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Warship Wednesday, June 14, 2017: The newly found enforcer of Dewey’s squadron

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile 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

Warship Wednesday, June 14, 2017: The newly found enforcer of Dewey’s squadron

Commissioned in 1897, the McCulloch was the largest of a new breed of revenue cutters and the only one with three masts.

Here we see the one-of-a-kind barquentine-rigged steel-hulled cruising cutter McCulloch of the Revenue Cutter Service as she appeared while in the U.S. Navy attached to one Commodore Dewey on the Asiatic station in 1898. While I generally try to alternate U.S. and foreign ships on Warship Wednesday, and generally only do about 4-5 Coast Guard cutters a year, bear with me this week as the McCulloch is very much in the news again after being lost for the past 100 years.

Named after Hugh McCulloch, the gold-standard-loving Secretary of the Treasury under Presidents Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Chester A. Arthur, and Grover Cleveland, the cutter McCulloch followed the longstanding tradition of the USRCS of naming large cutters after past Treasury bosses.

The message of President Abraham Lincoln nominating Hugh McCulloch to be Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, 03/06/1865, via The U.S. National Archives.

McCulloch passed away at his home in Maryland in May 1895 and his name was assigned to the newly ordered 219-foot cutter then being built at a price of $196,500 by William Cramp & Sons, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

McCulloch was rather fast, at 17.5 knots on trials with a twin boiler-fed triple-expansion steam engine, and could carry a quartet of deck guns (up to 5-inchers in theory, though only 6-pdr 57mm mounts were fitted) arranged in sponsons and located in the bow and stern quarters of the ship, as well as a single bow-mounted 15-inch torpedo tube for an early Whitehead-style fish. She was a composite design, with a steel hull sheathed in wood, and carried both her steam suite and an auxiliary sail rig.

Four near-sisters of what was known as the “Propeller-class” at the time were built during the same period, each to slightly tweaked designs, in an effort to modernize the aging RCS fleet. McCulloch was slightly larger and enjoyed more bunker space as a result. McCulloch maintained her distinction as the largest revenue cutter, and later USCG cutter, during her 20-year career.

Her shorter sisters:

–Gresham, a brigantine-rigged 206-foot, 1,090-ton steel-hulled steamer built by the Globe Iron Works Company of Cleveland, OH for $147,800
–Manning, a brigantine-rigged 205-foot, 1,150-ton composite-hulled steamer, was built by the Atlantic Works Company of East Boston, MA, for a cost of $159,951.
–Algonquin, brigantine-rigged 205.5-foot, 1,180-ton steel-hulled steamer built by Globe for $193,000.
–Onondaga, brigantine-rigged 206-foot, 1,190-ton steel-hulled steamer built by Globe for $193,800.

McCulloch, note her bow tube just above the waterline. Photo by Edward H. Hart, Detroit Publishing, via State Historical Society of Colorado, LOC LC-D4-20618

Commissioned 12 December 1897, McCulloch was placed under the command of Captain D.B. Hogsdon, RCS.

Captain Daniel B. Hodgsdon, US revenue cutter service, Reproduced from “Harper’s Weekly,” volume 43, 1899, page 977. NH 49012.

With the Spanish-American War looming, she was dispatched to join Dewey in the Far East via the Med, being the most modern and combat-ready vessel in the cutter service. Arriving at Singapore 8 April 1898, she was the first cutter to venture into the Indian Ocean or complete the Suez Canal.

Sailing with Dewey’s force of four cruisers and two gunboats, McCulloch was tasked to be something of the squadron’s all-purpose dispatch ship: scouting over the horizon, watching the squadron’s rear, keeping an eye on the supply ships Nanshan and Zafire, and being available for tow work as needed.

She did, however, make ready her guns once the balloon went up and, as the squadron penetrated Spanish-held Manila Bay on midnight of 30 April, she fired her guns in one of the first actions in the Pacific theater of that war.

From DANFS:

Just as McCulloch brought El Fraile Rock [now Fort Drum ] abaft the starboard beam, the black stillness was broken. Soot in the cutter’s stack caught fire and sent up a column of fire like a signal light. Immediately thereafter a battery on El Fraile took McCulloch under fire. [The cruiser] Boston, in column just ahead of the cutter, answered the battery, as did McCulloch, and the Spanish gun emplacement was silenced.

Frank B. Randall, R.C.S., Chief Engineer of the Revenue Cutter McCulloch, died from the effects of heat and over-exertion while trying to stop the blaze from the smokestack of the McCulloch, and should rightfully be considered a death from the engagement, though in the subsequent rush to smother Dewey with a “no Americans were killed” moniker for the upcoming battle which began at 0540 on 1 May, he is often overlooked. He was buried at sea, with military honors, the following day.

Chief Engineer F.B. Randall, U.S. Revenue Cutter Service, an engraving reproduced for publication in “Harper’s Weekly” for September 30, 1899, page 975

McCulloch took part in the fleet engagement, minding the supply vessels from molestation from Spanish shore batteries and small craft. She also prevented the British steamer Esmeralda (1,989t) from leaving the harbor, on orders from Dewey.

Immediately after the battle, as Dewey had ordered the submarine cable from Manila to Hong Kong cut, he used McCulloch to convey messages to the latter location to communicate with Washington, giving the cutter the honor of carrying the news to the world of the great Battle of Manila Bay. Arriving at Hong Kong on 3 May, with Dewey’s aide, Lt. Brumby aboard to cable the report to the U.S., Hogsdon, sent his own.

From the USCG Historians Office:

U. S. STEAMER McCulloch,
Manila Bay, May 3, 1898.

SIR: Regarding the part taken by this vessel in the naval action of Manila Bay at Cavite, on Sunday morning, May 1, 1898, between the American and Spanish forces, I have the honor to submit the following report:
Constituting the leading vessel of the reserve squadron the McCulloch was, when fire opened, advanced as closely as was advisable in rear of our engaged men of war, in fact, to a point where several shells struck close aboard and others passed overhead, and kept steaming slowly to and fro, ready to render any aid in her power, or respond at once to any signal from the Olympia. A 9-inch hawser was gotten up and run aft, should assistance be necessary in case any of our ships grounded. At a later hour during the day, just prior to the renewal of the attack by our squadron, I intercepted the British mail steamer Esmeralda, in compliance with a signal from the flagship, communicated to her commander your orders in regard to his movements, and then proceeded to resume my former position of the morning, near the fleet, where I remained until the surrender of the enemy. I desire to state in conclusion that I was ably seconded by the officers and crew of my command in every effort made to be in a state of readiness to carry out promptly any orders which might have been signaled from your flagship.
Respectfully, yours,

D. B. HODGSDON
Captain, R. C. S., Commanding

On a return trip from Hong Kong, the cutter brought Philippine Insurgent leader Emilio Aguinaldo back to the islands from his exile– which was to prove a mixed result for the U.S.

While patrolling Manila Bay, she helped assess the Spanish situation there and, in an individual fleet action on 29 May, captured the Spanish Albay-class gunboat Leyte (151t, 98-feet, 1x87mm, 1x70mm) with 25 officers and men aboard as well as 200 soldiers and a small amount of gold. That humble vessel would later be pressed into service as the USS Leyte and work around Cavite yard until sold for scrap in 1907.

Spanish Albay-class canonero Leyte

It was not only the Spanish the cutter had to worry about. With ships of the Kaiser’s navy poking around, McCulloch followed orders from Dewey to chase off the much larger cruiser SMS Irene (5,500-tons, 14x159mm guns) with a shot across the bow on 27 June. She ship was there ostensibly to pick up any German expats in the area and, while she did evac some noncombatants on Isla Grande, none of the Kaiser’s subjects were to be found.

"U.S.S. McCulloch firing a shot across the bow of the German cruiser Irene" by Frank Cresson Schnell, 1898, LOC LC-DIG-det-4a14436

“U.S.S. McCulloch firing a shot across the bow of the German cruiser Irene” by Frank Cresson Schnell, 1898, LOC LC-DIG-det-4a14436. Note the cutter is shown in perspective as being much larger than the German, when in fact the truth was the other way around.

On 5 July, the cruiser USS Raleigh fired a shot across the bow of the German Bussard-class cruiser SMS Cormoran in a similar incident.

McCullough remained in Manila Bay through November, participating in the final fall of the city that August.

Members of McCulloch’s crew pose with a Spanish shore gun disabled during Battle of Manila Bay at Corregidor. Courtesy of U.S. Navy.

Her service in the Far East with Dewey inspired a poem by H.M. Barstow to counter her image in stateside papers as only a “tender” or “dispatch boat.”

U.S. Revenue Cutter McCulloch, tender to the Admirals Fleet poem 1898

Arriving back in the U.S. at the end of 1898, she reverted to Treasury service. She did bring back with her a quartet of 37mm (1-pdr) revolving cannon from the Spanish cruiser Reina Cristina as war trophies presented to the ship and her crew by Dewey, which today rest outside of Hamilton Hall at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.

Right into drydock at San Francisco, California, circa 1899. Note her single screw Catalog #: NH 72407

Photographed circa 1900. You can see her torpedo tube molded into the bow. Note: Rigging has been retouched in this print Description: Catalog #: NH 46471

USRC McCulloch (1897-1917) Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, circa 1900. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 46474

USRC McCulloch (1897-1917) Photographed by Vaughan & Keith, San Francisco, California, circa 1900. Halftone print. Description: Catalog #: NH 46472

Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, circa 1900. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 46473

Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, circa 1900. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 46473

For the next two decades, the cutter lived a much more sedate life, cruising from the Mexican border northward from her station in San Francisco until being ordered to Alaskan waters from 1906-12 as part of the Bearing Sea Patrol where she did everything from rescue lost fishermen to enforce the law in gold rush port towns to regulate the sealer exclusion zones in the Pribilof Islands.

In Alaskan waters during the time of Jack London’s books. She is likely dressed for a national holiday, probably July 4

McCulloch in Seward, Alaska Territory

Returning to California she cruised the West Coast until war broke out in April 1917.

USRC McCulloch Caption: At San Diego, California, before World War I. Description: Courtesy of Thomas P. Naughton, 1973. Catalog #: NH 92209

Note the difference in profile. In 1914, USRC Cutter McCulloch was ordered to Mare Island Navy Shipyard where the cutter’s boilers were replaced, the mainmast was removed and the bowsprit shortened. In 1915, McCulloch became a US Coast Guard Cutter when the US Revenue Cutter Service and US Life-Saving Service were combined to create the United States Coast Guard. Credit: Gary Fabian Collection via NOAA

Transferring once again to Navy service, she prowled the coast just in case German surface raiders popped up (remember the raider Seeadler was active at the time and captured three American-flagged schooners in June-July in the Southeast Pacific, and the raider Wolf had poked her nose into the West Pac).

However, McCullough was not destined to take another German ship under fire in time of war, as on the morning 13 June 1917, three miles northwest of Point Conception, California, she collided with the Pacific Steamship Company’s steamer Governor (5,474-tons) in dense fog.

One crewman, Acting Water Tender John Arvid Johansson, lost his life but all other hands were saved while the cutter sank in just 35 minutes. Johansson, trapped in his bunk when the collision occurred, never stood a chance.

“I heard the signal to abandon ship and went up on deck through the companionway onto the main deck to go to my station when I heard someone singing out for help. It was Johanson [sic] and he was all doubled up in the wreckage about three feet from where his bunk was. He was out against the ice boxes. There was nobody else around, so I took some of the wreckage away and there was a piece of wood eight inches long stuck in his side. The master-at-arms passed the word for men to carry him to a surf boat.” Robert Grassow, Carpenter, USCG Cutter McCulloch. Credit: San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park_ K036.07068.1o

Note, she has twin masts, a scheme she only carried in 1917. Also, note the fog bank. A court of inquiry showed that the cutter had stopped in the fog and turned her signals on, while SS Governor was making 14 knots.

At the time, the vessel was deemed lost in water too deep to permit any salvage effort. A naval board of inquiry in March 1918 placed the blame for the collision on the Governor, who was barreling through the fog bank at 14 knots in a dangerous area known as the “Cape Horn of the Pacific.”

During the collision with the McCulloch, there were 429 passengers and crew aboard the Governor with no reported injuries. The big steamer was found at fault for not obeying the “rules of the road” and agreed to a settlement payment to the U.S. government of $167,500 in December 1923.

As for her classmates: Cleveland-built sisters Algonquin and Onondaga had been sold in 1930 and 1924 respectively and disposed of. Boston-built Manning likewise was sold for scrap in 1931. Gresham, sold by the Coast Guard in 1935 for scrap was required by the service in WWII for coastal patrol, then became part of the Israeli Navy before disappearing again in the 1950s and was last semi-reliably seen in the Chesapeake Bay area as late as 1980.

However, we are not done with McCulloch.

On Tuesday 13 June 2017, RADM Todd Sokalzuk, commander of the 11th Coast Guard District, and Robert Schwemmer, West Coast Regional Maritime Heritage Coordinator for NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries, announced that USCGC McCulloch CG-3 had been found and identified.

During a joint NOAA – USCG remotely operated vehicle (ROV) training mission in October 2016, the science team confirmed the historic remains of McCulloch off Point Conception. Working off the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary’s R/V Shearwater, a VideoRay Mission Specialist ROV was deployed to survey and characterize the archaeological remains of this historically significant shipwreck in America’s U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Navy’s military history.

The helm, or steering station, was located on the upper deck of the flying bridge of the USCG Cutter McCulloch. The helm’s steering shaft interfaced with a second helm located in the protected pilothouse one deck below. Both helms were connected to a steam steering machine that provided power-assisted steering, so the ship could be piloted from either station. Because the flying bridge was unprotected from the weather, that helm had to be constructed of nonferrous metal. Its wooden handles have succumbed to wood-boring organisms.Credit: NOAA/USCG/VideoRay

The first diagnostic artifact discovered at the shipwreck site of the USCG Cutter McCulloch is the 15-inch torpedo tube molded into the bow stem. Metridium anemones drape the bow stem and are found on other sections of the wreck where there is exposure to prevailing currents. Credit: NOAA/USCG/VideoRay

“McCulloch and her crew were fine examples of the Coast Guard’s long-standing multi-mission success from a pivotal naval battle with Commodore Dewey, to safety patrols off the coast of California, to protecting fur seals in the Pribilof Islands in Alaska,” said Sokalzuk. “The men and women who crew our newest cutters are inspired by the exploits of great ships and courageous crews like the McCulloch. I extend the Coast Guard’s heartfelt thanks to our partners in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for helping us locate this important piece of our heritage and assisting us in preserving its legacy.”

McCulloch rests on the ocean floor off of Point Conception near the 1917 collision site.

Officials have not determined plans for the next phase of exploration of the shipwreck. McCulloch is not located within a NOAA Marine Sanctuary, but the ship is U.S. government property and is protected under the Sunken Military Craft Act of 2004. No portion of any government wreck may be disturbed or removed.

On the East Coast, McCulloch’s memory is maintained as well.

Every USCGA and NOAA Officer Corps cadet pass these almost every day

Remember, the guns she brought back from Manila Bay are at the USCGA are the following pieces of maritime art.

McCulloch in the Battle of Manila Bay, her four 6-pdrs barking. By Donald J. Phillips

McCulloch heading off the Germans at Manila Bay by Donald J. Phillips

USRC McCulloch; painting, Coast Guard Academy Museum Art Collection, “Here McCulloch, with her while hull and buff superstructure and stack, makes way under steam and full sail. In the first years of the twentieth century the masts and sails (with a few exceptions), coal-fired boilers, and iron hulls gave way to steel, oil and diesel fuels, and turbine propulsion, closely emulating the maritime technological advancement of the US Navy. Nevertheless, the cutters remained distinctive vessels, easily recognizable from their Navy counterparts due to their “form following function” designs as well as the colors adorning their hulls.”

Specs:

Plans with overlay information by NOAA

Displacement: 1,280 tons
Length: 219′
Beam: 33′ 4″
Draft: 14′
Machinery: Triple-expansion steam, 21 1/2″, 34 1/2″, and 56 1/2″ diameter x 30″ stroke; 2400hp to a single shaft. Two boilers, 200 psi.
Rig: Barquentine with nine sails, later two “military” masts without rigging by 1914
Performance: 17.5 knots at trial
Complement: 68 Officers and Men as designed. 130 in 1914
Armament:
4 x 6pdr (57mm); 1 torpedo tube (as built)

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Happy 242nd birthday, Big Green

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U.S. Army regulars of the first American contingent to arrive overseas in World War I, Wellington Barracks, 1917. Photographed by Christina Broom via Museum of London. Note the stacked M1903s, disk type canteens, and the very real “I guess we are over there now” faces. Most of these men had likely seen the elephant in Mexico or the Philippines, but were not ready for the ultra modern meat grinder of the Western Front

Since its official birth, more than a year before the Declaration of Independence — the U.S. Army has been getting it done.

On June 14, 1775, the Continental Congress passed the following resolution:

Resolved, That six companies of expert riflemen [sic], be immediately raised in Pennsylvania, two in Maryland, and two in Virginia; … [and] that each company, as soon as completed [sic], shall march and join the army near Boston, to be there employed as light infantry, under the command of the Chief Officer in that army.

With this resolution, the Continental Congress adopted the New England Army of Observation, making it a “continental” army — a united colonial fighting force — that could represent all 13 colonies with the addition of the troops from the three middle colonies. The Continental Army thus became America’s first national institution.

Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Mark Milley and Sgt. Maj. of the Army Daniel Dailey sends the below message for the 242nd Army Birthday. This year’s theme commemorates the 100th anniversary of World War I.

The first 243 American soldiers in Europe arrived on British soil on 18 May 1917, shown in the image at the top of this post. They would begin crossing the Channel and landing in France on 26 June. Four months later, on 21 October, the first Americans entered combat when units from the U.S. Army’s “Big Red One” 1st Infantry Division were assigned to Allied trenches in the Luneville sector near Nancy, France.

With that in mind, check out 7 ways WWI still impacts today’s Army.

Montenegro, reporting for duty

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The small Balkan country of Montenegro just became the 29th NATO member, despite the howls from a traditional ally, Moscow.

Below is the flag raising ceremony, performed by the Honour Guard of Montenegro, at NATO headquarters on June 7.

The uniforms worn by the guard represent the old Kingdom’s uniforms from the WWI era.

The guard is armed with Yugo Zastava-made M59/66 SKS rifles. Besides the Guard, the modern ground forces of Montenegro consist of a battalion-sized light infantry force armed with German and Austria small arms (HK G36s and 416s, Glock 17, Steyr AUG).

The historic force

The tiny mountain kingdom of Montenegro was the smallest of all combatants in the Great War. The population of the very poor country was placed at some 500,000, many times less than any of the other 1914 powers. Other than an imperial guard unit, the army had no real peacetime strength, the only professional soldiers being a small volunteer training cadre. The country however lived on a war footing, with each man required to carry a Gasser heavy revolver at all times by order of the king. The army was set to be mobilized within a period of 48 hours through the use of flag and lamp signals being sent from hill to hill. Every reserve Montenegrin soldier was given his personal weapons and equipment to keep with him at home and be prepared to report at a moment’s notice with his own change of clothes and short-term supply of foodstuffs.

From a German guide, 1914

To be blunt, the force was arguably the worst equipped army on the continent at the start of the Great War. It was perhaps the only military in Europe at the time that had no cavalry due both to a shortage of horses and unsuitable terrain. The kingdom had the worst roads (almost impossible in many cases except in single file) in a region known for poor roads. There were only 26 miles of railway in the entire country.

A Montenegrin column on the march between Rijeka and Podgoritze on to the Albanian-Serbian frontier. Original wash drawing signed and dated by Canton Woodville, for unidentified magazine issue of Aug. 1, 1908; infantry column on the march on the narrow mountain path, accompanied by women and pack-mules, body of water and mountain in the background. Prints, Drawings, and Watercolors from the Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:239061/

The soldiers in many cases wore no uniform, with most reservists showing up on mobilization day wearing a blend of civilian clothes accented with the occasional bandoliers, cap or greatcoat. Officers wore a uniform patterned on the Tsarist Russian Army of the time.

Artillery, pulled by oxen, was limited to about 70 pieces of a dozen different Italian and English makes dating to the 1850’s. Montenegro was an ally of the Russia, who donated most of the army’s weapons. In 1902, 44,000 artillery short swords, 30,000 Berdan breechloading rifles, and 25,000 Smith & Wesson .44 caliber revolvers were given by the Russians to their Montenegrin allies. The fact that all of these weapons had been withdrawn as being obsolete was of little concern. A small shipment of more modern Mosin Nagant M.91 bolt action rifles was sent just before the war.

Weapon examination in the Montenegro army c. 1914. Note the mix of uniforms and gear.

Mobilized strength of the army was some 50,000 men organized into 59 battalions of light infantry and 16 independent 40-man “scouting units”. The officer corps was made up of about 700 officers, with field grade members principally selected by local tribal lots and votes, etc. for service in the army. These men often had very little if any modern military training. The army was, in particular, lacking in the region of medicine with not a single full-time military doctor, dentist, or veterinarian of any kind held on the rolls before the war. The Commander-in-Chief was King Nikola and the Army Chief of Staff was Serdar/Gen. Janko Vukotić, while Serbian Maj. Gen. Bozidar Jankovic served as field commander (all shown in the second plate above).

This force took the field on 29 July 1914 and met the Austrians combat. It was a seasoned group of mountain fighters, with the rank and file having just fought against the Ottoman Turks in the 1912-1913 Balkan wars, and they acquitted themselves well in inital battles.

Albanian nationalists took advantage of the Austrian invasion and launched their own incursion into Montenegro in August 1914. This forced the Montenegrins to fight a war on both ends of their tiny kingdom at once. It is not reliably reported how many casualties the hardy fighters took, but what is known is that the army gave their last full measure, being virtually wiped out in battle against the Austrians in the closing months of 1915. On 25 January 1916 Montenegrin Gen. Janko Vukotić, ordered the remnants of his army to lay down their arms and disperse, and then surrendered his staff to the Austro-Hungarians while King Nikola fled the country.

Post-war, Montenegro became part of Yugoslavia and her army was only reconstituted upon full independence in 2006.

Today, they amount to about  2,000 active and 500 reservists.

In recent years, they have participated in a number of international operations abroad and last week an 8-man Montenegrin maritime protection team that is currently on board the World Food Programme (WFP) ship, MV Esbjerg, won accolade from EU NAVFOR’s Force Commander, Rear Admiral Rafael Fernández-Pintado Muñoz-Rojas, for their work protecting the Esbjerg from Somali pirate action groups.

Note the country patch. Back in business.

Those groovy late 70s- early 80s camo schemes

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The Air Force had a lot of stuff going on in the Carter/Reagan-era:

A U-2C painted in a gray camouflage pattern called the “Sabre” scheme in 1975. The camouflage replaced the usual black finish to ease British concerns about “spy planes” operating from the UK. In Europe, this U-2 tested equipment to locate and suppress enemy surface-to-air missiles. (U.S. Air Force photo 070712-F-1234P-014)

F-4 Phantoms in woodland camo of 4th Tactical Fighter Wing based at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina in the early 1980s. Looks like one plane from each squadron

Rockwell International B-1A (SN 76-174A) in flight with desert camouflage scheme. (U.S. Air Force photo)

A Goose back over Dutch Harbor

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With several important memorial dates this week (the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Midway, 73rd of D-Day, et.al.) one that is easy to slip through the cracks is the Battle of Dutch Harbor.

As a diversion to Midway, a fairly strong task force under Japanese Rear Admiral Kakuji Kakuta, comprising the carriers Ryūjō (10,000 tons) and Jun’yō (25,000 tons) as well as their escorts and a naval landing force, attacked the Aleutians in Alaska.

One engagement, where Katutka sent his 80~ strong combined airwing to plaster the only significant American base in the region, socked the base and port facility over the course of two raids on 3-4 June, sinking the barracks ship Northwestern, destroying a few USAAF bombers and USN PBYs, and killing 78 Americans.

Japanese attack on Dutch Harbor, June 3, 1942. Group of Marines on the "alert" between attacks. Smoke from burning fuel tanks in background had been set afire by a dive bomber the previous day. Alaska. NARA 520589

Japanese attack on Dutch Harbor, June 3, 1942. Group of Marines on the “alert” between attacks. Smoke from burning fuel tanks in background had been set afire by a dive bomber the previous day. Alaska. NARA 520589

The Japanese in turn got a bloody nose from the old school 3-inch M1918s and .50 cal water-cooled Browning of Arkansas National Guard’s 206th Coast Artillery (Anti Aircraft), which splashed a few Japanese planes, a PBY stitched up 19-year-old PO Tadayoshi Koga’s Zero (which crashed and was recovered in remarkable condition–  an intelligence coup) and a group of Army Col. John Chennault’s P-40s out of Unamak accounted for a few more.

Koga’s Zero

To honor the battle, a restored Canadian Harvard (the Canuks helped “retake” Attu and Kiska from the Japanese and defend Alaska during the War) an MH-65 of the USCGC Midgett, based in Kodiak, and a restored Grumman JRF-5 Goose made a ceremonial pass over Dutch Harbor on 3 June.

Coast Guard Cutter Midgett’s aviation detachment conducts flyovers alongside historic WWII airplanes, a Grumman JRF-5 Goose and a Canadian Harvard MK IV training plane, in Dutch Harbor, Alaska,

The Goose, of which 24 were used by the Coast Guard, mostly on the West Coast, was a small amphibian that could carry a couple of depth charges, drop off some scouts in a remote area, or rescue a downed aircrew in a pinch. The Army, Navy and (after 1947) the Air Force also used the Goose in varying numbers.

The Grumman JRF-5G Goose just screams Tales of the Golden Monkey

The Bengals of Majuro

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Here we see a F4U-1 Corsair #252 (possibly that of 1/Lt. William ‘Bill” Boshart) of the “Fighting Bengals ” of VMF 224, Marine Corps 4th Marines Aircraft Wing, Majuro Airstrip, Marshall Islands, in 1944.

Two things: A) that guy’s cap has to be held on by staples– have you ever stood next to a 2,000 hp 18-cylinder Pratt & Whitney and felt the airblast? B) Note the well-worn .50 cal blisters (U.S. Navy photo colorized by Paul Reynolds.)

The 100th Naval Construction Battalion (Seabee) moved into Majuro only days after the primitive strip was captured from the Japanese in February 1944 and soon created a very nice (for the Pacific War) coral-surfaced 5,800-foot runway that covered most of the island itself linked to aprons on two close atolls connected by newly-built causeways.

4th Airwing’s Marine Air Group 13 (MAG-13) relocated to Majuro Atoll in mid-March 1944 and included VF-39 operating the F6F Hellcat, VMF-155 and VMF-224 operating F4Us and VMSB-231 operating SBDs.

1944 photo of bomb-laden Marine F4U Corsairs of VMF-224 taxiing out for an airstrike from Majuro Airfield

The base proved popular for about a year, with MAG-13 (including our Corsairs of the Bengals) heading to Yomitan airfield in Okinawa for that campaign.

While the 100th NCB was disestablished after the war and Majuro was abandoned by the Navy in 1947 (and altogether by the Marshall Islands government in 1972), VMF 224 has maintained a long history and is still flying high as VMFA(AW)-224, pushing F/A-18Ds with MAG-31.

Illuminated by the setting sun after landing at Al Asad, Iraq, a ‘tiger-striped’ U.S. Marine Corps McDonnell Douglas F/A-18D Hornet from with Marine all-weather fighter-bomber Squadron VMFA(AW)-224 Fighting Bengals rests in the new hangar area prepared for the squadron by 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing Marines, on 15 January 2005. Cpl. Paul Leicht, USMC – U.S. Marine Corps photo 200511961450

Warship Wednesday, June 7, 2017: The first stripe and the savior of the Queen

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile 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

Warship Wednesday, June 7, 2017: The first stripe and the savior of the Queen

Here we see an oncoming Coast Guard Cutter through an attack periscope of a “U-boat.” She is the Owasco-class gunboat/high endurance cutter Androscoggin (WPG/WHEC-68) and was the first to carry the now-customary racing stripe of the service. More on this submarine action below.

The word Androscoggin is an Indian term meaning “fishing place for alewives” or “spear fishing” and is used for a river formed on the Maine-New Hampshire border as well as a county and lake in the same area. The name was first used in U.S. maritime service by the U.S. Revenue Cutter Androscoggin, a 210-foot vessel built for the service in Delaware in 1908.

USRC Androscoggin (1907-1922) at the dock at Boston Navy Yard, MA, May 14, 1920. The wooden planking of the hull can clearly be seen. NHC S-553-K

One of the first warships (she was armed with a quartet of four pounders as well as demolition charges and mines to sink deflects found at sea) designed to break ice, she was used in many high-profile rescues at sea under amazingly harsh conditions as well as participating in the early International Ice Patrol after the loss of RMS Titanic. In 1914, she interned the North German Lloyd Line steamship SS Kronprinzessin Cecilie— with $10m worth of German gold aboard– as the Great War came to Europe and saved her from likely capture by British ships on the Atlantic– a fun point when we consider the follow-on Cutter Androscoggin.

Speaking of which, let’s get to the 255-foot Owasco or “Indian tribe” -class.

Designed during World War II to replace a few elderly cutters dating back to the 1900s as well as 10 Lake-class vessels transferred to Britain in 1940 under the Destroyers for Bases deal, the 13 Owascos were short (225 feet) and beamy (43 feet) making them as wide as a FFG7 class frigate of today but about 200 feet shorter. With a displacement of over 2,000-tons at full load, they were wider and as heavy as a Fletcher-class destroyer of the day but classified as gunboats (PGs) by the Navy.

They were the most heavily armed Coast Guard ships of WWII, with twin 5″/38 mounts fore and aft, a pair of quad 40mm Bofors, 4x20mm/80 singles, twin depth charge racks over the stern, 6 Y-gun depth charge projectors, and a Mark 10 Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar device. Besides the larger Wind-class icebreakers operated by both the Navy and the Coast Guard, and the 327-foot Treasury-class cutters, the Owascos were the only WWII-era ships built for the service that had a fire control radar (a Mk26). The initial design even included an amidships floatplane and catapult, but this was deleted.

Class leader USCGC Owasco, 18 July 1945 off San Pedro CA; Photo No. SP-9944; US Navy photo. What a chunky monkey.

With their overly complex turbo-electric plant and low-speed (17 knots wide open), these boats were not really meant for high seas/heavy weather but for close-in littoral (16-foot draft) work and plodding convoy operations.

Androscoggin’s sister, the 255-ft. U.S. Coast Guard Cutter ESCANABA, based in New Bedford, Massachusetts, takes a salty shower bath in rough North Atlantic weather on ocean station ‘Delta’, 650 miles southeast of Newfoundland and east of Nova Scotia

The first 11 of the class were built by the Western Pipe & Steel Company at San Pedro, California, while the last two—Mendota and Pontchartrain—were completed at the hands of the by the Coast Guard Yard at Curtis Bay, Maryland. None made a significant impact on WWII, with class leader Owasco commissioning on 18 May 1945.

CGC Androscoggin, the last of the class built at San Pedro and the last of the design to be completed, commissioned on 26 September 1946, a full year after the war ended. Her first station was in Boston where she spent until 1950 on weather stations in the Atlantic, sans most of her wartime armament.

Original caption states: “The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter ANDROSCOGGIN (WPG-68), shown here leaving port bound for Argentia, Newfoundland, the ANDROSCOGGIN has served primarily as an Ocean Weather Stations vessel in the North Atlantic. Circa 1950; no photo number; photographer unknown. Note the appearance of her contrasted against the Oswasco’s WWII armament and camo.

Transferred to Miami in 1959, Androscoggin would spend the next 23 years off and on there conducting law enforcement and search and rescue operations, as well as occasional stints on ocean weather station tours– the latter spent performing 28 days obtaining meteorological and oceanography data and information. As such, she had her sole twin 5″ mount replaced with a more practical single tube.

Atlantic Weather Observation Service “ocean stations” on which thousands of Coast Guardsmen served through most of the Cold War

Androscoggin also helped support the Navy’s Fleet Sonar School in Key West, serving as the USCG’s school ship there on occasion. During this time, she spent a lot of hours in war games with the various WWII Balao-class subs stationed in the Keys, and as such her sonar and electronics were updated from 1940s-era sets to the current fleet standard.

Original caption states: “The 255-foot U.S. Coast Guard Cutter ANDROSCOGGIN, stationed at Miami, Fla., as a training and search and rescue ship, is now carrying specially trained U.S. Weather Bureau observers to gather upper-air weather information during her patrols in the Gulf of Mexico. The ANDROSCOGGIN makes many training cruises a year and performs search and rescue work in the South Atlantic and Gulf. In connection with law enforcement, she patrols the Campeche Banks, and are of fishing grounds off the town of Campeche in the Gulf used by hundreds of fishing vessels of the United States and Mexico.”; 13 August 1958; Photo No. 5821; photographer unknown.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, she chopped to help the Navy, picking up the Navy Expeditionary Medal.

In 1965, Androscoggin was the first in the service to pick up the USCG’s new “racing stripe” design.

“The Andy tied up at Base Miami Beach. The picture was taken right after the hash mark was painted on the bow for the first time in 1965.” Provided to Coast Guard Historians Office courtesy of former-Androscoggin crewman John Burmester.

A Technicolor close up of her stripe in 1966 with a bone in her mouth. Note the design has changed over the years in respect to the shield and its placement. Also, note the .50 cal and Hedgehog just under the bridge windows.

In 1966, she was detached to the Bahamas where she helped support the filming of the Paramount film “Assault on a Queen” in which Frank Sinatra and company salvage a lost German U-boat and use her to stop and rob the RMS Queen Mary.

As noted by the Coast Guard’s Historian’s Office: “In the final segments of the film, Androscoggin, through the miracle of special effects, saves the day by ramming and sinking a renegade submarine, thereby thwarting Sinatra’s dastardly plan to rob RMS Queen Mary on the high seas.”

Many of the ocean scenes in the filming of “Assault on a Queen” took place in the huge man-made pool that was the “Sersen Tank” at Fox’s Ranch in Malibu Canyon. Built in the 1960s, dozens of films from “Cleopatra” to “Tora! Tora! Tora!” had their water scenes shot there. The Sinatra crew’s static U-boat set was built there and the footage of Androscoggin‘s ice-strengthened bow rushing from the horizon as the German skipper fires his P-38 in the last act of defiance was superimposed.

Her movie days behind her, she was sent to war.

In 1967, Androscoggin was dispatched to the Navy’s control again, heading to Vietnam for a nine-month stint in Operation Market Time, the interdiction effort off the coast of that country to stop reinforcements from the North from making their way south via water. Androscoggin was assigned to Coast Guard Squadron Three, Vietnam, from 4 December 1967 to 4 August 1968, ditching most of her remaining ASW gear for a pair of 81mm mortars (used for firing illumination rounds) and a half-dozen M2 .50 cals for keeping small boats at bay.

(At least the hammer on the 1911 is down) “A captured Viet Cong from the morning’s raid by the junk force and 82-footer is guarded while his companion is undergoing surgery aboard the Andy in a futile attempt to save his life for further interrogation.” US Coast Guard Cutter ANDROSCOGGIN Deployment in Viet-Nam; Nov. 1967–Sept. 1968 [Cruise Book], page 86.

In addition to sinking or destroying 106 enemy sampans, on the night of 28 Feb/1 March 1968, Androscoggin shot it out with a large armed North Vietnamese steel-hull trawler moving munitions down south at the mouth of the Song Cau River.

The explosion of VC trawler, 1 March 1968, destroyed by Androscoggin. US Coast Guard Cutter ANDROSCOGGIN Deployment in Viet-Nam; Nov. 1967–Sept. 1968 [Cruise Book], page 65.

“. . .Other days we were tossed by a combination of sea, the wind, and long Pacific swell!” US Coast Guard Cutter ANDROSCOGGIN Deployment in Viet-Nam; Nov. 1967–Sept. 1968 [Vietnam Cruise Book], p. 5.

US Coast Guard Cutter ANDROSCOGGIN in heavy seas while deployed in Vietnam

During her 304-day mission from Miami to Miami, she steamed 64,676 miles and fired 4,147 5-inch shells from her main gun over the course of 44 naval gunfire support missions– some with as little as three feet of brackish water under her keel. Her crew also investigated over 2,000 surface contacts, conducted 17 medical missions ashore and delivered four babies.

In her 27-years afloat, she played host to several crew members who went on to great things. Roland Hemond was an NCO on “Andy” in the 1950s and played on her softball team before going to become one of baseball’s most successful executives, spending 23 years as a general manager with the Chicago White Sox and Baltimore Orioles before becoming the chief executive officer of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The well-liked and respected 23rd Commandant of the Coast Guard, Adm. Thad Allen (USCGA 1971) was a newly minted 22-year-old ensign on Androscoggin when it came to his duty to file the customary New Year’s Eve Log going into 1972 as the ship sat tied up at Miami Beach, and I think it is one of the better than I have read:

Such as I, on numbered ships,
on many nights, for countless years,
Have toyed their minds in search of words
To describe a mooring to some pier;
Or the loneliness out underway,
Remembering gentle words and tears,
And find some clever way to state
The movements of a thousand years.
So I, like them, with pen in hand
Here on these pages now commit
The status of our weather ship
And the varied functions there, to wit.
Our mooring lines run two by two
Secured are we this year so new
Berth, Foxtrot, to which our hawsers reach
Is to our port in Miami Beach.
Commander, Coast Guard District Seven
Sits above us in the heavens.
He gives us orders and transfers souls
And exerts his operational control.
Since airplanes in the foremast look pretty unsightly
All of our lights are burning brightly.
To wet our throats and light our way
Throughout these Charlie-status days
Upon the dock we must rely
For telephone and shore ties
So we may protect those here inside
We have sit Yoke modified
And to insure this ship stays sound
The messenger is making hourly rounds.
Pollution abatement is the Coast Guard’s pride
But we are pumping our sewage over the side
And last, there are those more lucky than we
In duty section one, two and three
For to keep the wolf away from the door
The duty belongs to section four.
While at home with family and fireside bright
The commanding officer is ashore tonight.
…with duties done and entries made,
I can only sit and ponder
The pathways through the coming year
And courses we must wander.
Ours is such and duty calls,
But the day must come for us to see
The people of the Earth walk hand in hand
And all nations are one and free.
Until that time we all will pray
That we may find each other
Then stop the wars that mean our doom
And walk the Earth as brothers…
Few creatures are stirring to see the year slip,
Brow quite wrinkled and dark eyes set deep
Love, peace, and joy are there to be found

With the Coast Guard’s post-Vietnam draw-down and a dozen new Hamilton-class 378-foot cutters joining the fleet, the 13 Owascos were retired en bloc between 1973-75, with Androscoggin decommissioned on 27 February 1973, and sold for scrap on 7 October 1974. Few reminders of the class remain.

Androscoggin‘s memory is maintained by a dedicated group of former crewmen and her log books, going all the way back to 1947, are in the National Archives.

There is this piece of maritime art, “Weather decks secure” by CDR Don Van Liew, of Androscoggin at sea.

You can always watch Assault on a Queen, from which stock footage of Androscoggin has been recycled into a number of 1960s and 70s TV shows.

And of course, the racing stripe lives on…and is now the standard identification for coast guard vessels around the world under dozens of flags.

Even the Russians Coast Guard uses it!

Specs:

USCGC Androscoggin (WPG-68; WHEC-68); no caption/number; photographer/date unknown. Provided courtesy of former Androscoggin crewman William C. Bishop to Coast Guard Historians Office. He noted: “I believe this picture was taken after we left the shipyard in 66 or 67 steaming through the Chesapeake Bay after the midship superstructure was added before our deployment to Viet Nam in 67.”

Displacement: 1,978 fl (1966); 1,342 light (1966)
Length: 254’oa; 245’bp
Navigation Draft: 17’3” max (1966) Beam: 43’1” max
Main Engines: 1 Westinghouse electric motor driven by a turbine. SHP: 4,000 total (1945)
Performance, Maximum Sustained: 17.0 kts, 6,157-mi radius (1966)
Performance, Economic: 10.0 kts., 10,376-mi radius (1966)
Fuel Capacity: 141,755 gal (Oil, 95%)
Complement: 10 officers, 3 warrants, 130 men (1966)
Electronics:
(1946)
Radar: SR, SU
Sonar: QJA
(1966)
Detection Radar: SPS-23, SPS-29, Mk 26, Mk 27
Sonar: SQS-1
Armament:
(Designed)
2 x twin 5 inch/38 cal. dual purpose gun mounts, one fore and one aft, 2 x quad 40mm AA gun mounts, 2 x depth charge tracks; 6 x “K” gun depth charge projectors, 1 x hedgehog A/S projector.
(1958)
1 x 5”/38 Mk 12m Mod 6 w/ Mk 52 Mod 3 director and 26-4 fire control radar;
1 x Mk 10 Mod 1 A/S projector;
2 x Mk 32 ASW TT
(1966)
1 x 5”/38 Mk 12m Mod 6 w/ Mk 52 Mod 3 director and 26-4 fire control radar;
2 x 81mm mortars for illum
6 x M2 .50 caliber guns

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Farewell, Indy

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The last of the Forrestal-class supercarriers afloat, the decommissioned ex-USS Independence (CV-62) has arrived at her final port of call over the weekend and was greeted by several of her past crewmembers who gathered for one more goodbye.

The mothballed passed through the jetties of the Brownsville Ship Channel on tow to the breakers.

(Photo: AP)

Indy entered service in 1959 as the last of her class and spent much of her career in the Med.

She completed a single tour off the coast of Vietnam in 1965 and later carried out airstrikes against Syrian forces during the Lebanese Civil War, supported the invasion of Grenada and operations over Iraq during Operation Southern Watch, the enforcement of the no-fly zone over southern Iraq.

Independence was decommissioned in 1998 after 39 years of active service. She was ordered in 1954, the year after the Korean conflict went from hot to cold.

“Dismantling such a large vessel is an enormous undertaking, but it’s important to remember that the carriers themselves have a significant sentimental meaning for the people who were stationed on them,” said Chris Green, senior manager of International Shipbreaking Ltd, the same yard that has dismantled classmates USS Constellation and the USS Ranger. “We felt it was important and appropriate to give the USS Independence and those who served on her a deserving tribute.”

The yard had tried to hold services for the other carriers but fell short of being able to pull it off, so BZ to them for last week’s event.

Brownsville-based ESCO Marine, who salvaged the USS Saratoga in 2014, has since filed for bankruptcy, which means International is likely to be the name in the game in supercarrier scrapping.

1 SSB on D-Day, and the piper of the Pegasus Bridge

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Note the Bren guns and covers on the Enfield .303s

The 1st Special Service Brigade (1 SSB) goes ashore at Sword Beach, 1944. The Lord Lovat Simon Fraser is visible to the right of the column wading ashore in the first photo, and is the one standing and addressing the brigade. After losing several men to sniper fire the unit switched from their distinctive berets to helmets shortly after coming ashore. Also visible in the first photo, closest to the camera, is the “Mad Piper” Bill Millin, who famously piped the unit across Pegasus Bridge.

Bill is interviewed below in 1991, which was demolished in 1994:

The airborne operation to seize Pegasus with just 90 glider-borne infantry of 6 Airborne Div with orders to “hold until relieved” (Operation Deadstick) is detailed below.

Italians and baby elephants in the stickers

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Italian gunners man their light field piece in a field of Tunisian cactus, on 31 March 1943 during the tail-end of the North African campaigns. The last Axis force to surrender in North Africa was Maresciallo d’Italia Giovanni Messe’s 1st Italian Army, on 13 May, just six weeks after this image was taken.

The gun appears to be an Austrian-designed Cannone da 47/32 M35. Commonly called the “elefantino” (little elephant) by the Italians, the light artillery piece was pressed into service as an anti-tank gun/bunker buster in North Africa with a good bit of early success as it could penetrate 58 mm (2.3 in) of steel armor at 100 m (which meant camouflage was essential to get close enough to British tanks to be able to do the job– hence hiding in a cactus clump.)

While effective against trucks, armored cars, British cruiser type tanks and Lend-Leased M3 Stuart light tanks, the elefanto was a pop gun when confronted with taking a Valentine head on or a Matilda A12 from any angle. By the stage of the war shown in the above image, the gun was about as effective as a t-shirt cannon against Allied armor barring a lucky shot at an exposed track or roadwheel.

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