Category Archives: USCG

Douglas World Cruisers at 100

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This month marks the centennial of the first successful aerial circumnavigation of the globe.

Kicked off on 6 April 1924 when four pairs of U.S. Army Air Service pilots and mechanics, using modified War Department-owned Navy Douglas DT torpedo bombers, departed West from Seattle’s Sand Point Aerodrome, some 27,550 miles and 175 days (363 flying hours) later, two planes flew back in from the East on 28 September 1924, having made 74 stops in 22 different countries– the latter high number both for publicity as well as refuel/repair.

Keep in mind these were open-cockpit aircraft produced only two decades after the Wright Brothers first proved flying a powered heavier-than-air machine was even possible. 

The four planes included the Seattle (No. 1)– Maj. Frederick L. Martin (Pilot and Flight Commander) and Staff Sgt. Alva L. Harvey (Mechanic), Chicago (No. 2)– Lt. Lowell H. Smith (Pilot, subsequent Flight Commander) and 1st Lt. Leslie P. Arnold (Mechanic), Boston (No. 3)– 1st Lt. Leigh P. Wade (Pilot) and Staff Sgt. Henry H. Ogden (Mechanic), and New Orleans (No. 4)– Lt. Erik H. Nelson (Pilot – Engineer) and Lt. John Harding Jr. (Chief Mechanic).

Seattle at Vancouver Barracks

Chicago. When crossing the open ocean, the DT-2s were fitted with floats

Boston at Vancouver Barracks

New Orleans at Vancouver Barracks

Airplanes New Orleans, Chicago, and Boston at Rockwell Field, San Diego, California, March 1924 before the expedition’s launch in April. NH 884

Chicago and New Orleans finished the flight (both of which are preserved) with Smith, Arnold, Wade, Nelson, and Ogden winning the Mackay Trophy, and all fliers were authorized a medal of honor and a $10,000 bonus by Congress.

Chicago at NASM NASM-NASM2020-07130-000001

Seattle crashed in dense fog into a mountainside near Port Moller on the Alaska Peninsula in April while Boston was lost at sea near the Faroes in August, with both crews (eventually) recovered alive.

Besides being done in what were essentially converted Navy torpedo bombers, the Navy and Coast Guard extensively supported the flight. In particular, USS Noa (DD-342), USS Charles Ausburn (DD-294), USS Hart (DM-8), USS Milwaukee (CL-5), and USS Richmond (who rescued the crew of Boston), were assigned to assist with cross-ocean portions of the trip. 

Navy supporting “Around the World Flyers” 1924. NH 883

USS Milwaukee (CL-5) At Ivigtut, Greenland, July 1924, awaiting the arrival of the U.S. Army around-the-world fliers. Donation of Mr. & Mrs. Don St. John, 1990. NH 96690

U.S. Army Around the World Flight, 1924 Three U.S. Army Air Corps flyers on board USS Richmond (CL-9), explaining their route to Sailors. Photographed at Hunters Bay, Orkney Islands, Scotland, circa mid-1924. The flyers are Lieutenants Arnold, Smith, and Wade. NH 880

Warship Wednesday, April 3, 2024: The Bathtub of Sampson, Schley, and Sims

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 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, April 3, 2024: The Bathtub of Sampson, Schley, and Sims

Naval Historical and Heritage Command Photo NH 85726

Above we see the “Propeller-class” brigantine-rigged cruising cutter Manning of the newly-formed U.S. Coast Guard as she steams in European service with the U.S. Navy during the Great War, circa 1917-18. Note her dazzle camouflage, rows of depth charges over her stern, and four 4″/50 cal open mounts, fore and aft, made all the more out of place due to her antiquated plow bow and downright stubby 205-foot overall length.

You wouldn’t know it to look at her, but Manning was in her second war and still had a lot of life left.

Turn of the Century Cutters

The Propeller class was emblematic of the Revenue Cutter Service– the forerunner of the USCG– at the cusp of the 20th Century. The USRCS decided in the 1890s to build five near-sisterships that would be classified in peacetime as cutters but would be capable modern naval auxiliary gunboats.

These vessels, to the same overall concept but each slightly different in design, were built to carry a bow-mounted torpedo tube for 15-inch Bliss-Whitehead type torpedoes (although they appeared to have not been fitted with the weapons) and as many as four modern quick-firing 3-inch guns (though they typically used just two 6-pounder, 57mm popguns in peacetime). They would be the first modern cutters equipped with electric generators, triple-expansion steam engines (with auxiliary sail rigs), steel (well, mostly steel) hulls with a navy-style plow bow, and able to cut the very fast (for the time) speed of 18-ish knots.

All were built 1896-98 at three different yards to speed up delivery.

These ships included:

–McCulloch, a barquentine-rigged, composite-hulled, 219-foot, 1,280-ton steamer ordered from William Cramp and Sons of Philadelphia for $196,000. She was the longest of the type as she was intended for Pacific service and so was designed with larger coal bunkers.

–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 steamer ordered from 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 ordered from the Globe Iron Works Company of Cleveland, OH for $193,000.

–Onondaga, brigantine-rigged 206-foot, 1,190-ton steel-hulled steamer ordered from the Globe Iron Works Company of Cleveland, OH for $193,800.

Meet Manning

As the USRSC (and the USCG until 1967) was part of the Treasury Department, our vessel was the only one named in honor of Grover Cleveland’s Treasury secretary, Daniel Manning, although she only carried the last name and not the full name while in service. Accepted by the Service, Manning was commissioned on 8 January 1898, and she would soon “see the elephant.”

War with Spain!

Unlike the coming World Wars where the entire Service would be placed under the control of the Navy, only those vessels deemed modern enough to hold their own in a fight were seconded to the larger sea-going branch for the conflict with the Empire of Spain.

On 24 March 1898, President McKinley instructed his T-Sec to place nine cutters– ours included– “under the direction of the Secretary of the Navy, and cooperate with the Navy, until further orders. This was five weeks after the mysterious and controversial sinking of the USS Maine in Havanna harbor and a full month before Congress declared war on Spain, a fateful vote tallied on 25 April.

In all, the RCS would place 13 revenue cutters– carrying 61 guns and crewed by 98 officers and 562 enlisted— under Navy control during the conflict. This would include four (Grant, Corwin, Perry, and Rush) used to patrol the Pacific coastline and one (Manning’s sister McCulloch) to Commodore Dewey’s Asiatic Squadron for the push on Manila.

This left the Manning, under the command of Captain Fred M. Munger, Morrill, Hamilton, Windom, Woodbury, Hudson, Calumet, and McLane, to join the North Atlantic Squadron under RADM William Thomas Sampson (USNA 1861).

Meanwhile, another seven smaller cutters (Dallas, Dexter, Winona, Smith, Galveston, Guthrie, and Penrose), with a total of 10 guns between them and crewed by 33 officers and 163 men, were placed under Army orders patrolling coastwise minefields off protected harbors from Boston to New Orleans.

Manning was up-armed with three 4-inch guns (2 forward, one aft) with a mix of 250 AP and Common shells. She was also given steel gun shields for her 6-pounders for which she took on 1,500 AP shells, and was fitted with a Maxim-Nordenfeldt 1-pounder 37mm “pom pom” with another 2,200 rounds for that eclectic gun.

A Maxim-Nordenfelt 37mm 1-pounder autocannon fitted on the yacht USS Vixen in 1898. Manning was fitted with one of these for her SpanAm War service. Basically a super-sized Maxim machine gun, it had a very respectable 300 rpm rate of fire, as long as the shells held out. LC-DIG-det-4a14810

Manning would head south to Key West, and eventually be folded into Commodore Winfield Scott Schley’s 2nd Squadron.

His little gunboat was listed by the Navy as having engaged in combat on 12 and 13 May at Cabanas and Mariel, Cuba, and 18 July at Naguerro. Munger noted some 71 rounds of 4-inch and 148 rounds of 6 pdr. ammunition expended in the earlier of the three.

May 12, 1898, USS Manning in engaged off Cabanas, Cuba By Lieut. G. L. Carden, R.C.S. This is the only known photo of a Revenue Cutter in action during the Spanish-American War.

Munger filed three detailed reports with the T-Sec’s office, detailing the cutter’s actions in the war, including a total of some 600 rounds fired across several more engagements than what the Navy detailed.

Returned from Navy service to the RCS on 17 August 1898, Manning put into Norfolk to remove the bulk of her wartime armament and settled into her “salad days.”

Interbellum

USRC Manning. Photograph by Hart, taken off New York City circa 1898-99. Note that she still has at least one 4-inch gun forward and her steel shields over her 6-pounders. NH 46627

On 2 January 1900, Manning was ordered to report to San Francisco via the Straits of Magellan for duties with the Bering Sea Patrol, where she would perform the hard work in the remote region for 13 of the next 16 summers, with occasional pivots to warmer climes in Hawaii.

As with other cutters sent to Alaska, this ranged from policing fishing and sealing grounds, responding to natural disasters, conducting hydrographic surveys, responding to wrecks and distress, and generally serving as the sole federal institution for hundreds of miles in many cases– a job that spanned from carrying supplies and medicine to isolated coastal villages to serving as constabulary force ashore, and even holding court with an embarked judge from time to time. Her Public Health Service physician was often the only medical professional to call at many of these areas with any regularity.

Boiler room of the USS Manning with four crew members, Washington State, between 1898 and 1906

the crew of the Revenue Cutter Manning while on a Bering Sea Patrol 1901 210604-G-G0000-1004

the crew of the Revenue Cutter Manning while on a Bering Sea Patrol 1910 210604-G-G0000-1005

the crew of the Revenue Cutter Manning while on a Bering Sea Patrol 1910 210604-G-G0000-1006

U.S. Revenue Cutter Manning, Unalaska, Aug. 1908. A great view of her torpedo tube. LOC LC-USZ62-130291

Equipped sometime during this period with a 2-KW DeForest spark transmitter/receiver, Mannng could also serve as a floating wireless station while her original coal-fired suite was replaced with oil-fired boilers during a refit at Mare Island Naval Shipyard.

At Sea – “USRC Manning’s race boat crew (1902-1904) which used the Corwin’s Gig. Left to right: Seaman ‘Frenchie’ Martinesen, Master-at-Arms Stranberg (Coxswain), Seaman Andreas Rynberg, Magnus Jensen, and Franze Rynberg.”

Japanese schooners caught poaching near the Pribilof Islands, Bering Sea, Alaska, 1907. “On verso of image: Schr. Nitto Maru is in the foreground. Schr. Kaiwo Tokiyo in the center. Both poachers on Pribloff Islands, Behring Sea, now under the guard of Rev. Cutter McCulloch at Unalaska. Manning is on the right. 63 Japanese in both crews.” John N. Cobb Photograph Collection, University of Washington UW14289. At the time, Capt. Fred Munger, Manning’s old SpanAm War skipper, was head of the Bearing Sea Fleet. 

Manning, 1912. Note this is before her refit that changed her to oil and reduced her masts, ditching her auxiliary sail rig. Note her torpedo tube, still with a hatch. 

In June 1912, while docked at Kodiak Island, Manning’s crew noted the rumbling and ash in the distance that was the historic eruption of Novarupta/Katmai— the largest volcanic eruption of the 20th century. She would spend the next several days harboring refugees from the surrounding communities– as many as 414 onboard the small gunboat at any one time– and, as every well was full of ash, run her then rare desalination plant to make fresh water.

Crew and deck of the US Revenue Cutter Manning covered in ash from June 6, 1912. Via Anchorage Museum

U.S. Revenue Service cutter Manning, crowded with Kodiak residents seeking safety during the 1912 eruption of Novarupta, which resulted in about a foot of ashfall on Kodiak over nearly three days. The photograph was published in Griggs, 1922, and was taken by J.F. Hahn, U.S.R.S.

While many of her crew became sick from the ash of Navarupta, and she had fought both malaria and the Spanish off Cuba for nearly four months during the war, Manning had been a lucky ship when it came to deaths. This streak ended on 10 October 1914 when she lost four crewmen and a Public Health Service physician after one of her small boats swamped in heavy surf off Sarichef, Unimak.

Then came trouble in Europe.

Great War

While in Astoria, Oregon on 26 January 1917, Manning received orders to report, via the Panama Canal, to the Coast Guard Depot at Curtis Bay, Maryland to prepare for possible Naval service.

Soon after she arrived there, on 6 April 1917, the day Congress declared war on Imperial Germany, U.S. Navy’s radio centers transmitted “Plan One, Acknowledge” to all Coast Guard cutters, units, and bases, the code words initiating the service’s transfer from the Treasury Department to the Navy and placing it on an immediate wartime footing. Manning became part of the Navy once again.

It was decided to use the little gunboat as part of the scrappy Squadron 2, Division 6 of the Atlantic Fleet Patrol Forces, and sent overseas to report to VADM(T) William Sowden Sims. Based at Gibraltar, this force consisted of six Coast Guard cutters (Tampa, Algonquin, Seneca, Manning, Ossipee, and Yamacraw). On a list compiled for the British Admiralty, the USCG cutters were described as “good sea boats, good crews, much better than old gunboats.”

With Royal Navy communications personnel aboard, they would escort convoys between Gibraltar and the British Isles and conduct antisubmarine patrols in the Mediterranean against very active German U-boats there.

For her role, Manning and her sister cutters headed to Gibraltar were given a dazzle camouflage scheme. She and sister Algonquin would be armed with four 4-inch guns with 1,500 shells stored in two magazines fore and aft, two racks capable of carrying 16 300-pound depth charges, and four 30.06 Colt “potato digger” machine guns. A small arms locker would be filled with a pair of .30-06 Lewis guns, 18 .45 caliber Colt pistols, and 15 Springfield rifles.

USCG Cutter Manning in her Great War dazzle 170807-G-0Y189-009

USCGC Manning in dry dock. Note the canvased deck guns. 170807-G-0Y189-010

Although Manning’s Gibraltar service is not well documented, the risk was no joke as fellow Squadron 2 cutter Tampa, after completing a convoy run from Gibraltar to England, was torpedoed by UB-91, killing all 131 (111 USCG, 16 RN and 4 USN) personnel aboard.

Returning to USCG service

Reverting back to the Treasury Department on 28 August 1919, Manning would remain on the East Coast, spending the next 11 years operating out of Norfolk with her traditional white hull. During this period, she would participate in the reestablished International Ice Patrol, and take part in the “Rum War” against bootleggers, and other traditional USCG taskings.

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Manning At Norfolk, Virginia, 30 December 1920. Note her armament has been landed but her torpedo tube remains although the hatch has been removed and the tube plated over. Panoramic photograph, taken by Crosby, Boston, Massachusetts. Donation of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum, 1970. NH 105313

Manning would be involved in the landmark human smuggling case of the schooner Sunbeam in December 1919 and race to the scene of the sinking British liner SS Vestris off the Virginia Capes in November 1928.

Manning, Norfolk, 1920s. Note the lattice masts of the battleship to the right and the tall gantry works of what looks to be a Proteus class collier to the right

Manning late in her career. Note her RF DF equipment. Also, her torpedo tube has been removed altogether. 

Manning Underway 1927

Past her prime and slated to be replaced by a new and much more modern 250-foot Lake class cutter, Manning was decommissioned at Norfolk on 22 May 1930. The following December, she was sold to one Charles L. Jording of Baltimore for just $2,200.02.

As for her classmates: Cleveland-built sisters Algonquin and Onondaga had been sold in 1930 and 1924 respectively and disposed of. 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. McCulloch was lost in 1917 northwest of Point Conception, California when she collided with the Pacific Steamship Company’s steamer Governor (5,474 tons) in dense fog and endures as a reef.

Epilogue

Some of her logs are digitized and online. Few other relics of the old girl exist, which is a shame.

While the Coast Guard has not commissioned a second USCGC Manning, it did, in 2020, commission a painting by Michael Daley, MBE, GAvA, of the old girl steaming out of Gibraltar at the head of a convoy during the Great War with another cutter on the horizon.

Artist Michael Daley, MBE, GAvA. CGC MANNING escorting a convoy out of Gibraltar during World War I. 210610-G-G0000-101

Ships are more than steel
and wood
And heart of burning coal,
For those who sail upon
them know
That some ships have a
soul.

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The (Sad) State of the USCG

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In line with a 3,500-person shortfall in recruiting and retention—a nearly 10 percent shortage in the enlisted ranks—that is forcing the Coast Guard to take 13 badly-needed cutters out of service in one form or another, some aging 210-foot Reliance class cutters are being essentially placed in what would have been deemed “ordinary” back in the old days.

The CGC Confidence (WMEC-619) and CGC Dependable (WMEC-626) will therefore soon be placed in “commission special” status, pending an eventual decommissioning and likely handover to overseas allies. 

The planned Offshore Patrol Cutter program, which was to replace the 210s and other Cold War-era blue water assets, is behind schedule, so there of course will be a “cutter gap.” 

This means that when the actual ax falls, the crews will no longer be assigned so there will be no traditional decommissioning ceremony, just an administrative move on paper. Sad when you consider these vessels have each put in over a half-century of service. In fact, both recently returned from far-reaching ex-CONUS patrols.

VADM Lunday will host a Heritage Recognition Ceremony onboard Dependable’s homeport of JEB Little Creek in Virginia Beach, VA on April 9th.

Confidence will hold a Cutter Service Recognition Ceremony at 1000 on May 2nd, 2024 at the Coast Guard Station Cape Canaveral.

If you are a former shipmate or know one, those dates may be of interest.

This is as the service is being stretched to its limits to conduct far-reaching patrols in the WestPac, hunt down narco subs in the EastPac, and maintain a squadron of six very busy cutters (PATFORSWA) in the Persian Gulf.

With that, the 27th commandant of the USCG, delivered her second State of the Coast Guard Address this week.

Wait for the news that the service’s maintenance budget will only cover about half of its upcoming needs and current backlog…Ba Dum Tss.  

USCG Owns Southwest Pacific?

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Big Blue, the U.S. Navy, has two carrier strike groups (TR and Reagan) in the Pacific as well as an amphibious ready group (America), with the latter two currently forward deployed in Japan at Sasebo and Yokosuka while the San Diego-based Teddy Roosevelt group (with CVW-11 embarked) is flexing off Luzon in the vital South China Sea.

However, south of Manila, except for an LCS that has been on a rotational deployment to the region, the only armed American maritime assets currently underway are owned by the Coast Guard.

The four big frigate-sized National Security Cutters based at Alameda, California continue their regular WestPac deployments with class-leader USCGC Bertholf (WMSL 750) recently steaming over 8,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean to take part in planned engagements with regional partners. 

She had previously made Westpac tours in 2019 and 2022. 

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf (WMSL 750) transits near the Singapore Straits, on Feb. 29, 2024. The Bertholf is a 418-foot National Security Cutter currently deployed to the Indo-Pacific region under the tactical control of the U.S. 7th Fleet. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer Steve Strohmaier)

The Bertholf crew recently conducted a refueling at sea evolution with the U.S. Naval Ship John Ericsson (T-AO 194). Alongside connected replenishment is a standard method of transferring liquids such as fuel and water and allows the cutter to stay out at sea for extended periods. (U.S. Coast Guard photo)

She recently joined the rotationally-deployed USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS 10) and called in Singapore. 

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Bertholf (WMSL 750) arrives at Changi Naval Base in Singapore, on Feb. 25, 2024. The Bertholf moored next to USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS 10), a U.S. Navy Littoral Combat Ship, also in the region to support an open Indo-Pacific region. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Cmdr. Trevor Parra)

Bertholf is operating as part of Commander, Task Force (CTF) 71, the U.S. 7th Fleet’s principal surface force, promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific, strengthening partner networks, and enhancing maritime safety and security.

Harriet Lane Clocks in 

Meanwhile, the 40-year-old 270-foot Bear class USCGC Harriet Lane (WMEC-903), the only member of her type in the Pacific, is getting her feet wet from her new homeport in Pearl Harbor and is currently deployed on her inaugural Blue Pacific mission, calling in Samoa and Fiji among other Pacific Rim allies.

A tour aboard the new dedicated “Indo-Pacific Cutter” while in Fiji.

FRC on expeditionary patrol

 
Speaking of Blue Pacific, the 154-foot Sentinel (Webber-class) Fast Response Cutter Oliver Henry (WPC 1140) recently concluded a “pivotal leg of its current expeditionary patrol in the Kiribati exclusive economic zone (EEZ) from Feb. 11 to 16, 2024… included two boardings of People’s Republic of China-flagged fishing vessels and observing and querying other fishing vessels from the PRC.”
 
She then, from Feb. 20 to 27, 2024, spent time in Majuro, Wotje Atoll, and the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI).
 

The USCGC Oliver Henry (WPC 1140) crew and Kiribati Police Maritime Unit officers and recruits stand for a photo in Tarawa, Kiribati, on Feb. 16, 2024. For the first time since 2015, the patrol incorporated ship riders from the PMU, executing the maritime bilateral agreement signed with Kiribati in 2008. These engagements under Operation Blue Pacific emphasize the United States’ commitment to strengthening ties and ensuring maritime security within the Pacific community. (U.S Coast Guard photo by Lt. j.g. Nicholas Haas)

Henry, although a small cutter, conducted a similar 43-day expeditionary patrol 16,000 nautical mile patrol through Oceania in 2022, and a shorter, 28-day patrol, last year. Her three other Guam-based sisters have been making similar jaunts through the islands. 
 

Orion Drops

 
In a curious twist, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine Operations (AMO), which operates 14 P-3 Orions on long-range counter-smuggling operations, recently detailed they have been making airdrops to USCG cutters deployed to the Eastern Pac on counterdrug ops, shoveling supplies out via an Airborne Deployable Delivery System.
 
The AMO released images of one of their aging P-3s dropping an ADDS bucket to a 210-foot cutter. 
 
 
Aerial resupply at sea via the airborne system saves approximately $1.3 million for each operation. AMO P-3 aircrews have conducted 16 airborne resupply missions with U.S. Coast Guard crews and task force teams since March 2022. These resupply missions have also allowed Coast Guard crews that would normally be required to travel to and from port to complete logistical supply runs to stay on station for approximately 75 additional days.

Way down in the South Pacific…

Finally, going even further south in the Pacific, the Coast Guard’s only serious icebreaker, the 48-year-old USCGC Polar Star (WAGB 10) has been busy breaking ice into McMurdo during Operation Deep Freeze 2023/2024, operating for 51 days below the Antarctic Circle, and is now retiring north, back across the Pacific.

Great War NYC COTP Days

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Check out this great image of what looks like circa 1910s U.S. Marines in landing party marching order including packs, leggings, web gear, and M1903 Springfields complete with long M1905 bayonets.

Only, they aren’t Marines, or even Blue Jackets, but, rather, U.S. Coast Guardsmen– you can even make out the surfman’s badge on the collar of the man to the left. The location? Manhattan’s Battery Park, circa 1918.

USCG Photo 210210-G-G0000-1007

The above are from the battalion-sized light infantry force under the command of the NYC Captain of the Port, a USCG unit under Temp. Capt. Godfrey Lynet Carden, which became a familiar sight as it drilled and patrolled along the city’s docks and parks during the Great War.

As detailed by the USCG Historian’s Office:

During WWI, the Coast Guard continued to enforce rules and regulations that governed the anchorage and movements of vessels in American harbors. The Espionage Act, passed in June 1917, gave the Coast Guard further power to protect merchant shipping from sabotage. This act included the safeguarding of waterfront property, supervision of vessel movements, establishment of anchorages and restricted areas, and the right to control and remove people aboard ships. The tremendous increase in munitions shipments, particularly in New York, required an increase in personnel to oversee this activity.

The term “captain of the port” (COTP) was first used in New York, and Captain Godfrey L. Carden was the first to hold that title. As COTP, he was charged with supervising the safe loading of explosives. During the war, a similar post was established in other U.S. ports. However, the majority of the nation’s munitions shipments abroad left through New York. For a period of 1-1/2 years, more than 1,600 vessels, carrying more than 345 million tons of explosives, sailed from this port. In 1918, Carden’s division was the largest single command in the Coast Guard. It consisted of more than 1,400 officers and men, four Corps of Engineers tugboats, and five harbor cutters.

The Coast Guard augmented the Navy with its 223 commissioned officers, more than 4,500 enlisted men, 47 vessels of all types, and 279 stations scattered along the entire U.S. coastline.

As for Carden, he was born in Siam in 1866, the son of a Presbyterian missionary, and attended Annapolis with the class of ’84, although did not graduate.

Rather, on 4 June 1886, he was appointed a cadet in the U.S. Revenue Marine Service and, following two years as a mid in that service, including serval cruises aboard the Revenue Cutter Chase, Mr. Carden was commissioned a 3rd lieutenant in the service.

Over the next decade, he would serve on the cutters Bibb, Manhattan, McLane, Morrill, and Grant.

2nd LT Godfrey L. Carden instructing a 6-pounder gun crew aboard the Revenue Cutter Morill in South Carolina waters, circa 1892. Note the rarely-seen USRSC officer’s sword. USCGH Photo 210210-G-G0000-1002

After combat aboard Manning during the Spanish-American War– during which Carden was in charge of the cutter’s two 4-inch and two 6-pounder guns– he became a go-to ordnance officer for the service and spent much of the next several years on detached duty touring manufacturers, hosting gunnery exhibits on large public events (St. Louis World’s Fair, etc) and would go on to return to Manning in 1910 as her skipper.

He then commanded the cutters Seminole and Mohawk in turn before his assignment as the COTP in New York.

Captain Godfrey L. Carden, as COTP NYC 1917-19

Following the close of hostilities, on 20 December 1918, Carden mustered the remaining men under his command– at the time still over 900– and marched from Washington Square through Fifth Avenue to the 9th Regimental Armory where they were inspected by the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury (Leo Rowe), USCG Commandant Ellsworth Bertholf, and Byron Newton, the Collector of Customs.

Note Carden at the front. USCG Photo 210210-G-G0000-1006

The COTP position endured until August 1919, when the Coast Guard transferred back to the Treasury Department, and Carden, who had reverted to his peacetime rank of LCDR, was relieved that October.

After service with the U.S. Shipping Board, Carden requested to retire in August 1921, capping a 35-year career when he moved to the retired list that same December.

He passed in 1965, aged 98, and is buried at Arlington.

Meanwhile, the COTP concept has become standard since then. 

60 Years of Getting it Done

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The 71-member crew of 210-foot U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Reliance (WMEC 615) returned to their homeport at Pensacola– where the aging class is being collected– on Saturday following a 57-day counterdrug patrol that ranged into the Eastern Pacific Ocean under 4th Fleet/JIATF-South control.

And the 59-year-old (not a misprint) cutter bagged a narco sub, which continues to be a thing in those waters.

The crew of U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Reliance (WMEC 615) interdicts a low-profile vessel carrying more than $5 million in illicit narcotics in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, on Feb. 15, 2024. Patrolling in support of Joint Interagency Task Force-South, the Reliance crew stopped two drug trafficking ventures, detaining six suspected traffickers and preventing nearly 4,000 pounds of cocaine and 5,400 pounds of marijuana, worth more than $57 million, from entering the United States. (U.S. Coast Guard photo courtesy of Reliance)

Commissioned in Galveston in 1964 Reliance is the leader of her 16-ship class, of which four have been retired in recent years– only to see those old hulls transferred to overseas allies.

This black and white photo shows newly the commissioned Reliance (WMEC-615) in the mid-1960s with an HH-52 Sea Guard helicopter landing on its pad and davits down with one of its small boats deployed. Notice the lack of smokestack and paint scheme pre-dating the Racing Stripe or “U.S. Coast Guard” paint schemes. She has a 3″/50 forward as well as 20mm cannons for AAA work and weight and space for ASW Mousetraps, a towed sonar, and Mk.32 ASW tubes, although they were never fitted. U.S. Coast Guard photo.

As noted by the USCG:

In addition, the cutter made port calls in Ecuador, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Panama for the first time in the ship’s 59-year history. The cutter also crossed into the Southern Hemisphere, prompting a time-honored equatorial crossing tradition for the Reliance crew. Before returning to Pensacola, the crew conducted aviation training with aircraft from Coast Guard Aviation Training Center Mobile and steamed in formation with Coast Guard Cutter Diligence (WMEC 616) to commemorate the cutters’ upcoming 60th anniversaries this summer.

More background surfaces on 11 January Dhow incident

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There is much more color that has been added to the tragic 11 January boarding, search, and seizure of the stateless dhow of the Somali coast, reportedly packed with Iranian rocket and missile components headed for the Houthi. The boarding resulted in the deaths at sea of two SEALs, Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Christopher J. Chambers, 37, and Special Warfare Operator 2nd Class Nathan Gage Ingram, 27.

Chambers and Ingram were declared lost at sea on 22 January after being missing for 11 days

The information comes from an odd source, the DOJ, which indicted four foreign nationals this week who were members of the crew of the dhow– Muhammad Pahlawan, Mohammad Mazhar, Ghufran Ullah, and Izhar Muhammad– who made their initial appearance via teleconference before a U.S. Magistrate Judge in Richmond, Virginia. Ten other crewmembers are being held as material witnesses but are not charged.

The 31-page complaint makes some interesting reading. 

The boarding was accomplished by members of a West Coast-based Navy SEAL team and USCG MSST elements operating from the 100,000-ton sea base, USS Lewis B. Puller, supported by helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles. Once the VBSS team was aboard (sadly, after losing Chambers and Ingram in the process) they confirmed it was a stateless vessel and proceeded with the search. Although the crew at first said that they had been fishing for the past six days, there were no fish aboard and no fishing equipment in use. The crew said they were unaware of any cargo on the dhow.

What the VBSS team turned up were a series of warhead, and propulsion and guidance components for MRBMs and anti-ship cruise missiles, all “packaged without markings, labels, or identification in compartments near the front of the dhow.”

“The military’s belief that the weapons are Iranian is based in part on labels on various components, the recovery of similar exploded or destroyed missiles and destructive devices from other Houthi attacks in the region around the time of the seizure, and comparison of seized weapons to known information about Iranian manufactured missiles and rockets.”

The rocket and missile parts were found hidden in culvert piping and net float buoys and the 14-member crew transferred to the Puller, which then became a floating brig. The dhow was sunk by the Navy afterward as it was deemed “no longer safe or seaworthy.”

Several of the crew had Pakistani identification cards and in interviews, some said the dhow came from Pakistan and they didn’t know what the cargo was, while others said it came directly from Iran. One, Pahlawan, who told the rest of the crew to only refer to him as a refrigeration mechanic, was in charge. Pahlawan said he had been in Iran for two years and that he began working on the dhow 10-15 days before it left Konarak, Iran, where it had been inspected by the Iranian Navy an hour before it departed. Once they left Konarak, they took on diesel at night at Chah Bahar, a known base of the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy.

Pahlawan said he was instructed by the owner and captain of the vessel– neither of which embarked– on what heading to take toward the Somali coast and was given a sat phone to communicate with an individual through a series of calls that the FBI traced back to an individual known to be affiliated with the IRGC.

Of note, Pahlawan also had a personal cell phone and was active on Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok. You gotta stay on top of things, after all.

As noted by the DOJ:

Pahlawan faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison if convicted of unlawfully transporting a warhead, and all four defendants face a maximum penalty of five years in prison if convicted of the false statements offense. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Not a bad looking 40 year old

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How about this great image during the magic hour?

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Tampa (WMEC 902) transits the Florida Straits, on Feb. 4, 2024, while supporting Operation Vigilant Sentry. Tampa is homeported in Portsmouth, Virginia. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Senior Chief Petty Officer Brodie MacDonald)

Tampa, a 270-foot Famous (Bear)-class cutter, was commissioned on 16 March 1984 putting her within striking distance of the big four-oh. Of note, her class is the last in U.S. service to carry the classic 1970s MK75 OTO Melera 76mm/62 cal mount.

She recently returned home Tuesday, following a 77-day maritime safety and security patrol in the Florida Straits.

“CGC Tampa has gracefully completed a multitude of missions throughout her 40 years of service,” said Cmdr. Walter Krolman, commanding officer of Tampa. “From mass migration rescues to participating in multi-nation military exercises and conducting counterdrug operations, Tampa continues to prove her motto, “Thy way is the sea, thy path in the great waters.”

Warship Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2024: Moscow on the Hudson

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 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, Feb. 7, 2024: Moscow on the Hudson

U.S. Navy Photo donated by Charlotte Koch, whose husband, Richard Koch, was a Navy P2V pilot who served in Antarctica in the 1950s, via the National Science Foundation’s U.S. Antarctic Program archives.

Above we see the well-traveled Wind-class “battle icebreaker” USS Staten Island (AGB-5) hanging out with the locals and breaking a channel into McMurdo Sound on 11 February 1959, some 65 years ago this week. Staten Island served in three different fleets across 30 years and had an interesting tale to tell.

How the “Winds” came to blow

When World War II started, the U.S. Navy was up to the proverbial frozen creek as far as icebreaking went. While some foreign powers (the Soviets) really liked the specialized ships, Uncle Sam did not share the same opinion. However, this soon changed in 1941 when the U.S., even before Pearl Harbor, accepted Greenland and Iceland to their list of protected areas. Now, tasked with having to keep the Nazis out of the frozen extreme North Atlantic/Arctic and the Japanese out of the equally chilly North Pac/Arctic region (anyone heard of the Aleutians?), the Navy needed ice-capable ships yesterday.

The old (read= broken down) 6,000-ton British-built Soviet icebreaker Krassin was studied in Bremerton Washington by the Navy and Coast Guard. Although dating back to the Tsar, she was still at the time the most powerful icebreaker in the world.

The 10,000-ton. 323-foot Russian icebreaker Krassin, seen here in the Panama Canal, was studied by the USCG stateside for several months in 1941, with her design teaching the service many lessons

After looking at this ship and the Swedish icebreaker Ymer, the U.S. began work on the Wind-class, the first U.S. ships designed and built specifically as icebreakers.

Set up with an extremely thick (over an inch and a half) steel hull, these ships could endure repeated ramming against hard-pack ice. Just in case the hull did break, there were 15 inches of cork behind it, followed by a second inner hull. Now that is serious business. These ships were so hardy that one, USCGC Westwind (WAGB 281), almost 30 years after she joined the fleet, was heavily damaged by ice in the Antarctic’s Weddell Sea but still made it back. About 120 feet of the port-side hull was gashed when brash ice forced the ship against a 100-foot sheer ice shelf. The gash was two to three feet wide and was six feet above the waterline. The crew patched the side, there were no injuries, and the breaker returned home under her own power.

At over 6,000 tons, these ships were bulky for their short, 269-foot hulls. They were also bathtub-shaped, with a 63-foot beam. For those following along at home, that’s a 1:4 length-to-beam ratio. Power came from a half-dozen mammoth Fairbanks-Morse 10-cylinder diesel engines that both gave the ship a lot of power on demand, but also an almost unmatched 32,000-mile range (not a misprint, that is 32-thousand). For an idea of how much that is, a Wind-class icebreaker could sail at an economical 11 knots from New York to Antarctica, and back, on the same load of diesel…twice.

A photo of USCGC Eastwind, circa 1944. Note how beamy these ships were. The twin 5-inch mounts on such a short hull make her seem extremely well-armed. USCG Photo

To help them break the ice, the ship had a complicated system of water ballasting, capable of moving hundreds of tons of water from one side of the ship to the other in seconds, which could rock the vessel from side to side in addition to her thick hull and powerful engines. A bow-mounted propeller helped chew up loose ice and pull the ship along if needed.

With a war being on, they just weren’t about murdering ice, but being able to take the fight to polar-bound Axis ships and weather detachments as well. For this, they were given a pair of twin 5″/38 turrets, a dozen 40mm Bofors AAA guns, a half dozen 20mm Oerlikons, as well as depth charge racks and various projectors, plus the newfangled Hedgehog device to slay U-boats and His Imperial Japanese Majesty’s I-boats. Weight and space were also reserved for a catapult-launched and crane-recovered seaplane. Space for an extensive small arms locker, to equip landing parties engaged in searching remote frozen islands and fjords for radio stations and observation posts, rounded out the design.

Two of the class, Eastwind and Southwind, operated against teams of German scientists and military personnel who attempted to establish weather stations in remote areas of Greenland late in the war.

As noted by the USCG Historian’s Office in this chapter of “The Weather War,”:

On 4 October 1944 Eastwind captured a German weather station on Little Koldewey Island and 12 German personnel. On 15 October 1944 Eastwind captured the German trawler Externsteine and took 17 prisoners. The trawler was renamed East Breeze and a prize crew sailed her to Boston.

The tender was so specific and intricate that only a single shipbuilder submitted a bid, the Western Pipe & Steel (WPS) Corporation of Los Angeles, the yard that would build all eight members of the class.

Meet Staten Island, or…well, we’ll get to it

Laid down on 9 June 1942 at WPS as Yard No. CG-96 for a contract price of $9,880,037, our icebreaker would be the first Northwind (more on that below) but that was just a placeholder as from the outset it was intended to Lend Lease this first ship of the class to the Soviets, who desperately needed it to keep the country’s chimney at Murmansk and Archangel (Arkhangelsk) open during ice season– and to repay the loan of Krassin, whose design helped influence the Winds.

As such, she shipped out without radar, some of the more sensitive commo gear that her sisters had, and a simplified armament (four 3″/50 singles, 8x40mm Bofors, 6x20mm Oerlikon, and two depth charge racks).

“Hull #96 Launching Dec. 28, 1942 – #63.”; Note her forward screw shaft under a huge overhanging bow, augmenting two shafts on her stern. Photo by “Dick” Whittington Photography, Los Angeles, CA via USCG Historian’s Office.

Hull CR96 [sic, CG96] 3/4 Bow view – San Pedro Harbor; Western Pipe & Steel Co. Shipyard. 10 February 1942. Note her two 3″/50s forward, Bofors singles under her wheelhouse windows, and magazine-less 20mm Orlikons on the roof. Also, note that she has no radar fit. Photo No. 42-69-92 by “Dick” Whittington Photography, Los Angeles, CA via USCG Historian’s Office.

Launched 28 December 1942, she commissioned 26 February 1944– 80 years ago this month– with a placeholder Coast Guard crew and USCG hull number (WAG-278) but was turned over to a waiting Russian crew almost immediately, with the Coasties only riding along as far as Seattle, which the Northwind left on 9 March headed for the Motherland with a red flag flying.

Russki Days

In total, three of the eight Wind-class icebreakers were lent to the Soviets: our Northwind (renamed Severnyy Veter= North Wind), Southwind (Admiral Makarov), and Westwind (Severnyy Polyus= North Pole).

In Soviet service, Northwind/Severnyy Veter was placed under the direction of the state-owned Arkhangelsk Arctic Shipping Company (GUSMP), based in Murmansk, but had to get there first. She was assigned to the Navy List of the list of vessels of the Main Northern Sea Route on 4 March and, leaving Seattle five days later, arrived at Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on 25 March where she temporarily became part of the Vladivostok Arctic Shipping Company, spending the rest of the year escorting ships and patrolling waters in the Russian Far East before making the trip along the country’s Arctic coast– the Northern Sea Route– arriving in Arkhangelsk in December 1944.

Northwind/Severnyy Veter spent the rest of the Great Patriotic War conducting ice escorts of ships and allied convoys in the White Sea. As for her two sisters that were transferred– Southwind/Admiral Makarov and Westwind/Severnyy Polyus— they were only turned over to the Soviets in February and March 1945, respectively.

When the wartime commander of the GUSMP, Captain 1st Rank Mikhail Prokofievich Belousov, a proper Hero of the Soviet Union, passed away in 1946, Northwind/Severnyy Veter was renamed Kapitan Belousov in his honor.

Belousov, a trained polar navigator who had in the 1930s commanded the old icebreaker Krassin– which the U.S. Navy had studied before designing the Wind class– had crossed the roof of the world several times along the great Northern Sea Route, come to the rescue of the disabled icebreaker Georgy Sedov, and had supervised Soviet maritime transport in the Arctic during WWII.

Repatriation

Her time under the Red Banner over, her Soviet crew sailed Kapitan Belousov to Bremerhaven in West Germany where she was met by a party from the U.S. Navy, and the ship was unceremoniously transferred back to American custody there on 19 December 1951. As with other Allied ships returned from the Russians in this era, she was reportedly in very rough shape and filthy, no doubt done on purpose.

After six weeks of cleaning and repair at Bremerhaven, she was commissioned there as USS Northwind (AGB-5) on 31 January 1952, with CDR John Boynton Davenport, USN (USNA 1941), in command. Arriving at Boston after a slow Atlantic crossing, she needed a further four months to bring her back up to Navy standards.

USN Days

In the eight years that Northwind/Severnyy Veter was loaned to Uncle Joe and the gang, the Coast Guard had picked up a second USCGC Northwind (WAGB-282), which was commissioned in July 1945. Thus, to keep from confusing the two, the original Northwind/Severnyy Veter was renamed USS Staten Island (AGB-5) on 25 February 1952—the only Navy vessel to carry that name.

Her Russian-era armament landed, and she picked up her first 5-incher, a sole 5”/38 DP in a Mark 30 enclosed single mount, as well as an SPS-6 radar set and lots of new commo gear.

Now haze gray and underway, Staten Island‘s first Navy deployment from Boston was to Frobisher Bay, where she conducted ice reconnaissance from July through September. The next year she notably became the first Navy ship to cut through the Davis Strait from Thule Air Base to the Alert station on Ellesmere Island, just 435 miles from the North Pole.

She was a key vessel in Project Mushrat and sortied 14 Rockoons (balloon-assisted stratosphere sounding rockets) carrying instruments for the Naval Research Laboratory and Iowa State University.

An 11-foot long/200-pound Deacon sounding rocket is shown being towed by a Skyhook balloon in a combination known as “Rockoon”. It was launched from the icebreaker USS Staten Island during the Arctic expedition of 1953. The rocket was wrapped in plastic to avoid freezing at altitude. (via Stratocat)

As detailed by the Navy:

This project, known as Project Mushrat, is sponsored by the Office of Naval Research with the assistance of the Bureau of Aeronautics and the Military Sea Transportation Service – Atomic Energy Commission Joint Program of Basic Research in Nuclear Physics, and the Naval Research Laboratory Program of Upper Atmosphere Research. Because of the widespread interest in the project, and particularly in the balloon-rocket technique, several observers from the three military services will accompany the expedition. The Balloon-Rocket Technique, commonly referred to as Balloon Assisted Take-Off (BATO) or Rockoon, was developed by Dr. James A. Van Allen at Iowa State University and used on board the USCGC Eastwind during the summer of 1952. This method makes it possible to reach high altitudes by small, inexpensive rockets. During the summer of 1952, one of the balloon rocket flights launched from Eastwind and achieved a peak altitude of about 295,000 feet.

Mushrat: The U.S. Navy icebreaker USS Staten Island (AGB-5) with a group of civilian and naval scientists onboard left Boston, Massachusetts, on July 18, 1953, for the North Geomagnetic Pole. They will make a comprehensive series of high-altitude observations of the primary cosmic radiation and the pressure, temperature, and density of the atmosphere in the northern latitudes. 330-PS-6008 (USN 483600)

Mushrat: “Navy Testing Cosmic Radiation at North Geomagnetic Pole. USS Staten Island (AGB-5) is shown reflecting in the water. Photograph released June 28, 1953.” 330-PS-6008 (USN 483601)

Coverage of Staten Island and Mushrat in the December 1953 All Hands:

In all, while stationed in Boston, Staten Island conducted six ice-breaking operations in northern waters between 1952 and 15 December 1954.

She then transferred to the Pacific in May 1955 and, joining her classmate icebreakers of Service Squadron 1 at Seattle, would shift to resupplying the new Distant Early Warning (DEW) radar stations in the Arctic, a role that would endure for a decade. It was during these trips that Staten Island was used as a Rockoon platform, launching a further 26 aloft in 1955 and 14 in 1958.

Northwind, I presume? Navy icebreaker Staten Island (AGB-5)/ex-Northwind (WAGB-278) approaching sistership, USCGC Northwind (WAGB-288), off Icy Cape, Alaska. 30 July 1955. Note her 5″/38 forward and her twin Bofors on the bridge wings. She also carries LCVPs. USCG Photo No. 07-30-55 (06) via USCG Historian’s Office.

She also started clocking in on regular Operation Deep Freeze runs to Antarctica’s Byrd Station and the later McMurdo Station.

USS Staten Island (AGB-5) temporarily stalled by pressure ice in the Ross Sea, during Antarctic operations, on 9 December 1958. Note Adelie penguins in the foreground. NH 99297

The above image of USS Staten Island (AGB-5) was used as the cover for the 15 July 1959 edition of Our Navy

Icebreaker USS Staten Island, AGB-5, and transport USS Calvert APA-32

USS Staten Island AGB-5 in the Amundsen Sea, 21 September 1960. Note the stacked LCVPs. U.S. Navy photo via USAP

14 November 1962 Staten Island (AGB-5) follows a lead in the ice of McMurdo Sound. U.S. Navy photo via USAP

25 November 1962. Steaming past Antarctica’s only known active volcano, Mount Erebus, the Seattle-based icebreaker USS Staten Island (AGB-5) widens a channel in McMurdo Sound for trailing cargo ships en route to McMurdo Station Antarctica. U.S. Navy photo via USAP

USNS Chattahoochee off-loads fuel into drums on a sled to be towed to McMurdo Station 13 miles away. The ice breaker Staten Island (AGB-5) is the center ship. The USNS Mirfak (T-AK-271) is a cargo ship to the far left. U.S. Navy Photo

In addition to paving the way to install and resupply Arctic DEW stations and Antarctic bases, Staten Island often embarked scientists directly, such as a 1963 U. S. Antarctic Research Program expedition to the Palmer Peninsula and South Shetland Islands. The expedition, led by Dr. Waldo LaSalle Schmitt from the Smithsonian, directed the icebreaker to call at 26 remote points between 18 January and 5 March, and her botanists and biologists harvested 27,000 specimens.

The U.S. Navy icebreaker USS Staten Island (AGB-5) with a HUL-1 helicopter on board approaches the Palmer Peninsula during Antarctic operations in early 1963.

1964: Navy Icebreaker AGB-5 USS Staten Island at McMurdo Station Antarctica. Note that her 5-incher has been removed

Operation Deep Freeze 1965: Fifty crewmembers of the USS Staten Island haul a damaged LH-34D helicopter across three miles of fast ice to the ship where it will be on-loaded

A USS Staten Island (AGB-5) postcard, seen late in her Navy career

Coast Guard Days

By agreement with the Coast Guard, our girl– and all other Navy icebreakers– was placed out of commission on 1 February 1966, struck from the Navy list, and recommissioned as USCGC Staten Island (W-AGB-278), thus starting her third life.

She was painted white and upgraded, including strengthening her flight deck and hangar to permit her to operate with the new generation of HH-52 helicopters in a telescoping hangar, and her engineering plant was upgraded. By this time, she carried an SPS-10B and SPS-53A radar set in addition to her circa 1956 SPS-6C.

Wind Class Icebreaker USCGC Staten Island pictured c1968 with Navy Sea Sprite 9021 from Guam-based HC-5. 

Meanwhile, in Coast Guard service her main guns had already been removed, and she spent the rest of her career with a few machine guns (four M2 .50 cals) and her small arms locker.

Staten Island at a Navy pier with her hangar fully extended. 31 July 1967; Photographer unknown. Photo No. 073167-49 via USCG Historian’s Office.

Staten Island. 14 August 1967; Note the large ice launch on her davits and telescoping hangar. Photographer unknown. USCG Photo No. 278-081467-63 via USCG Historian’s Office.

USCGC Staten Island (WAGB-278), a United States Coast Guard Wind-class icebreaker, makes its way to McMurdo Station in this undated photo. NSF photo via USAP archives.

Staten Island ice rescue team retrieving mail drop in Bering Sea. 1 March 1969; Photo No. 2780021169-23A; photographer unknown. via USCG Historian’s Office.

In late 1969, she navigated the Northwest Passage, escorting the Esso-chartered oil tanker SS Manhattan eastward from Seattle to New York, in concert while in Canuk waters with the smaller Canadian icebreaker Sir John A. MacDonald.

Original Kodachrome of the Staten Island (lead) and Canadian icebreaker CCGS John A. MacDonald (red hull) escort the tanker SS Manhattan (where the photographer is standing) through the Northwest Passage, September through December of 1969. Via USCG Historian’s Office

As detailed by the USCG Historian’s Office:

She rendezvoused with Manhattan and CCGS John A. MacDonald on 20 September 1969 and departed the next day. The convoy searched out heavy ice on the trip. Manhattan was testing its unique ice-breaking bow and searching for routes that merchant ships might use to transport oil from the oil fields of Alaska’s North Slope to the East Coast. By 1 October 1969, the convoy had broken through the heaviest ice in Prince of Wales Strait and Viscount Melville Sound. Staten Island assisted Manhattan “with evaluation project, photo, and ice helicopter reconnaissance, diving operations, dental treatment of Manhattan personnel and ice-breaking assistance.”

The convoy arrived in New York on 9 November 1969. On 9 December 1969, she returned to Seattle after becoming the fourth American ship in history to make the voyage around the North American continent. The others had been the cutters Storis, Bramble, and Spar in 1957. By the time she arrived back at Seattle, Staten Island had traveled 23,000 miles, stopping at New York City, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Acapulco, Mexico after transiting the Panama Canal.

When in the Arctic, she often tracked Soviet shipping, as noted by Crewman Ronald Lange, from the files of the USCG Historian’s Office of her 1970 Alaska cruise:

Our ship operated west of the Alaskan Straits to identify and track Russian merchant ships moving down towards the Straits bound mostly Vietnam. Our 2 helicopters identified ships and we were on the bridge and CIC group (I was in CIC. an RD3) documented. We identified different types of ships using mixed drinks for keywords (Martini for a freighter, whiskey sour for a tanker, etc.)…There were several Russian corvette-type escort ships and a Russian icebreaker as well. The captain of the Russian vessel came over by helicopter and saluted Captain Putzke, who was on the wing of the bridge…We were generally left alone by the Russians, except when one of our helicopters got into Russian air space near one of their early warning radar stations in the fog.

“269-ft. USCG C Staten Island (WAGB-278) masking trails through ice-paved [sic] for deliveries.”; 29 December 1970; no photo number; photo by PH3 D. H. Walker, USCG. via USCG Historian’s Office.

Deep Freeze ’71 saw Staten Island accomplish the feat of circumnavigating Antarctica, she transported a U.N. inspection mission around to the different international outposts on the continent– including the Russian bases– to ensure weapons-free treaty compliance.

U.S. Navy aerial photo of Hut Point Peninsula taken in February 1971 when the fuel tanker USNS Maumee arrived to off-load fuel (Feb 12-14). The smaller vessel to the outside is the USCGC Staten Island (WAGB-278). A careful examination of the photo will reveal the roof of British explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s 1902 Discovery Hut. The other building and fuel storage tanks have been removed since this photo was taken. Photo via USAP

13 February 1971: McMurdo Station Antarctica. Ships moored in Winter Quarters Bay. Present are USNS Maumee (T-AO-149), USNS Wyandot (T-AK-283), USCGC Staten Island (WAGB-278), and USCGC Burton Island (WAGB-283). National Archives. K-88755

Five ships in Winter Quarters Bay on 13 February 1971. In the foreground is HMNZS Endeavour (A184), across the right is USNS Wyandot (T-AKA-92) and USCGC Burton Island (WAGB-283), across the left, is USNS Maumee (T-AO-149) and USCGC Staten Island (WAGB-278). Along the shoreline, work is underway to repair and install facing an Elliott Quay – a steel-and-timber reinforcement barrier to protect the shoreline from erosion. Photo by Carl Norton, via USAP

On 9 January 1971, one of Staten Island’s embarked HH-52A Sea Guards (#1404) crashed while some 12,000 feet high into the side of Mount Erebus while on a Deep Freeze mission. The crew, uninjured, was rescued and returned to McMurdo. The helo had already suffered a near-catastrophic water landing earlier on the deployment.

As detailed by Lange:

“After the Arctic West trip of 1970, we were assigned to Operation Deepfreeze. Our ports of call on the outward leg of our trip were Hawaii. Suva, Fiji, and Wellington, New Zealand. Our air element came from Mobile, Alabama along with 2 HH-52 helos. Our trip through Fiji was uneventful, but while conducting air operations (SAR) drills, one the helos (#1404) experienced a total electrical failure at approximately 500 feet altitude and autorotated onto the ocean. No one was injured and the helo was hauled aboard with only slight damage to its hull. The copter was repaired, and electrical components were changed out on our way to McMurdo station.

We conducted ice-breaking operations along with the Burton Island in McMurdo Sound while the air element assisted ashore with cargo operations. In January 1971, while transporting base personnel around Mount Erebus, our HH-52 (#1404), experienced a severe downdraft and crashed near the summit of the mountain. It took several hours to find the aircraft as our choppers then were mostly white against a snowy background.

Staten Island also kept up her long-running knack for linking up with the Russkies.

For two weeks in February-March 1973, Staten Island met 475 miles north of Adak Island with the Soviet Far Eastern Shipping Company research vessel Priboy for a series of joint meteorological experiments in the Bering Strait. They were assisted by a NASA flying laboratory aboard an American Conveyor 990 aircraft out of Kodiak and a Soviet Il-18 operating from Cape Schmidt. The joint sea and ice study was code-named “Bering Sea Experiment” or Project BESEX, which surely inspired no shortage of Mad Magazine-level humor among all those involved.

USCGC 278 Staten Island, Pier 91 Seattle, 1972

She then spent a month (7 March to 3 April 1973) under the operational control of COMSUBPAC involved in supporting ICEX 1-73, the long-running U.S. Navy submarine exercise in the Arctic, which led to the ship earning the Coast Guard Unit Commendation with Operational Distinguishing Device. She added it to a CGUC she already picked up in 1969 for the SS Manhattan mission through the Northwest Passage and a Meritorious Unit Commendation she received in 1971 for her circumnavigation around Antarctica.

Then came, what turned out to be, Staten Island’s final Deep Freeze deployment down south.

The red-hulled USCGC Staten Island (WAGB-278) late in her career seen underway departing San Diego Bay, on 16 November 1973 after completing Fleet Readiness Training and was en route to Antarctica for Deep Freeze 74. Marine Photos and Publishing Co. canceled postcard via the NYPL collection (NYPL_b15279351-105169).

Returning to Seattle one final time, Staten Island was decommissioned on 15 November 1974 and soon afterward sold for scrap.

In all, she had counted no less than 22 skippers– 6 Soviet, 10 USN, and 6 USCG– across her 30 years of service.

Further, as far as I can tell, she was the only ship to pull off the polar hattrick of navigating the Northern Sea Route over the top of Asia and Europe (1944), the Northwest Passage over the top of North America (1969) and circumnavigating the continent of Antarctica (1971).

From patrolling for U-boats at Murmansk to supplying Byrd Station and launching Rocktoons into the stratosphere, if it was cold, Northwind I/Severnyy Veter/Station Island got it done.

Epilogue

Her plans and a few logbooks from her time as a Navy icebreaker have been digitized in the National Archives.

Meanwhile, hundreds of preserved scientific specimens in the Smithsonian’s collection were gathered along the Palmer Peninsula and South Shetland in 1963 by the USARP Expedition working from Staten Island’s decks.

HH-52 Sea Guard #1404, lost by Staten Island in 1971, remains on Mt. Erebus and is often visited by NSF staff.

Photo by Michael Carroll and Rosaly Lopes, NSF, 24 December 2016

A second Sea Guard from Staten Island is one of the few of the type that is preserved and on display, donated to Seattle’s Museum of Flight in 1988 and put on display in its standard livery in 2011. 

The Russians still remember her as well. A detailed scale model of Northwind/Severnyy Veter is in a place of honor at the Museum of the Murmansk Shipping Company, the successor to GUSMP.

While the Navy has not commissioned another Staten Island, the Coast Guard perpetuated the name in the 45th 110-foot Island-class patrol cutter, WPB 1345, which joined the fleet in 2000.

21 October 1999. U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Staten Island (WPB 1345) is underway from Washington, DC. The cutter is returning to its homeport in North Carolina. USCG photo by PA3 Bridget Hieronymus.

She served until 2014 and was transferred to the former Russian Republic of Georgia, where she currently patrols the Black Sea as Ochamchire (P 23)-– where she will no doubt continue to cause heartburn to the Russians for years to come.

Ships are more than steel
and wood
And heart of burning coal,
For those who sail upon
them know
That some ships have a
soul.

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Steadfast, departing

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The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Steadfast (WMEC 623), the 9th Reliance-class 210-foot cutter built, had a very long career.

Laid down in the midwest at the American Ship Building Company of Lorain, Ohio, on 2 May 1966, she commissioned 7 October 1968– the same year as the Tet Offensive.

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Steadfast side-launched at the American Shipbuilding Company, Lorain 1967

Following an extensive refit in 1994 that aimed to add another 20-25 years to her service, she made it an additional 30 and was just decommissioned over the weekend.

The crew aboard U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Steadfast (WMEC-623) stands in formation on the ship’s flight deck while underway off the coast of Central America Memorial Day, 2022. An embarked MH-65 Dolphin helicopter detachment crew from Air Station Port Angeles hovered overhead for the photo in recognition of the day of remembrance. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Seaman Brad O’Brien)

Originally home-ported in St. Petersburg, Florida for her first 24 years, she shifted to Astoria, Oregon for the second half of her career.

The service put her to bed on Saturday. 

Five prior Commanding Officers of USCGC Steadfast (WMEC 623) attended the ceremony over the weekend

As noted by the service:

Since commissioning in 1968, she has completed over 340 Search and Rescue cases, interdicted over 1.6 million pounds of marijuana and 164,000 pounds of cocaine, seized over 80 vessels, and stopped over 3,500 undocumented migrants from entering the United States. Steadfast was the first and is one of only two cutters, awarded the gold marijuana leaf, symbolizing one million pounds of marijuana seized. Legend holds Steadfast was named “El Tiburon Blanco” (Spanish for “The White Shark”) by Caribbean drug smugglers in the 1970s for being such a nemesis to their illegal drug operations. To this day, the crew uses the symbol of “El Tiburon Blanco” as one of their logos to epitomize Steadfast’s assertive law enforcement posture.

Steadfast is a multi-mission platform and is under the Operational Command of the Coast Guard Pacific Area Commander. As a Coast Guard resource, Steadfast deploys in support of Coast Guard Districts 11 and 13 as well as Joint Inter-Agency Task Force South (JIATF-S). During deployments, Steadfast patrols along the western seaboard of the United States, Mexico, and North and Central America conducting search and rescue, maritime law enforcement, living marine resource protection, and Homeland Defense operations.

In her years of service, Steadfast has been awarded the Coast Guard Special Operations Service Ribbons for Campaign Caper Focus and for Operation Martillo, 8 Coast Guard Excellence Ribbons, 5 Coast Guard Unit Commendation Awards, and 4 Coast Guard Meritorious Unit Commendations. In July 2019, Steadfast broke the record for the most cocaine seized during a single deployment among all 15 cutters of her same class and size.

In all, Steadfast served 55 years, 3 months, and 26 days. Not a bad run.

She is the fourth of 16 Reliance class cutters to get the ax, and will probably be sent overseas as military aid as two of her sisters have already been.

A view of the Coast Guard Cutter Steadfast at sunrise off the coast of San Diego, California., Dec. 2, 2019. The crew of the Steadfast was transiting north to their homeport of Astoria, Oregon, following a 60-day patrol in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Jonathan O’Connor.)

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