Gato-class USS Herring (SS-233) Hunters Point 12 October 1943 USN photo 268-43-S4
Naval History and Heritage Command this week confirmed the identity of the wreck site of the Gato-class fleet boat USS Herring (SS-233), lost about a mile south of Point Tagan on Matsuwa Island in the Kuriles during the early morning hours of 1 June 1944, while on her Ninth War Patrol, a rare case of a submarine being sunk by coastal artillery.
The island, controlled by Russia since August 1945, was surveyed in 2017 by the Russian Geographic Society, which documented the wreck site.
As detailed by NHHC:
Herring was last seen during the evening of May 31, 1944, by USS Barb (SS-220) when the submarines met to delineate patrol areas off the Kurile Islands. In the early morning hours of June 1, 1944, Barb’s crew recorded the sound of distant depth charges exploding and took it as evidence of an attack associated with Herring. During this time, Herring attacked and sank Iwaki Maru and Hiburi Maru.
Later, Japanese shore batteries reported sighting and firing upon a submarine that had grounded near the site of the two sinkings. Records indicate the batteries scored two direct hits on the conning tower as the submarine backed away into the fog. Evidence of both the grounding and the conning tower hits are visible on the Herring’s surviving wreckage. Herring was presumed lost when she failed to report to Midway on July 13, 1944.
(Photo: Chris Eger)
And so we remember.
There are no roses on sailors’ graves, Nor wreaths upon the storm-tossed waves, No last post from the King’s band, So far away from their native land, No heartbroken words carved on stone, Just shipmates’ bodies there alone, The only tributes are the seagulls sweep, And the teardrop when a loved one weeps.
As part of my curiosity when it comes to everything naval, I follow a lot of fleets around the world, and the Peruvian Navy has been very busy in the past few months.
Besides the Caribbean cruise of the tall ship BAP Union to participate in Operation Sail 250 (which is what I am enjoying in New Orleans this week!), the fleet has been getting it done.
Submarino BAP Chipana
Peru has a rich 100+ year submarine tradition and operates a six-pack of German-made Type 209/1100 (Islay-class) and 209/1200 series (Angamos-class) SSKs delivered in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
One of these, the Angamos-class BAP Chipana (SS-34), recently left her homeport headed West to join U.S. forces in RIMPAC and SUBDIEX, both of which she has participated in in the past.
Commissioned in October 1982, Chipana gave 35 years of dedicated service without incident in the first half of her career.
I say “first half” because Chipana last year completed an intensive 7.5-year (December 2017 to June 2025) reconstruction and modernization by SIMA in Callao. This consisted of the installation of the new Kallpa fire control and combat system, 480 new high-performance batteries, four new Rolls-Royce-MTU engines, a new Siemens electric motor, a new Hensoldt SERO 250 optronic mast, the Elbit Timmes II ESM system, and the ability to launch SM-39 Exocet anti-ship missiles and AEG DM2A4 Seehecht (SeaHake Mod 4) and Leonardo WASS Black Shark torpedoes.
She was essentially hauled on dry land, cut open, scooped out, and refilled with all new stuff, then put back together and refurbished, all under the watchful gaze of ThyssenKrupp advisers sent from Germany.
This is expected to give her at least another 15 years of service life, and her three Type 209/1200 sisters will follow in similar modernizations. This should buy enough time to develop a local submarine production line (with assistance from HHI) at SIMA.
Peruvian Type 209s have deployed to California’s Naval Base Point Loma as part of the U.S. Navy’s Diesel-Electric Submarine Initiative (DESI) program no less than 20 times since 2001, typically a 2-3 month deployment that sees the submarino both serve as a “target” for ASW forces and work alongside surface assets to better interoperate in multi-national task forces.
PACIFIC OCEAN (Nov. 1, 2019) An MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter from the Magicians of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron (HSM) 35 conducts a hoist exercise with the Peruvian navy submarine BAP Angamos (SS-31) off the coast of San Clemente Island. HSM-35 is conducting antisubmarine warfare training to maintain readiness by utilizing a live submarine. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Patrick W. Menah Jr./Released)
Meanwhile, in the green inferno
The Peruvian Naval Infantry brigade (Infantería de Marina del Perú) has also been heavily involved with the Army’s 2a Brigada de Protección de la Amazonía along the country’s Amazon border regions with Colombia and Brazil in counter-narco operations and in wrapping up illegal mining operations and general banditry.
The IMP (unfortunate acronym) is distinctly armed with a combination of FN 2000 “Tactical Tuna” rifles, IMI Galils, and FN SCARs, so they stand out.
And, of interest to all the gun nerds that follow this page, the captured weaponry taken off aforementioned narcos and banditos is amazing, including homemade MAC-10s, condemned FALs, shorty Galils, and the occasional MP5K and M1A1.
How about this PhotoEx from NATO High North ASW exercise Dynamic Mongoose 26 off Trondheim, Norway, last week.
Centered around the 65,000-ton carrier HMS Prince of Wales escorted by the Type 45 (Daring) class AAW destroyer HMS Duncan (D 37), the other escorts seen are the Danish Absalon-class frigate HDMS Esbern Snare (F 342), the German frigate FGS Sachsen (F 220), and the Portuguese Bartholomeu Dias-class frigate NRP Dom Francisco de Almeida (F 334).
Submarines include the German U-35 (S 185), the Dutch Walrus-class HNLMS Zeeleeuw (S 803), and the Tridente-class NRP Tridente (S 160).
There is also a bit of an unofficial OPFOR, as NRP Francisco De Almeida and Merlin Mk2s from HMS Prince of Wales have been closely monitoring a Russian ship, Yuri Ivanov, a (Project 18280) intelligence-gathering vessel, which is getting SIGINT close to the exercise zone.
Some 80 years ago this week, Operation Road’s End saw the U.S. Navy deep-six no less than five large, captured Imperial Japanese Navy submarines off Hawaii.
These included I-203, sunk by USS Caiman (SS-323) on 21 May; I-201 by USS Queenfish (SS-393) on 23 May; I-14 by USS Bugara (SS-331) on 28 May; I-401 by USS Cabezon (SS-334) on 31 May, and I-400 by USS Trumpetfish (SS-425).
An amazing color film exists of this operation.
Video description via NARA:
Sinking of Japanese sub I 201, 5/23/46, by USS Queenfish: 1) MS Japanese submarine exploding on surface after being hit by torpedoes from USS Queenfish, large column of smoke and water rising into air. 2) LS GV periscope shot showing Japanese submarine on surface, torpedo track in foreground. Japanese submarine exploding after being hit by a torpedo. MV. 3) MCU DA bow of US submarine, torpedo track in background, Japanese sub exploding in background. 4) LS DA AV Japanese submarine on the surface of the water exploding, a large column of water and smoke rising into the air after the Japanese sub has been hit by a torpedo from a US submarine. 5) LS DA AV large oil slick.
Sinking of Japanese sub I-14, 5/28/46, by USS Bugara: 1) MCU DA stern of US sub. 2) LS Japanese sub exploding, a large column of water and black smoke rising into the air. 3) MCU DA stern of US sub, torpedo track in background, large column of water and smoke rising into air, US flag in foreground. MV. 4) LS DA AV Japanese sub on surface. 5) LS DAAV Japanese sub exploding after being hit by a torpedo from a US sub. A large column of water and smoke rising into the air, a Japanese submarine sinking, leaving a large oil slick on the water. MV.
Sinking of Japanese sub I-401, 5/31/46, by USS Cabezon, SS 334: 1) LS Japanese sub on surface. 2) MCU DA stern of US sub as it fires torpedo, follow through of track to Japanese sub showing sub exploding, large column of water rising into air. MV. 3) LS DA AV Japanese sub on surface exploding, white spray and smoke rising from surface after Japanese sub has been hit by a torpedo from a US sub. 4) LS DA AV Japanese sub sinking, leaving a large oil slick on the water.
Sinking of Japanese submarine I-441, 5/31/46, by US submarine: 1) LS Japanese sub exploding after being hit by a torpedo from a US sub. MV. 2) LS DA AV Japanese sub on surface exploding after being hit by a torpedo from a US sub. MV.
Sinking of Japanese sub I-400 by USS Trumpet Fish: 1) LS Japanese sub exploding after being hit by a torpedo fired from US sub; exploding. MV. 2) LS DA AV torpedo tracks showing same hitting Japanese sub, the Japanese sub exploding after being hit by torpedoes from a US sub. MV. 3) NCY DA Stern of US submarine after firing torpedoes at Japanese sub, Japanese sub exploding after being hit by torpedoes from US sub. MV. 4) LS DA AV large slicks on water about sub after being hit; also, large explosions. 5) MCU DA stern of US submarine; Japanese submarine exploding in the background.
This followed up on the sinking of 24 captured IJN boats still capable of sailing on their own power assembled at “Point Deep Six” in Japan in April 1946 by demo charges and gunfire from the sub tender USS Nereus (AS-17) and the destroyer USS Everette F. Larson (DD-830). Those boats were I-36, I-47, I-53, I-58, I-156, I-157, I-158, I-159, I-162, I-366, I-367, I-402, RO-50, HA-103, HA-105, HA-106, HA-107, HA-108, HA-109, HA-111, HA-201, HA-202, HA-203 and HA-208.
General MacArthur’s Report recorded by October 1946, all captured Japanese submarines (a total of 15,1) had been disposed of. The Report quotes a June 1949 in the Tokyo “Pacific Stars and Stripes” newspaarticle per article dated that when the IJN disposal task was, stating 42 submarines had been scrapped, and a further 104 had been sunk. Thus, in addition to the disposal of the 49 IJN submarines that surrendered, some 100 other submarines were subjected to the disposal process as outlined in the Potsdam Protocol.
The Republic of China’s Indigenous Defense Submarine, ROCS Hai Kun (SS-711) fired two MK-48 Exercise Torpedoes during her 8th underwater sea trial on 6 May 2026.
The footage and images released by CSBC Shipbuilding, cleared by the ROCN, are amazing and clearly meant for public consumption around the Pacific Rim. You can even see the trailing guidance wires and recovery by the fleet’s new rescue and salvage ship, the CSBC-built ROCS Da Wu (ARS-571), which was only commissioned last October.
The U.S. State Department approved the sale of 18 MK 48 Mod 6AT and related equipment to Taipei in 2020 for an estimated $180 million, but delivery isn’t slated until 2028, with as many as 46 ultimately planned.
Until then, the ROCN has to make do with its dwindling supply of older Indonesian license-made German-designed AEG SUT 264 torpedoes, which were received in 1998 after its initial batch of SUTs, ordered for use with its two Dutch-made modified Zwaardvis class boats in the 1980s, were used up in exercises.
Before the SUTs, Taiwan was stuck using old surplus Mk37s that it didn’t officially have.
The 190-foot, 1,200-ton Miami-class auxiliary gunboat/steel-hulled “cruising cutter” Tampa (WGC-11) was built to spec at Newport News and commissioned on 19 August 1912.
Constructed at $250,000 for the Revenue Cutter Service, she was a simple coastwise vessel, armed with a trio of 6-pounders in peacetime, with weight and space reserved to upgrade those to 3-inchers during war.
USCGC Tampa photographed in harbor, before World War I. Note her two visible whalers. Completed in 1912 as the U.S. Revenue Cutter Miami, she was renamed Tampa in February 1916. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. NH 1226
She spent her first few years stationed in southern Florida (go figure), under her original name (Miami), service she alternated with heading to the North for the International Ice Patrol every spring– remember these were the years just after the loss of the Titanic.
Crew photo of the Revenue Service Cutter Miami (future USCGC Tampa) while on Ice Patrol, circa 1912-16. Note one of her 6-pounder guns to the right of the photo
Revenue Cutter Miami, the future USCGC Tampa, USCG 190326-G-G0000-1001
Then came war, and Tampa was quickly modified for overseas service with five other large cutters.
As detailed by the CG Historian’s Office:
On 1 February 1916, three days before the Gasparilla Carnival and South Florida Fair in Tampa, her name was changed to Tampa. Again that year, she made the ice patrol and then returned to Key West. The year 1917 was very eventful for the crew of Tampa. The South Florida Fair and Gasparilla Carnival at Tampa was the greatest yet, lasting nine days, from 2 February through the 10th. With four days to recuperate from this gala affair, they went on to patrol the Annual Motor Boat Regatta at Miami from 15 to 17 February 1916. On 27 and 28 March, they patrolled the races of the St. Petersburg Yacht Club in St. Petersburg, Florida.
There was a shadow over the spring gaiety of 1917, however. On 2 February 1917, the opening day of the Fair and Carnival in Tampa, was the day the United States broke off diplomatic relations with Germany. Perhaps the men of Tampa sensed that this would be their last celebration with the citizens of their favorite city. On 6 April 1917, the United States declared war on Germany, and immediately, Tampa and other Coast Guard cutters were transferred to the Navy. During the next four months, she received heavier armament by trading her three six-pounders for four 3-inch guns and a pair of machine guns. After preparations at the Boston Navy Yard, Tampa moved to the New York Navy Yard on 16 September and reported for duty to the commanding officer of USS Paducah (Gunboat No. 18). Ordered to duty overseas, the warship departed New York on 29 September in company with Paducah, Sterling, B.H.B. Hubbard (SP-416), and five French-manned, American-made submarine chasers in tow. After stops at Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Ponta Delgada in the Azores, Tampa and her sailing mates reached Gibraltar on 27 October 1917.
Based in Gibraltar, the Tampa, Seneca (her companion ship during the ice patrols), Yamacraw, Ossipee, Algonquin, and Manning made up Squadron 2 of Division 6 of the Atlantic Fleet Patrol Forces. Their mission was to protect convoys from submarine attacks. In the little more than a year left to her, Tampa escorted 18 convoys, comprising a total of 350 vessels, through the U-boat-infested waters from Gibraltar to Britain. Her record during this period was outstanding. She was never disabled, and her one request for repairs had been on two minor items, in spite of spending more than fifty percent of her time at sea and steaming an average of 3,566 miles a month.
A haze grey USCGC Tampa moored in a European port (possibly Gibraltar), circa 1917-1918. Note the paddle tug astern of Tampa and the large converted yacht in the distance. The latter may be a British Navy vessel. Donation of Charles R. Haberlein Jr., 2009. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. NH 106706
She was sunk while escorting a convoy on 26 September 1918– just seven weeks before the Armistice– in the Bristol Channel off the coast of Wales by German UB III-class submarine UB-91 (Kptlt. Wolf Hans Hertwig).
Tampa, in company with her fellow escorts, departed Gibraltar with the 32-ship convoy HG 107, bound for Liverpool, on 17 September 1918. The convoy proceeded without incident beyond Cornwall and into the Irish Sea. During the late afternoon of 26 September, Tampa parted company with the convoy as she was in need of refueling. Ordered to put into Milford Haven, she proceeded independently toward her destination. At 7:30 p.m., as she steamed toward the Bristol Channel, UB-91 (Kapitänleutnant Wolf Hans Hertwig) spotted the ocean escort and, according to the U-boat’s war diary entry, dived and maneuvered into an attack position. From a range of about 550 meters, UB-91 fired one G6AV torpedo with a special attachment from her stern torpedo tube at 8:15 p.m. Minutes later, the warhead detonated on Tampa’s port side amidships, throwing up a huge, luminous column of water. Two minutes later, the U-boat was shocked by a second detonation, most likely caused by Tampa’s depth charges reaching pressure fuse depth, as the cutter sank.
All 131 souls aboard— 111 Coast Guardsmen, four U.S. Navy signalmen, a captain of the British Army, 10 seamen of the Royal Navy, and five British dock workers– were killed, representing the largest single loss of life for the Coast Guard during the conflict and, except the disappearance of the collier USS Cyclops, was the largest loss of life suffered by U.S. Naval forces in any incident of the First World War.
Painting of the sinking of Cutter Tampa by the German submarine UB-91, painted by noted marine artist John Wisinski. Photo by: USCG Historian’s Office, VIRIN: 220818-G-G0000-1001
Admiral William S. Sims, the senior U.S. naval officer on duty in Great Britain, received the following letter from the Lords of the British Admiralty:
“Their Lordships desire me to express their deep regret at the loss of the USS Tampa. Her record since she has been employed in European waters as an ocean escort to convoys has been remarkable. She has acted in the capacity of ocean escort to no less than 18 convoys from Gibraltar, comprising 350 vessels, with a loss of only two ships through enemy action. The commanders of the convoys have recognized the ability with which the Tampa carried out the duties of ocean escort. Appreciation of the good work done by the USS Tampa may be some consolation to those bereft, and Their Lordships would be glad if this could be conveyed to those concerned.”
Two bodies in U.S. naval uniforms later washed ashore, one of which was identified by a waterlogged pocket tag as being Seaman James Marconnier Fleury, USCG. They were both buried with full military honors at Lamphey Churchyard (a small country churchyard in Wales). Fleury’s family later brought home his body and buried him in a cemetery in Long Island, New York, but the unidentified Coast Guardsman still rests in Lamphey Churchyard. Local citizens care for his grave to this day.
Unknown Tampa Crewman, Lamphey Churchyard, Wales, United Kingdom, ca. 2014 “In loving memory of our unknown shipmate from the USS Coast Guard Cutter Tampa torpedoed in the Bristol Channel September 26th, 1918. Erected by the USS Tampa Coast Guard Post 719 American Legion, New York. USCG 170602-G-XX000-152
The UB-91 was surrendered at Harwich on 21 November 1918. Operated by a British crew, she toured several cities, including Cardiff and Newport, where she was displayed from 12–20 January 1919 and visited by local officials to raise funds for mariners’ charities. After the boat’s breakup at Briton Ferry in 1921, her deck gun was moved to Chepstow’s war memorial. Her only wartime skipper, Hertwig, credited with 14,668 tons of shipping (Tampa and three steamers) returned to Germany on board the transport Lucia Woerman and resigned from the Imperial Navy in 1920. He later joined the Kriegsmarine in 1937 at age 52 and held a series of training and desk jobs. KzS Hertwig was taken prisoner by the British during the liberation of Denmark in May 1945 and held in a PoW camp till the end of 1946. He passed in 1958, of cancer.
Until now, the only tangible part of Tampa that has ever been located was a brass boat plate from one of her whalers, found on 14 April 1924, almost six years after she was lost, discovered by a 14-year-old lad while beachcombing at Rest Bay, Porthcawl, England.
Tampa boat plate NH 41869
Now it seems, as reported by the Gasperados Dive Team, that the final resting place of Tampa is in 320 feet of water, some 50 miles off Newquay, England.
“Since 1790, the Coast Guard has defended our nation during every armed conflict in American history, a legacy reflected in the courage and sacrifice of the crew of Coast Guard Cutter Tampa,” said Adm. Kevin Lunday, commandant of the Coast Guard. “When the Tampa was lost with all hands in 1918, it left an enduring grief in our service. Locating the wreck connects us to their sacrifice and reminds us that devotion to duty endures. We will always remember them. We are proud to carry their spirit forward in defense of the United States.”
In 2023, the Coast Guard Historians Office was contacted by the Gasperados Dive Team regarding the Tampa. Over the past three years, the all-volunteer team conducted an extensive search for the wreckage.
“We provided the dive team with historical records and technical data to assist in confirming the wreck site,” said Dr. William Thiesen, Coast Guard Atlantic Area Historian. “This included the archival images of the deck fittings, ship’s wheel, bell, weaponry, and archival images of the Tampa.”
The Coast Guard is now developing plans for underwater research and exploration in coordination with its offices of specialized capabilities, historians, cutter forces, robotics and autonomous systems, and dive locker.
And so we remember.
In Waters Deep– Eileen Mahoney
In ocean wastes no poppies blow, No crosses stand in ordered row, There young hearts sleep… beneath the wave… The spirited, the good, the brave, But stars a constant vigil keep, For them who lie beneath the deep. ‘Tis true you cannot kneel in prayer On certain spot and think. “He’s there.” But you can to the ocean go… See whitecaps marching row on row; Know one for him will always ride… In and out… with every tide. And when your span of life is passed, He’ll meet you at the “Captain’s Mast.” And they who mourn on distant shore For sailors who’ll come home no more, Can dry their tears and pray for these Who rest beneath the heaving seas… For stars that shine and winds that blow And whitecaps marching row on row. And they can never lonely be For when they lived… they chose the sea.
The country’s newest fast-attack submarine and the fifth U.S. Navy vessel to bear the name, USS Idaho (SSN 799), was commissioned at SUBASE New London on Saturday, 25 April.
Sailors assigned to the Virginia-class fast attack submarine USS Idaho (SSN 799) man the rails during a commissioning ceremony at Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton, Conn., on April 25, 2026. (U.S. Navy photo 260425-N-UM744-1007 by John Narewski/Submarine Readiness Squadron (SRS) 32)
One of 10 Block IV Virginias, Idaho, carries two multipurpose Virginia Payload Tubes (VPT) forward, seen open in the above image, allowing her to carry and launch a dozen Tomahawks or similar missiles vertically. This is in addition to her 25 slots for Mk-48 ADCAPS or Harpoons fired from her four forward tubes.
The future USS Idaho (SSN 799) seen on builders trials 251215-N-N2201-002
Named for “The Gem State,” SSN 799 will operate as part of SUBRON4 and is expected to have a 33+ year life cycle, surpassing that of the fourth USS Idaho (Battleship No.42), which commissioned in 1919 and, after earning seven battle stars during WWII, was scrapped in 1947.
Nice to see the name return to the Navy List after a nearly 80-year break.
USS Idaho (BB-42) passing through the Panama Canal, c. 1945 National Archives 80-G-K-6572
All four submarines were part of the Balao-class, and all were commissioned into the U.S. Navy in the final two years of WWII, although only Blenny arrived in time to make war patrols that earned battle stars (four) before VJ-Day.
Formation on 18 April 1966. The boats seen are: USS BLENNY (SS-324), CLAMAGORE (SS-343), COBBLER (SS-344), and CORPORAL (SS-346)
Of the quartet, Clamagore survived the longest, retired in 1980, and was scrapped in 2022 after four decades of slowly wasting away as a museum ship in Charleston.
Blenny, the WWII combat vet, decommissioned in 1973, was scuttled off Ocean City, Maryland, on 7 June 1989.
Cobbler, which transferred to Turkey in 1973, was renamed TCG Çanakkale (S 341) and somehow served until 1998.
Corporal also transferred to Turkey in 1974 and commissioned TCG Ikinci İnönü (S333), serving until 1996.
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Warship Wednesday 8 April 2026: Front Runner
USN Photo 80-G-08937 via the National Archives.
Above we see the Cramp-built Balao (not Tench) class fleet boat USS Tusk (SS-426), some 80 years ago this week, in April 1946, just after she was commissioned. Note her late WWII style “gunboat” arrangement with two 5″/25s and two 40mm Bofors clustered around her fairwater.
Remember, National Submarine Day is on April 11th, and Tusk, which never fired a torpedo in anger (that we know of), nonetheless has one of the most epic careers in naval history
The Balao Class
A member of the 180+-ship Balao class, she was one of the most mature U.S. Navy diesel designs of the World War Two era, constructed with knowledge gained from the earlier Gato class. Unlike those of many navies of the day, U.S. subs were “fleet” boats, capable of unsupported operations in deep water far from home.
The Balao class was designed to dive deeper (400 ft. test depth) than the Gato class (300 ft.) due to the use of high-yield-strength steel in the pressure hull.
Able to range 11,000 nautical miles on their reliable diesel engines, they could undertake 75-day patrols that could span the immensity of the Pacific. Carrying 24 (often unreliable) Mk14 Torpedoes, these subs often sank anything short of a 5,000-ton Maru or warship by surfacing and using their deck guns. They also served as the firetrucks of the fleet, rescuing downed naval aviators from right under the noses of Japanese warships.
Some 311 feet long overall, they were all-welded construction to facilitate rapid building. Best yet, they could be made for the bargain price of about $7 million in 1944 dollars (just $100 million when adjusted for today’s inflation) and completed from keel laying to commissioning in about nine months.
USS Roncador (Balao) class plans
USS Roncador (Balao) class plans
An amazing 121 Balaos were completed through five yards at the same time, with the following pennant numbers completed by each:
Cramp: SS-292, 293, 295-303, 425, 426 (12 boats)
Electric Boat: 308-313, 315, 317-331, 332-352 (42)
Manitowoc on the Great Lakes: 362-368, 370, 372-378 (15)
Mare Island on the West Coast: 304, 305, 307, 411-416 (9)
Portsmouth Navy Yard: 285-288, 291, 381-410, 417-424 (43)
Our subject is the only U.S. warship named for the cusk or tusk, a large edible saltwater fish related to the cod. The 14th and last submarine to be built by the Cramp Shipbuilding Company of Philadelphia, she was laid down as the future SS-426 on 23 August 1943, and launched into the Delaware River on 8 July 1945; sponsored by Mrs. Carolyn Park Mills, wife of RADM Earle Watkins Mills (USNA 1917) who was soon to take over the Maritime Commission from the retiring VADM Emory S. Land.
Mrs. Mills christens the future Tusk, 8 July 1945. Temple University Libraries, Special Collections Research Center, George D. McDowell Philadelphia Evening Bulletin Collection, SCRC 170
Launch of Tusk, 8 July 1945. The sign on her bow says she was paid for via War Bond Purchases made by the people of Philadelphia. There were eight war loan drives from 1942 to 1945. By the end of the war, 85 million Americans had purchased 185.7 billion dollars of bonds. Temple University Libraries, Special Collections Research Center, George D. McDowell Philadelphia Evening Bulletin Collection, SCRC 170
With the end of the war, construction slowed, and Tusk was only commissioned on 11 April 1946.
Tusk had a late war “gunboat” style arraignment, including two 5″/25s and two Bofors guns, along with points for detachable 50 cals
Her first skipper was CDR Raymond A. Moore, USN, who seems to just be a placeholder as he was replaced within a fortnight by CDR Marshall Harlan Austin (USNA 1935), who had commanded the Gato-class fleet boat USS Redfin (SS-272) on her 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th War Patrols, sinking a Japanese destroyer and four merchantmen to earn a Navy Cross.
These images were taken the day before her commissioning:
(Cold) War!
Under Austin, Tusk completed her shakedown cruise in the South Atlantic, visiting ports in Brazil, Curacao, and Panama from June to July 1946. She returned to New London in August and the week before Thanksgiving 1946, President Harry S. Truman, ADM William D. Leahy, and Annapolis Commandant, VADM Aubrey W. Fitch, toured Tusk while she was tied up at the Naval Academy.
Photograph of President Truman and Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy inspecting the USS Tusk, a submarine, during the President’s visit to the U.S. Naval Academy. Note the well-turned-out MM1 watch stander’s dolphins and hash mark on the sleeves of his cracker jacks. National Archives Identifier: 198606
Photograph of President Truman aboard a submarine, the USS Tusk, during his visit to the U.S. Naval Academy: (left to right) the President; Vice Admiral Aubrey Fitch, Superintendent of the Naval Academy; Fleet Admiral William Leahy, Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief; and General Harry Vaughan, Military Aide to the President. NARA 198648
Truman waves from Tusk’s conning tower. NARA 198649
The next year saw Tusk participate in a series of exercises and a minor collision with the hospital ship USS Consolation (AH-15).
Repaired in Philadelphia, she then conducted oceanographic work along the Atlantic shelf with Columbia University and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
She ended 1947 at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard for a Greater Underwater Propulsion Power Program (GUPPY) II conversion, one of 24 Balao and Tench-class subs that received the SCB 47 rebuild.
During the subsequent seven months, Tusk underwent significant modifications to enhance her submerged performance. Four high-capacity 126-cell batteries replaced her original batteries, which had half as many cells, bedded into larger wells. The hull was streamlined by adding a rounded bow, recessing anchors, capstans, deck rail stanchions, and cleats; and eliminating propeller guards, improving hydrodynamic efficiency.
Topside, her deck guns were removed and sail enlarged and refined to accommodate three new masts (snorkel induction, snorkel exhaust and ESM), the snork enabling diesel-powered operation at periscope depth and battery recharging while submerged. The periscope and radar mast were enclosed. A BQR-2 sonar was fitted with hydrophones under the forefoot and its electronics housed in the forward torpedo room. Likewise, her Elliot Motor Co. high-speed drive electric motors with reduction gear were swapped out for low-speed direct drive motors of 2,500 hp per shaft, up from 1,370.
Her step-side Portsmouth Sail had a thinner top than those fitted to other GUPPYs by EB, with a curved trailing edge, square windows, and a sharper lower forward edge. They also had a fitting for the sub’s SV radar screen.
These upgrades transitioned Tusk from a submersible to an actual submarine and, while her surface speed was cut by about two knots, her submerged speed rose from 10 knots to about 15 knots.
After her G.II conversion in early 1948, she emerged looking very different from her original 1946 configuration, and, amid the Berlin Crisis, conducted a simulated war patrol to the Canal Zone in June and July as part of her post-modernization shakedown.
Her skipper during the cruise was CDR Guy F. Guggliotta, USN, another wartime sub driver who had commanded USS S-28 (SS 133), Halibut (SS 232) on her 10th War Patrol, and Raton (SS 270) on her 8th War Patrol, earning a pair of Silver Stars in the process.
Tusk, post GUPPY II conversion with her step side Portsmouth sail, seen off the New London Harbor Lighthouse.
Tusk seen between 1948 and 1962 post GUPPY II conversion with her step side Portsmouth sail, NH 67826
Cochino’s Last Dive
Attached to Submarine Development Group 2 out of Newport for the first six months of 1949, she sortied to the North Atlantic that July with SubRon 8 for a series of multinational NATO exercises that saw her visit Londonderry and Portsmouth in the British Isles.
At this point, Tusk was on her fourth skipper, WWII sub captain CDR Robert Kemble Rittenhouse Worthington, USN, who had earned a Navy Cross during Balao’s 8th, 9th, and 10th Patrols after sinking over a half-dozen small vessels, adding to a Silver Star he earned as a junior officer on four patrols aboard USS Silversides.
As noted of Cochino by DANFS, “huge waves slammed the submarines’ snorkel so violently, and jolted the boat so severely, that the pounding caused an electrical fire and battery explosion, followed by the release of deadly hydrogen [chlorine] gas,” forcing the stricken sub’s crew to evacuate the surfaced boat in terrible weather, and hunker down on her deck.
The last known photograph of USS Cochino (SS 345) was taken in July 1949. She now lies in deep water north of Norway near 71.35N. 23.35E, sunk stern first on 0146 on 26 August 1949 with no personnel aboard.
Receiving the underwater sonar signal from Cochino “Casualty surfacing,” Tusk worked over the next 14 hours on the rough seas to save first Cochino herself, then, after a second battery explosion made that impossible, to rescue Cochino’s 77 embarked souls via a prow rigged between the two boats on the open sea. Tragically, Tusk wound up trading 11 of her own crew and an embarked Philco techrep (Mr. Robert Wellington) to Poseidon in the deal, with only six later recovered from the sea alive.
A depiction of the USS Cochino battery fire that led to the sinking of the submarine in 1949, and cross-decking to Tusk, by Stanley Borack.
Greater detail from Tusk’s deck log:
Tusk, packed with nearly 150 personnel, many of them injured and suffering from exposure, she made for Hammerfest Harbor, Norway, and tied up at 0845 on the 26th to immediately receive a Norwegian medical team aboard.
Besides an officer (LCDR Richard M. Wright) sent to a Norwegian hospital in Tromso and four men flown home to Westover AFB for transfer to the Navy hospital at Chelsea, Massachusetts, the remaining 72 Cochino survivors crammed aboard Tusk once again two days later tor the return trip back across the Atlantic, arriving at New London on 9 September for a home town welcome.
Truly an epic sea story.
The 1950 Silent Service installment “The Last Dive” (Season 1, Episode 22) covered Cochino and Tusk’s final 14 hours together. A young Walter Matthau, DeForest Kelley, and Leslie Nielsen portrayed Cochino crewmembers, with LCDR Wright appearing at the end of the show, having completed 14 months of medical rehab.
Continued Cold War service
Tusk was assigned to the Submarine School at New London, then Submarine Development Group 2, interspersed with regular Atlantic Fleet exercises.
One of her declassified Dev Group tests now in the public archives is one for the Naval Research Laboratory in 1957, which involved the use of a light pulse transmitter to communicate with aircraft while submerged at depths of 90 feet.
In November 1949, during maneuvers 175nm off the Labrador coast in 40-foot seas, Tusk struck her periscope on the screw of a Navy supply ship USS Aldebaran (AF-10), picking up minor damage but suffering no casualties.
In late 1952, Tusk was assigned to SubRon 10 for a six-month Med cruise with the 6th Fleet, visiting Malta, Gibraltar, Cannes, Piraeus, Izmir, and French Oran.
USS Tusk (SS 426) post GUPPY II conversion 1 August 1952 USN 477116
Tusk would make four further European cruises over the next two decades. Notably, this would include a visit to Fiumicino during the 1960 Rome Olympics, calling in Portugal to mark the 500th anniversary of Prince Henry the Navigator, and a 1967 cruise where she would visit Bremerhaven, Aarhus, and Göteborg.
USS Tusk sailing into Malta on one of her Med deployments, pre 1965
Jane’s 1960 entry for the Tench class, with both the Cramp-built GUPPY’d Tusk and Trumpetfish listed incorrectly as members. At the time, the Navy was also operating at least 80 Balaos, including NRF ships and those in mothballs.
Tusk also pulled three shorter Operation Springboard readiness deployments to the Caribbean, a region of growing importance post-Castro. As you can imagine, annual Springboard exercises involved high-profile mock ASW, amphibious landings, and fleet maneuvers around Puerto Rico. It was a common gathering for GUPPYs in the 60s and 70s.
Balao-class Springboard GUPPYs with North Atlantic sails: USS Bang (SS-385) preparing to tie up alongside USS Chivo (SS-341) at San Juan Naval Station, Puerto Rico, during Operation Springboard. Of note, the lowest point on the keel to the IFF antenna atop the lowered snorkel was 49 feet 8.25 inches, while the height to the top of the whip antenna is 78 feet from the keel. You weren’t going to submerge one of these bad boys in 10 fathoms! Bang’s skipper, CDR R.J. Carlin, is giving orders from atop her sail. The bow of a Canadian Ojibwa (Oberon) class SSK is visible in the lower left, and a U.S. Coast Guard HU-16 Albatross amphibian is flying low in the center background. Photograph by PHC CJ Wiitala, USN, released 14 March 1968 by Tenth Naval District Public Affairs Office. NH 98697
Further, Tusk was involved in at least two extensive polar ice operations, including with USS Tench (SS-417) on ICEX ’60 and SUBICEX 1-62 with Skate (SS-578) and Entemador (SS-340).
USS Tusk, USS Entemedor, and USS Skate dusted with snow, 1962, during SUBICEX
Tusk on ICEX March 1960 with Tench
Entering Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in July 1965, Tusk was given a six-month major overhaul that including removing all her engines, motors, and generators for rebuild, receiving a new periscope with a built in electronic sextant for taking star shots while still submerged, and picking up the tall streamlined fiberglass/plastic clamshell “North Atlantic” style fairweather typically seen on most American GUPPYs after the mid-60s.
The new sail allowed extra room for the growing number of masts and aerials, a higher observation platform for lookouts, and a more habitable position for watch standers while on the surface. Tusk also received the new Prairie Masker bubbler system, increased air-conditioning capacity, additional storerooms, and additional fresh water tanks as part of the modifications.
Balao class GUPPY II sister USS Catfish post refit 1960s North Atlantic sail. Tusk had the same layout.
Balao class GUPPY II sister USS Catfish post refit 1960s North Atlantic sail. Tusk had the same layout.
Rejoining the fleet in January 1966, Tusk was transferred to SubRon 8.
Submarine Squadron Eight at New London, 1968, with a wild mix of eight Cold War fleet boat conversions. Left to right: USS Sea Robin (SS-407)(GUPPY IA with Portsmouth style step sail); Tusk (SS-426)(GUPPY II w North Atlantic sail); Sea Owl (SS-405)(Fleet Snorkel w EB style step sail and large Project Kayo BQR-4A horseshoe passive sonar array); Sablefish (SS-303)(Fleet Snorkel w North Atlantic sail); Halfbeak (SS-352)(GUPPY II w North Atlantic sail); Blenny (SS-324)(GUPPY IA w North Atlantic sail) and Becuna (SS-319)(GUPPY IA w Portsmouth step-sail). The eighth unidentified submarine on the left has PUFFS passive underwater fire control arrays for the BQG-4 system. NH 88415
Tusk (SS-426) at New London, Connecticut, June 1, 1968, as part of SubRon 8. USS Becuna (SS 319) is across the pier. Sailors on deck, civilians observe from the pier. Courtesy of D.M. McPherson, NH 86627
By 1969, Tusk had been transferred to SubRon 2 but was still based out of her traditional New London home. She was known as The Front Runner, so dubbed “due to its reputation for excellence and high-performance.”
This was supported by her being awarded the Fire Control “E” for several consecutive years and the Battle Efficiency “E” for fiscal year 1973.
Tusk underway in Hampton Roads, Virginia, 11 February 1970, as part of SubRon 2. NHHC K-81809
USS Tusk 1972 Provided by Tom Robinson QM2 (SS)
While on her fifth European deployment on 12 August 1972, while off the coast of Spain, the well-traveled Tusk made her 10,000th dive and surface, a benchmark few submarines have reached. Of note, Tusk’s Balao-class sister USS Spikefish (SS-404) had set the 10,000 record first in 1960 and earned the title of “The divingest Submarine in the World,” which was later claimed by another Balao, USS Piper (SS-409), who logged 13,724 before her decommissioning.
Speaking of decommissioning…
Under the Cog
In 1960, the ROC (Taiwan) Navy embarked on the Sea Shark Project, designed to create a submarine force.
This morphed into the Wuchang Project and, in October 1964, after months of wrangling, Capt Wang Xiling, the ROC naval attaché stationed in Rome, overcame diplomatic difficulties and ordered two 58-foot SX-404 class midget-submarines with a displacement of only 40 tons from the Italian commercial shipyard Cos.Mo.S. SpA, Livorno. Two CosMoS CE2F/X100 human torpedo chariot-style frogman SDVs were acquired as well.
ROCN 58-foot SX-404 class midget submarine Haijiao (Sea Dragon) (S-1) between 1968 and 1973
To avoid complications, the components were shipped from Europe to Tamsui and then assembled in Taiwan by CoS.MoS personnel. The two SX-404 boats were commissioned on 8 October 1969 as Haijiao (Sea Dragon) (S-1) and Hailong (Sea Dragon I) (S-2), and were immediately put to work as training vessels of the Wuchang Submarine Squadron for the nascent ROCN sub force. The CNO of the fleet, ADM Feng Qicong, personally handed out the country’s first dolphin badges that day to the program’s members.
By late 1970, and with two years of midget sub operations under the ROCN’s belt, Capt Wang Xiling, then moved to the embassy in Washington, persuaded the U.S. to sell two submarines to Taiwan as training vessels, citing the need to enhance the navy’s anti-submarine warfare capabilities. In other words, “tame mice” for the ROCN’s two dozen destroyers and frigates to play with.
On 21 April 1971, the U.S. confirmed the planned handover of two surplus GUPPY IIs, initially designated “Project Poseidon” by the Navy, and renamed “Project Mercury” in December. In March, 1972, the first batch of ROCN personnel receiving the Project Mercury submarines arrived at the U.S. Naval Submarine School in New London for training.
Tusk’s sister, USS Cutlass (SS 478), was transferred to the ROCN as ROCS Hai Shih (Sea Lion) (SS 91) on 12 April 1973, her hull number later changed to S-791
By May 1973, with Tusk just returned from a three-month Caribbean training cruise that saw her call at Guantanamo Bay, Ocho Rios, Port au Prince, and Montego Bay, she welcomed aboard 81 officers and men from the Republic of China to commence training for turnover.
In anticipation of the new (to them) vessels, Taiwan laid up its SX-404s and redesignated the Wuchang Submarine Squadron as the Republic of China Navy’s 256th Squadron (Submarine) in August 1973.
On 18 October 1973, Tusk was decommissioned at New London and was simultaneously transferred, by nominal sale, to the Taiwan Navy. Her name was struck from the Navy list on the same day.
She became ROCS Hai Pao (Seal) (SS 92) in the same ceremony, with LCDR David H. Boyd, USN, turning over the boat to CDR Cheng Kuo-Yu, ROCN. Kuo-Yu had served in the Wuchang Squadron since 1969 and had spent seven months in Sub School in New London before beginning training on Tusk/Hai Pao.
Jane’s 1975 entry on the Cutlass/Hai Shih and Tusk/Hai Pao. They have since changed their hull numbers to S-791 and S-792
Amazingly, both of Taiwan’s GUPPYs, for decades the last remaining Balaos in service, are still in operation with the 256th Squadron, training ROCN submariners for the current front-line subs, the Dutch Zwaardvis-class ROCS Hai Lung (Sea Dragon) and ROCS Hai Hu (Sea Tiger), which were delivered in 1988.
Nonetheless, they are still officially combat-ready and undergo regular dry docking, inspection, overhaul, and sea periods.
ex USS Tusk, now ROCS 海豹(seal), SS792 circa 2005
ex USS Tusk, now ROCS 海豹(seal), SS792 internals
ex USS Tusk, now ROCS 海豹(seal), SS792 Zuoying Naval Base Oct 2017 Tuo Chiang-class corvette
ex USS Tusk, now ROCS 海豹(seal), SS792 circa 2014
ex USS Tusk, now ROCS 海豹(seal), SS792 circa 2014
ex USS Tusk, now ROCS 海豹(seal), SS792 sail
ex USS Tusk, now ROCS 海豹(seal), SS792 circa 2014 Keelung
ex USS Tusk, now ROCS 海豹(seal), SS792 circa 2014 Keelung
ex USS Tusk, now ROCS 海豹(seal), SS792 circa 2014 Keelung
ex USS Tusk, now ROCS 海豹(seal), SS792 control room
ROC President Tsai Ing-wen attended the “2017 Naval Goodwill Flotilla Launch Ceremony and Submarine Indigenous Construction Design Initiation and Cooperation Memorandum Signing Ceremony,” emphasizing that submarine indigenous construction is the most challenging aspect of the national defense autonomy policy and a responsibility of the Commander-in-Chief to the nation. The ROC Navy’s Tusk/Hai Pao (SS-792) is moored to Tsai Ing-wen’s left fore-south.
When the first two domestically built Haikun (Seagull)-class SSKs arrive in service in 2026 and 2027 (?), Cutlass/Hai Shih and Tusk/Hai Pao are expected to be retired with the 40-year-old Dutch boats rotating to fill the roles of the old GUPPYs.
The President of Taiwan presides over the naming and launching ceremony of the prototype submarine built domestically, the future ROCS Haikun (SS-711), on September 28, 2023.
Epilogue
Tusk’slogs and plans are in the National Archives.
There is at least one blog and one crewmember reunion group (who last met in 2017) to cherish Tusk’s memory and those who served on her.
Her U.S. service is remembered in Cold War classic maritime art.
“Cat and Mouse” by Wayne Scarpaci shows the GUPPY II USS Tusk (SS-426) with a Lockheed (P2V) Neptune flying overhead in ASW training.
Her skipper during the Cochino rescue, CDR Worthington (USNA ’38), had been on subs that earned a dozen battle stars and sunk 100,000 tons of shipping during WWII, earning him a Navy Cross, Silver Star, and three Bronze Stars. He didn’t need more medals. He retired from the fleet as a Captain on the staff of the Twelfth Naval District in San Diego in 1962, capping a very busy 24 years of active service. Worthington received an M.S. in Physics and Electronics from UCLA and worked for Lockheed Corporation on the design and construction of the pioneering submersible Deep Quest,which achieved a depth of 8,000 feet during a test dive. Leaving Lockheed in 1975, Worthington returned to the sea, sailing as master on several ocean vessels in Caribbean and Alaskan waters. He passed away in 1996, in San Diego, leaving a wife and two children behind. His papers are in the U.S. Naval War College Archives, of which he was an alumnus.
Thanks for reading!
Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive
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Warship Wednesday (on a Tuesday) 31 March 2026: Good Luck Sometimes Runs Thin
Admiralty photo by LT Sidney James Beadell, Royal Naval Voluntary Reserve (Sp), Imperial War Museum catalog A 1725
Above we see the twin 5.25″/50 QF Mark II DP gun turrets A, B, and Q forward of the very open bridge of the Royal Navy’s Dido-class light cruiser HMS Bonaventure (31), circa 1940. Note the compass platform and the canvas-covered rangefinder in the foreground.
Often credited with helping to spoil the attack of the much larger German super heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper on Convoy WS 5A– firing 438 rounds from the above three forward turrets in the space of only 24 minutes– Bonaventure gave her last full measure some 85 years ago today, just a short ten months after she was rushed into service.
The Didos
The Didos were very light cruisers indeed, designed in 1936 to weigh just 5,600 tons standard displacement, though this would later swell during wartime service to nearly 8,000 tons. Some 512 feet long, they were smaller than a modern destroyer, but, on a powerplant of four Admiralty 3-drum boilers and four Parsons steam turbines, each with its own dedicated shaft, they could break 32.5 knots on 62,000 shp.
They were intended to be armed with 10 5.25″/50 (13.4 cm) QF Mark II DP guns in five twin mounts, three forward and two over the stern, although most of the class failed to carry this layout.
Bow 5.25″/50 turrets on HMS Hermione as she enters Malta Harbor in September 1941. The muzzles of her third forward “Q” turret can just be seen above the crane at the upper left. She, along with Euryalus, Naiad, and Sirius, was the only Dido that completed with the full battery of five twin 5.25-inch mounts, largely due to a shortage of such guns. IWM A 5772.
The Dido class had provision for up to 360 rounds for “A”, “B” and “Q” turrets, 320 rounds for “X” turret and 300 rounds for “Y” turret and a properly trained crew could rattle them off at 7-8 shots per minute per gun out to a range of 23,400 yards or a ceiling of 46,500 feet when used in the AAA role. The fact that one of these cruisers could burp 70-80 shells within a 60-second mad minute gave them a lot of potential if used properly. However, this didn’t play out in reality, at least when it came to swatting incoming aircraft.
Gunnery booklet laying out the general plan of a Dido-class cruiser
As noted by Richard Worth in his Fleets of World War II, “Often referred to as AA cruisers, the 16 Dido-type ships shot down a total of 15 enemy planes. The entirety of British cruiser-dom accounted for only 97 planes, while enemy planes accounted for 11 British cruisers.”
Nonetheless, these vessels carried a decent (for the era) secondary AAA batteries as well.
Originally fitted with two quad .50-caliber Vickers guns, these were augmented with five single 20mm Oerlikons, whose numbers were further expanded until the ship carried over a dozen in twin mounts by the end of the war.
She was also equipped with a variety of quadruple 2 pdr 40mm MK VIII pom-pom guns on Mk.VII mountings.
WRNS visit Dido-class cruiser Euryalus of the Mediterranean Fleet, 3 May 1942, Alexandria. A Wren with her bearded Supply Petty Officer escort on the pom-pom platform. IWM A 8830 http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205142750
Meet Bonaventure
Our subject is at least the 10th RN warship to carry the Latin term for “good fortune” since 1489, giving her nine battle honors carried forward (Lowestoft 1665, Four Days’ Battle 1666, Orfordness 1666, Solebay 1672, Schooneveldt 1673, Texel 1673, Beachy Head 1690, Barfleur 1693, and China 1900).
The immediately preceding ninth Bonaventure was an Astraea-class second-class cruiser commissioned in 1894 and used mostly as a submarine depot ship until broken up in 1920.
“HMS Bonaventure and submarines” circa 1911 by William Lionel Wyllie. RMG PW2083. Inscribed, as title, and signed by the artist, lower right. The ‘Bonaventure’ (1892) was a second-class protected cruiser converted to a submarine depot ship in 1907. This finished watercolor shows the ship in her 1911-14 condition. Both the ‘Bonaventure’ and the trawler tender on the left are flying large red flags, advising other vessels to keep clear of a submarine operating area.
Ordered from Scotts of Greenock on 21 March 1937 under the 1937 Programme, our future Dido-class Bonaventure was laid down on 30 August the same year as Yard No. 575 and launched on 19 April 1939, officially having a peacetime hull.
Bonaventure shared the same armament fit as class leader Dido and sister Phoebe, with her four twin 5.25″/40s (as opposed to five mounts as seen on Naiad, Euryalus, Hermione, Sirius, Cleopatra, and Argonaut), a single 4″/45 QF Mk V starshell gun in the position of her “X” turret (only ever seen on these three cruisers and Charybdis due to a shortage in the supply of the new 5.25s), two quad Vickers 40/39 2pdr QF Mk VIII pom poms, two quad Vickers 50 cals (guns just seen on the first six Didos, replaced on the latter vessels by Oerlikons) and the univesal torpedo tube fit of two triple 21-inch tubes.
On 24 May 1940, amid the evacuation from Dunkirk, Bonaventure was commissioned for Contractor’s Trials and accepted on 19 June, just days before the Fall of France.
Her plankowner skipper was Henry Jack Egerton, a 48-year-old Mountfield-born Englishman listed in the peerage (grandson of 1st Earl Brassey) who started “taking the king’s shilling” as a Mid in 1909. Serving as a junior officer during the Great War, he shipped aboard the battleship HMS Agincourt, the cruiser Caledon, and the battlecruiser Repulse. Interwar, he passed out of the Senior Officers’ War Course at Greenwich and the Imperial Defence Course before moving into the captain’s cabin of the destroyer Bridgewater, his first command, in 1936. When WWII began, he was commanding officer of the Emerald-class light cruiser Enterprise with the 4th CS on Atlantic escort duties.
War photographer LT Sidney James Beadell, RNVR, captured a series of images of “Britain’s latest light cruiser” and her skipper and XO, CDR Edward Francis Disbrowe, RN.
IWM A 1733
IWM A 1732
IWM A 1739
IWM A 1731
Note her two H-aerial (separate transmitting and receiving antennas) 70kW Type 279 A-band radar atop her mainmast, good for a theoretical 60nm for high altitude targets and about 2-6nm for surface targets. IWM A 1730
Note her missing “turret. IWM A 1734
Left: Captain E J Egerton, RN, and (Right) Commander E F Disbrowe, RN. Disbrowe, 39, had joined up in 1919 and had previously commanded the Acacia-class sweeping sloop HMS Laburnum out of Singapore. IWM (A 1735)
War! (Already in progress)
After just a couple weeks of trials and exercises in the Clyde followed by a short yard period to address defects, Bonaventuresailed out on 5 July to escort the liners Monarch of Bermuda, Batory, and Sobieski for Halifax– all loaded with £25 million in gold from the Bank of England, sent abroad for safekeeping in Canada should Mr. Hitler cross the Channel as part of Operation Fish. The little convoy was joined at sea by the battleship HMS Revenge and three destroyers.
On her return from the Canada run, Bonaventure was assigned to the 15th Cruiser Squadron, Home Fleet at Scapa Flow, and she shipped out with HMS Naiad to patrol the Faeroes for German blockade runners in late August.
HMS Bonaventure as seen from the destroyer HMS Javelin, August 1940, in the Firth of Forth. Note her four-turret arrangement. Photo by Reginald George Guy Coote, IWM (A 443).
By 6 September, she was part of Operation DF, a carrier raid built around HMS Furious on German shipping in the occupied Trondheim area.
The next month saw Operations DN 2/DNU which aimed to bag a group of 20 German fishing vessels and a patrol ship that were reported off Egersund. Only the 300-ton weather ship WBS 5 (ex-Adolf Vinnen) was found and sunk north of Iceland, sent to the bottom by detached destroyers.
November saw Bonaventure scrabbled to join the unsuccessful hunt (alongside Hood and Repulse) for the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer after the latter attacked convoy HX 84, with our new cruiser sustaining weather damage to her foc’sle in the rough North Atlantic.
Nominated for duty in the Mediterranean Fleet with the rest of the 15th CS, Bonaventure put in for repair at Rosyth and was then assigned to escort the slow Middle East military Convoy WS (Winston Special) 5A, its 18 transports packed with 40,000 troops, from UK ports to the Suez. WS5A started leaving on 18/19 December and by Christmas Eve was some 700 miles West of Spain’s Cape Finisterre, where they stumbled across the bruising 18,000-ton German heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper on her Operation Nordseetour raid.
Not what you want to see chasing you if you are a British light cruiser.
While the convoy had two carriers attached (Furious and Argus), they only had a bare handful of two Swordfish of 825 NAS and three Skuas of 801 NAS available for ASW duties; the rest of their hangars and decks were packed with aircraft being ferried to Takoradi in Ghana.
That left the primary line of defense against Hipper in the hands of the County-class heavy cruiser HMS Berwick, our Bonaventure, and the old 4,000-ton Danae-class light cruiser Dunedin. While Berwick carried eight 8″/50s and went some 13,000 tons, her armor was thin. Likewise, Dunedin carried slow 6″/45 Mk XIIs, which had been all but replaced in RN service.
Hipper had made contact with the convoy with her DeTe radar at some 23km out late on Christmas Eve. Closing to 6,600 meters unseen, she attempted an unsuccessful three-fish long-range night torpedo attack at 0153 on Christmas, then closed for a gun action at 0639 in a heavy gale with whitecaps. Over the next 36 minutes, Berwick and Bonaventure fought Hipper at long range, with Dunedin laying smoke and the convoy dispersed, the weather dropping visibility to less than a mile. The Brits used Hipper’s gun flashes as an aiming point, with the German boogeyman turning to retire.
Berwick got the worst of the encounter, hit by at least four of Hipper’s 8-inch AP shells (which, for the most part, passed right through the ship), knocking out her X turret, killing four of her crew, and sending her to the yard for seven months. Hipper also landed an 8-inch shell on the liner/transport Empire Trooper (ex-German Cap Norte, 13,994 GRT), having fired 174 shells in the encounter, and a 4.1-inch DP shell hit on the freighter Arabistan (5,874 GRT). Hipper made Brest on 27 December.
For Bonaventure’s part, she fired a “prodigious amount of 5.25in shell,” some 438 rounds, from her forward six guns in 24 minutes at Hipper, who came away with no damage. I mean, that is probably understandable for the low visibility and heavy seas of the encounter, and her performance was mirrored by sisters Cleopatra and Euryalus, who fired 868 and 421 5.25-inch shells at the Battle of Second Sirte in 1942 and hit as many Italian ships as Bonaventure did Germans on Christmas ’40.
Sent to look for the damaged Empire Trooper-– which she located– Bonaventure got something of a consolation prize by encountering the 8,300-ton German blockade runner Baden on Boxing Day, sending the HAPAG freighter to the bottom via torpedo– as the weather conditions did not allow boarding– about 325 nautical miles northeast of Ponta Delgada in the Azores. All 39 crew members were rescued and taken to Gibraltar, with their skipper, Capt. Max Schaefer, reporting on the three-day ride on the cruiser: “The accommodation on board was very primitive, but the food was plentiful and good.”
The HAPAG steamer Baden was sent to the bottom by Bonaventure while coming from Tenerife and bound for occupied France.
January 1941 saw Bonaventure outbound from Gibraltar and involved in the periphery of Operation Ration, the interdiction of a four-ship Vichy convoy off Oran. Then came convoy ops in the Med to Malta (Operations Excess and Operation MC 4) with our cruiser generally credited with shooting down at least one (and up to three) attacking Italian Savoia bombers on the 9th.
By February, she was operating from Suda Bay with other cruisers of CS15 and took part in Operation Abstention, the failed commando raid on the Italian island of Casteloriso (Castelelorizo).
Dido-class cruiser HMS Bonaventure steaming at high speed in the Med, early 1941
March saw her with Force C, supporting Convoy MW 6 to Malta, where she survived a near miss from a German bomber, just narrowly missing the Battle of Cape Matapan.
Returning to Alexandria, Bonaventure joined Force A at sea on the 29th to escort another convoy, GA 8, from Piraeus, Greece. The convoy heading from Greece to Alexandria with the transports HMS Breconshire and Cameronia, along with the destroyers HMAS Stuart, HMS Griffin, and HMS Hereward, was soon being bird-dogged by Italian submarines.
Bonaventure came away from a night attack mounted by the Italian Adua-class submarine Dagabur(TV Domenico Romano) at 2037 on 30 March, with both of the sub’s fired torpedoes missing at 3,000 meters.
Our cruiser was not as lucky, just six hours later, when the Italian Perla-class coastal submarine Ambra(TV Mario Arillo) came across her while about 100 nm south-south-east of Crete.
Via Uboat.net:
At 0237 hours, Ambra was proceeding on the surface when, from the bridge, S.T.V. Ignazio Spinale observed a shadow in the mist at a distance of 2,000 meters, followed by another at about 1,000 meters.
At 0244 hours, three torpedoes were fired from bow tubes at 4-second intervals. After a lapse of time, T.V. Arillo thought the torpedoes had missed. He was about to order the firing of more torpedoes when a double explosion was observed. He immediately gave orders to crash-dive. ASDIC pings (described as “Hastings” in the Italian report) were heard, and many depth charges followed, but the submarine escaped.
Bonaventure sank in six minutes, taking 139 souls with her, including her XO, CDR Disbrowe. Stuart and Hereward heaved to and picked up 310 survivors. She was the third of HM’s cruisers taken out of action in the last week of March in the region.
The cruiser is often billed as the largest warship sunk by Italian submarines in WWII.
She was in the first batch of a staggering 206 Allied vessels lost in the Eastern Med during the Greek/Crete campaign and its follow-on evacuation between 28 March and 1 June.
Bonaventure’s slayer: the 600-ton. 197-foot Italian Perla-class coastal submarine Ambra. She was knocked out of service by RAF Wellingtons in 1943 and sent to the bottom for good by USAAF B-17s the following year
Of Bonaventure’s sisters, Charybdis, Hermione, Spartan, and Naiad were all lost during the conflict. Classmate HMS Scylla was badly damaged by a mine in June 1944 and was never repaired.
Bonaventure’s only skipper, Jack Egerton, survived his ship. He continued in the cruiser trade, going on to command the familiar Berwick from Admiral Hipper fame while escorting convoys to North Russia, was named an ADC to the King, and ended the war as Senior British Officer in Russia then later became Captain in Charge, Singapore/Malaya with a CB on his chest before moving to the Retired List in 1948, capping 39 years in uniform. VADM Henry Jack Egerton, C.B., RN, passed in Coxwold in 1972, aged 80, and is buried in St Helen and the Holy Cross Churchyard in North Yorkshire with his wife. His eldest son. LT Edward Gervase Egerton, RN, was killed in action at Dieppe in 1942, aged 22. His younger son, Col. Christopher Charles “Kit” Egerton, M.C., passed in 1970, a former commander of the 15th/19th Hussars.
Captain E J Egerton, RN, as seen aboard Bonaventure, May 1940. By Beadle, IWM (A 1737).
The final Bonaventure (F139), the command and depot ship for the newly formed X/XE-craft of the 14th Submarine Flotilla, entered service in 1943 and, by extension, went on to be the most decorated ship in the fleet, her submariners earning no less than 4 VCs, 3 CBEs, 11 DSOs, a OBE, 10 MBEs, 17 DSCs, 6 CGMs, 12 BSMs, 4 BEMs, and over 100 MiDs from her deck during WWII. She returned to commercial service in 1948 and was scrapped in 1963.
HMS Bonaventure, Xcraft mothership, IWM 30564
Somehow, the RN has not seen fit to recycle the name.
Thanks for reading!
Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive
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