Category Archives: warship wednesday

Steaming in Circles

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80 years ago this week, how about this great original color image of the Moore-McCormack company’s American Republics Liner Rio de la Plata, seen in her WWII configuration as the escort carrier USS Charger (CVE-30), seen with a Grumman TBF (or TBM) “Avenger” torpedo plane landing on board, during flight training operations in the Chesapeake Bay Area, 22 April 1944. Note flight deck crewmen in the galleries and the ship’s angular smokestack.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-K-1518 (Color)

Charger had an interesting career, and by the time of the above image, she had already recorded 23,000 landings– a figure she would almost double before the end of the war.

Built by the Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Co., Chester, Pennsylvania for Moore-McCormack to a 17,500-ton government C3-P&C cargo/passenger liner design, she was launched on 1 March 1941 but acquired, incomplete along with her three sisters, by the Navy soon after.

All four would be completed as 15,000-ton escort carriers including a 410-foot flight deck, a 190×47-foot hangar for aircraft stowage, the capability to operate as many as 15 aircraft, a single 42×34 elevator, and 9 arrestor wires. Armarment was four 4″/50 DP guns and 15 20mm Orelikons.

Commissioned on 2 October 1941 as HMS Charger (D27) for the Royal Navy at a time when the U.S., still two months out from the attack on Pearl Harbor, was still at an uneasy peace, for various reasons she reverted to U.S. custody two days later and became USS Charger (AVG-30) under the command of Capt. Thomas Lamison Sprague (USNA 1918).

USS Charger (CVE-30), 3 pts off starboard bow, January 6, 1944. 80-G-208394

While her three sisters went on to serve the RN well as HMS Avenger (D14), HMS Biter (D97), and HMS Dasher (D37), Charger remained in American service throughout the war, steaming circles around Chesapeake Bay training pilots and ships’ crews in carrier operations.

A U.S. Navy General Motors FM-2 Wildcat fighter prepares to take off from the escort carrier USS Charger (CVE-30) during training operations in the Chesapeake Bay area, 8 May 1944. Another FM-2 is passing overhead with its tail hook down, apparently having received a “wave-off” due to the carrier’s fouled flight deck. Note the light Atlantic area paint schemes worn by these planes. U.S. Navy photo 80-G-K-1601

She logged over 44,000 landings between April 1942 and April 1945, typically averaging 250 per day when underway on evolutions.

From her War History:

As noted by DANFS:

Men trained on her decks played an important role in the successful contest for the Atlantic with hostile submarines carried out by the escort carrier groups.

Charger, perhaps the only U.S. Navy carrier to serve for the entire duration of WWII to not receive any battle stars, was decommissioned at New York on 15 March 1946 and sold on 30 January 1947.

Postwar, she was converted to serve in her original role as a combiliner, operated by the Italian-managed Sitmar (Vlasov) Line as the SS Fairsea until 1969 when she was finally scrapped.

Warship Wednesday, April 24, 2024: A Flower So Nice They Painted Her Thrice

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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 24, 2024: A Flower So Nice They Painted Her Thrice

Imperial War Museum Collections FL 5516 (RCN)

Above we see a detailed image of the plucky little Flower-class corvette HMCS Snowberry (K166) of the Royal Canadian Navy underway during World War II. She is pictured in the above just after she left Charleston Navy Yard in South Carolina following a much-needed refit that saw her both refreshed and her fo’c’s’le extended to provide better handling of the stubby 925-ton escort while on North Atlantic convoy runs, her staple employment for the duration of the war.

The Flowers

A handy little sub-buster that could be cranked out in record time but was still very capable of escorting slow-moving merchantmen from the Americas to Europe during the Battle of the Atlantic, the Admiralty would order more than 300 Gladiolus/Flower-class corvettes from 1939 onward.

Essentially a stretched version of the Smith’s Dock’s 582 GRT, 160-foot steam-powered whaler design built in 1936 for the Southern Whaling & Sealing Co. Ltd (SWSC), they were single-screw vessels powered by a pair of cylindrical Scotch marine boilers feeding a single VTE engine that could, when turning at maximum RPMs, generate a theoretical 2,750 h.p., enough to push the little tub 16 ish knots while an economical load of 230 tons of fuel oil would get them 3,500nm at 12 knots, enough to make it across the Atlantic on the 2,700-mile Halifax to Liverpool route with some fuel left for maneuvering.

The Flowers were based on the SWSC’s Southern Pride, shown here in her pre-war whaler service. The vessel would be requisitioned by the RN (K 249) in 1940 and lost in 1944 off Freetown. 

Using the simpler boiler pattern and including enough space for a crew of 80 officers and men (later to swell to as much as 110), the dimensions shifted from a 160-foot whaler to a 205-foot corvette. With a correspondingly wide 33-foot beam, they had a stubby 1:6 length-beam ratio.

Armament was slight: a single 4″/45 BL Mk IX forward, a 40mm/39 2pdr QF Mk VIII pom-pom on a “bandstand” platform aft, a couple of depth charge throwers and two depth charge racks over the stern, with provision for up to 40 ash cans. They also had a perfectly adequate Type 123 or Type 128 sonar and (eventually) a Type 271 or Type 286 radar. Of course, there were extensive modifications to this and tweaks across the massive production line, but you get the idea. Late war fits included as many as 70 depth charges, a Hedgehog ASW device, and a half-dozen 20mm Oerlikons.

 

Drawing of a Flower Class Corvette showing the ship’s layout by John W. McKay – 1992. Source: “Corvettes of the Royal Canadian Navy 1939-1945” by Ken MacPherson and Marc Milner

Built to merchant (Lloyds) standards rather than to those of the Admiralty, they could be churned out rapidly at about any small coastwise commercial shipyard and several dozen shipyards participated in the program in the UK and Canada. Some 13 Canadian yards alone (Burrard, Canadian Vickers, Collingwood, Davie & Sons, Davie SB, Kingston SB, Marine Industries, Midland SY, Morton Eng. & D.D. Co, Port Arthur SB, Victoria Machinery, and Yarrows Esquimalt) made a whopping 122 Flowers during the conflict.

The average construction time was 6-8 months, a process often sped up by the fact that the armament and sensors would be installed post-delivery at a nearby naval yard, sometimes in stages, a problem that meant some Flowers had to deploy for months before they received all their gear.

No less than 111 Flowers were assigned to the RCN at one point or another, of which 7 were canceled while still under construction, 80 were built from the start for the Canadians, and 24 RN corvettes (many of which were built in Canadian yards) transferred on loan.

RCN corvette in drydock. Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 4950910

Three Flower class corvettes tied up at St. Johns.

Meet Snowberry

Our subject, laid down for the Royal Navy on 24 February 1940 at Davie Shipbuilding (now Chantier Davie Canada Inc. but still in business) at Lauzon, Quebec, was named, in line with the convention used for the rest of the Flowers, after Symphoricarpos albus-– the common snowberry. Launched just six months later, she was delivered to the RN and commissioned at Quebec City on 26 November 1940, the gestation period of HMS Snowberry (K166) lasted but eight months.

War Baby

Manned by a Canadian crew led by LT Roy Stanley Kelly, RCNR, Snowberry sailed for Halifax to pick up her armament and then, after crossing the Atlantic with her first convoy (HX.108) she finished her fitting out process at Greenock, Scotland. Following a stint with Western Approaches Command, she was loaned to the Royal Canadian Navy and commissioned as HMCS Snowberry on 15 May 1941 with the same pennant number. In June 1941, she sailed for Newfoundland and would get to arduous work there in convoy service.

This image depicts a Canadian corvette as it comes alongside a U.S. Coast Guard cutter in April 1943

In all, Snowberry took part in an impressive 74 convoys between 3 February 1941 (HX.108) and 15 April 1945, broken down into 15 in 1941, 19 in the hellish year that was 1942, 16 in 1943, just 11 in 1944, and a baker’s dozen in just the first four months of 1945.

Most of these (29) were dangerous HX or ON convoys from New York/Halifax to Liverpool and vice-versa but she did manage to venture into the Caribbean every now and then on TAW, GN, and AH convoys.

HMCS Snowberry (K166), Charleston, South Carolina, May 1943, NARA

HMCS Snowberry (K166), Charleston, South Carolina, May 1943, NARA

Her two most notable brushes with the Jerries included the sinking of the brand-new Type IXC/40 U-536 (Kptlt. Rolf Schauenburg), on 20 November 1943 in the North Atlantic northeast of the Azores in conjunction with her Canadian Flower sister HMCS Calgary (K231) and the British River-class frigate, HMS Nene.

Schauenburg, on only his second war patrol of 2. Flottille out of Lorient, survived along with 16 of his men to become POWs.

From the official report of the sinking of U-536.

1943 Devonport Dockyard, Nov 25, 1943, U-536 survivors brought in by crews of HMCS Snowberry, HMS Tweed, and HMCS Calgary. Note the Lanchester SMG

LOSERS IN THE ATLANTIC BATTLE. 25 NOVEMBER 1943, PLYMOUTH, DEVONPORT DOCKYARD. MORE U-BOAT PRISONERS; 17 OFFICERS AND MEN BEING LANDED BLINDFOLDED IN THE SOUTH-WEST PORT FROM A CONVOY ESCORT SHIP WHICH PICKED THEM UP AFTER THEIR SUBMARINE HAD BEEN SUNK. (A 20600) U-Boat prisoners arriving at Devonport blindfolded. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205153048

The second notable incident with the Germans was in the first use of glider bombs against Allied shipping, deployed by the famous II.Gruppe/KG 100.

As detailed by Uboat.net:

On the 25th of August 1943, the Canadian 5th Support Group (Cdr. Tweed), consisting of the British frigates HMS Nene, HMS Tweed, and the Canadian corvettes HMCS Calgary, HMCS Edmundston and HMCS Snowberry were deployed to relieve the 40th Escort Group. While this was in progress the ships were attacked at 1415 hrs by 14 Dornier Do-217s and 7 Ju-88s. with the new German weapon, the Henschel radio-guided glide bomb, (the “Hs293 A-1”) designed by the German Professor Herbert Wagner. The sloops HMS Landguard and HMS Bideford of the 40th Escort Group were the first of the Allied and R.N. ships to be attacked and damaged by them. This was the first time their being brought into action against Allied ships. Several sailors were injured on HMS Bideford and one sailor was killed, the light damage as the 650-pound warhead did not detonate.

Snowberry finished the war with the Portsmouth Command and was handed back to the RN at Rosyth on 8 Jun 1945.

However, the Brits were not keen to keep any of these converted whalers around and quickly disposed of them wholesale. Ex-Snowberry was sunk as a target vessel off Portsmouth in 1946, then her hulk was raised by a salvage company and broken up at Thornaby-on-Tees in 1947.

During WWII, Canadian vessels escorted over 181 million tons of cargo across the pond, sinking 27 German U-boats in the process (14 of which were bagged by RCN corvettes) as well as accounting for a further 42 Axis surface ships.

In return, the Canadians lost 24 ships of their own during the war, along with 1,800 men with hearts of steel. Of those 24 vessels, 10 were Flower class corvettes including HMCS Alberni, sunk by U-480; HMCS Charlottetown, sunk by U-517; HMCS Levis, sent to the bottom by German torpedoes in 1941; HMCS Louisburg, sunk by Italian aircraft off Oran; HMCS Shawinigan, sunk by U-1228; HMCS Trentonian, sunk by U-1004; along with HMCS Regina and HMCS Weyburn, lost to mines.

Epilogue

A crew site has been established for the diligent little corvette through the For Posterity Sake initiative.

Snowberry has been immortalized at least three times since the 1970s. The first was by renowned British maritime artist John Hamilton now in the collection of the Imperial War Museum.

The corvette HMCS Snowberry making way in a heavy sea by John Hamilton. She is shown starboard side on. IWM ART LD 7400

Another is from a Canadian artist. 

Snowberry Painted by Fread Thearle in 1988 Beaverbrook Collection of War Art. “Thearle’s painting depicts her crashing through heavy seas. Wind and weather constantly challenged Canada’s navy in its wartime roles during the Second World War. Large numbers of corvettes were produced during the war and used as convoy escorts. Their simple design made it possible to build them quickly in smaller shipyards, like the one at Lauzon, Québec, where the Snowberry was launched in 1940.” CWM 20060128-003

The German scale model company Revell in 2015 debuted a 1:144 version of Snowberry.

The kit included breathtaking box art by Danijel Frka.

Sadly, neither the Royal Navy nor RCN has seen fit to commission a second Snowberry.

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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Warship Wednesday (On a Thursday) April 18, 2024: Return for the Taxpayer

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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 (On a Thursday) April 18, 2024: Return for the Taxpayer

U.S. Navy photograph 80-G-289893, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Above we see the leader of her class of dreadnoughts, USS New York (Battleship No. 34), photographed clad in Measure 31a/8B camo, off Norfolk on 14 November 1944. Note rows of shielded 20mm Orelikons manning her rails, a stern quad 40mm Bofors, and large SG and SK radars on her foremast. 

Still echoing the fine lines of a Great War battlewagon– during which she served with the British Grand Fleet– New York had already done hard work in WWII off North Africa and in riding shotgun on convoys in case Kriegsmarine surface raiders appeared and is shown above just as she was preparing to leave for more fighting in the Pacific, in all steaming some 123,867 miles from 7 December 1941 to her homeward bound journey back to the East Coast from Pearl Harbor.

Commissioned on Tax Day some 110 years ago this week– 15 April 1914– for $14 million, the taxpayers got a great return for their investment.

Empire State and Lone Star

By 1911, the U.S. had ordered eight dreadnoughts in successively larger sizes in four different pairs ranging from the two-ship South Carolina class (16,000 tons, 8×12 inch guns, 18.5 knots, 12-inch armor belt), to the two-ship Delaware class (20,000 tons, 10×12 inch guns, 21 knots, 11-inch belt), the two ship Florida class (21,000 tons, 10×12 inch guns, 21 knots, 11 inch belt) and finally the two Wyoming class ships (26,000 tons, 12×12 inch guns, 20 knots, 11-inch belt).

With the lessons learned from these, the next pair, New York, and sistership USS Texas (BB-35),

Postcard showing ship information of the New York class battleships, which included USS New York (BB 34) and USS Texas (BB 35). PR-06-CN-454-C6-F6-31

The ship’s main battery would be 10 of the new 14″/45 Mark 1 guns, arranged in five two-gun turrets. It could fire a 1,400-pound Mark 8 AP shell to 22,000 yards. At point blank (6,000 yards) range, the Mark 8 was thought capable of penetrating 17.2 inches of side armor plate.

USS New York (BB-34) in her original configuration as seen from a kite balloon about 1300 feet above the ship, which was making 17 knots, giving a great overhead look at her armament. NH 45149

The secondary battery would be 21 5″/51s arranged one “stinger” aft, in casemates, and on deck. By tradition, one of these was manned by her Marine Detachment.

USS New York (Battleship #34), Marine Detachment loading the 5″/51 Gun, during World War I.

The class was also built, as most battleships of the era, with surface attack torpedo tubes for some reason. They had four 21-inch tubes installed- one on each side of the bow and one on each side of the stern– with co-located magazines able to carry a total of a dozen 1,500-pound Bliss-Leavitt Mark 3 torpedoes, rated to carry their 200-pound warhead to some 4,000 yards at 26 knots.

Almost as an afterthought, two 1-pounder 37mm guns were fitted, one atop each lattice mast, for AAA/counter-kite work. 

Jane’s Fighting Ship’s entry for the class, circa 1914.

Meet New York

Our subject is the fifth U.S. Navy ship to carry the moniker of the 11th State of the Union, with previous name carriers including a Revolutionary War gundalow, a 36-gun frigate burned by the Brits in 1814, a 74-gun ship-of-the-line that languished on the ways for 40 years, a screw sloop that shared a similar fate, and an armored cruiser who saw combat in the Spanish American War then was renamed (first Saratoga, then Rochester) to free up the name for new battlewagon.

“Bombardment of Matanzas” by the armored cruiser USS New York, the protected cruiser USS Cincinnati and monitor USS Puritan, April 27, 1898, by Henry Reuterdahl NH 71838-KN

The latter armored cruiser even gave up her 670-pound circa 1893 Meneely Bell Co. of Watervliet, NY, bell, which was rededicated and presented to the new New York in 1914.

Appropriately, while Texas was built at Newport News, our subject was ordered from the New York Navy Yard. The future USS New York was laid down (ironically now) on 11 September 1911 and launched on 30 October 1912, sponsored by Miss Elsie Calder, daughter of Congressman William M. Calder of Brooklyn.

She was commissioned on 15 April 1914 with her first skipper being Capt. Thomas Slidell Rodgers (USNA 1878), a veteran of the Spanish-American War.

USS New York (BB-34) the National Ensign is raised at the battleship’s stern during her commissioning ceremonies, on 15 April 1914, at the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, N.Y. with a view of the same event from a different angle showing her stern 5″/51 gun mount and sistership USS Texas (BB-35) in background, fitting out with scaffolding around her main mast. NH 83711 and NH 82137.

How about this for a dreadnought shot? USS New York (BB-34) loading stores at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on April 24, 1914. Note the brown hoist 15-ton locomotive crane at left and horse-drawn vehicles, including one from the Busch Bottling Co. George G. Bain Collection. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Shortly after bringing her into commission, Rodgers took on funds for the fleet and an oversized detachment of Marines and took New York south to the Gulf of Mexico, where the brand-new battleship served as the flagship for RADM Frank Friday Fletcher’s squadron blockading Veracruz, Mexico, a role she continued to hold through most of the summer.

USS New York (BB-34) underway at high speed, 29 May 1915. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. 19-N-13046

After the crisis abated, New York would sail for Hampton Roads and assume the mantle of flagship, First Division, Atlantic Fleet, which she would hold until March 1915. She would then spend the next two years in an annual cycle of winter gunnery and tactical training in Caribbean waters and summer cruising off the East Coast.

USS New York (BB-34). In Hampton Roads, Virginia, 10 December 1916. Note the rangefingers atop Turrets No. 2. and No. 4. NH 45138.

War!

When the Great War finally reached the long-slumbering American giant in April 1917, New York and her sisters began a feverish workup period to get war-ready. For what, it turned out, was to be tapped to augment the British fleet. As the newest U.S. battleships were oil burners, and New York– at the time, the flagship of Division Six, Atlantic Fleet– and her older sisters and cousins could still be fed on good Welsh coal, the call went through.

As detailed by DANFS:

The Navy Department, on 12 November 1917, selected the coal-burners New York, Florida (Battleship No. 30), Wyoming, and Delaware (Battleship No. 28) to form Battleship Division Nine as reinforcement for the British Grand Fleet. The battleships were to be commanded by Rear Adm. Hugh Rodman. The next day the flag for Division Six, Battleship Force was transferred from New York to Utah (Battleship No. 31) and the flag for the Commander of Division Nine, Battleship Force was broken in New York. The battleship arrived at Tompkinsville on 15 November and the next day, she shifted to the New York Navy Yard to be fitted out for distant service. She remained at the yard until the 22nd, when she departed for Lynnhaven Roads, Va., arriving on the 23rd.

At 3:00 p.m. on 25 November 1917, Battleship Division Nine sailed from Lynnhaven Roads with Manley (Destroyer No. 74) in escort. While Manley was to join the convoy escort and patrol forces based at Base No. 6, Queenstown [Cobh], Ireland, Division Nine was bound for the Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet anchorage at Scapa Flow, Orkney Islands, Scotland, to serve under the command of Adm. Sir David Beatty, RN. The weather on the voyage was bad from the start, but worsened during the night of 30 November-1 December. Delaware and Florida lost contact with New York and Wyoming. New York took on over 250 tons of water in her chain locker and forward compartments and only the efforts of bailing lines for three days prevented the ship from foundering. Division Nine eventually re-consolidated at 7:00 a.m. on 7 December at Cape Wrath and continued on to Scapa Flow. With a hearty welcome from the crews of the ships of the Grand Fleet, the ships anchored at noon.

“Arrival of the American Fleet at Scapa Flow, 7 December 1917” Oil on canvas by Bernard F. Gribble, depicting the U.S. Navy’s Battleship Division Nine being greeted by British Admiral David Beatty and the crew of HMS Queen Elizabeth. Ships of the American column are (from front) USS New York (BB-34), USS Wyoming (BB-32), USS Florida (BB-30) and USS Delaware (BB-28). U.S. Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C. NH 58841-KN

Under British command, Battleship Division Nine was re-designated as the Sixth Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet.

USS New York (BB-34) in British waters, 1918. NH 45144

USS New York (BB-34) camouflaged with a false bow, in 1917-18, while serving in British waters. Note another American battlewagon in the background left. NH 45142

The Squadron sailed extensively on both workups with the British and convoy missions, with New York’s gun crews counting at least one encounter with a German U-boat.

When the Germans finally sortied out in strength, it was to surrender.

New York, with VADM William Snowden Sims and RADM Hugh Rodman aboard, assumed her position in column with the entirety of the Grand Fleet in the Firth of Forth on 21 November 1918, to accept the surrender of the High Seas Fleet.

Surrender of German High Seas Fleet, as seen from USS New York, 21 November 1918. Oil on canvas by Bernard F. Gribble, 1920. NH 58842-KN

Battleships of the Sixth Battle Squadron The squadron is shown anchored in a column in the left half of the photograph, at Brest, France, on 13 December 1918. NH 109382.

While seconded to the Royal Navy, New York played host repeatedly to visiting royals in British waters. This included Admiral Price Hirohito (yes, the future Emperor, on his only visit to an American warship), King George V, the young Prince of Wales (future King Edward VIII) King Albert of Belgium, the 8th Duke and Dutchess of Athol, and Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn.

She would also escort Wilson to France for the Versailles conferences.

USS New York (Battleship #34) escorted President Wilson to France in 1918. Note the AAA guns on platforms between the stacks. Naval History and Heritage Command, NH 48144

She was welcomed back home to New York City (where else) just in time for Christmas 1918.

USS New York (BB-34) off New York City for the Victory review on 27 December 1918. NH 45145

Soon after, a commemorative bronze tablet was installed on her quarterdeck.

NH 114261

Celebrating New York’s Great War service, her image, shown steaming from west to east, was used on the reverse of the $2 Federal Reserve Bank Note, of which $136,232,000 worth of bills were printed between 1918 and 1922.

Interbellum and reconstruction

After just a few months stateside, New York was ordered to transfer to the Pacific Fleet, stationed out of San Francisco, which would be her home

USS New York (BB-34) in the east chamber, Pedro Miguel lock, during the passage of the Pacific fleet through the Panama Canal, 26 July 1919. NH 75721

USS New York (BB 34), aerial view of the battleship as she transits the Panama Canal. Photograph released July 1919. Note the details of her masts and secondary armament. 80-G-461375.

USS New York (BB-34) entering Vancouver Harbor, B.C., on 5 August 1921. NH 89557

Sisters are back together again! USS New York (BB-34) and USS Texas (BB-35) Drydocked at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Virginia, during the mid-1920s. NH 45153

USS New York, in the foreground, followed by sister Texas (BB-35), and Wyoming (BB-32), proceeding at full speed across the Pacific firing their guns during annual battle maneuvers. Courtesy of the San Francisco Maritime Museum NH 69006

By August 1926, she was sent to Norfolk Navy Yard for an extensive 13-month modernization.

This reconstruction gutted the old coal-fired engineering suite, replacing 14 original Babcock boilers with 6 more efficient oil-fired boilers, which of course required her bunkerage to change from one medium to the other. This resulted in her two stacks becoming one single stack. Her beam stretched 10 feet with the addition of torpedo blisters on her sides. Meanwhile, her lattice masts were ditched, and replaced by enclosed pagoda-style houses on shorter tripod masts, which dropped her overall height (from keel) from 199 feet to 186 feet.

USS New York BB-34 in drydock during refit at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth, Virginia. 10 April 1927.

When it came to armament, her four torpedo tubes were removed as was most of her secondary battery (culling it from 21 5″/51s to just 6 guns, all above decks). Her 14″/45s were upgraded with their chamber volumes enlarged to allow larger charges to give an increased muzzle velocity, switching from Mark 1/2/3 guns to Mark 8/9/10 standard. For AAA work, she picked up eight 3″/50 DP guns arrayed four to a side. She also picked up the capability to carry, launch, recover, and maintain as many as four observation planes.

When she rejoined the fleet in September 1927, her mother would not have recognized her.

USS New York anchored in Hampton Roads on October 17, 1929. Note the single stack and rearranged masts, now with houses. NH 64509

Jane’s Fighting Ship’s entry for the class, circa 1931.

USS New York (BB 34), port bow, while anchored, February 12, 1930. Photographed by U.S. Naval Air Station, Coco Solo, Canal Zone. 80-CF-14-2043-1

She was a favorite of the fleet, a showboat, and was often at the head of formations during this period.

USS New York (BB-34) leads USS Nevada (BB-36) and USS Oklahoma (BB-37) during maneuvers, in 1932. The carrier USS Langley (CV-1) is partially visible in the distance. NH 48138

USS New York (BB-34) leading the formation for fleet review in New York on 31 May 1934. Note how wide she is post torpedo blisters. This added 3,000 tons to her displacement and gave her and Texas a tendency to roll in heavy seas. NH 712

USS New York (BB-34) At fleet review in New York, 31 May 1934. Note the assortment of Curtiss floatplanes on her catapult. NH 638

New York attended the Coronation ceremonial naval review at Spithead in 1937 for King George VI, continuing her long link to the British royals.

Battleship USS New York, Spithead Coronation Fleet Review, May 20th, 1937. IWM

More improvements would come. In 1937, she picked up two quad 5-ton 1.1-inch/75 caliber “Chicago Piano” AAA guns– thought state of the art at the time and were just entering service.

1.1 AA gun, the Chicago Piano

In December 1938, New York became the first American warship to carry a working surface search radar set. The experimental Brewster 200 megacycle XAF set, designed by the Naval Research Laboratory, ran just 15 kW of energy but its giant 17 sq. ft. rotating “flying bedspring” duplexer antenna proved capable of tracking an aircraft out to 100 nm and a ship at 15. By 1940, the XAF was modified to become the more well-known RCA-made CXAM, and the rest is history.

USS New York (BB-34). View of the ship’s forward superstructure, with the antenna of the XAF radar atop her pilot house, circa late 1938 or early 1939. Note the battleship’s foremast, with its gunfire control facilities; her armored conning tower; and the rangefinder atop her Number Two gun turret. NH 77350

She was going to need it.

Battleships of the New York-class, USS New York and USS Texas, in New York City during the New York World’s Fair, 3 May 1939.

War (again)

After the grueling Neutrality Patrol following the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, New York spent the beginning of the war escorting convoys between the U.S. and Iceland, which the Americans had occupied.

Occupation of Iceland, July 1941. Seen from the Quarterdeck of USS New York (BB-34), Atlantic Fleet Ships steam out of Reykjavik Harbor, Iceland at the time of the initial U.S. occupation in early July 1941. The next ship astern is USS Arkansas (BB-33), followed by USS Brooklyn (CL-40) and USS Nashville (CL-43). Note 3″/50 gun on alert at left, and quick-release life ring at right. 80-G-K-5919

Her AAA suite would balloon throughout the conflict to 10 quad 40mm Bofors mounts (40 guns) and another 46 20mm Oerlikons. She also saw her crew almost double, from her designed 1,069-man watch bill to one that grew to over 1,700 by 1944.

Early in the war, her Curtiss SOC Seagulls were replaced by iconic OS2U Kingfishers, which had a longer range and greater payload. She would put them to effective use.

Three Vought OS2U scout planes take off in Casco Bay, Maine, on 3 May 1943. Photographed from USS New York (BB-34) floatplanes seaplanes

USS New York (BB 34), placing 3rd OS2U on the catapult. Photographed May 1943. 80-G-82708

Once the U.S. got into the war post-Pearl Harbor, New York was one of the few battleships left in the Atlantic. She was assigned to escort two further convoys to Iceland (16 Feb- 18 March 1942, and 30 April- 10 May 1942) as well as two to Scotland (in June and August 1942), alternating with Atlantic patrol duty looking out for the Bismarck– with both New York and Texas coming very close to the German boogeyman and her consort, Prinz Eugene. 

By November 1942, New York was tapped to help provide coverage to the Torch Landings in North Africa. There, off Safi, she fired 60 of her big 14-inch shells– the first time in anger– supporting the U.S. Army’s 47th Infantry Regiment ashore. During the campaign, she was straddled by French coastal artillery and, at Fedala, narrowly avoided German torpedoes.

Battleship USS New York (BB-34) Norfolk Naval Yard 11 August 1942 escort carrier USS Charger (ACV-30) just before leaving for Torch landings

USS New York (BB-34) off North Africa on 10 November 1942, just after the Battle of Casablanca. 80-G-31582

Once Torch was wrapped up, New York was used for two subsequent convoy runs (December 1942 and March-April 1943) between the U.S. and North Africa.

Across her six convoys (two each to Iceland, Scotland, and Casablanca), none of the ships under her watchful eye were lost or damaged by enemy action.

What a magnificent photo! USS New York (BB-34) pitching into heavy seas while en route from Casablanca on convoy escort duty, in March 1943. The view looks forward from her foremast. Note her twin 14″/45 gun turrets and water flowing over the main deck. 80-G-65893

USS New York (BB-34) in Casablanca Harbor, 1943. Photo from the LIFE Magazine archives, taken by J.R. Eyerman. Note that her radar and antennas have been airbrushed out

In March 1943, the Sultan of Morocco visited her.

Then came more than a year stateside, used for training.

She would serve as a floating Main Battery (14″/45, which was still used by sister Texas as well as Nevada and Pennsylvania while California, Tennessee, Idaho, and New Mexico had only slightly different 14″/50s) and Destroyer Escort Gunnery (3″/50, 40mm Bofors, 1.1/75 Chicago Piano, and 20mm Oerlikon) School from June 1943 to July 1944, steaming circles in Chesapeake Bay, and then, in the late summer of 1944, would be used for a trio of midshipmen training cruises to the Caribbean.

USS New York (BB-34) off the U.S. east coast, circa 1943, while a gunnery training ship. The only slightly older USS Wyoming would spend her entire WWII career in the Chesapeake on this duty. 80-G-411691

During this quiet period, New York trained approximately 750 officers and 11,000 recruits of the U.S. Navy, Coast Guard, and allied forces as well as 1,800 Annapolis midshipmen.

Missing the landings in Italy and France, it was decided to shift the old girl to the Pacific in preparation for the last amphibious operations in the drive to the Japanese home islands. Leaving New York in November 1944– the lead photo of this post– she would arrive at San Pedro, California via ‘The Ditch” by 6 December.

USS New York (BB-34) photographed in 1944-45, while painted in camouflage Measure 31A, Design 8b. Note her extensive radar suite and annetaa array– which by this time of the war included SG, SK, and FC (Mk 3) radars as well as two Mk 19 radars– has not been airbrushed out. NH 63525

En route to Iwo Jima, she had an engineering casualty, with a blade on her port screw dropping that limited her maximum speed to just 13 knots and cramped her ability to maneuver. Nonetheless, New York still arrived in time for the pre-invasion bombardment of Iwo on 16 February and closed to within 1,500 yards of the invasion beaches to deliver rounds on target. She fired 1,037 14-inch shells in the campaign in addition to another 5,300 smaller caliber rounds (not counting AAA fire).

USS New York (BB-34) bombarding Japanese defenses on Iwo Jima, on 16 February 1945. She has just fired the left-hand 14″/45 gun of the Number Four turret. The view looks aft, on the starboard side. 80-G-308952

Able to get her busted screw repaired at Manus once the Iwo Jima landings ended, New York was in the gunline off Okinawa in late March, again in time to get in on the pre-invasion bombardment, providing NGFS to the U.S. Tenth Army and the Marine III Amphibious Corps throughout the month-long campaign, firing more than 4,000 14-inch shells alone.

Her aviation unit while off Okinawa was also amazingly active, with her three Kingfishers not only correcting fire from New York and 11 other ships on the gunline to support the Devils and Joes ashore, but they also fired 30,000 rounds of .30-06 in strafing runs on exposed Japanese targets– an unsung mission for Navy floatplanes.

Her closest brush with the Divine Wind came on 14 April 1945 off Okinawa when a Japanese plane came in amidships and crashed into a Kingfisher on the catapult. Incredibly, the Old Lady shrugged off the impact with only superficial damage– the bulk of the Japanese aircraft continued to come to rest in the ocean some 50 yards off New York’s starboard side–
and the ship listed just two personnel with minor casualties.

The Kingfisher damaged after being clipped by a kamikaze on 17 April 1945. The aircraft was later craned off ashore. NH 66187

Once the Okinawa operations stabilized, New York retired to Pearl to swap out her well-used 14″/45s for new ones in preparation for the upcoming invasion of Japan proper, Operation Olympic. She was there when VJ Day came, and those new guns weren’t needed.

She held to a quote attributed to Admiral Mahan, that, “Historically, good men on old ships are better than poor men on new ships,” with the words written on a sign on her quarterdeck.

Despite her extensive campaigning– from the Torch landings and screening convoys to bringing the pain in Iwo Jima and Okinawa– New York only earned three battle stars for her WWII service.

She made two fast trips shuttling personnel between the West Coast and Hawaii, then set sail for New York City on 29 September to celebrate Navy Day there along the “surrender ship” USS Missouri (BB-63) and the famed carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6).

USS New York (BB-34) arrives at New York from the Pacific, circa 19 October 1945. She was featured in Navy Day celebrations there later in the month. 80-G-K-6553

Same as above, 80-G-K-6554

Of the 13 old battlewagons on the Navy List going into WWII, New York was one of only three that was never seriously damaged or sunk, despite the French coastal artillery, German torpedoes, and Japanese suicide planes.

During her career, she boasted that she had schooled the most flag officers– future commodores and admirals– than any other ship, a figure that stood at more than 60 by 1945. One thing is for sure is the fact that, of her 26 skippers, at least 10 went on to wear admiral’s stars.

Atomic Ending

Post-war, the Navy had three entire classes of ultra-modern fast battleships giving them eight of the best such ships in the world (Washington, North Carolina, South Dakota, Indiana, Massachusetts, Iowa, New Jersey, Missouri, and Wisconsin) as well as eight legacy dreadnoughts that had undergone extensive modernization/rebuilds post Pearl Harbor (the 16″/45 carrying Colorado, Maryland, and West Virginia along with the 14″/50-armed California, Tennessee, Idaho, and New Mexico). Besides these 15 battlewagons, arguably the toughest battle line ever to put to sea, the Navy also had two more Iowas under construction (Kentucky and Illinois) and a trio of 27,000-ton Alaska-class battle cruisers (classified as “Large Cruisers” by the Navy).

This meant the service, which crashed into WWII with a dire battleship shortage, ended with a massive surplus.

As such, the older battleships that had not undergone as drastic a wartime modernization as the Pearl Harbor ships– USS Mississippi, USS Pennsylvania, USS Nevada, USS Arkansas, USS Wyoming, USS Texas, and our New York— were quickly nominated for either disposal or limited use as experimental ships or targets and rapidly left the Naval List.

The eldest, Wyoming, was decommissioned in August 1947 and sold for scrap by that October, preceded by her sister, Arkansas, which was sunk on 25 July 1946 as part of the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll.

This left New York as the oldest American battleship still afloat. She would not hold this title for long.

Like Arkansas, Nevada, and Pennsylvania, she had been used in the Crossroads tests.

USS New York BB-34 before Test Able during Operation Crossroads at Bikini Atoll – 1946. Note the Curtiss SC Seahawk floatplanes on deck and skyward-pointing 3″/50s. Most of her 20mm and 40mm mounts appear to have been deleted. LIFE Bob Landry

New York was just off the old Japanese battleship Nagato (to the right of the “X’) for the Able airdrop test.

And was the closest surviving battleship to the underwater “Baker” shot.

USS Achomawi (ATF-140) Spraying USS New York with Salt Water Post Baker. 374-ANT-18-CR-2416-010

Somehow enduring both bombs, New York, Nevada, and Pennsylvania were towed to Kwajalein for decontamination (where Pennsylvania was later scuttled), then to Pearl Harbor and studied by radiological experts there for the next 15 months.

In the meantime, on 29 August 1946, the empty New York was quietly decommissioned.

USS New York (BB-34) entering Pearl Harbor after being towed from Kwajalein, on 14 March 1947. Note Floating drydock (ABSD) sections in the background. 80-G-371904

The experts satisfied they had garnered everything they needed to know from the mildly radioactive old battleship, it was decided to tow her out and allow the fleet a proper SINKEX in the deep sea off Oahu. It took them all day to send the leviathan to the bottom. Similarly, Nevada was towed out for the same fate a few weeks later.

ex-USS New York (BB-34) is towed from Pearl Harbor to be sunk as a target, on 6 July 1948. USS Conserver (ARS-39), at left, is the main towing ship, assisted by two harbor tugs on New York’s port side. 80-G-498120

ex-USS New York (BB-34) was sunk as a target off Hawaii on 8 July 1948. 80-G-498140

Same as above, 80-G-498138

Same as above, 80-G-455669

ex-USS New York (BB-34) capsizes while being used as a target off Hawaii on 8 July 1948. 80-G-498141-A

Epilogue

While New York currently rests some 15,000 feet down, she has lots of relics ashore.

Her Chelsea chronometer, removed by a member of her crew before the Bikini tests, is now in the NHHC’s collection. As noted by the donor:

“By the time I left the ship, it was full of goats, rabbits, guinea pigs, and assorted other small animals that were to be on the ship at the time of the explosion. They were expected to survive as the New York was considerably more than a mile from the explosion. As I left the ship, I decided that I would save the clock we had in our quarters and put it in my bag. The New York survived the explosion- as was intended- as did all the animals- to the delight of the traditional navy. However, within one month all of the animals were dead.”

Her XAF-1 radar, the first installed on a U.S. Navy warship, has been in the collection of the National Museum of the U.S. Navy since the 1960s.

XAF Radar Antenna, 1960s. Being delivered to the Washington Navy Yard for display. Note the U.S. Navy tug alongside a small thin barge carrying the radar antenna. The tug appears to be USS Wahtah (YTB-140). This radar was the first shipboard radar to be installed onboard a U.S. Navy ship, USS New York (BB-34). NMUSN-1019.

Meanwhile, the antenna, which was delivered to the Washington Navy Yard by boat and is currently on display in the National Electronics Museum, Linthicum, Maryland after being displayed outdoors until the late 1980s.

The National Archives has her plans, deck logs, and war history preserved.

Her amazing 229-page WWII cruise book, from which many of the above images are obtained, is digitized online via the Bangor Public Library. It contains the best epitaph to the “Old Lady of the Fleet”:

Her sister Texas, of course, was preserved just after the war and is currently undergoing a dry dock availability to keep her in use as a museum ship for generations to come.

Out of the water! USS Texas at Gulf Copper 31 Aug 2022 Photo by Sam Rossiello Battleship Texas Foundation. Note the paravane skeg at the foot of the bow, her 1920s torpedo bulge love handles, and the stabilizer skeg on the latter.

Since BB-34 slipped beneath the waves in 1948, the Navy has since recycled her name twice, kind of.

USS New York City (SSN-696), an early Flight I Los Angeles-class hunter-killer, was commissioned in 1979 and retired (early) in 1997.

The seventh USS New York (LPD-21), a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock built at Ingalls and commissioned in November 2009, is the current holder of the name. At 684 feet overall, she is larger and faster (“in excess of 22 knots”) than our battleship although she hits the scales at a paltry 25,000 tons– including 7.5 tons of steel salvaged from the World Trade Center.

This current New York carries several relics from the old BB-34, including her stern plate. It is displayed onboard the ‘phib under a 2-ton sheet of steel from the World Trade Center in the tunnel headed to the well deck.

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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Welcome, Hannah!

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80 years ago today:

A great shot of the brand new Essex-class fleet carrier USS Hancock (CV-19) underway in Boston harbor on 15 April 1944, the day of her commissioning from the Fore River Shipyard at Quincy, Massachusetts. The paint scheme is Measure 32, Design 3A; note the small hull number on the Dull Black bow area.

Official US Navy photograph from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command (NH&HC), # NH 91546.

As noted of this image by Wolfgang Hechler at Navsource:

Hancock was the only “long bow” Essex to wear Design 3A. Since all the Pattern Design Sheets had been prepared for “short bow” Essexes, there were several noticeable differences in the bow area for Intrepid (CV-11), Hornet (CV-12), and Franklin (CV-13)—compare, for example, to this photo of Intrepid. Two 40-mm quad AA mounts were fitted on the extended forecastle of the “long hull” ships. Hancock had two more 40-mm mounts on the fantail but none on the starboard side, amidships. There were four deck-edge masts.

Just six months after the above image was snapped, the new carrier had completed shakedowns and air group quals then joined the Pacific Third Fleet in time for the brutal Philippines Campaign in October 1944.

Hannah earned four battle stars in her short but hectic WWII service. Reconstructed twice during the Cold War (SCB-27C then later SCB-125), she was dubbed an attack carrier (CVA-19) and went on to complete nine deployments to Vietnam– eight with Carrier Air Wing 21 (CVG/CVW-21), and one with CVW-5.

She would earn 13 Vietnam battle stars along with five Navy Unit Commendations and was present for the endgame in April 1975 when Saigon fell, saving 2,500 souls.

USS HANCOCK (CVA-19) With men of VA-55 and crew members information of “44-74” in honor of the ship’s thirty years of service. Photo taken 3 January 1974 by PH1 Cook. NH 84727

Of her sisters, the wooden-decked Hancock outlived all in the fleet except the training carrier USS Lexington and 1950s latecomer USS Oriskany. Even with that, the newer (and steel-decked!) Oriskany was laid up just eight months after Hannah.

Decommissioned for the last time on 30 January 1976 and struck from the Navy list the following day, Hannah was sold for scrap that same September.

Warship Wednesday, April 10, 2024: Mongolia by way of Massachusetts

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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 10, 2024: Mongolia by way of Massachusetts

Photo by Geo. H. Russell. Library of Congress, Box PAN US Military-Army No.92 (E size). Control number 2007664426

Above we see, 105 years ago today (10 April 1919) the well-armed troopship USS Mongolia (ID 1615) arriving at Boston with the returning hometown boys of the 26th “Yankee” Division aboard.

Don’t let her passenger liner appearance fool you, she was a fighter and had the honor of the first surface engagement between U.S. Naval personnel and sailors of the Kaiserliche Marine.

The Beautiful Twins of the Pacific Mail Steamship Co.

Founded in 1848 originally to service the Panama Route across the isthmus during the California Gold Rush, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company had flown its red, white, and blue house flag from more than 60 passenger steamers before the 19th Century was out.

While the majority of these were smallish (2,000-3,000 ton) coastwise vessels, by the late 1890s the company had ordered four progressively larger liners– SS China (10,200 tons), SS Nile (11,000 tons), SS Korea (18,000 tons), and SS Siberia (18,500 tons)– to build its reputation and expand its reach across the Pacific, kicking off its Trans-Pacific service.

By 1901, it moved to pick up two new liners– SS Mongolia and SS Manchuria— that would be its crown jewels.

The sister ships, ordered from the nascent New York Shipbuilding Co in Camden, were huge for their era at 615 feet oal with a registered gross tonnage of 13,363 tons. They could carry 1,712 passengers in four different classes, with speeds sustained at 16 knots, intended for cruises from San Francisco to ports in China and Japan, with a midway stop in Hawaii. The service was later extended to Hong Kong and Manila.

At the time, they were the largest passenger vessels constructed in America, with class leader Mongolia delivered in February 1904. 

“Speed and Comfort” Pacific Mail Steamship Co. poster with artwork by Fred Pansing, showing Mongolia and citing the names of her fellow Trans-Pacific line vessels. LOC LC-DIG-ppmsca-58680

S.S. Mongolia at Manila, Philippine Islands, in 1913. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. NH 45962

By August 1915, with a downturn in Pacific sailings, both Mongolia and sister Manchuria, along with the smaller Korea and Siberia, were sold to the Baltimore-based Atlantic Transport Line and soon began working from the East Coast.

As a war was going on in the Atlantic (ATL had already lost several of its ships to government requisition and U-boats), Mongolia made nine wartime crossings while the U.S. was neutral, carrying munitions and foodstuffs to a hungry England.

In this role, she had “American S. S. Mongolia” painted in large white letters along the sides of her hull flanked by American flags.

S.S. Mongolia, painted with neutrality markings, circa 1915-1917. 165-WW-274A-004

War!

On March 13, 1917– still three weeks away from the U.S. declaration of war, Secretary of the Navy Josephus “Cup of Joe” Daniels issued regs governing the conduct of armed American merchant vessels, on which Navy personnel designated as Armed Guards manned the guns. The Bureau of Ordnance would follow up on the directive and issue guidance to the fleet for the removal of 20 5-inch/51-caliber; 20 6-inch/40-caliber; 4 5-inch/50-caliber; and 26 3-inch/50-caliber guns from storage and warships in reserve for use on merchant men.

Talk about armed neutrality!

The first to be armed would be the passenger liners Manchuria, Mongolia, and St. Louis; along with the steamships New York, Philadelphia, Kroonland, Aztec, and St. Paul.

Just two days after the SECNAV’s orders, the New York Navy Yard completed the installation of deck guns aboard Manchuria, St. Louis, Aztec, and New York, and on the 16th of March, Manchuria— outfitted with two 4-inch guns forward, one 6-inch gun aft, two 1-pounders, and two Lewis guns– left NYC to become the first American armed merchantman to sail for the European war zone.

Mongolia would receive three 6″/40 Mark 4s, two forward and one over her stern, and later add two additional mounts, giving her a total of five of these large guns– the rough equivalent of a light cruiser. Her initial Armed Guard, consisting of one officer (Massachusetts-born LT Bruce Richardson Ware, Jr., USNA ’07) and 22 enlisted (a size that would later double), likewise carried sidearms and had a locker of rifles and a pair of Lewis guns at their disposal as well.

S.S. Mongolia. One of the ship’s forward six-inch guns, taken while Mongolia was at sea in April 1917. These guns were manned by Armed Guard crews supplied by the U.S. Navy. NH 41973

Mongolia, 1917. Note 6″/40 on stern. 165-WW-335D-021

Mongolia would make history on the early morning of 19 April– the Anniversary of the Battle of Lexington– when, at 0522, the Armed Guard aboard her engaged and drove off a U-boat with their stern 6-inch gun—No. 263, nicknamed “Teddy Roosevelt”—while some 7 miles southeast of Beachy Head in the English Channel. She fired on the submarine, wrecking the periscope and conning tower, and forced it to submerge. These are considered the first shots by the U.S. Navy against Germany in the Atlantic.

S.S. Mongolia. Two officers on board the ship soon after her 19 April 1917 action with a German submarine. They are identified in the original photo captions as Lieutenant Charles F. (or Bruce R.) Ware, USN, and First Officer Waldo E. Wollaston (or Mollaston). Note the right-hand officer’s high boots, communications gear, and .45 caliber M1911 pistol; binoculars worn by both; and non-U.S. Navy insignia on the left-hand officer’s cap. NH 52704

USS Mongolia. The ship’s after six-inch gun, with several shells, circa 1918. This gun was nicknamed Teddy, after former President Theodore Roosevelt. The original image is printed on postcard (AZO) stock. Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2009. NH 106599

S.S. Mongolia. The ship’s after six-inch gun and its crew, April 1917. The two officers at right are identified, in the original photo caption, as Lieutenant Ware and Captain Emory Rice of the U.S. Naval Reserve Force. Note shells on deck, painted with letters: T-E-X-A-S and T-E-D-D-Y. NH 781

The news was electric and widely reported on both sides of the Atlantic, eventually passing into the post-war record.

The engagement was the subject of an art piece by Joseph Christian Leyendecker, used widely in reference to the Mongolia vs U-boat fight, with the gunners, in Leyendecker fashion, shirtless.

As noted by press accounts of interviews given by the ship’s skipper, Capt. Emery Rice:

“It was twenty-two after five o’clock in the morning of the 19th that we sighted the submarine. The officer commanding the gunners was with me on the bridge where, in fact, we had been the most time throughout the voyage.” Captain Rice continues, “There was a haze over the sea at the time. We had just taken a sounding for we were getting near shallow water, and we were looking at the lead when the first mate cried: “My God, there’s a submarine off the port bow!”

“The submarine was close to us, too close in fact for her purpose, and the boat was submerging again in order to maneuver into a better position for torpedoing was where we sighted her.” Rice continues “We saw the periscope go down and the swirl of the water. I quickly ordered the man at the wheel to put her to starboard and we swung the nose of the ship toward the spot where the submarine had been.”

“We were going at full speed ahead and two minutes after we first sighted the U-boat it emerged again about 1,000 yards off. Its intention probably had been to catch us broadside, but when it appeared he had the stern gun trained full on it. The gun crew commander, Lieutenant Ware gave the command “1,000 yards, Scale 50” and the big gun boomed. Gunner’s Mate James A. Goodwin was on the gun at the time, and he actually fired the shell that hit the U-boat. We saw the periscope shatter and tumble end over end across the water and the submarine disappeared. I can’t speak too highly of the cool manner in which the lieutenant handled his crew of gunners. It was a fine exhibition of the efficiency of American Naval men.” The whole encounter lasted only about two minutes. Lt. Ware gave the order to fire, and Gunner’s mate Goodwin pulled the lanyard firing the first shot, which missed. Reloading quickly, the gun crew fired again, and this time they were right on target hitting the conning tower of the U-boat. This shell exploded and hit the area of the conning tower. Quickly in a foamy froth of bubbles, the German slipped beneath the sea. America had just inflicted its first blood at sea against Germany, and it was over as quickly as it had started.

Captain Rice continues, “I assure you we did not stop after the incident, but steamed away at full speed, for it was not improbable that there was another submarine about. The one I got undoubtedly had been lying on the bottom at the spot waiting for the ship and came up when it heard our propellers. I immediately sent a wireless stating that a submarine had been seen.” Rice ended his statement with this “That’s about all the story except this. The gunners had named the guns on board the Mongolia and the one which got the submarine was called “Teddy” after Theodore Roosevelt; so Teddy fired the first gun of the war after all.” Captain Rice stated that Teddy Roosevelt was from Allison, Massachusetts, and that the encounter with the submarine occurred on the date when Massachusetts was celebrating the anniversary of the Battle of Lexington.

Ware’s version was less verbose:

We were just leaving New York Harbor when word reached us that Congress had declared war. On the way over we had daily gun practice and some ill luck with our 6-inch fixed ammunition. By the time we reached the submarine zone, our two bow guns had damaged bores and were not firing true. It was at dawn on the morning of the 19th of April, the anniversary of the Battle of Lexington, that we sighted the U-boat coming at us off the bow. Realizing that our forward guns were unreliable, we swung the Mongolia hard to starboard. The submarine, delighted to see us offering a broadside target for its torpedo, also swung around, coming into the range of our port guns. Our first shot caught the sub square on the conning tower beneath the periscope. There was a splash and when the water cleared away, there was no more submarine.

Post-war analysis doesn’t show a U-boat lost in these waters at the time Mongolia reported the incident, but it is posed by some that the boat involved may have been S.M. UB 40, an extremely successful member of the Flandern Flotilla, which reported taking gunfire in the same area without significant damage around this time.

Both Ware and Rice (who was sheep-dipped as a USNRF officer) were soon issued the Navy Cross.

While widely celebrated, the Armed Guards on Mongolia received what was possibly more press coverage due to an accident that occurred on a later voyage the following month.

On 20 May 1918 while just a few hours out of New York, while conducting target practice with the famed Teddy, an accident occurred that left a group of Red Cross nurses crossing over to France, who were observing the crew at work, with two dead and a third injured.

As noted by the SECNAV’s office at the time:

When about 100 miles to sea, in accordance with the usual procedure, guns were fired to test mounts, ammunition, and to practice the navy crew in their use. The guns were of the 6-inch caliber for which the shell and powder are loaded separately into the gun. The powder charge is contained in a brass case and there held in place by a pasteboard wad, distance pieces, and a brass mouth cup that fits closely, thus making a moisture-tight joint in order that the powder may always give the velocity and pressure intended. When the gun is fired this brass cup is propelled some distance, sometimes whole and sometimes in pieces, but always in front of the gun. Several nurses who were watching the firing were sitting on the promenade deck some 175 feet abaft and 10 feet above the gun. On the third shot the brass mouth cup struck the water peculiarly, boomeranged directly back to the ship, struck the stanchion near where the nurses were sitting and broke. Its pieces instantly killed Mrs. Edith Ayres and Miss Helen Burnett Wood, of Chicago

“Miss Helen B. Wood, the Chicago Red Cross nurse who was instantly killed in a gun accident while the gun crew of the armed American liner Mongolia was at target practice at sea,” followed by ARC photo of Miss Edith Ayres. Signal Corps 165-WW-55B-84 via NARA/LOC LC-A6195- 4962

For what it is worth, later Congressional hearings into the incident charged that the fuzes involved were of “inferior workmanship” and that the Navy had not inspected them before accepting them from the Raleigh Iron Works, which was in the midst of rushed war work. In the hearings, the makers of the fuzes rebutted the charge and the whole thing was written off as a terrible, but freak, accident.

Mongolia and her guard, then under one LT Philip Seymour, would, on 1 June 1917, engage another U-boat in a surface action. As noted in Seymour’s Navy Cross citation, the “enemy submarine fired a torpedo at that vessel, which through quick maneuvering missed the ship. Four shots were fired at the periscope when the submarine disappeared.”

On 9 April 1918, SECNAV Daniels announced that seven Army-run War Department transports and store ships—Finland (ID-4543), Pastores (ID-4540/AF-16), Tenadores, Henry R. Mallory (ID-1280), Lenape (ID-2700), Mongolia (ID-1615), and Manchuria (ID-1633)—were to be taken over by the Navy.

This led USS Mongolia to be commissioned in the Navy on 8 May 1918, with CDR E. McDowell in command. She went on to make 13 cross-Atlantic voyages from the U.S. to France, transporting over 33,000 troops, before decommissioning on 11 September 1919 for return to her owner. Likewise, her sistership Manchuria had bested that number, carrying 39,000 troops in 13 round trips to Europe (nine of them after the Armistice).

World War I Troop Transport Convoy at Sea, 1918. The most distant ship, in the left center, is the USS Mongolia (ID # 1615). The nearer ship, misidentified on the original print as USS Mercury (ID # 3012), is USS Madawaska (ID # 3011). Note the small destroyer ahead of the forward ship. Photographed by V.J.M. Donation of Charles R. Haberlein Jr., 2008. NH 106288

USS Mongolia (ID # 1615) At the New York Navy Yard, 28 June 1918, after being painted in pattern camouflage. NH 50252

USS Mongolia (ID # 1651) In port, while painted in dazzle camouflage, circa 1918. Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2008. NH 105722

Nurses of Mobile Hospital #39, onboard Mongolia. A.T.S. Base Section #1. St. Nazaire Jan. 20. 1919 111-SC-46348

Homeward-bound troops taking their afternoon walk. St. Nazaire, Jan. 20 1919 111-SC-46349

USS Mongolia. Brest, 1919 111-SC-158226_001

102nd Artillery 26th Division loading on the Mongolia. Brest 3.31.19 111-SC-158223_001

103rd Artillery, 26th Division loading on the S. S. Mongolia. Brest, Finistere, France 3.31.19 111-SC-158225_001

LC-DIG-ggbain-23572

With troops aboard. Note her 6″/40. LC-DIG-ggbain-28781

Officers and men of Mongolia

Camouflaged U.S. Navy transport in harbor with barge and a passenger ferry alongside, circa 1918 or very early 1919. This ship is probably the USS Mongolia (ID # 1615). Donation of Charles R. Haberlein Jr., 2009. NH 106646

Returning to Trade

Post Versailles, Mongolia and Manchuria went to be operated by the rebooted New York‑Hamburg steamship line, making regular trips to Weimar-era Germany.

SS Mongolia at the St. Pauli Landing Stage, Hamburg, Germany, while in commercial service after World War I. Donation of Captain Stephen S. Roberts, USNR (Retired), 2008. NH 105919

Re-acquired by the Panama Pacific Lines in 1925, within a few years she was under the flag of the Dollar Steam Ship Lines then in 1938, under the ownership of the American President Lines, was renamed SS President Fillmore.

Mongolia in Gaillard Cut March 17, 1926 185-G-1094

During the first days of WWII, she was sold to Wallam & Co. on 2 February 1940 and would sail for Cia Transatlantica Centroamericana under the Panamanian flag named (wait for it) SS Panamanian, and would carry commercial cargo through the conflict, managing to avoid further U-boat activity.

After suffering a fire at Freemantle’s North Quay while carrying a 10,000-ton cargo of flour in January 1945, she was scrapped at Shanghai in 1946.

As for her sister Manchuria, she had a similar interbellum history but, as the American-flagged President Line’s SS President Johnson, was requisitioned by the War Shipping Administration in 1941 and carried troops throughout the Pacific during WWII. 

Sold post-war to a Panamanian firm, she continued sailing as SS Santa Cruz, typically carrying European war refugees to South America, and was scrapped in 1952.

Epilogue

Mongolia’s naval plans are in the National Archives, as are her USS and USAT deck logs.

One of her 6″40s, No. 155, is preserved at Gosport Park, in Portsmouth, Virginia.

Speaking of Mongolia’s Armed Guard, Ware, its Navy Cross-wearing commander, went on to become an instructor at the Naval Academy then, after passing through the Naval War College program and later the Army War College, would become the XO of the transport USS Gold Star in the 1920s and then filled the same billet on the dreadnought USS West Virginia— during which the battlewagon was first in gunnery in the fleet. He also published extensively.

Retiring from the Navy as a captain in 1935, he passed in San Diego and is buried at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery.

Mongolia is well remembered in period maritime art and postcards. 

S.S. Mongolia artwork, printed on a postal card issued by the Jewish Welfare Board to Soldiers and Sailors of the U.S. Army & Navy, during World War I. NH 45961

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.

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International

They are one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find. http://www.warship.org/membership.htm

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

With more than 50 years of scholarship, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

PRINT still has its place. If you LOVE warships you should belong.

I am a member, so should you be!

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.

If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International

They are possibly one of the best sources of naval study, images, and fellowship you can find. http://www.warship.org/membership.htm

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

With more than 50 years of scholarship, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

PRINT still has its place. If you LOVE warships you should belong.

I’m a member, so should you be!

Fleeting beauty

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Some 80 years ago today, the magnificence of the brand-new Fletcher-class destroyer USS Leutze (DD-481), seen off her birthplace– the Puget Sound Navy Yard– on 2 April 1944. She wears Camouflage Measure 31 Design 16D, which is reflected in the calm waters. 

National Archives photo 19-N-63358

Same as the above, 19-N-63359

The only ship named in honor of the Prussian-born RADM Eugene H. C. Leutze (USNA 1867, interrupted by Civil War service), USS Leutze (DD-481) was laid down on 3 June 1941 at Bremerton by Puget Sound Navy Yard, launched on 29 October 1942– christened by the granddaughter of the ship’s namesake– and commissioned on 4 March 1944. The above images were taken while on her shakedown period.

Shipping west in June to join the famed tin cans of DESRON 56, Leutze was active in the capture and occupation of South Palau Islands, made a daring nighttime torpedo attack against Nishimura’s battleships in the Surigao Straits, supported the Leyte landings, the Lingayen Gulf landings, and the capture of Iwo Jima.

It was off Okinawa in April 1945– just over a year after the above two images had been snapped– Leutze went to the rescue of a fellow destroyer, the burning USS Newcomb (DD-586).

After tying off to her sister and helping save that nearly destroyed warship, Leutze suffered her own brush with the Divine Wind.

As noted by DANFS:

Suddenly, through the fire and smoke, another Zeke appeared 2,500 yards off the port bow, flying 100 feet above the sea towards Newcomb’s bridge. With the other destroyer close aboard on her port side, Leutze’s shot was once again blocked, and her gunners could only watch as Newcomb’s two forward five-inch guns under local control fired at their nemesis. At 1815 with the plane now 1,000 yards from Newcomb, a five-inch shell exploded beneath the kamikaze’s left wing, knocking the aircraft off its course and causing it to skim across Newcomb’s deck and then strike Leutze at water level on her port quarter. A large explosion thought to be from a 500-pound bomb on the plane ripped her hull open to the sea, and water poured into the destroyer’s aft engine room and several other compartments astern. The blast also jammed the ship’s rudder full to the right, resulting in lost steering control, and also sparked a fire in the No. 4 handling room, which the sprinkler system extinguished quickly. While one repair crew continued to help fight Newcomb’s fires, the other two crews quickly went below decks to stem the flooding in their own ship.

Five minutes after the impact, Leutze’s crewmen began to jettison all extra topside weight. They also lowered the motor whaleboat to retrieve any men who had gone overboard and put two life rafts over the side to pick up survivors from Newcomb. Ten minutes later, at 1830, the destroyer’s fantail was already awash, indicative of serious flooding. Commanding officer Grabowsky informed CTF 54 at 1836 that his ship was in danger of sinking and requested help. With destroyer Beale (DD-471) now on the scene to aid Newcomb, Leutze discontinued assistance to her burning sister and gingerly moved ahead on a single engine, her stern section shuddering badly. Valiantly fighting to remain afloat, the crew jettisoned all depth charges and torpedoes on safe setting to save weight. With the destroyer’s after fuel and diesel tanks 100% full, the captain issued the order to pump the tanks at 1840. Meanwhile, the damage control parties continued to throw excess weight overboard and shored up the bulkheads of damaged compartments.

The emergency measures taken likely saved the ship. By 1900, the crew had stemmed the flooding and shortly thereafter regained steering control, and an hour later, the fantail had risen two feet above the waterline. Most fortunately, Leutze experienced no further air attacks as damage control efforts continued throughout the night. Lt. Grabowsky praised his crew for their resolve and fearlessness during the events of 6 April. “It is with the greatest pride that the Commanding Officer reports that under these extreme circumstances, the conduct of all hands was courageous in the highest sense of the word and could serve as an outstanding example of steadfastness under fire,” he wrote in his action report.

USS Leutze (DD 481) hit by a Japanese plane at Okinawa, Ryukyu Island, which was marred by anti-aircraft smoke at the instant the plane hit. Photograph released April 12, 1945. 80-G-322421

The famous DD-481 in Karamo Retto on 9 April 1945 following a kamikaze attack, at Okinawa. Courtesy of Turner collection. NH 69110

Towed to Kerama Retto anchorage and slowly repaired enough over three months to return under steam to California, she arrived at Hunters Point on 3 August 1945 but was deemed uneconomical to repair with the break out of peace and was scrapped in New Jersey in 1947.

Leutze earned all 5 of her battle stars.

Warship Wednesday, March 27, 2024: That Time a Jeep Carrier Airshipped an Indian Army Brigade

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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, March 27, 2024: That Time a Jeep Carrier Airshipped an Indian Army Brigade

U.S. Defense Imagery VIRIN: 111-C-9093 by Van Scoyk (US Army), via the U.S. National Archives 111-C-9093

Above we see, on the center-line forward elevator of the Commencement Bay-class escort carrier USS Point Cruz (CVE-119), a great original Kodachrome showing a 25-man stick of Enfield-armed Indian Army troops ready to be airlifted ashore by five waiting H-19s to Panmunjom, Korea during Operation Platform on 7 September 1953. It was a remarkable achievement: vertically inserting 6,061 combat-ready Indian troops some 30 miles inshore in 1,261 helicopter sorties without losing a single man or bird.

You’ve never heard of Operation Platform? Well, stand by for the rundown.

The Commencement Bays

Of the 130 U.S./RN escort carriers– merchant ships hulls given a hangar, magazine, and flight deck– built during WWII, the late-war Commencement Bay class was by far the Cadillac of the design slope. Using lessons learned from the earlier Long Island, Avenger, Sangamon, Bogue, and Casablanca-class ships. Like the hard-hitting Sangamon class, they were based on Maritime Commission T3 class tanker hulls (which they shared with the roomy replenishment oilers of the Chiwawa, Cimarron, and Ashtabula-classes), from the keel-up, these were made into flattops.

Pushing some 25,000 tons at full load, they could make 19 knots which was faster than a lot of submarines looking to plug them. A decent suite of about 60 AAA guns spread across 5-inch, 40mm, and 20mm fittings could put as much flying lead in the air as a light cruiser of the day when enemy aircraft came calling. Finally, they could carry a 30-40 aircraft airwing of single-engine fighter bombers and torpedo planes ready for a fight or about twice that many planes if being used as a delivery ship.

Sounds good, right? Of course, had the war run into 1946-47, the 33 planned vessels of the Commencement Bay class would have no doubt fought kamikazes, midget subs, and suicide boats tooth and nail just off the coast of the Japanese Home Islands.

However, the war ended in Sept. 1945 with only nine of the class barely in commission– most of those still on shake-down cruises. Just two, Block Island and Gilbert Islands, saw significant combat, at Okinawa and Balikpapan, winning two and three battle stars, respectively. Kula Gulf and Cape Gloucester picked up a single battle star.

With the war over, some of the class, such as USS Rabaul and USS Tinian, though complete were never commissioned and simply laid up in mothballs, never being brought to life. Four other ships were canceled before launching just after the bomb on Nagasaki was dropped. In all, just 19 of the planned 33 were commissioned.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves.

Meet Point Cruz

Our boat was initially named Trocadero Bay— for a strait in the eastern part of Bucareli Bay in the Prince of Wales archipelago of Alaska– in line with the “Bay” naming convention at the time for escort carriers. Laid down at Todd Pacific Shipyards in Tacoma on 4 December 1944, she was subsequently renamed Point Cruz to honor the decisive three-day battle in November 1942 on Guadalcanal.

Point Cruz (CVE-119) was launched on Friday, 18 May 1945, NARA 80-G-345301.

Launched a week after VE Day, her construction ended just after VJ Day and she was commissioned on 16 October 1945, a war baby completed too late for her war.

Flight deck of the USS Point Cruz with Avengers and Corsairs, off of San Diego, November 1945

Following trials and shakedowns off the West Coast, Point Cruz spent about a year shuttling aircraft to forward bases around the Western Pacific before reporting to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in March 1947 for inactivation. Decommissioned three months later, she was laid up in the Pacific Reserve Fleet at Bremerton without firing a shot in WWII.

Bremerton, Washington, aerial view of the reserve fleet berthing area at Puget Sound. 25 October 1951. Ships present include USS Indiana (BB-58); USS Alabama (BB-60); USS Maryland (BB-46); USS Colorado (BB-47); and USS West Virginia (BB-48). Four Essex (CV-9) class CVs one Commencement Bay (CVE-105) class CVE in the foreground– possibly Point Cruz– one Independence (CVL-22) class CVL, as well as numerous CA, CL, DD, DE, and auxiliary-type ships are also visible. 80-G-435494

Headed to Korea

With the sleepy early Cold War peace shattered when the Norks crossed the 38th Parallel in 1950, the Navy was soon reactivating gently used ships from mothballs to sustain the high tempo carrier, fire support, and amphibious warfare operations off the Korean coast. Point Cruz was dusted off and recommissioned on paper on 26 July 1951 but would spend the next 18 months in an extensive overhaul modifying her for use as an ASW Hunter-Killer Group carrier.

Our girl only got underway for Sasebo in January 1953. There, on 11 April, she would embark the scratch air group consisting of F4U-4B Corsairs of VMF-332 and TBM-3W/3E Avengers of VS-23, along with a HO3S-1 helicopter det from HU-1 for C-SAR, and would go on to patrol the Korean coast for the last four months of the conflict.

Vought F4U-4 Corsair fighters assigned to U.S. Marine Corps attack squadron VMA-332 Polka-dots aboard the escort carrier USS Point Cruz (CVE-119) on 27 July 1953 during a deployment to Korea. “Replacing the VMF-312 Checkerboards, which had a red and white checkerboard painted around the engine cowlings, VMA-332, somewhat mockingly, adopted the red polka dots on white background. The design was reminiscent of Captain Eddie Rickenbacker’s ‘Hat in the Ring’ Squadron of World War I. The addition of the hat and cane was derived from the squadron tail letters (MR), being the abbreviation of ‘mister’, and feeling they were gentlemen in every regard, the hat and cane were adopted as accouterments every gentleman has. It was then that the squadron picked up the nickname VMA-332 Polkadots.” Photo by Cpl. G.R. Corseri, USMC

USS Point Cruz (CVE 119) at sea, east of Japan, 23 July 1953. She has anti-submarine aircraft on her flight deck including seven TBM-3S and TBM-3W Avengers and one HO4S helicopter. 80-G-630786

Op Platform

When the Korean War Armistice came about, our little flattop was tasked with her role in Operation Platform (Operation Byway by the U.S. Army and Operation Patang/Kite by the Indian Army), airlifting Indian troops to the Panmunjom neutral buffer zone– without touching South Korea– to supervise the neutral repatriation of some 22,959 North Korean and Chinese POWs, many of which didn’t want to return to their home countries. It would take nine months for these men to either be sent back to their homeland or a neutral country under the agreement that halted the war.

The “hop, skip, and a jump” logistics of Platform/Byway/Patang began with the “hop” of six Allied transports (two Indian, two American, and two British) carrying 6,061 men of the hand-picked five-battalion 190th Indian Brigade from Japan under Brigadier Rajinder Singh Paintal, a formation that would become the post-war Custodian Force India (CFI).

Consisting of some of the most storied units of the Indian Army, many of these men had seen combat in WWII and were professional soldiers. The force was under the overall command of Maj. Gen. Shankarrao Pandurang Patil Thorat, KC, DSO, a long-serving Sandhust-educated gentleman officer who had picked up his well-deserved DSO as c/o of 2/2 Punjab in the hell of Kangaw on the Arakan coast of Burma, against the Japanese in 1945, and subsequently earned his brigadier’s straps while under British service. Singh, the brigade commander, had likewise been through Sandhurst and, as a captain with the 4/19 Hyderabad Regiment, was captured at Singapore in 1942 and endured four years as a POW in Japanese camps.

Most had to be brought to Korea via a USAF airbridge from India to Japan via Calcutta and Saigon.

315th Air Division, Far East–One hundred paratroopers of the Indian Paratroop Battalion board a U.S. Air Force 374th Troop Carrier Wing C-124 “Globemaster” at Dum Dum Airport, Calcutta, en route to Korea to serve with other Indian Custodial Forces in the demilitarized zone. Five hundred and seventy-five Indian troops were airlifted from Calcutta to southern Japan in the three-decked planes in 20 flying hours, with only two stops for refueling. It was the first Globemaster landing at either Calcutta or Saigon, Indo-China, where a refueling stop was made. The Indian paratroopers were brought to southern Japan, where they were scheduled to transfer to a surface vessel. NARA – 542320

The “skip” would see the troops transferred from their troopships to an anchored Point Cruz without landing in South Korea proper– as Rhee thought they were basically co-opted by the Communists– via U.S. Navy LCUs from Inchon.

Then came the final “jump” which was the movement ashore to Panmunjom from Point Cruz’s flight deck via Sikorsky S-55 Chickasaw H-19/HRS-2 helicopters, five aircraft at a time, each carrying five man sticks (each stick limited to 2,000 pounds including men and gear). The choppers came from the Army’s 1st Transportation Army Aviation Battalion (Provisional), which consisted of the 6th and the 13th Helicopter Companies; and the “Greyhawks” of Marine Helicopter Transport Squadron 161 (HMR-161), with an Army colonel as the overall “air boss.”

August 27 saw Point Cruz arrive at Inchon and fly off her fixed-wing aircraft that afternoon. The 28th and 29th saw the Army and Marine helicopter pilots come aboard for orientation.

It was decided that the five-helicopter blocks would form up, land, and take off as a unit for safety, then deliver their charges ashore. Lifejackets would be issued to the troops from a pool just before loading, then collected at the landing zone ashore for reissue to the next group.

The airlift started on 1 September with the first Indian troops shipped over to Point Cruz from the British troopship HMT Empire Pride. Some 437 men were airlifted that afternoon in 89 sorties. The next day 907 men in 186 flights– including deputy brigade commander Brig Gen. Gurbuksh Lingh and the entire 6th Bn Jat Regiment– followed by 73 sorties on 3 September carrying 360 men for a composite total of 1,704 troops carried ashore in 348 flights.

Indian troops Korea Inchon, Sept 1953

Point Cruz: Indian troops loading up during Operation Platform Sept 1953 LIFE

The British steamer HMT Dilwara arrived off Inchon on 6 September from Japan and started transferring men via LCU to Point Cruz, with the airlift starting up again on the 7th with 979 Indian troops, primarily of the 3rd Bn Dogra Regiment, carried inshore in 196 flights.

When the Indian ship Jaladurga steamed into Inchon a few days later, followed by the American MSTS troopship USNS General Edgar T. Collins (T-AP-147), 1,555 Indian troops were transferred aboard Point Cruz and then carried into the DMZ in 328 flights. These were primarily from the 5th Bn Rajputana Rifles and of the brigade’s HHC.

The final phase saw the Indian ship Jalagopal and the transport USS Menifee (APA-202) transfer 1,823 Indian troops to Point Cruz via boat, which were then carried into the DMZ in 389 sorties between the 28th and the 30th. These troops included the whole of the 3rd Bn Garhwal Rifles and the 2nd Bn Parachute Regiment (Maratha), along with support personnel.

Platform was a tremendous success in terms of moving the 190th ashore, especially considering the military use of the helicopter was in its infancy and the first U.S. military rotary wing shipboard trials had only been conducted a decade prior.

Twilight

Wrapping up her involvement in moving the Indians to the Panmunjom buffer zone, Point Cruz reembarked her Corsairs and Avengers and resumed patrols in the tense waters around Korea. Headed back to San Diego, she landed her aircraft on 18 December 1953 and began an overhaul there that would last until April 1954.

A West Pac cruise from 27 April to 23 November saw her embark the short-lived 11-ton Grumman AF-2W/2S Guardians of VS-21– the first purpose-built ASW aircraft system to enter service in the U.S. Navy aircraft, along with a HO4S-3 helicopter det of HS-2.

A follow-on West Pac cruise (24 August 1955- February 1956), as the flagship of Carrier Division 15, would see Point Cruz with another new ASW platform, the twin-engined 12-ton S2F-1 Tracker, the largest Navy aircraft to operate from CVEs. This cruise would also see one of the final carrier deployments of Corsairs, with a det of radar-equipped F4U-5N night fighters of Composite Squadron 3 (VC-3) “Blue Nemesis” embarked to give the flattop some limited air-to-air capability.

USS Point Cruz (CVE-119) underway with a Sikorsky HO4S-3S of Helicopter Antisubmarine Squadron HS-4 and Grumman S2F-1 Trackers of Antisubmarine Squadron VS-25 on board, 1955. U.S. Navy photo USN 688159

USS Point Cruz (CVE-119) is underway with a Sikorsky HO4S-3S of HS-4 and four S2F-1 Trackers of VS-25 aboard, 1955. Note she still has her 40mm twin Bofors installed including at least one that is radar-guided. U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation photo No. 1996.488.035.048

Point Cruz departed Yokosuka on 31 January 1956 and arrived in Long Beach in early February for inactivation at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. Decommissioned on 31 August 1956, CVE-119 was placed in the Bremerton Group of the Pacific Reserve Fleet.

Vietnam

While in a reserve status, Point Cruz was redesignated as an Aircraft Ferry (AKV-19), on 17 May 1957.

With the massive build-up of forces in Southeast Asia, Point Cruz was taken out of mothballs, reactivated, on 23 August 1965, and placed under the operational control of the Military Sea Transportation Service (MSTS) as T-AKV 19 in September of that year. By the end of that year, MSTS had over 300 freighters and tankers supplying Vietnam, with an average of 75 ships and over 3,000 merchant mariners in Vietnamese ports at any time.

Crewed by civilian mariners, USNS Point Cruz spent the next four years in regular aircraft ferry service from the West Coast to the Republic of Vietnam and other points Far East, typically loaded with Army helicopters– something she was quite familiar with. In this tasking, she joined at least five fellow CVEs taken out of mothballs– USNS Kula Gulf, Core, Card, Croatan, and Breton.

Men of the 271st Aviation Company, 13th Battalion, 164th Group, 1st Aviation Brigade, remove the protective cocoon from the first of the 16 CH 47B Chinook helicopters sitting on the deck of the USS Point Cruz 23 February 1968 NARA photo 111-CCV-105-CC47174 by SP4 Richard Durrance

A CH-47B of the 271st, Point Cruz, same date and place as above. NARA photo 111-CCV-638-CC47180 by SP4 Richard Durrance.

She also carried a number of jets that she could never have operated.

USNS Point Cruz delivered aircraft to Yokosuka, Japan in the mid-1960s. Types onboard appear to be A-1 Skyraiders, a T-33 Tweet, an F-104 Starfighter, and F-4 Phantom IIs. The F-104 and F-4s were possibly bound for the JASDF, the other aircraft for use in Vietnam.

Tug Smohalla (YTM-371) alongside the Aircraft Transport USNS Point Cruz (T-AKV 19) at Yokosuka, Japan, 11 June 1966. Via Navsource

Placed out of service on 6 October 1969, the ex-Point Cruz was advertised in a scrap auction in February 1971 that was secured by the Southern Scrap Material Co. New Orleans for a high bid of $108,888.88.

Removed from Naval custody on 18 June 1971, her scrapping was completed sometime in 1972.

Epilogue

The plans and some images for Point Cruz are in the National Archives.

Of the rest of the Commencement Bay class, most saw a mixed bag of post-WWII service as Helicopter Carriers (CVHE) or Cargo Ships and Aircraft Ferries (AKV). Most were sold for scrap by the early 1970s with the last of the class, Gilbert Islands, converted to a communication relay ship, AGMR-1, enduring on active service until 1969 and going to the breakers in 1979. Their more than 30 “sisters below the waist” the other T3 tankers were used by the Navy through the Cold War with the last of the breed, USS Mispillion (AO-105), headed to the breakers in 2011.

As for Operation Platform, one of the Army H-19C Hogs involved (51-14272/MSN 55225), one of the four known surviving aircraft of the type in the world, is preserved at the U.S. Army Aviation Museum in Alabama. Likewise, a Marine HRS-2, marked as 127834, is in the main atrium of the National Museum of the Marine Corps, portrayed disembarking a machine gun unit onto a Korean War position.

The CFI, on completion of their mission in May 1954, returned to India by sea and all five battalions of the 190th Brigade are still in existence in today’s Indian Army. As a testament to their success in safeguarding the controversial Chinese and North Korean POWs, some 86 of the latter as well as two South Koreans elected to immigrate to India with their protectors when the latter sailed for home.

The Marine unit that took them ashore, HMR-161, still exists as VMM-161.

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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What a Dazzling Balao

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How about this great series of photos of the brand new Balao-class diesel-electric fleet submarine USS Tilefish (SS-307) off Mare Island Navy Yard on 2 March 1944, USN photos # 1434-44 through 1436-44. Commissioned just nine weeks prior, she is pictured here just after her post-shakedown maintenance before departing for points West to get in the war.

Broadside view of the Tilefish (SS-307) off Mare Island on 2 March 1944. USN photos # 1434-44 through1436-44, courtesy of Darryl L. Baker. Via Navsource

A past Warship Wednesday alum, Tilefish gave hard service under the U.S. flag, earning five battle stars across six war patrols during WWII and another star for her Korean service. Given a Fleet Snorkel upgrade post-war, she was decommissioned and transferred to then-U.S. ally Venuzela in 1960 with 16 years on her hull. Her second career, as ARV Carite (S-11), would ironically stretch out another 16 years.

Of interest, Tilefish was a bit of a movie star, appearing in Glen Ford’s Torpedo Run as well as James Gardner’s Up Periscope while in the USN and, in Venuzlan service, as a curiously dazzle-camo’d German U-boat in 1971’s Murphy’s War, which starred Peter O’Toole as the eponymous Murphy.

That’s One Smoking Jeep Carrier

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80 years ago today.

The war diary for the Bogue-class escort carrier USS Altamaha (CVE-18), 1 March 1944:

F6F-3 Hellcat getting ready for a jet-assisted take-off from the escort carrier USS Altamaha (CVE-18), on 1 March 1944 NASM Photo No. 1996.253.7193.009.

F4U Corsair conducts a jet-assisted take-off aboard USS Altamaha (CVE-18), 1 March 1944 Photo NS0301812

I even found this great color film of the event in the NARA and uploaded it: 

USS Altamaha (CVE-18) was laid down under a Maritime Commission contract (M.C. Hull 235) on 19 December 1941 at Tacoma, Wash., by the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corp and commissioned on 15 September 1942, Capt. J. R. Tate in command.

Following brief sea trials, she spent the last two months of 1942 and all of 1943 shuttling aircraft around to various bases in the Pacific, including Marine units, replacement aircraft for the flattops of the Pacific Fleet, and USAAF squadrons, carrying the latter as far as Karachi, Pakistan.

USS Altamaha (CVE-18) transporting Army P-51 Mustang fighters off San Francisco, California on 16 July 1943. NH 106575

Then, from 21 December 1943 through the above video, she was based in San Diego and used for experiments and carrier quals.

Finally, her time as a flattop taxi and school boat was done, at the end of March she embarked VC-66, and made her way West once again, this time with her teeth in.

Altamaha won one battle star for her World War II service, was placed out of commission, in reserve, on 27 September 1946, and spent the next 15 years in mothballs. Ironically, she was scrapped in Japan, her Bethlehem steel no doubt recycled into Toyotas and Datsuns.

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