cruiser HMS Arethusa and at the beachhead in Normandy. The S-class destroyer HMS Scourge, seen from the Arethusa during the crossing. Photo by LT CH Parnall, RN, IWM A 24198.

On 25 June, she escorted vital Convoy FTM 017 from the Thames estuary to the Normandy landing beaches, backfilling equipment and supplies for the push inland.

In addition to seven further Russian runs (JW 061A, RA 061A, JW 063, RA 063, RA 064, JW 065, and RA 065) between November 1944 and March 1945, Scourge clocked in as a carrier escort on Operation Mascot (the July 1944 attempt to cripple the German battleship Tirpitz in the Kaa Fiord), Operation Turbine (August 1944 anti-shipping sweep of the Norwegian coast), Operation Offspring (mining the Norwegian coast), Operation Victual (a distant covering operation for Russian-bound convoy JW59, spoiling to fight Tirpitz), Operations Handfast and Provident (two further Norwegian mining sorties in November 1944), Operation Selenium (more Norwegian mining in February 1945), Operation Newmarket (to raid German U-boat tenders in Kilbotn, Norway in April 1945) and Operation Invective, the latter a destroyer-only anti-shipping run that saw the tin cans shell German searchlight positions on the Norwegian coast.

In early May, she went on one further combat operation in Norwegian waters, as part of the Operation Judgement escort for three jeep carriers bound for another bite at the U-boats of Kilbotn.

It was the Royal Navy’s last offensive operation against the Germans.

Operation Judgement, May 4, 1945, was an attack on the U-boat base at Kilbotn, near Harstad, Norway. This proved to be the last offensive operation by the Home Fleet, as the war in Europe ended just a few days later. The main targets of the attack are, in fact, hidden behind water columns and smoke in the center of the photo. They were the depot ship Black Watch and the Type VIIC submarine U-711 — they were both sunk. The ship visible in the center of the pic is, in all probability, the motor vessel Senja, also sunk in this attack but raised and repaired after the war. U-711 was the last U-boat sunk by the Fleet Air Arm in WW2. The attack was carried out by Avenger torpedo-bombers and Wildcat fighters from Squadrons 846 (HMS Trumpeter, Capt. K. S. Colquhoun), 853 (HMS Queen, Capt. K. J. D’Arcy), and 882 (HMS Searcher, Capt. J. W. Grant).

Wrapping up her RN service in WWII, Scourge sailed as part of VADM McGrigor’s Force 6 into the Skagerrak and Kattegat from 7 to 12 May 1945, marking VE-Day at sea.

For her WWII service, Scourge was granted the battle honors Arctic 1943-45 and Normandy 1944.

Post VJ Day, she was laid up and quietly placed out of service.

At least for a few months.

Dutch Days

Ex-Scourge was sold to the Royal Netherlands Navy on 1 February 1946 after a short spell in ordinary.

At the time, she had her original four 4.7/45s, depth charge armament, Type 144 sonar, and eight torpedo tubes, but had been fitted with two 40mm Bofors Mk IV Hazemeyer mounts, four twin 20mm Oerlikons, and carried upgraded Type 276, 285, and 291 radars.

She joined sisters ex-Scorpion and ex-Serapis, which had been transferred in October 1945 and renamed Hr.Ms. Kortenaer (D 804) and Hr.Ms. Piet Hein (D 805), respectively, in Dutch service. Following the trend of her now-Dutch sisters being named after famous admirals, Scourge became at least the sixth RNN warship named for the storied Evertsen family of naval heroes with pennant D 802. Taking the naming convention forward, all three names had been carried previously by Dutch destroyers (torpedobootjager) lost against the Japanese in 1942.

Evertsen (D 802), ex-HMS Scourge, between 1946 and 1957. NIMH 2158_002503

Almost as soon as their crews got acquainted with their new ships, they were off to the Dutch East Indies, which was fighting mad in the process of becoming Indonesia.

Hr.Ms. Evertsen (ex. HMS Scourge), D 802, and Hr.Ms. Kortenaer (ex. HMS Scorpion), D 804, at Soerabaja, Dutch East Indies, April 1950, clad in flags and tropical canvas. NIMH 2158_028763

The sisters in Jane’s circa 1954, referred to as the Evertsen class in Dutch service.

Aerial photograph of the Hr.Ms Evertsen or the Hr.Ms Kortenaer in the Strait of Madura, 1949. Note her extensive use of canvas awnings. Marine Luchtvaart Dienst Indië KITLV MLD392 30D

Aerial photograph of laying a smoke screen near Gili Pandan Island in the Madura Strait by Hr.Ms Evertsen, Marine Luchtvaart Dienst Indië KITLV MLD390 013

Aerial photograph of gunnery exercises by the Hr.Ms Evertsen or the Hr.Ms Kortenaer in the Strait of Madura, Marine Luchtvaart Dienst Indië KITLV MLD392 017

Korea

Still in the waters off Java when the North Koreans crossed the 38th Parallel in June 1950, Evertsen was dispatched to the Yellow Sea to join the UN forces off the embattled South Korean coast, arriving on 19 July.

She ultimately joined Task Force 96 in the U.S. Seventh Fleet, and saw service during the Battle of Pusan Perimeter and then covered the amphibious squadron at Inchon’s outer port.

Hr. Ms. Evertsen in action at Wonsan, letting her 4.7s ring, 26 April 1951. Nationaal Archief 904-5397

The Dutch naval service off Korea led to the country further sending a battalion of 646 men (the NDVN), which served as part of the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division, ultimately being rotated out several times.

Speaking of being rotated out, Evertsen was relieved in place by the Dutch destroyer Van Galen at the end of April 1951 and was soon pointed back to Holland, having served 10 months of the “Forgotten War.”

Evertsen on her way home from Korea to the Netherlands, 8 May 1951. In “Sunday uniform” (“Zondags tenue”), most of the officers and men pose on the forecastle. Nationaal Archief 35017_002

Return of destroyer Hr.Ms. Evertsen from Korea, 1951. 2158_028806

As for the Dutch effort in Korea, Van Galen was rotated out in early 1952, replaced by Evertsen’s sister Piet Hein, who in turn was tapped out by the frigate Johan Maurits van Naasau in early 1953. A fifth destroyer, Hr. Ms. Dubois, arrived in November 1953 to enforce the peace, followed by Hr. Ms. Van Zijll in September 1954.

As noted by the Dutch Defense Ministry:

On average, each Dutch ship carried out 10 patrols, mainly along the west coast of Korea. The ships were also given the task of escorting a U.S. or British aircraft carrier on a regular basis. The Dutch ships were also given the task of protecting the lines of communication and bombarding enemy troop concentrations, reinforcements and infrastructure.

The Netherlands sent 5,322 soldiers to Korea, with 2,980 men seeing combat, of which 120 of them were killed and 645 wounded. They fought in battles at Hoengsong, Wonju, Soyang River, and the Iron Triangle, among others. After the armistice, the ground forces withdrew from Korea in December 1954 and the Navy in January 1955.

Some 1,360 Dutch naval personnel served in the Korean War, with the first four warships active in the fighting– Evertsen included– earning the South Korean Distinguished Unit Citation. Only one Dutch sailor, a signalman on Johan Maurits van Nassau, was killed during the conflict.

A peaceful respite

With that, Evertsen would remain in European waters for a few years at least. It was while on this domestic service that she came to the rescue of the distressed Danish schooner Svaerdfisken during a storm in the North Sea in 1954. After towing the Dane to Stavanger, the Danish ambassador to the Netherlands later presented the ship and crew with a commemorative cup in Rotterdam as an official thanks.

A great profile shot of Evertsen working in the North Sea, showing her twin torpedo turnstiles, circa 1953. NIMH 2009-001-018_008

Kortenaer (D 804) with Evertsen (D 802) behind her, dressed for ceremonies. Circa 1953-1955. NIMH 2158_007043

Presto-changeo, you are now a frigate

All of the S-class destroyers in Dutch service were converted at Rijkswerf Willemsoord between 1957 and 1958 to fast frigates (FF) with new sensors, the “X” 4/7″/45 mount removed, a shorter mainmast installed, and a helicopter platform fitted aft for Bell 47s. This saw the class switch from “D” pennants to “F” with Evertsen carrying F 803 afterward.

Meanwhile, the British did a similar Type 15/16 ASW frigate conversion to three dozen remaining T, U, V, W, and Z-class near-sisters during the same period, removing most of the gun armament and fitting new sensors and either a Squid or Limbo A/S mortar.

Jane’s on the class, 1960.

Frigate HNLMS Evertsen (F 803) in the harbor of Ponta Delgada, Azores, 15 December 1957. NIMH 2158_028782

Targeting exercises with a late model 40mm gun aboard the frigate Hr.Ms. Evertsen, 1957. Aiming is at a Grumman TBM-3W2 Avenger, a type that flew with the Dutch fleet between 1953 and 1961. NIMH 2009-003-111_008

Evertsen as a frigate, 1961 2158_107708

Post-conversion, the Evertsens were dispatched once again to the Pacific, this time to keep watch over the last Dutch colony in the Far East, 10 December 1957.

Departure of Hr Ms Evertsen to New Guinea, Nationaal Archief 909-1735

Splash one Jaguar

Queen Juliana, who took over the throne from her ailing mother, the indefatigable Queen Wilhelmina, in 1948, saw a reign that included the decolonization and independence of the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) and Suriname, although not without a stout fight for the former.

This became particularly sticky when it came to the remnant colony of Dutch New Guinea, which escalated from a tense Confrontation (Konfrontasi) dispute in 1959 into direct low-level military conflict between the Netherlands and Soviet-backed Indonesia in 1962.

With the stage thus set, the Evertsen class was on hand in New Guinea for this endgame.

Evertsen underway as seen from a maritime patrol aircraft off the Nederlands Nieuw-Guinea in the South Pacific, note her frigate conversion. NIMH 2158_028792

Evertsen in the Konijnenburg shipyard slipway Manokwari, Netherlands New Guinea. Note her helicopter platform. NIMH 2158_028817

This conflict came to a head in what is known as the Battle of Vlakke Hoek or the Battle of Arafura Sea in the early morning of 15 January 1962. In the engagement, a trio of brand new West German-built Type 140 Jaguar-class torpedo boats– essentially Lürssen-built updated S-boats– operated by the Indonesian navy, attempted to land 150 infiltrators into Kaimana in Dutch New Guinea as part of Operation Trikora.

The boats, Matjan Tutul, Matjan Kumbang, and Harimau, were blisteringly fast, capable of hitting 42 knots in bursts, and well-armed, bristling with torpedo tubes and 40mm guns.

A 139-foot Lurssen-built Jaguar class, constructed to the Schnellboot 55 design.

However, the little Indonesian flotilla was spotted by an alert Dutch Navy P-2 Neptune patrol plane, and Evertsen, nearby, was diverted to the scene to intercept. Sister Kortenaer and a third Dutch destroyer, the newly commissioned Hr.Ms. Utrecht trailed behind.

By the time the smoke cleared, Evertsen sank the flagship MTB, RI Matjan Tutul (650). The two other Jaguars were damaged but made their escape more or less intact. Among the 23 missing considered dead was the flotilla commander, Commodore Yosaphat “Yos” Sudarso.

The Battle of Vlakke Hoek (Dutch New Guinea). Empty shells after the action aboard a fast frigate of the Evertsen class. NIMH 2158_035634

A short color film in the NIMH archives contains footage from Evertsen’s radar during the night battle near Vlakke Hoek with the Indonesian motor torpedo boat Matjan Tutul, including the captured survivors on the quarterdeck of the frigate the next morning.

The three Evertsens remained in Dutch service through the UN-brokered agreement to the transfer of Dutch New Guinea from Dutch to Indonesian control in October 1962.

An Evertsen-class destroyer (with tropical canvas) photographed from the air at Mios Woendi, Papua, between May and July 1962. NIMH 2007-11-27

Sent back to Europe, the class, obsolete for NATO use, was retired and scrapped in 1963.

Epilogue

The Dutch ships were the final S-class destroyers, the type having left British service in 1960. The last of their (near) sisters, the V-class destroyer HMS Grenville (R97/F197), remained in RN service until 1974 as a trials ship and was only broken up in 1983.

The British have not reused the awe-inspiring sea dog-appropriate name HMS Scourge, but the Dutch have recycled Evertsen for a Van Speijk-class frigate (F815), active from 1967 to 1989, and a De Zeven Provincien-class frigate (F805), commissioned in 2005.

HNLMS Evertsen conducts a high-speed turn in the Gulf of Aden while on JTF duties

As for Indonesia, a replica of Matjan Tutul has been created.

Matjan Tutul (replica), at the Satriamandala Museum in Indonesia. Wikimedia Commons image

The Troika commodore who was killed in the operation, Yos Sudarso, was promoted to vice admiral posthumously and has had two frigates named after him since then. Ironically, the current one to bear the name is a former Dutch Van Speijk-class frigate that has remained in Indonesian service since 1985. 

KRI Yos Sudarso (353) Indonesian Navy, Ex HNLMS F 803 van Galen

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

***

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USCG Out There Getting it Done Around the Globe with Ancient Hulls

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The U.S. Coast Guard is very active around the globe recently, featuring ships that would easily be considered floating museums in any other first or second world fleet, but, rather than having these old girls dockside for tours and ceremonies, the USCG is Sempering that Paratis, so to speak.

Polar Star

The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star (WAGB 10) began icebreaking operations in the Southern Ocean in support of Operation Deep Freeze 2026 and marked her 50th year of commissioned service last week by freeing and escorting a 17,000-ton cruise ship trapped in pack ice.

USCGC Polar Star (WAGB 10) escorts an Australian-owned cruise ship out of pack ice in the Ross Sea after the vessel requested assistance amid Operation Deep Freeze 2026, Jan. 17, 2026. Pacific Air Forces operates on a 24-hour basis to provide the U.S. National Science Foundation with complete joint operational and logistic support for Operation Deep Freeze. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Christopher Bokum) 260117-G-FN033-1008

The Australian-owned cruise ship Scenic Eclipse II contacted Polar Star at approximately 11 p.m., local time, Friday, after becoming beset in pack ice roughly eight nautical miles from McMurdo Sound. Polar Star’s crew conducted two close passes to break the vessel free, then escorted it approximately four nautical miles to open water.

“At 50 years old, Polar Star remains the world’s most capable non-nuclear icebreaker,” said Cmdr. Samuel Blase, Polar Star’s executive officer. “That’s a testament to the crews that have maintained it over the decades. With years of service left to give, Polar Star will continue to guide the way in the high latitudes well into the future.”

USCGC Polar Star (WAGB 10) crew members pose for a group photo while the cutter sits hove-to in the Ross Sea during Operation Deep Freeze 2026, Jan. 12, 2026. The cutter turns 50 years old on Jan. 17, 2026, amid Operation Deep Freeze, which is a joint service, inter-agency support operation for the National Science Foundation that manages the United States Antarctic Program. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Christopher Bokum) 260112-G-FN033-4120

Commissioned 17 January 1976, Polar Star remains in service with a combination of parts salvaged from her late sister, Polar Sea, out of service since 2010, but still afloat in mothball status in Suisun Bay, and yearly lengthy yard periods (she just finished a 175-day SLEP at Mare Island Dry Dock last summer, a yard which sadly closed on Dec. 31 2025).

She won’t be retired until a new heavy icebreaker arrives in USCG red as part of the Polar Security Cutter program in 2030 (maybe).

She is on her 29th deployment to Antarctica in support of Operation Deep Freeze, leaving her Seattle homeport in November, and is slated to return home later this year.

Vigilant

The 210-foot Reliance-class medium endurance cutter USCGC Vigilant (WMEC 617) returned to her Cape Canaveral homeport last Friday after a 33-day patrol in the Caribbean Sea supporting Operations Pacific Viper (including transits through the Panama Canal) and Southern Spear.

Notably, she returned to the U.S. with an impounded “Shadow Fleet” tanker, with the assistance of a Navy MH-60S from the “Tridents” of HSC-9.

During the patrol, Vigilant escorted a motor tanker, which was seized by a U.S. Coast Guard tactical boarding team with support from the Department of War, for operating as a vessel without nationality in the Caribbean Sea. Vigilant’s crew coordinated with naval and law enforcement partners to transfer personnel and provisions to the tanker. A law enforcement team from Vigilant boarded the vessel to provide security during the 600-nautical-mile transit to the United States.

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Vigilant (WMEC 617), right, sails in the Western Atlantic Ocean while escorting a motor tanker after a right of visit boarding, Jan. 7, 2026. Vigilant escorted the motor tanker, which was seized by a Coast Guard tactical boarding team with support from the Department of War, for operating as a vessel without nationality in the Caribbean Sea. (U.S. Navy Photo)

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Vigilant’s (WMEC 617) small boat crew comes alongside a motor tanker in the Atlantic Ocean, Jan. 7, 2026. Vigilant escorted the motor tanker, which was seized by a Coast Guard tactical boarding team with support from the Department of War, for operating as a vessel without nationality in the Caribbean Sea. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Brandon Feehery) 260107-G-G0100-1001

U.S. Coast Guard crewmembers transfer from the Coast Guard Cutter Vigilant (WMEC 617) to a motor tanker by a helicopter crew assigned to U.S. Navy Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 9 in the Atlantic Ocean, Jan. 7, 2026. Vigilant escorted the tanker, which was seized by a joint Coast Guard and Department of War team for conducting illicit activities in the Caribbean Sea. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Brandon Feehery) 260107-G-G0100-1003

Valiant was commissioned in 1964 (not a misprint) and had her mid-life refit in 1989-90– some 36 years ago at this point.

Talk about golden years.

Hickory

The USCGC Hickory (WLB 212), a 225-foot Juniper-class seagoing buoy tender, arrived at her new homeport in Guam on 14 January, following a more than 13,000-mile transit over 71 days from the U.S. Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore via the Panama Canal.

The USCGC Hickory (WLB 212), a 225-foot Juniper-class seagoing buoy tender, arrives in Apra Harbor as it comes to their new homeport in Guam on Jan. 14, 2026, following a more than 13,000-mile transit over 71 days from the U.S. Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore through the Panama Canal. After an extended Major Maintenance Availability at the Yard, part of the In-Service Vessel Sustainment Program that modernizes the entire Juniper-class fleet with hull repairs, system upgrades, and replacement of obsolete equipment, the Hickory is now fully revitalized. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Chief Warrant Officer Muir)

Hickory, commissioned in 2003, spent the first half of her career as “The Kenai Keeper” and “Bull of the North” while stationed in Alaska and has recently capped an extensive and lengthy modernization at the Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore that will steel her for the next 20 years.

Hickory is the most forward-deployed Juniper in the Pacific, joining sisters USCGC Juniper (WLB 201) and Hollyhock (WLB 214), both homeported in Honolulu. In addition to tending hundreds of aids to navigation, WLBs in the region regularly complete 40-50-day Operation Blue Pacific patrols of Oceana with Allied ship riders aboard, important hearts-and-minds stuff.

While not romantic, these large WLBs have often clocked in on exercises and operations supporting SOCOM, the Marines, and the gray-hulled fleet. They have also zipped through the Northwest Passage and conducted long-ranging LE patrols when needed.

If things go squirrely, say with non-nation actors, pirates, or other rogues in those areas that a small group of pipe hitters could fix and naval assets are not available, some may see NG SF ODAs or the Coast Guard’s own MSST units carried from buoy tenders as a low-tech option. They have room for an Mk 38 (which isn’t installed) and carry a few .50 cals and small arms as well.

The USCGC Hickory (WLB 212), a 225-foot Juniper-class seagoing buoy tender, arrives in Apra Harbor as it comes to their new homeport in Guam on Jan. 14, 2026, following a more than 13,000-mile transit over 71 days from the U.S. Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore through the Panama Canal. After an extended Major Maintenance Availability at the Yard, part of the In-Service Vessel Sustainment Program that modernizes the entire Juniper-class fleet with hull repairs, system upgrades, and replacement of obsolete equipment, the Hickory is now fully revitalized. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Chief Warrant Officer Muir)

Warship Wednesday 21 January 2026: Interdiction Trendsetter

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Here at LSOZI, we take a break every Wednesday to explore the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period, profiling a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger

If you enjoy my always ad-free Warship Wednesday content, you can support it by buying me a cup of joe at https://buymeacoffee.com/lsozi As Henk says: “Warship Coffee – no sugar, just a pinch of salt!”

Warship Wednesday 21 January 2026: Interdiction Trendsetter

From the San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library, call no AAE-1505

Above we see a great period shot of the two-gunned U.S. Revenue Cutter Wolcott in the Bay area circa 1884, with a good view of the flag established by her namesake. A fine steamer with the lines of a yacht, she made history some 140 years ago this week when she made the service’s first large drug bust.

How large? Like 3,000 pounds of opium hidden in barrels at a salmon cannery in southern Alaska kind of large. And her crew did that after a 736-mile race through a storm to secure the stash.

All in a day’s work.

Meet Wolcott

Our subject was the second cutter to carry the name of Oliver Wolcott Jr., a Yale-educated Continental Army veteran who replaced Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury in 1795 after serving as the department’s auditor and Comptroller for several years.

It was while in the office that Wolcott, with the approval of President Adams, selected a design for the Revenue Marine’s Cutter ensign and pennant that he described in a letter to his collectors in 1799 as “consisting of sixteen perpendicular stripes, alternate red and white, the Union of the Ensign to be the Arms of the U.S. in dark blue on a white field .” The stripes stood for the States that comprised the Nation at that time. The original 13 States were commemorated by an arch of 13 blue stars in a white field. The flag was also flown over U.S. Customs Houses until the 1900s and, in 1916, was modified into the USCG flag with the addition of that service’s distinctive insignia. Oddly enough, the only two surviving pre-Civil War Revenue Cutter flags both have 13 stripes. 

A Civil War era Revenue Cutter Flag, carrying the correct, as specified, 16 stripes and 13 stars. 

The first cutter named for Wolcott was a light and fast 4-gun Morris-Taney-class topsail schooner of some 73 feet that entered service in 1831. She was one of 11 U.S. Revenue cutters assigned to cooperate with the Army and Navy in the Mexican-American War, but foundered shortly after.

Our subject was built in 1873 for use on the West Coast (which was inherited after the war with Mexico) and was constructed at the Risdon Iron and Locomotive Works in San Francisco.

Risdon Iron Works, Ship-Yard, Potrero, San Francisco – During Repairs to Steamers “Sonoma,” Alameda,” “Australia” and German Ship “Willie Rickmers.” British Ship “Dowan Hill” Discharging. From the San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library AAC-7340

A 155-foot steamer built of white oak and yellow fir from Oregon and Washington, with bilge keels and iron-wire standing rigging and a sheathed hull, she had a standing (vertical cylinder) surface condensing steam engine with a 34-inch stoke and matching 34-inch diameter.

NHHC NH 309

With a beam of 22 feet and a draft of just over 9, the graceful 235-ton cutter could make an average of nine knots under canvas in fair seas with a good breeze or 9.5 with her engine chugging away.

Port Townsend. USRS Oliver Wolcott, Steam Revenue Cutter, 2-mast, Anchored, ‘Stbdside profile, Bunting flying, 4 July 1888, Jefferson County Historical Society. 2004.117.68

She was built to replace the smaller Civil War-era cutter Wayanda, which had served in Alaskan waters since 1868. As such, when Wolcott was commissioned in the summer of 1873, it was the crew of the laid-up and soon-to-be decommissioned Wayanda that cross-decked, bringing much of their equipment with them, to bring the new cutter to life.

Intended for the often lawless stomping grounds of the Bering Sea Patrol, where she would typically be the only government vessel in any direction for several days steaming, she carried a stand of small arms and cutlasses as well as two mounted guns, which the Coast Guard Historian describes as “of unknown type and caliber.”

It should be noted that during this period in the Territory’s history, the USRCS served largely the same role as the Army’s horse cavalry during the settlement of the Old West, being typically the only armed federal force in most of the region.

While I can find no source that details the two guns Wolcott carried, they may have been brought over from her first crew’s last cutter. Wayanda, famous for what may be a 1863 photo of Lincoln aboard with Seward, was armed with several bronze 12-pounder 4.6-inch smoothbore Dahlgren boat howitzers on slide carriages.

Twelve Pound Dahlgren Boat Howitzer (1856) by Ulric Dahlgren

Ranges for the 12 pdr heavy (at just 5 degrees elevation) were 1,150 yards with shrapnel and 1,085 yards with solid shell, the latter of which was practical for shots across the bow.

As those handy 772-pound muzzleloader percussion-fired guns had a history of being swapped among Navy warships and Revenue cutters as late as the 1890s, it is more than likely that Wolcott shipped out with a couple of those– which may, in turn, have had a connection to the famed President in the stovepipe hat.

Her crew was generally eight officers and 31 enlisted, with an August 1877 list of USRM officers listing the cutter with seven filled billets for a captain, first, second, and third lieutenants; a first and second assistant engineer, as well as an acting second assistant engineer– only missing a chief engineer for the eighth chair in her wardroom.

Walking the beat

Homeported to Port Townsend, Washington Territory, at the northeast tip of the Olympic Peninsula at the gate of Puget Sound and just shy of Vancouver, Wolcott settled into a routine of keeping tabs on the passage of goods and timber from that region in the winter, while sorting north to Alaska in the summer months.

The strategic location was the maritime key to the region, and Wolcott, with her two guns, predated the Army’s Fort Worden coast defense complex, which wouldn’t be built to protect Puget Sound from invasion by sea until the 1890s, as well as the Navy’s Indian Island Magazine.

“Business section, looking down Taylor Street with Central Hotel in the center. Ships: Queen of the Pacific and the Ancon at the Union Dock; U.S. Revenue Cutter Oliver Wolcott and sailing ship Mercury in harbor. Photo taken before 1889. Handwritten across the bottom of the photograph: “Port Townsend, W.T. Mount Rainier.  A. Queen of The Pacific. B. The Ancon. C. U.S. Rev. Cutter, Oliver Wolcott. D. ship Mercury.” Port Angeles Public LibraryPTTNBLDX005

“Streetcar on Water Street, Port Townsend, WA;  five ships in harbor, with United States Revenue Service Cutter (USRSC) Oliver Wolcott the furthest ship on the right.” 1891. Note the Key City Boiler Works. Port Angeles Public Library PTTNBLDX021

In August 1881, the cutter was placed at the disposal of a detachment of officers from the 21st Infantry Regiment under one Capt. S.P. Jocelyn to make a reconnaissance for the military telegraph line to be built between Port Townsend and Cape Flattery.

Little is in the CG Historian’s files on Wolcott but a few interesting tidbits are known, such as the fact that her whole crew deserted in 1882 “for unknown reasons although it was probably due to low wages as her commanding officer at the time, Revenue Captain L. N. Stodder, was then ordered ‘to ship crew at port’ with wages not to exceed $40.00 per month.”

Wolcott was, in August 1883, briefly placed at the disposal of General William Tecumseh Sherman, who, accompanied by Colonel Richard Irving Dodge, his former aide-de-camp, was on a 10,000-mile inspection tour of the West. This included a trip around the Sound and across to Victoria.

The same year, at the request of the British Columbia authorities, as no British man-of-war was available in the Pacific, Wolcott was rushed north of the border to Port Simpson with two magistrates aboard, to prevent an “Indian outbreak” near Metlakahtla, which later turned out to be a false alarm.

Opium buster

In the 1880s, the unlicensed smuggling of opium imported from Canada to the Pacific Northwest was a serious matter– and Wolcott wound up in the thick of it.

As detailed by Captain Daniel A. Laliberte, U.S. Coast Guard (Retired) in a 2016 Proceedings piece, by 1887, 13 factories in Victoria were producing more than 90,000 pounds of the drug per year for legal use, but it was being trafficked across the line into Washington without paying the 1883 Tariff Act fees. The Port Townsend collector of customs, Herbert Beecher, worked hand-in-hand with the Wolcott to seize such illegal shipments.

On 26 December 1885, Beecher and 13 officers and men from Wolcott were waiting for the steamer Idaho to make port, acting on a tip from a confidential informant that the ship was packed to the gills with undeclared opium. After much searching, just 30 pounds were found. A bit of a whomp whomp moment that, once addressed, allowed Idaho to soon weigh anchor and continue about her business, headed to Alaska.

Shortly after, an aggrieved and unpaid crewman who had missed the Idaho’s movements came to Beecher and ratted out the whole operation, upset that he was being cut out of his share of the deal. He advised Idaho had stashed 14 barrels of opium in tins at the Kaasan Bay Salmon Fishery, in Alaska, on the freighter’s last trip north, and he could show them exactly where.

Beecher cabled Washington for permission to dispatch Wolcott in pursuit of the drug stash, with all speed, as Idaho may be headed that way.

With permission received and Wolcott steaming north on 10 January 1886 with a bone in her teeth, the little cutter had to fight out gale-force winds that required her to heave to in Metlakatlah Bay for eight hours.

Finally, on the morning of 14 January, Wolcott arrived at Kaasan Bay and anchored, sending Beecher, accompanied by Lieutenant Rhodes and eight men from the cutter, ashore to the cannery. Soon enough, the 14 barrels were located, and 3,012 pounds of tinned Canadian opium were recovered on U.S. territory, without the taxes paid.

Yes, it sounds piddly, but keep in mind the seamanship involved in racing over 700 miles north through the waters of British Columbia and Alaska that were still relatively ill-charted, in the face of a storm in winter, for a ton and a half drug bust.

Wolcott arrived back in Port Townsend on the 18th, with the drugs aboard, a scene no doubt familiar to Coast Guard cutter crews today.

Article clipped from the Daily Alta, California,19 January 1886:

As detailed by Laliberte:

The total of 3,600 pounds of opium confiscated during the case brought in $45,000 when auctioned on 20 April [1886] by the U.S. Marshal’s Service. This was the first seizure of opium by a U.S. revenue cutter and at the time the largest seizure of the drug in U.S. history, both in terms of amount of opium captured and in value of cargo forfeited. As a result of his further investigation, Beecher was able to present sufficient evidence that the U.S. District Court ordered the Idaho forfeited in December.

Wolcott would later go on to seize the steamer SS George E Starr in 1890, after “Two Chinese subjects, together with a quantity of opium, were discovered secreted on board.”

She also made at least one other record-setting bust, as detailed by the National Coast Guard Museum:

Wolcott would make the service’s first at-sea interdiction that included seizure of both opium and the vessel smuggling it, and the arrest of its crew. Prompted by intelligence from customs agents in Victoria, on Jan. 10, 1889, the Wolcott steamed from Port Townsend to nearby Port Discovery Bay. Once there, the cutter hid behind Clallam Spit, just inside the entrance to the bay. That evening, when the British sloop Emerald entered, one of Wolcott’s boats shot out to intercept it. The Emerald’s master and crew immediately began tossing packages overboard, but the Wolcott’s boarding party quickly scrambled aboard and took control. They found nearly 400 pounds of opium on deck.  A subsequent search of the vessel also revealed 12 undocumented Chinese migrants hidden aboard.

Wolcott was also a savior when needed. In 1895, she rescued the survivors of the schooner Elwood, marooned at Killisnoo in Southeast Alaska, and transported Captain E. E. Wyman and his remaining crew to Sitka.

Then, as time does, it marched on and things changed.

Washington became a state in 1889.

Wolcott changed with the times as well, picking up an all-white scheme, with a buff stack and black masts and cap, late in her career.

Port Townsend. USRS Oliver Wolcott, Steam Revenue Cutter, 2-mast, Anchored, ‘Stbdside profile, In PT harbor, boat alongside. Postcard by Fulton, Jefferson County Historical Society. 1995.334.15

With the service moving on to newer, larger, and more capable steel-hulled gunboats, Wolcott was disposed of, sold on 19 February 1897 to Joshua Green of Seattle, Washington, for $3,050. Her spot was replaced by the cutter Corwin, and her crew dispersed among the service.

Epilogue

Wolcott would go on to serve briefly in commercial service during the Klondike rush, even being hired by an Army mapping expedition in 1898. 

She cracked open her hull in January 1900 on a submerged reef now named after her on the windswept West coast of Kodiak Island, and was abandoned.

In 1909, the importation and use of opium for other than medicinal purposes was outlawed, thus ending the war on drugs (right?)

A third Wolcott, a Defoe-built 100-foot steel-hulled patrol cutter, entered service in 1926 to fight rum-runners. She gained a bit of notoriety out of Pascagoula during the sinking of the defiant bootlegger schooner I’m Alone in 1929. The cutter, which was sold at auction in 1936, is still around as a houseboat in California. 

As for drug busts, hot pursuit, and the vertical striped Cutter flag, those very much remain in vogue.

Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive

***

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Myrtle Lighting the Way: 5,380 nautical miles on a 154-footer

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The USCGC Myrtle Hazard (WPC 1139) crew returns home Dec. 14, 2025, after completing a successful expeditionary patrol under Operation Blue Pacific, deepening partnerships with Pacific nations and bolstering maritime security in the region. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Mandy Thomas) 251214-G-G0020-7958

The tired crew of the 154-foot Sentinel (Webber)-class fast response cutter USCGC Myrtle Hazard (WPC 1139) returned home to Guam last week, capping a 5,380nm expeditionary patrol that lasted just under a month (17 November to 14 December) under Operation Blue Pacific. Of that, 15 days were dedicated to” providing a persistent presence in the exclusive economic zones of the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of Palau.”

They also conducted five community events, including a volleyball game with locals, swimming lessons for children, and tours of the cutter.

“The patrol went beyond simple transit. It focused on building maritime security, engaging directly with Pacific partners, and enforcing international maritime law through shared operations,” notes the service.

Keep in mind that the FSM and Palau are being highly courted by Chinese interests, as are just about every island chain between Guam and the Philippines and Australia and Taiwan. So this is truly a hearts and minds mission in addition to showing the flag.

That’s why the two dozen Coasties aboard the 154-footer are punching above their weight class.

Hazard is the 39th FRC, named in honor of the first enlisted woman in the U.S. Coast Guard who served as an electrician and radio operator in the Great War.

She is one of three cutters of her class currently based in Guam and arrived there five years ago, replacing two aging 110-foot Island-class WPBs.

Santa Rita, Guam (Sept. 24, 2020) Coast Guard Cutter Myrtle Hazard (WPC 1139) enters Apra Harbor before arriving at its new homeport in Santa Rita, Guam. The new Fast Response Cutter (FRC) is the first of three scheduled to be stationed on Guam and is replacing the 30-year old 110-foot Island-class patrol boats. FRCs are equipped with new advanced command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems and boast greater range and endurance. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class MacAdam Kane Weissman)

Mighty Mo Sounding off

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Some 75 years ago this week. The Iowa-class fast battleship USS Missouri (BB-63) fires a 16-inch shell from her forward turret at enemy forces attacking Hungnam, North Korea, during a night bombardment in December 1950. In the background, LSMRs are firing rockets, with both ends of the trajectory visible. This is a composite image, made with two negatives taken only a few minutes apart.

USS Missouri (BB-63) Forward turret fires a 16-inch shell at enemy forces attacking Hungnam, North Korea, during a night bombardment in December 1950 LSMR NH 96811

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 96811

The photograph is dated 28 December 1950, but was probably taken on 23-24 December. She was providing gunfire support for the Hungnam defense perimeter until the last U.N. troops, the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division, were evacuated by way of the sea on Christmas Eve.

While the Navy in June 1950 had 15 dreadnoughts on the Navy List (four Iowas, four SoDaks, two NCs, three rebuilt Colorados, and two rebuilt Tennessees), Missouri was the only U.S. battleship in commission. The old USS Mississippi (BB-41) had been converted into a gunnery training ship, re-designated AG-128, in 1947 was still around but in no shape to work a gun line.

Missouri, leaving the Atlantic Fleet in August 1950, joined the U.N. forces just west of Kyushu on 14 September. The first American battleship to reach Korean waters, she bombarded Samchok on 15 September in a diversionary move coordinated with the Inchon landings the next day, the first of many NGFS missions.

F4U-4B Corsair of VF-113 “Stingers” over Inchon, 15 Sept 1950, with Missouri under. NH 97076

Missouri fired 2,895 rounds from her 16-inch guns and 8,043 rounds from her 5-inch guns during her first Korean deployment alone. She added five battlestars for Korea to her three from WWII.

Returning to Norfolk in May 1953, she was decommissioned on 26 February 1955 and kept in mothballs as an unofficial museum ship at Bremerton for three decades, while as many as 250,000 visitors trooped her topside decks each year to see where WWII had ended.

She was recalled for a second time in 1984, then in 1998 began her final career as an official museum ship, bookending the wreck of the old Arizona on Battleship Row.

The Icelandic Coast Guard sees you, and they want you to know they see you

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The Icelandic Coast Guard (Landhelgisgæsla Íslands, or LHG) was established in 1926– predating the country’s independence by almost two decades– but has roots that go back to 1859.

And, as we have talked about in the past, they are the Stan “I didn’t hear no bell” Marsh of the racing stripers.

The plucky Icelandic Coast Guard Cutter Tyr chasing off one of HM’s much larger and better armed frigates during the “Cod Wars” in the 1970s.

The closest thing the country of 200,000 has to a uniform military service, the 200-member LHG has a small but well-cared-for collection of cutters and aircraft, and runs the Skógarhlí-based Iceland Air Defence System (Íslenska loftvarnarkerfið) whose four U.S.-established radar installations–formerly run by the country’s Radar Agency (Ratsjárstofnun)– augmented by satellites, provide a full-time surveillance capability of the country’s air and waters, interfacing with NATO and commercial ship tracking services.

The service recently posted that they had 295 active vessels at sea under the watchful eyes of the LHG, and that five Russian fishing vessels were huddled up, just skirting the line of the country’s EEZ.

As noted by the LHG (mechanically translated)

Surveillance and law enforcement with Icelandic jurisdiction is carried out both with remote surveillance and satellites alongside real surveillance carried out with TF-SIF [a Bombardier Dash 8-Q-314 maritime patrol aircraft], Coast Guard cutters Thor and Freyja, as well as Coast Guard helicopters.

Coast Guard ships have been monitoring the eastern part of the country lately and have, among other things, boarded foreign ships that fish herring within the jurisdiction. The journeys of these ships will continue to be closely monitored.

You’re damnned right they are closely monitored.

Skal!

The Batmen

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Some 80 years ago today, 12 December 1945, a window into the future of naval maritime patrol and sea control debuted to the public just after it had been vetted in combat.

Official period captions: “The BAT radar pilotless aircraft under the wing of a Convair PB4Y-2 Privateer at the Philadelphia Ordnance District during development and testing. The Bat was a Mark 9 special weapons ordnance device.” Photographs released December 12, 1945.

80-G-701607

80-G-701606

Note two BATs, one under each arm. 80-G-701605

The 1,700-pound SWOD Mk 9 (Special Weapon Ordnance Device) Bat radar-guided glide bomb has been called “arguably the most advanced of the early guided bombs” of the WWII era, and was even used successfully by Privateers of VPB-109 in combat in early 1945.

BAT Air-to-Surface Guided Missile homes in on a target ship during tests. Photograph released 16 October 1946. National Archives photograph 80-G-703161. launched from PBM

What of the Bat, you ask? Well, some 2,500 of these primitive anti-shipping weapons were built, but very few actually dropped before the end of the war.

The Navy re-designated them the ASM-N-2 post-war and kept Bat in inventory until after Korea, when they were replaced by more efficient air-launched weapons (the ASM-N-7/AGM-12 Bullpup in the late 50s, AGM-45 Shrike in the 1960s, and AGM-65 Maverick in the 1970s before Harpoon came around), then used as AAA targets.

The Many faces of the Triple Three

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Pre-Mayberry, actor Andy Griffith, exempted from service at age 18 in 1944 due to a herniated disk,  made a couple of military service comedies during the late 1950s: the better-received Korean War-set USAF-based No Time for Sergeants, and the lesser-known Onionhead.

In Onionhead, Griffith portrayed country simple Cook 3rd Class– now known as a Culinary Specialist Third Class (CS3)– Alvin Woods, who signs up for the Coast Guard during World War II and is assigned to the fictional buoy tender USCGC Periwinkle, cue laugh track and burned cinnamon roll hilarity.

Periwinkle somehow sinks an enemy U-boat, and Wood/Griffith ends up with the girl in the end.

Based on a novel by William R. Scott, a native Oklahoman who served in the USCG during “the Big Show,” the movie was filmed at Coast Guard Base Alameda and Yerba Buena Island circa 1958, with at least some footage of the USCGC Yamacraw (WARC-333) making it to the finished, albeit ill-received, movie.

Yamacraw was a very interesting ship.

Constructed during WWII at Point Pleasant, W. Va., by the Marietta Manufacturing Co as Hull 480, a 1,320 ton, 188-foot Coastal Artillery mine planter for the U.S. Army as USAMP Maj. Gen. Arthur Murray (MP-9), she was delivered to the Army on 1 October 1942.

USAMP Maj. Gen. Arthur Murray (MP-9). Records (#742), Special Collections Department, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA.

After serving on the East Coast during WWII, once the threat of Axis invasion passed, Randolph transferred to the Navy on 2 January 1945. She was then converted into an auxiliary minelayer by the Navy Yard, Charleston, S.C., and commissioned there on 15 March 1945 as USS Trapper, designated ACM-9, a Chimo-class auxiliary minelayer, Lt. Richard E. Lewis, USNR, in command.

Her armament included one 40mm Bofors mount and four 20mm mounts, and she was fitted with both listening gear and radar.

USS Trapper (ACM-9), ex-USAMP Maj. Gen. Arthur Murray (MP-9), off San Francisco, California, circa 1945.Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, Corte Madera, California, 1973. NH 77370

It was planned that she was to take part in the last push for the Japanese home islands in late 1945/early 1946, but that never materialized, and she only made it as far as Pearl Harbor by the time the Pacific War ended.

Trapper arrived at Kobe on 25 November 1945 and operated out of that port repairing minesweeping gear until 1 February 1946, when she shifted her base of operations to Wakayama for a month. She was then sent back stateside and arrived at San Francisco on 2 May, where she was decommissioned.

Transferred to the USCG on 20 June 1946 for use as a cable layer, USCGC Yamacraw (WARC-333), after a traditional cutter name, ex-Trapper/ex-Murray was struck from the Navy list on 19 July 1946.

She remained in USCG custody until early 1959.

This included filming of Onionhead and a 1957-1958 lease during the International Geophysical Year to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for acoustic studies of the North Atlantic and Mediterranean. In that task, the ship towed a cable that recorded ambient sound in the ocean, plus a thermistor chain for measuring temperature.

The Navy then re-acquired the old Army mine ship on 17 May 1959, painted her haze gray, kept the USCG name, and redesignated her as ARC-5, a cable repair ship.

The difference as told by two Jane’s entries:

USS Yamacraw (ARC-5), port quarter view of cable repair ship USS Yamacraw (ARC-5) anchored in an unidentified location. Previously served as minelayer USS Trapper (ACM-9) and Coast Guard Cutter Yamacraw (WARC-333).NHHC L45-314.01.01

As a Naval auxiliary, she operated from Portsmouth to Bermuda and spent much of her at-sea time conducting research projects for the Office of Naval Research and for the Bell Telephone Laboratories.

On 2 July 1965, Yamacraw was decommissioned by the Navy for a second and final time, transferred to the permanent custody of the Maritime Administration, and struck, again, from the Navy list.

Her final fate is unknown.

Navy makes the shift back to LSTs, err LSMs, official

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At a time when the USN’s big deck ‘phib force is perhaps at its smallest size in terms of number of hulls in the water since 1940, the Medium Landing Ship has officially been announced by the SECNAV.

As many as 35 are wanted by the Marines, although you can be sure that will likely be trimmed to 23-24 (the Marines have only two missile-slinging Marine Littoral Regiments stood up, rather than the three planned, the whole reason for the LSM to exist).

The winner is Damen’s Landing Ship Transport (LST) 100 design, with the “100” being its length in meters. A small ship, measuring 321 feet with a 1,400 dwt (4,000 tons full load) displacement, it is capable of 15 knots while carrying a 1,020 m² RoRo deck, featuring a helicopter pad and space for small boats. Crew size is just 18 men– which means 40 overseen by an O-5 in Big Navy parlance.

They can essentially land a vehicle-based company-sized force, which sets up the interesting scenario of, say, an LSM, LCS, and an older DDG, operating as a sort of “pocket MEU” for non-combat operations other than all-out war (evacs, humanitarian support, exercises, constabulary, etc) — freeing up regular MEUs for more muscular use.

“The U.S. Navy has selected the LST 100 design for the Medium Landing Ship (LSM) program, enabling rapid fielding of this urgently needed capability to our Navy and U.S. Marine Corps team. By leveraging a mature, non-developmental design and strategic engineering, we are shortening acquisition timelines and ensuring our forces have the littoral mobility they need when they need it.”

As Damen is a proven designer and its successive series of 110, 87, and 154-foot patrol boats, built by Bollinger in Louisiana, have been the background of the USCG since the 1980s, with more than 180 delivered. That puts Bollinger immediately in the hunt, and, as the LSM is a simple design, you can bet some commercial firms and also-runs will also try to get in on the build.

It is (almost) always more efficient and effective to buy an existing product off the shelf than to develop one to fit your exact needs. NAVSEA has found that out painfully with the LCS program and the Zumwalt-class Megadestroyers.

Even when buying an existing design, such as done ostensibly with the now-abandoned Constellation-class frigates, NAVSEA has learned that it cannot totally change every compartment of the design, add dozens of new ones, and start construction before this total redesign is even finished.

Off the shelf means little to no changes. Hopefully, NAVSEA has seen the light.

A return to LST normal?

USCG-manned USS LST 66 headed for a hot beach at Balikpapan. Commissioned on 12 April 1943, LST-66 was on her 12 series of landings after hitting the beach with Marines and soldiers at Cape Gloucester, Saidor, Hollandia, Toem-Wakde-Sarmi, Biak, Noemfoor, Cape Sansapor, Morotai, Leyte, Lingayen, and Mindanao, earning eight battle stars. NARA 26-G-4741

Going back to the days of the Overlord, Detachment, and Iceberg landings of 1944-45, the Navy relied on LSTs to get to the beach with an early generation of LSDs/APDs just offshore running small boats to and from troop-laden transports.

This formula continued well into the Carter era, even giving a nod to vertical envelopment as early as Operation Swift Winds in South Vietnam in 1965, using amphibious assault ships like the USS Iwo Jima (LPH-2) to rapidly insert Marines via helicopter. Meanwhile, starting in 1962 with the 14,000-ton USS Raleigh (LPD-1), assault transport docks began to appear, with the ability to carry both landing craft and helicopters.

In 1968, the Navy had 7 Iwo Jima-class 18,000-ton helicopter carriers built or on the schedule, 16 Raleigh and Cleveland class LPDs, 33 LSDs of the Anchorage, Cabildo, and Ashland class as well as the 27 Newport and Suffolk class LSTs plus 99 (!) older LST-1156 (Terribone Parish), LST-511 (Caddo Parish), and LST-1 (Blanco) series gators. This was also bolstered by 20 Attack Transports (APAs) and 23 Attack Cargo Ships (AKAs).

No matter how you slice it, that was well over 200 amphibious warfare ships.

The prospect of owning the beachhead was still very real at the time, with the Navy having lists of shallow draft DERs, DEs, PGs, and even 11 LSMRs– 1,100-ton landing ships that had been fitted to fire 240 5-inch rocket salvos at a time.

Then came the building of the big deck 40,000+ ton LHAs and LHDs, starting with USS Tarawa in 1976, and increasingly larger LPDs and LSDs, able to push the landing ships further over-the-horizon and out to sea– safely away from things like Silkworm missiles, fast attack craft hiding in the shallows, and 155mm howitzers on the beach.

Artist’s conception of a very preliminary design of the LHA, released by DoD, 15 February 1967. USN 1120262

This meant the end of the APAs and AKAs, as the bigger LHA/LHDs, LPDs, and LSDs could carry more men and cargo, and the outright termination of the LST, with still-useful Newport class vessels divested at the end of the Cold War (and quickly snapped up by Allied countries, with four of them still active in their 50s). Also gone were the “small boy” escorts that could get in close to the beach with 5-inch guns, as clearly they would not be needed.

By 2003, the Navy was down to just five LHAs, seven LHDs, 12 LSDs, and 12 LPDs (a 13th as a flagship), the mystical 36-ship package allowing 12 amphibious ready groups, each with a big deck LHA/LHD, an LPD, and an LSD, capable of toting around a reinforced Marine battalion with its integrated aviation and support elements (the MEU).

Current figures today are 9 LHD/LHAs, 10 LSDs, and 13 LPDs: 32 hulls, just one more than the Congress-mandated minimum of 31 ships. But that is subjective as the worn-out LSDs are retiring, and incoming LPD numbers are not sufficient to replace them on a hull-for-hull basis.

Worse, there is no, um, expendable, landing ship to put the Marine Littoral Regiment on the beach, which is the stated need for the LSM (we can’t call them full-fledged LSTs now, can we?).

We all know that the LSM will be pressed into other service outside of schlepping MLRs around the Chinese littoral, especially when viewed on their 20-30 year lifespan. Hopefully, it will not come at the expense of the big hull gators, or we will be right back to 1944-45 again, but at a time when the littoral has never been more dangerous, or when we have less control of it.

So long, Armidales

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Australia this week said goodbye to the last of 14 aluminum-hulled Armidale-class patrol boats, with the last three active members (HMAS Bathurst, Albany, and Childers) sailing into Darwin’s HMAS Coonawarra for the last time.

HMA Ships Bathurst, Albany, and Childers sail into Darwin harbour for the final time.

HMA Ships Bathurst, Albany, and Childers sail into Darwin harbour for the final time.

They began entering service in 2005, but due to almost constant deployments via 21 rotating crews, and taskings that took them as far as Timor, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Christmas Island, as well as on joint counter-terrorism patrols in the Sulu Sea with the Philippine Navy, they are ready for retirement.

Decent ships at some 186 feet in length, they had a 300-ton displacement and a reliable MTU diesel powerplant, which gave them long legs and a 42-day endurance. Armed with a 25mm Mk38 in a Typhoon remote mount and two .50 cals, they carried a 21-member crew– small for a 186-foot PC– as well as two 24-foot RIBs.

However, aluminum is not known for extended durability in high sea states often encountered in the region, and besides hull cracking, they are just worn out.

HMAS Childers prepares to come alongside HMAS Coonawarra in Darwin. Photo: Petty Officer Leo Baumgartner

HMAS Coonawarra has joined former Armidale Class Patrol Boats crew members to welcome the last of the ACPBs, HMA Ships Albany, Bathurst, and Childers, as the ships conducted a final group entry into HMAS Coonawarra

They were also the stars (and set) of Seasons 2-5 of the excellent Ozzie maritime LE drama, Sea Patrol, which aired from 2008 to 2011 and is widely available to watch for free online.

They are being replaced by a half-dozen larger (262 foot/1,600-ton) Arafura-class offshore patrol vessels, which have the same armament but an aviation deck and better seakeeping abilities.

Navy’s second Offshore Patrol Vessel NUSHIP Eyre arrives at Fleet Base West to begin her transition to the operational release phase. *** Local Caption *** NUSHIP Eyre berthed alongside Fleet Base West for the first time on Friday, 3 October 2025. Her arrival marks the beginning of the transitions to Operational release – a proud moment for the crew, who have proven themselves responsive and adaptive throughout the dynamic lead-up to this milestone.

These are augmented by a dozen 189-foot/400-ton Cape and Evolved Cape class PBs, built by Austal.

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