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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, Dec. 27, 2023: Battlebarge Unimaktica

Above we see the 5″/38 DP Mk 12 forward mount of the 311-foot Casco-class high endurance cutter Unimak (WHEC-379) going loud sometime between 1982 and 1985. A WWII Battle of the Atlantic veteran, at the time of the above snapshot she was the last of her class in U.S. maritime service, four decades after joining the fleet, and still had a couple more years to go. The mighty Unimak began her journey 80 years ago this month.

The Barnegats

Back in the days before helicopters, the fleets of the world used seaplanes and floatplanes for search and rescue, scouting, long-distance naval gunfire artillery spotting, and general duties such as running mail and high-value passengers from ship to shore. Large seaplanes such as PBYs and PBMs could be forward deployed to any shallow water calm bay or atoll where a tender would support them.

Originally seaplane tenders were converted destroyers or large transport-type ships, but in 1938 the Navy sought out a purpose-built “small seaplane tender” (AVP) class, the Barnegats, who could support a squadron of flying boats while forward deployed and provide fuel (storage for 80,000 gallons of Avgas), bombs, depth charges, repairs, and general depot tasks for both the planes and their crews while being capable of surviving in a mildly hostile environment.

The 41 planned Barnegats were 2,500-ton, 311-foot long-legged auxiliaries capable of floating in 12 feet of water. They had room for not only seaplane stores but also 150 aviators and aircrew. Their diesel suite wasn’t fast, but they could travel 8,000 miles at 15.6 knots.

Originally designed for two 5-inch/38-caliber guns, this could be doubled if needed (and often was) which complemented a decent AAA armament helped out by radar and even depth charges and sonar for busting subs.

All pretty sweet for an auxiliary.

We’ve covered them in the past including the horse-trading and gun-running USS Orca, the former “Queen of the Little White Fleet” USS Duxbury Bay (AVP-38), and the 60-year career of USS Chincoteague (AVP-24), but don’t worry, they have lots of great stories.

Meet Unimak

Laid down on 15 February 1942 at Harbor Island, near Seattle by Associated Shipbuilders (one of at least four of her class constructed at the yard), our tender would carry on the “Bay” naming convention of the rest of the Barnegats by being the first U.S. Navy ship named in honor of the bay on the southern side of windswept volcanic Unimak Island, in the Aleutians.

USS Unimak (AVP-31) was commissioned on 31 December 1943, CDR Hilfort Craft Owen, USN (USNA 1927), in command.

War!

Although built in the Pacific Northwest, it was deemed Unimak was needed in the Atlantic and, following shakedown and running supplies to seaplane bases on the Pacific coast of Central America including Santa Elena Bay, Ecuador, and at Aeolian Bay, Battra Island, in Galapagos group, she crossed the Ditch into the Caribbean in April 1944.

Following a trip carrying men and supplies to Barranquilla, Colombia, she escorted the converted Lykes steamer SS Genevieve Lykes— then USS Valencia (AKA-81) — to Panama, from where she would continue west to take part in the invasion of Okinawa.

Unimak then spent the rest of 1944 at the disposal of Fleet Air Wing Three (FAW-3) out of NAS Coco Solo in the Canal Zone which at the time included PBM-3 Mariner flying boats of VPB-74, VPB-201, VPB-206, VPB-207, VPB-209, and VPB-215 and the PB2Y-3 Coronados of VPB-1 and VPB-15, PV-1 Ventura of VB-141, and the PBY-5A Catalinas of VPB-84.

Notable incidents during this period included three in July 1944– coming to the aid of the torpedoed T2-SE-A2 tanker SS Kittanning (which had been hit by U-539 under Kplt Hans-Jürgen Lauterbach-Emden), the search for lost Navy blimp K-53, and the recovery of a crewman from a lost FAW-3 aircraft. She helped nurse the still-afloat Kittanning into Panama, collected nine crew from K-53 and sank her floating wreckage with 40mm shells, and recovered the severely burned FAW-3 aviator, photographing his remains for further possible identification, and consigning him to the deep with full honors.

After being relieved on duty to FAW-3 by one of her sisters in December 1944, Unimak shipped up the East Coast and spent Christmas at Boston Navy Yard under refit. She would remain there until April 1945 when she crossed the Atlantic to bring back men and equipment from England.

On a second trip post-VE-Day, VPB-103 and VP-105, after flying their PB4Y-1s across the Atlantic from Europe, had their ground staff and cargo sent across aboard the Unimak, sailing from Bristol, England on 4 June 1945 and arriving at Norfolk on the 14th.

Then came Pacific service, Unimak chopped to the authority of FAW-4 out of Adak, Alaska– passing her namesake bay– on 13 September 1945 after a trip to pick up military personnel from the outposts at far-flung Palmyra (22 August) and Johnston Island (25 August) then dropping them at Pearl Harbor (27 August) where she observed VJ-Day. While serving with the frozen flying boats of FAW-4, she called at Massacre Bay on Attu (21 September), the Soviet Pacific Fleet base at Petropavlovsk in Siberia (25 September) and back to U.S. waters at Kodiak (30 September), shuttling aircrews and ground personnel back home.

Wrapping up her post-war clean-ups, Unimak was decommissioned on 26 July 1946. Records do not indicate she was eligible for any battlestars. A shame.

Likewise, her sisters were lucky, and none of the 35 completed (30 as seaplane tenders, four as PT boat tenders, and one as a catapult training ship) were lost in WWII.

White Hull Days

With the Coast Guard losing many of their large pre-war cutters during the conflict (the 10 Lake class 240-foot vessels given as part of the “Destroyers for Bases” deal, the new 327-foot Treasury-class cutter Alexander Hamilton sunk by U-132 while patrolling the Icelandic coast in 1942, and the USCGC Escanaba blown up on convoy duty in 1943), and a new series of Ocean Stations established immediately following the war, the service needed more big hulls. The Lakes were meant to be replaced by the downright roly-poly 255-foot Oswego class gunboat/cutters, but it was thought that the Navy’s excess 311-foot Barnegats could help on Ocean Station duty at least for a while.

Between April 1946 and November 1949, the Navy would transfer no less than 18 surplus Barnegats to its eternally cash-strapped sister service. In USCG parlance, they became known as the “311” class after their overall length, or the Casco-class, after USS Casco (AVP-12), which was loaned to the U.S. Coast Guard on 19 April 1949.

As noted by the USCG Historian’s Office:

The fact that the class was very seaworthy, had good habitability, and long-range made them well suited to ocean-station duty. In fact, an assessment made by the Coast Guard on the suitability of these vessels for Coast Guard service noted:

“The workmanship on the vessel is generally quite superior to that observed on other vessels constructed during the war. The vessel has ample space for stores, living accommodations, ships, offices, and recreational facilities. The main engine system is excellent. The performance of the vessel in moderate to heavy seas is definitely superior to that of any other cutter. This vessel can be operated at higher speed without storm damage than other Coast Guard vessels.” [Memo, CDR W. C. Hogan, Commanding Officer, CGC MC CULLOCH to Commandant “SUBJ; CGC MC CULLOCH, Suitability [sic] for use as CG Cutter.,” 12 February 1947; copy in 311-Class Cutter File, USCG Historian’s Office.]

Once they were accepted into Coast Guard service, a number of changes were made in these ships to prepare them for ocean-station duty. A balloon shelter was added aft; there were spaces devoted to oceanographic equipment and a hydrographic winch as well as an oceanographic winch were added.

They would (eventually) land most of their wartime armament and sensors, retaining just the forward 5″38 DP single, but pick up a Mk 11 Mousetrap ASW device, SQS-1 sonar, and SPS-23 (later SPS-29A/B/D) radar in case they were needed for convoy escorts in a war with the Russians. Some also later gained a pair of Mk 32 Mod 5 ASW torpedo tubes.

In Coast Guard service, they became WAVPs at first– although the service did not typically operate their seaplanes in an expeditionary fashion, starting with hull number 370 to not step on any existing USCG pennant numbers. Also, in most cases, the former Navy name was retained. However, three (USS Wachapreague, USS Biscayne, and USS Willoughby) would inherit the name of traditional past cutters (becoming USCGC McCollough, USCGC Dexter, and USCGC Gresham, respectively).

Thus, the decommissioned USS Unimak (AVP-31) became USCGC Unimak (WAVP-379) on 3 January 1949. Likewise, her 18 now-Casco-class sisters all carried hull numbers ranging between WAVP-370 and WAVP-387.

For the Coast Guard, at the time the name Unimak was very symbolic. The service had lost five men at the Scotch Cap Lighthouse on the island to a tsunami in 1946 when a freak 130-foot wave struck the lighthouse. Scotch Cap had been the location of the first manned U.S. lighthouse along the Bering Sea in 1903.

“From ocean stations to drug busts, the 311-foot ships were among the most popular large cutters in the Coast Guard,” wrote Dr. Robert L. Scheina, the former USCG Historian in 1990. “Their reputation as fine sea boats was probably exceeded only by the 327-foot cutters.”

Speaking of ocean stations, Unimak was very busy on these, stationed out of Boston from January 1949 to September 1956, she served during this period twice each on OS Easy, OS Delta, and OS Coca in the North Atlantic.

Then came a shift to New Jersey.

Shifting to Cape May, New Jersey– home of the USCG’s basic training center– from September 1956 until August 1972, during this period Unimak often embarked young enlistees and strikers on training cruises ranging from Brazil and Nova Scotia. While at sea on these, the school ship was still very much a working cutter.

As noted by the USCG Historian, her rescues while working out of Cape May included:

• 7 March 1967: rescued six Cuban refugees in the Yucatan Channel.
• 10 March 1967: rescued survivors from F/V Bunkie III in Florida waters.
• 15 March 1967: rescued 12 Cuban refugees who were stranded on an island.
• 29 May 1969: towed the disabled F/V Sirocco 35 miles east of Fort Pierce, FL, to safety.
• 3 April 1970: stood by the grounded M/V Vassiliki near Mayaguana Island until a commercial tug arrived.

Unimak and her kind were largely redesignated as high endurance cutters (with Unimak becoming WHEC-379) on 1 May 1966. Unimak was then re-rated to a training cutter (WTR-379 in 1969).

While most of her sisters in Coast Guard service were soon sent to Vietnam waters (with seven transferred to the South Vietnam Navy in 1972) she was reassigned from Cape May on 7 August 1972 to Reserve Training Center Yorktown, Virginia, to serve as a school ship for Coast Guard reservists.

In this, she was the first cutter to take female officer candidates to sea.

By early 1973, all 18 of the Cascos save for two– including Unimak— had been either returned to the Navy or given to the doomed Saigon regime.

After Gresham was formally decommissioned on 25 April 1973 and sold for scrap to a Dutch breaker that fall, Unimak was the last of her type in U.S. service.

Finally, her number came up and Unimak was decommissioned on 29 May 1975 and laid up at the USCG Yard at Curtis Bay, Maryland.

However, after just 28 months in mothballs, the operational needs to stem the time of Cuban refugees and drugs heading across the Caribbean left the Coast Guard pressing everything from old icebreakers to tugboats in service on the southern line.

This left Unimak ready for her second recommissioning, on 22 August 1977, returning once again as a high endurance cutter (WHEC-379).

While her Mousetrap had long been removed, her 5-incher still worked. Added to this were six mounts for M2 .50 cal Brownings, and two M29 81mm mortars on the 01 deck forward of the bridge for use in firing illumination rounds.

Stationed out of New Bedford, Massachusetts, it was intended that she be used for fisheries patrol, freeing up more modern cutters for the trip down to Florida.

However, she did make her LE patrols down to the Straits, scoring some notable counter-drug busts:

• 6 October 1980: seized M/V Janeth 340 miles southeast of Miami carrying 500 bales of marijuana.
• 14 October 1980: seized P/C Rescue carrying 500 bales of marijuana and P/C Snail with two tons of marijuana in the Gulf of Mexico.
• 17 October 1980: seized M/V Amalaka southwest of Key West with 1,000 bales of marijuana.
• 19 October 1980: seized F/V Wright’s Pride southwest of Key West, carrying 30 tons of marijuana.
• March 1981: intercepted M/V Mayo with 40 tons of marijuana.
• 30 November 1984: seized the sailboat Lola 100 miles north of Barranquilla carrying 1.5 tons of marijuana.
• 2 November 1985: seized tugboat Zeus 3 and a barge 200 miles south of the Dominican Republic carrying 40 tons of marijuana.

And of course, she came to more rescues in her second stint with the Coast Guard:

• 9 December 1982: towed the disabled F/V Sacred Heart away from Daid Banks, 45 miles east of Cape Cod, in 30-foot seas. As noted by QMCM Ronald D. Meyer, USGC, ret: “It was horrific, seas over 30 feet, constantly, wind extremely strong. Ever seen a 300-foot ship tossed like a play toy until the steel hull cracks the ladders outside bend. I thought we were ALL going to die, no exaggeration. I was the one guy on board who knew for real because I knew where we were, and it was what I thought. Truth is the Captain struggled with the same thought as well. Only a handful of men were even capable of doing their jobs, which were critically needed. A handful of over 100 men were even able to function.”
• 27/28 February 1983: she towed the dismasted Wandering Star to Mathew Town, Great Iguana.
• 3 March 1983: towed the disabled M/V Yadrina to Mathew Town.

During her long USCG service, Unimak was nicknamed at one time or another:

“The Lone Ranger”; “Battlebarge Unimaktica”; “Unibarge”; “Unisub”; “RONC The Long Ranger”; “Uni-rust”; “Fast Attack Missile Sponge” (coined from the numerous missile hit drills from REFTRE in Gtmo); “New Bedford’s Virgin Girl” (based on her call sign NBVG); “Runamuck”; and the “Big Mac Attack.”

This was largely due to the practice of Coast Guard cutters that were assigned to or visited Nantucket playing the “Ring Game” with the famed Nantucket Angler’s Club for “ownership” of the cutter. Should the skipper lose, the NAC becomes the cutter’s “owner,” and a RONC (“Republic of Nantucket Cutter”) moniker is assigned. Key West has a similar and much better-publicized relationship with the Coast Guard and the whole Conch Republic thing.

Finally, with the new 270-foot Bear class cutters entering service, the Coast Guard no longer needed the 45-year-old Unimak, and she was decommissioned for the third and final time on 29 April 1988. Returned to the U.S. Navy for disposal, she was eventually stripped and sunk for use as a reef off the Virginia coast.

She had been commanded by three Navy officers in WWII and 23 Coast Guard officers between 1949-75 and 1977-88.

Epilogue

I cannot find any details about the location of the Unimak reef.

A veteran’s group was online between 2005 and 2018 but has since gone dormant. Some reunion videos and pictures are still on YT.

Unimak’s Coast Guard and Navy deck logs are in the National Archives as are her plans. 

Neither service has commissioned a second Unimak.

There are some period postcards that remain in circulation of her service, showing her shifting Coast Guard livery over the years. 

When it comes to the Barnegat class, they have all gone on to the breakers or been reefed with the final class member afloat, ex-Chincoteague (AVP-24/WHEC-375)/Ly Thuong Kiet (HQ-16)/Andres Bonifacio (PF-7) scrapped in the Philippines in 2003. None remain above water.

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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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