How about this great assemblage of nine Italian torpedo boats passing the Ponte Girevole in Taranto between the Mar Grande and Mar Piccolo in the spring of 1960?
Leading the parade is the 130-ton, 114-foot Motor Gunboat 485, with other units of the Comando delle motosiluranti (Motor Torpedo Boat Command) following close behind.
If 485 looks immediately like a German WWII E-boat/S-boot, while her consorts look like a mix of Italian and American MTB and PT boats from the same era, you are correct on all accounts.
The former S38-class German Schnellboot S67, 485 was built at Lürssen in 1942 and served with 1st Schnellbootflottille (1. SFltl) in the North Sea. Captured by the British in 1945 and sold as the merchant ship Torüs, she was then purchased and put into service in 1953 with the post-war Italian Navy as MV 621, MS 485, and finally MC 485, before being decommissioned in 1966.
Via the 1960 edition of Jane’s:
She is followed in the above image by two Italian 60-ton 92-foot C.R.D.A. type MTBs modified after the war, followed by two ex-U.S. 78-foot Higgins type PT boats and four ex-U.S. 70-foot Elco (Vosper) PTs.
Seen during a January 1946 visit by four RN aircraft carriers (the light carriers HMS Glory, along with sister Venerable, and along with the larger armored deck carriers Indefatigable and Implacable) to Melbourne, Australia, a yacht closes with the stern of one of the “I” class flattops, which is guarded by a four-pack of 20mm Oerlikons.
State Library Victoria H98.104/2508
Sisters Indefatigable (R10) and Implacable (R86)were laid down in 1939 as improved Illustrious class fleet carriers, but didn’t arrive in the fleet until well into 1944. This limited their European war to harassing Tirpitz in Norway until the call came to join the British Pacific Fleet for much more serious action.
Twin 33,000-ton armored carriers, Implacable and Indefatigable, Janes 1954
Post-war service was limited and, with planned angled-deck modernizations unfunded by a penny-pinching government, both sisters were sold for scrap within days of each other in late 1956.
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Warship Wednesday 6 May 2026: 50 Years Low and Slow
Historic New England PC047.02.5870.09396
Above we see the class-leading shallow-draft, single-masted armored sloop USS Wilmington (Gunboat No. 8) in Boston Harbor for a naval parade on 2 September 1898, just after the SpanAm War. Note her array of 4″/40 guns, including two forward behind shields, two aft, and two in her portside casemates.
Basically a low-horsepower light cruiser, Wilmington went on to have an amazingly long service life.
Steel Navy’s early gunboats
The first steel-hulled steam warship that was (eventually) rated as a gunboat was the 1,400-ton 16-knot dispatch vessel USS Dolphin, which was authorized by the New Navy Act of 1883. Carrying a three-masted schooner rig, later reduced to two masts, she carried a single 6-inch gun on a 255-foot hull.
USS Dolphin at Galveston, Texas, 1 March 1919. Photographed by Paul Verkin, Galveston. Note that the ship is still wearing pattern camouflage nearly four months after the World War I Armistice. Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, 2007. NH 104949
Then in 1889 came the trio of Yorktown class boats (PG 1, 3-4), which went 1,900 tons and carried six 6-inchers. They also had an armored conning tower, clad in two inches of nickel steel.
Yorktown Class Gunboat USS Concord pictured about to depart Dry Dock No.1 at Mare Island Navy Yard on June 26th 1903.
USS Petrel (PG-2)was a smaller boat, just 867 tons, armed with four 6-inchers and capable of just 11 knots.
USS PETREL (PG-2) (1899-1920) in Japanese waters, during the 1890s. Collection of Shizuo Fukui, copied from Dr. S. Watanabe’s Album. The photo was provided by William H. Davis. NH 42706
USS Bancroft (PG 4 1/2, not kidding) mimicked Petrel but mounted four-inch guns and could gin up 14 knots plus, as a bonus, carried two torpedo tubes.
Bath Iron Works in Maine in 1893 built the twin 15-knot gunboats USS Machias (PG-5) and Castine (PG-6), which went 1,310 tons and 203 feet overall, while mounting eight 4-inchers. These boats carried armor, two inches of it, protecting their casemates. This left them with a 15-foot draft.
USS Machias
The Newport News-built USS Nashville (Gunboat No. 7), at 1,300 tons and 233 feet, was good for 16 knots on a 2,530shp plant and, like the Machias twins, carried eight 4-inch guns while the casemate armor had been upped to 2.5 inches. She was awarded on 22 January 1894 in Newport News’s first Navy contract, and was laid down as Yard No. 7 on 9 August 1894.
Gunsboat USS Nashville PG-7
This sets the stage for our subject.
Meet Wilmington
Wilmington, the only commissioned U.S. Navy warship named for the Delaware city, was ordered specifically to be a shallow draft gunboat, capable of floating in nine feet of water. Running 250 feet overall with a plow bow, she was a beamy girl, at 40 feet.
Line drawing from Transactions of the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, Vol. 2, 1894. Robb Jensen collection
Displacing 1,397 tons standard (1,689 full) she was powered by six single-ended Hohenstein cylindrical coal-fed boilers pushing twin vertical triple expansion engines powering twin screws, and capable of generating 1,988 horsepower, good for 15.5 knots (light, 13.2 full). While her normal load was 100 tons, when her bunkers were packed with 277 tons, she had a 5,500nm range at 10 knots
Wilmington Olangapo PI dry dock
Wilmington Olangapo PI dry dock
Her main battery consisted of eight single 4″/40 Mark III mounts, the yankee version of the 4″/40 (10.2 cm) QF Mark XI, which was staple when it came to U.S. gunboats from PG-5 through PG-35, as well as secondary batteries on the Iowa (B-4), Puritan (M-1), Columbia (C-12) and New York (ACR-2) classes. Designed to deliver 8-9 rounds per minute, well-trained American crews in the war with Spain found themselves able to pump out as many as 15 rounds per minute when needed in battle.
USS Wilmington (PG-8) getting underway from Port of Spain, Trinidad, 21 January 1899 for Orinoco/Amazon Rivers cruise, giving a good view of her stern pair of 4″/40s. NH 77614
Her secondary armament consisted of six 57mm/50 6-pounder Driggs-Schroeder Mk II anti-boat guns and two 37mm/40 Driggs-Schroeder heavy Mk I 1-pounders.
Crewmen at the six-pounder and one-pounder guns of USS Wilmington (PG-8), circa January 1899, with the latter commonly used for saluting and challenges. Courtesy of Mrs. Chapman C. Todd, 1973.NH 77633
The 1904 Jane’s entry for the class showing the battery arrangement with two 4″/40 guns forward, two rear, and two on each beam, while the 6- and 1-pounders were split between an amidships gundeck with two aloft in the fighting top.
A pair of Colt Gatling guns and a 3-inch field gun were also issued with the intention that they could be dismounted for service ashore. Speaking of which, it was expected that her 175-man crew could provide a reinforced two-platoon (70-man) landing force if called upon, with rifles and marching kit stocked aboard if needed.
Sailors at Musketry Drill, circa 1900-1910. They are armed with M1898 (Krag-Jorgenson) rifles. Note Warrant Officer at left, holding a sword. The sword was abolished in 1905 for landing party duty, but may have continued in use, informally, for drill. Courtesy of Carter Rila, 1986. NH 100833
Her armor plan included a watertight deck with 3/8″ armor on the slopes and 5/16″ on the flats. In addition, her conning tower, casemates, and machinery spaces had a 1-inch belt while she had shields for her deck-mounted 4-inchers.
Our girl was ordered for $280,000, laid down at Newport News as Yard No. 8 on 8 October 1894, just two months behind Nashville, and the two very different gunboats were built side-by-side.
USS Wilmington (PG-8) and USS Nashville (PG-7) ready for launching at Newport News, Virginia, 19 October 1895. Photo by Hart, New York. NH 63204
Miss Anne Grey, daughter of Senator Grey of Delaware, just before christening USS Wilmington (PG-8), at Newport News, Virginia, 19 October 1895. Photo by Hart, New York. NH 63206
Miss Anne Grey, daughter of Senator Grey of Delaware, christening USS Wilmington (PG-8), at Newport News, Virginia, 19 October 1895. Photo by Hart, New York. NH 63208
Wilmington launched at Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., 19 October 1895. Photo by Hart, New York. NH 63202
Wilmington during fitting out with no armament installed. NH 63584
Wilmington would commission on 13 May 1897.
Her first skipper was CDR Chapman Coleman Todd (USNA 1866), late from his post as the Ordnance Officer, Navy Yard, Norfolk. The son of Kentucky steamboat captain, Franklin County sheriff, state legislator, and state penitentiary warden Harry Innes Todd, the younger Todd secured his appointment to Annapolis from Governor John J. Crittenden at age 13 during the Civil War. He would prove a man of action.
Newport News would build one sister to Wilmington, USS Helena (PG-9), which commissioned on 8 July 1897.
Wilmington and Helena gunboats, Janes 1898
Officers of the USS Helena (PG-9) and HMS Espiegle alongside the Helena in China, 1903-1904. Courtesy of Captain E.B. Larimer, USN, 1931.NH 133
Wilmington conducted sea trials and underwent training off the east coast, and joined the South Atlantic Squadron at Key West.
War (her first)
At the beginning of 1898, the U.S. Atlantic Fleet was split into Northern and South Squadrons with all of the country’s battleships (except USS Oregon), armored cruisers, and monitors (save for Monadnock and Monterey). The South Atlantic Squadron, consisting of the cruiser USS Cincinnati and the gunboats Castine and Wilmington, was meanwhile detailed to cruising north along the coast of South America. Meanwhile, Wilmington’s sister, Helena, was detailed to the two-ship European Squadron along with the Bancroft, lounging at Lisbon.
On 21 April 1898, two months after the sinking of the battleship Maine in Havana harbor, Cuba, the United States declared war on Spain.
The blockade began in earnest on the morning of 23 April with USS Puritan, Marblehead, Cincinnati, Wilmington, Foote, and the Revenue Cutter Winslow ordered to the eastward of Havana to blockade Matanzas and Cardenas, and to patrol the coast between the latter and Havana.
A haze gray USS Wilmington. Halftone photo from “War in Cuba”, 1898. Note the gun shields are installed on her 4″/40s. NH 85651
On 4 May, the tug Leyden, with Captain J. H. Dorst, of the U.S. Army, aboard, landed ammunition for the Cuban insurgents near Mariel. Spanish cavalry that attempted to prevent Captain Dorst’s plucky landing were dispersed by a few 4-inch shells from the Wilmington. The next day, Wilmington, along with Newport and the USRC Morrill, captured the French steamer Lafayette while off Havana with a cargo of provisions and 161 passengers.
On 11 May, Todd was made a defato commodore and given a little flotilla including the schooner-rigged gunboat USS Machias (PG-5), the torpedo boats Winslowand Foote, and the armed Revenue Service tug Hudson, tasked with destroying the Spanish gunboats sheltering at Cardenas and bombarding any troops found inside the sheltered bay.
Machias, drawing 15 feet, remained outside Cardenas due to her greater draft, and destroyed the signal station of Cayo Diana, while Wilmington, Foote, and Winslow entered the bay, amidst a dense fog and haze, hoping to make short work of the much inferior Spanish squadron. Hudson held back to tow any prizes.
Opposing the American force was a pair of small 42-ton cañoneras, Ligera and Alerta, armed with a single 42mm Nordenfelt and a 37mm Maxim. The problem was, Ligera was already disbled with a shot through her boiler in a 25 April engagement with Foote. They were augmented by the armed Trasatlántica-company 68-ton tugboat (remolcador) Antonio Lopez, which had been pressed into service, as well as shore batteries.
With the cañoneras hugging the shallows, the heavier Lopez was forced to stand just off the wharf and fight– and she did– taking the leading American warship, Winslow, under fire, beginning an 80-minute artillery duel.
While the Spanish Navy got a bad rap when it comes to remembering the war of 1898, they made a good showing at Cardenas with the little Antonio Lopez taking at least 12 hits from Winslow’s 1-pounder popgun, and in turn fired 135 shells with her single 57mm 6-pounder, riddling Winslow and keeping up her fire until her magazine was empty. Dead in the water and with her XO, Ensign Worth Bagley, and five enlisted killed and her skipper wounded, Winslow had to be towed to safety by Hudson.
The engagement only ended, via DANFS, when “Wilmington and Hudson brought their guns to bear on the Spanish ship and shore batteries, and the combined fire of the three American warships put the Spanish gunboat out of action and caused the shore batteries to slacken fire.”
La batalla de Cárdenas, Museo naval de Madrid, showing the gunboat Antonio Lopez facing off against Wilmington, Winslow, and Foote, at distances made shorter for artistic license.
Engagement off Cardenas, May 11, 1898. Death of Ensign Bagley of the Winslow by Henry Reuterdahl. Left to right: USS Winslow, Hudson, and Wilmington. NH 71837-KN
Battle of Cárdenas USS Wilmington USS Winslow Hudson
Todd, who wrote a chapter about the battle (The Affair at Cardenas) for the book, With Sampson Through the War, noted the results of the battle:
The amount of damage from the guns of the three American vessels engaged could not be determined at the time, apart from the burning of two or three buildings near the location of the gunboats; but a few days later there came on board a Cuban pacifico, who was in Cardenas at the time of the engagement, and who visited the locality where the gunboats were lying the day following the engagement.
He brought the information that both of the large gunboats were riddled and practically destroyed. They could not sink, as they were lying in only six feet of water. This information was undoubtedly correct.
The net results of this attack on Cardenas may be stated as:
1st. The destruction of two Spanish gunboats.
2d. It was the first severe blow struck, which had a great effect upon the swarms of Spanish gunboats surrounding the island of Cuba, rendering their attacks by night much less probable, as shown by experience.
3d. It made feasible the anchorage at Piedras lighthouse for coaling purposes, and it was so used.
4th. It made the Spaniards feel they were not free from attack even though the channels were mined, and forever destroyed their sense of security, no matter how well defended they might be. They now knew that American ships-of-war would take and hold the offensive during the war.
5th. Here was made evident the great advantage of smokeless powder over the ordinary brown powder used by the American ships. The only gun used by the Spaniards, burning brown powder, was the one that fired from the bow of the gunboat moored bows out at the wharf. The others, including field guns observed on the shore and the machine guns on both gunboats, used only smokeless powder, thus making a very poor target for a vessel surrounded, as were the American ships, by clouds of overhanging smoke.
According to Spanish sources, the American bombardment of Cárdenas on 11 May destroyed the English consulate, warehouses, and several houses and buildings, resulting in two fatalities: a volunteer militiaman and a civilian– while a sergeant and seven soldiers were wounded.
Wilmington continued on her blockade service, was credited with seizing two other Spanish ships, dragged for and cut the telegraph line from Santa Cruz and Jucaro, and, oh, yeah, took part in a second, much more successful raid on a Cuban port, Manzanillo (about 80 miles from Santiago, on the south coast of the island), to destroy shipping.
The raid would be led by Wilmington/Todd, joined by sistership Helena, a collection of armed yachts (Hist, Scorpion, Hornet, and Osceola), and the tug Wompatuck (YT-27).
As detailed by DANFS, the Manzanillo raid was textbook:
Accordingly, at 3:00 a.m. on 18 July 1898, the American ships set out from Guayabal and set course for Manzanillo. At 6:45 a.m., the group split up according to plan: Wilmington and Helena made for the north channel; Hist, Hornet, and Wompatuck for the south; Scorpion and Osceola for the central harbor entrance. Fifteen minutes later, the two largest ships entered the harbor with black smoke billowing from their tall funnels and gunners ready at their weapons.
Taking particular care not to damage the city beyond the waterfront, the U.S. gunners directed their gunfire solely at the Spanish ships and took a heavy toll of the steamers congregated there. Spanish supply steamer Purissima Concepcion caught fire alongside a dock and sank at her moorings; gunboat Maria Ponton blew up when her magazines exploded; gunboats Estrella and Delgado Perrado also burned and sank while two transports, Gloria and Jose Garcia, went down as well. Two small gunboats, Guantanamo and Guardian, were driven ashore and shot to pieces.
Beyond the effective range of Spanish shore batteries, the Americans emerged unscathed, leaving columns of smoke to mark the pyres of the enemy’s supply and patrol vessels. The twenty-minute engagement ended with the attackers withdrawing to sea to resume routine patrol duties with the North Atlantic Squadron for the duration of hostilities.
American sources list between eight and nine (five gunboats, three merchant vessels, and one pontoon) successfully destroyed at Manzanillo without suffering any losses, while the NYT that week ran the story, citing at least seven.
Spanish personnel losses were negligible for the raid, typically referred to as the Third Battle of Manzanillo, as the vessels were largely abandoned due to the Americans having superior range, with Spanamwar.com noting, “The casualties among the Spanish squadron were a wounded boatswain, and the garrison suffered two dead and five wounded, and one wounded civilian.”
The war ended just 24 days later in an armistice.
Our gunboat headed home and was drydocked at Boston for repairs and peacetime overseas service.
Wilmington, just after the SpanAm War, Boston Harbor for a naval parade on 2 September 1898, Historic New England PC047.02.2970.10961
Her crew was eligible for the Sampson (West Indies Naval Campaign) Medal with “Wilmington” and “Manzanillo” bars, authorized by Congress in 1901.
Following repairs, the ship departed the Massachusetts coast on 20 October bound for the reestablished South Atlantic Squadron.
Roaming
Wilmington was then sent some 150 miles up Venezuela’s Orinoco River in January 1899 from Barrancas to Ciudad Bolivar, followed by an impressive 1,800-mile trip up the Amazon across the South American continent from Pernambuco, Brazil, to Iquitos, Peru, into May.
The 32-page report prepared by CDR Chapman C. Todd makes for interesting reading, especially when the extensive photos of the trip (taken by one hired professional shutterbug, Mr. F.S. Bassett) are taken into account.
Talk about a time capsule!
USS Wilmington (PG-8) portrait photo of the ship’s officers in January 1899, by the helm. The commanding officer was Commander Chapman C. Todd, seated second from the left. Francis B. Loomis, the U.S. minister to Venezuela, is in civilian dress, and Army Captain Charles Collins, military attaché to Venezuela, is seated on the right. Courtesy of Mrs. Chapman C. Todd, 1973. NH 77638
USS Wilmington (PG-8) crew members on the forecastle of the ship, circa January 1899, while the ship was on an exploratory cruise of the Orinoco River, Venezuela. Note the 6-pounder to the right. NH 77631
Wilmington at anchor at Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela, during the ship’s exploratory cruise up the Orinoco River, January 1899. Ciudad Bolivar was the most inland point reached. The river was not navigable by ship shortly beyond this point. NH 77625
Wilmington at anchor in the Orinoco River at Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela, during the ship’s exploratory cruise up the Orinoco, January 1899. Note stevedoring on the merchant ship. NH 77626
USS Wilmington, gunboat #8 LOC Detriot LC-DIG-det-4a16361
Gunboat No 8, USS Wilmington, pictured on the Orinoco River, Venezuela. LOC det 4a05681
Ship at anchor during a brief visit to Barrancas, Venezuela, returning downstream from the USS Wilmington’s exploratory cruise up the Orinoco River, January 1899. Barrancas is located near the delta formed by the Orinoco. NH 77629
Ship’s bugler and a rapid-fire gun squad of USS Wilmington, circa January 1899. Crewmen not identified. Description: NH 77613
USS Wilmington (PG-8) saluting the governor of the province at Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela, during the ship’s exploratory cruise up the Orinoco River, January 1899. NH 77628
Coal-passers of the ship on deck with mascot (goat), circa January 1899, while the ship was on an exploratory cruise of the Orinoco River, Venezuela. NH 77632
USS Wilmington (PG-8) approaching anchorage at Guanta, Venezuela, in February 1899. Guanta was a village on the north coast of Venezuela. Note laundry drying. NH 77636
USS Wilmington (PG-8) anchored in Guanta Harbor, Venezuela, circa February 1899. NH 77637
Todd even used unit funds to create cages for living animals collected from the region, with the ship’s doc, Passed Asst. Surgeon Frank Clarendon Cook, responsible for their care. From the report:
In his report to the State Department, Loomis stated that the Wilmington had made a “strong and agreeable impression wherever she went in Venezuela and, as a result of the trip, American prestige has been substantially and handsomely augmented.”
Wilmington would remain on South American station until October 1900, when, in the midst of the Boxer Rebellion and Japanese-European encroachment in Manchuria, she was ordered to China service. She arrived in Manila on 21 January 1901 after a three-month voyage via Gibraltar, the Suez, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean, and for the next 21 years remained in Asiatic waters, alternating between the Philippines and China.
Wilmington and Callao at Canton, China, 1912
As detailed by DANFS:
Ordinary activities included the usual calls and port visits to such places as Hong Kong, Canton, and Swatow. She conducted target practice after constructing her own target rafts and laying out a firing area. On one occasion, Chinese fishermen decided that the raft presented a good perch from which to carry out their piscatorial pursuits. Repeated attempts by the gunboaters to shoo away the fishermen only ended in frustration. Finally, as the ship steamed slowly toward the area, she fired a few blank rounds purposely “over,” and the squatters promptly abandoned their erstwhile fishing vantage point.
USS Wilmington seen at Hong Kong BCC (British Crown Colony), likely during her stint as station ship from 30 June 1912 to 30 June 1914. Note she still has her bow crest. NH 49466
War (again)
Stationed in the Western Pacific during the Great War, Wilmington in 1914 had her secondary battery of 6-pounders, 1-pounders, and Gatling guns replaced with four 47/40-45 Driggs-Schroeder Mk II 3-pounders and a pair of Colt Model 1895 .30-06 machine guns.
In Shanghai, when Congress declared war in April 1917, the Chinese government ordered all U.S. ships to leave in 48 hours or be interned. This left Wilmington on patrol of the Philippines for the duration.
Great Lake Days
Returning to the U.S. for the first time since 1899, Wilmington arrived at Portsmouth on 20 September 1922 after a 15-week cruise via Singapore, Colombo, Bombay, Karachi, Aden, Port Said, Gibraltar, and the Azores, with the last leg under tow by USS Sapelo (AO 11) due to the poor state of her engines.
After a refit, which included changing out her legacy boilers for four new Babcock & Wilcox sets, she was reduced to a Naval Reserve training ship, assigned to the Ninth Naval District, for the states of Kentucky and Ohio, based in Toledo. She arrived on Lake Erie via the Soulanges, Cornwall, and Welland Canals on 1 August 1923.
She would spend the next 18 years in a quiet existence of winter layups and summer training cruises with her assorted reservists, with her deck guns removed to keep from violating the Rush-Bagot Agreement of 1817 with Canada. Her NRF bluejackets could still drill with small arms and practice stands, seen below.
A 5″/51 gun training stand, which helped drill rammers, loaders, and powdermen. A second stand would be used for training pointers and trainers.
USS Wilmington was taken in the 1920s while operating in the Great Lakes as a training ship. Courtesy of Mr. A.W. Mears, 1967. NH 49465
USS Wilmington (IX-30, ex PG-8) during the 1930s, while serving as a Naval Reserve training ship on the Great Lakes. NH 76514
Wilmington circa 1920s-30s on the Great Lakes. Note that her casemates are empty and deck guns removed. Indiana University Frank M. Hohenberger Photograph Collection Hoh034.000.0003
During this same period, sister Helena, on Asiatic Station since February 1899, was decommissioned there in 1932 and sold for scrap.
Helena & Wilmington, 1929 Janes
(Yet another) War
As the U.S. edged towards its second world war in just 21 years, the old gunboat Wilmington was *redesignated USS Dover (IX-30) on 27 January 1941, and soon got involved in neutrality patrol, rearmed for the first time in 18 years.
*The renaming came as the Navy intended to upcycle the name “Wilmington” to a planned Cleveland-class light cruiser, CL-79, which ultimately entered service as the Independence-class light aircraft carrier USS Cabot (CVL-28). Nonetheless, the Navy did use “Wilmington” for a planned Fargo class, USS Wilmington (CL-111), which was laid down in March 1945, but was suspended in August and later scrapped.
Sporting a single 5″/38 over her stern, our old Wilmington/Dover even clocked in on convoy duty, escorting the five merchant ships and one auxiliary (the 11,000-ton USS Antares (AG-10)) of HF-24 from Halifax to Boston over Christmas 1942, with 106 men embarked as her crew, sailing under the command of LT Raymond George Brown, USNR.
Sailing via New York and Miami, Wilmington/Dover arrived in Gulfport, Mississippi, on 3 February 1943 to serve the Eighth Naval District as an Armed Guard training ship, moored along with the 187-foot circa 1914 patrol yacht USS Lash (PYc 31), the 183-foot Kil class gunboat USCGC Marita (WYP-175), and the old 261-foot armed freighter USCGC Monomoy (WAG-275).
Dover at Gulfport, May 1944
Dover at Gulfport, May 1944
Dover at Gulfport, May 1944. Note her cased 20mm guns
Dover at Gulfport, May 1944
Besides training Armed Guards at a rate of 585 per week, the ships also served as “floating laboratories for the students in the Basic Engineering School.”
Wilmington/Dover would remain there until 27 November 1944, the Monday after Thanksgiving weekend, when she was sent to Alabama Shipbuilding and Drydock Company at Pinto Island in Mobile Bay for two weeks of refurbishment to allow her to transfer to Treasure Island, California, upon the pending disestablishment of the Gulfport Armed Guard base.
She arrived at her last homeport via the Panama Canal on New Year’s Day 1945, LT William Louis Hardy, USNR, in command.
In just her limited time at Treasure Island, Wilmington/Dover gave refresher gunnery training to 84 officers and 3,370 enlisted men in the San Francisco area during 1945.
She was finally decommissioned on 20 December 1945.
Stricken from the Navy List on 8 January 1946, Wilmington/Dover was sold for scrap on 30 December 1946 to the San Francisco Barge Company, and sunk at sea in early 1947.
Epilogue
Little remains of our subject.
Wilmington’s first skipper, CDR Chapman Todd, who commanded her during the SpanAm War and her trips across the rivers of South America, went on to serve as hydrographer of the Navy Department, where he supervised the initial survey of the newly acquired U.S. territories of the Philippines, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. Promoted to captain in 1901, he commanded the cruiser USS Brooklyn on Asiatic station during the Philippine insurrection. He retired from active service in October 1902 with the rank of rear admiral after a naval career that spanned 41 years, counting his time at Annapolis.
RADM Todd passed away in April 1929 at the Naval Hospital in Washington, aged 80, and was buried in Kentucky. At the time of his passing, his son, CDR Chapman Todd, Jr. (USNA 1913), was an officer on the battlewagon USS Florida (BB-30) who would go on to serve in WWII. Besides the two scrapbooks whose images are in the Naval History and Heritage Command’s files, many of which are seen in the above article, the senior Todd’s 1870 Lieutenant’s commission, signed by President Grant, is in the Kentucky state archives– along with his Civil War dress epaulettes.
Thanks for reading!
Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive
***
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Warship Wednesday (on a Thursday) 30 April 2026: 695 Feet of Glory
Official Royal Navy Photograph, from the All-Hands collection at the Naval History and Heritage Command. NH 97044
Above we see a Fleet Air Arm Hawker Sea Fury F.B.11, VR-943, of No.804 Squadron, take to the air of the British Colossus-class light fleet carrier HMS Glory (R62)for a combat mission during the Korean War, circa June 1951. Note the Fury’s invasion stripes to keep UN allies unfamiliar with the type from engaging it, and the “R” tail flash, denoting her as belonging to Glory’s 14th Carrier Air Group.
Completed too late for much combat in WWII, Glory earned her keep off Korea, completing 25 highly active patrols across three tours between April 1951– arriving on station some 75 years ago this week– and May 1953.
The Colossus class
Our girl was one of 16 (planned) “1942 Design Light Fleet Carriers” for the RN. This series, broken up into Colossus and Majestic-class sub-variants, was nifty 19,500-ton, 695-foot-long carriers that the U.S. Navy would have classified at the time as a CVL or light carrier.
They were slower than the fast fleet carriers at just 25 knots with all four 3-drum Admiralty boilers lit and glowing red, but they had long legs (over 14,000 miles at cruising speed), which allowed them to cross the Atlantic escorting convoys, travel to the Pacific to retake lost colonies, or remain on station in the South Atlantic or the Indian Ocean for weeks.
The classes’ 1946 Jane’s entry.
Ditching the full armored decks of the RN’s larger carriers, these light boys only had 10mm mantlets around aircraft torpedo warhead rooms while longitudinal watertight bulkheads covered machinery spaces.
A sort of “pocket” fleet carrier, they could be manned by just 850 crew if needed– not counting their air group personnel and Marine detachment, which could bring her embarked numbers up to 1,300– while still being able to carry 40~ aircraft.
Designed specifically for globetrotting, their 112-foot-wide flight deck and easily dismantled abeam sponsons allowed for passage through the Panama Canal. Meanwhile, special attention was given to operations in tropical conditions, be it Aden or Singapore, with air conditioning standard in many compartments.
Benefitting from late-war sensor technology, they were completed with Type 79B early warning, Type 281B air search, and Type 282 fire control radars, as well as a Type 144 sonar. When it comes to the Type 282, they had as many as six of the UHF-band range-only fire control radar for AAA batteries. Speaking of which, they were designed to carry six quad 40mm/39 2pdr QF Mk VIII pom poms and 32 Oerlikons (11 twin and 10 single).
August 1951. Off Korea. Pom Pom gun action stations in HMS Glory. The gun’s crews closed at instant readiness. A multiple close-range weapon manned by Royal Marines of HMS Glory. Note the Brodie-style helmets, surely quaint even in the early days of the Cold War. IWM (A 31959)
HMS Glory at dock in January 1946, showing public inspection and queues. Note her array of 2-pdr pom poms and 40mm Bofors with Type 282 fire control radars, and her small island with a thin funnel. Photo by Allan Green. State Library Victoria H91.108/2012
This would quickly change, as we shall see.
Meet Glory
Our subject is at least the 13th HMS Glory in the Royal Navy since 1747 and, as such, carried six cherished battle honors forward (Glorious First of June 1794, Calder’s Action 1805, Martinique 1809, Guadeloupe 1810, China 1900, and Dardanelles 1915).
The 12th Glory was formerly the German-built Russian protected cruiser Askold, seized by the British in Kola Bay in May 1918 during the Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War and used as a depot ship in Scotland until she was returned to the Soviet Navy for scrapping in 1922.
Askold had five thin funnels, which gave her a unique silhouette for any vessel in the Imperial Russian Navy. This led British sailors to nickname her “Packet of Woodbines” after the thin cigarettes popular at the time.
Our carrier Glory was laid down at Harland & Wolff at Belfast on 27 August 1942, just as the Japanese were being stopped in the Solomons and the Germans were closing in on Stalingrad. However, our new flattop was a slow build-out and wasn’t launched until after the Avalanche Landings in Italy in late 1943.
HMS Glory began her trials in November 1944 and was accepted, allocated for service with the British Pacific Fleet, commissioning on 2 April 1945, just a month out from VE-Day. Still, Glory beat her sisters Ocean, Theseus, Triumph, Venerable, Vengeance, and Warrior into fleet service. Meanwhile, sisters Perseus and Pioneer were completed as aircraft maintenance ships, not true carriers.
HMS Glory underway in coastal waters circa late 1944-early 1945. IWM (A 28925)
Same as above, IWM (A 28926).
Glory’s first skipper was Capt. Anthony Wass Buzzard, DSO, who picked up the suffix after his name as commander of the destroyer HMS Gurkha in the Norway campaign. A regular who shipped out to fight the Kaiser as a 13-year-old Mid in 1915, Buzzard was later gunnery officer aboard the battleship HMS Rodney during the pursuit and sinking of the Bismarck in 1941, with his guns the first to open fire on the German leviathan in her last surface action.
Last Days of the Big Show
Before heading to the Far East to join the BPF’s 11th Aircraft Carrier Squadron, Glory conducted flying trials with her first air wing, a mixture of 18 Barracudas from 837 Naval Air Squadron and 21 Corsairs of 1831 NAS, forming the 16th Carrier Air Group. She also picked up 17 40mm Bofors in place of smaller 20mm cannons.
On 14 May 1945, the ship became operational and departed Portsmouth, bound for Australia by way of the Mediterranean.
Arriving at Fremantle on 16 August 1945, she received word that the Japanese were suing for peace.
HMS Glory arrives at BPF Australia in August 1945 with Barracuda and Corsairs on her deck. IWM (A 30392)
A brand new carrier full of fresh aircraft and crew with nothing to do, Glory achieved a footnote in WWII history by hosting the surrender of 139,000 troops under Japanese Lt. General Imamura and Admiral Jin Icha Kusaka at Rabaul on 6 September (VJ+4), with the surrender party signing the instruments on her deck after a conference in Capt. Buzzard’s cabin. As such, she became the flag of Task Group 111.5, escorted by HM Sloops Hart and Amethyst.
“At sea off Rabaul, New Britain. 6 September 1945. Flight crews prepare Corsair and Barracuda aircraft on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier HMS Glory before takeoff. They will circle overhead during the surrender ceremony between Lieutenant General V.A.H. Sturdee, General Officer Commanding First Army, Lt. General H Imamura, commander Eighth Area Army, and Vice Admiral J. Kusaka, commander Southeast Area Fleet.” Note the widespread use of shorts and the general lack of blouses– the tropical uniform of the day. AWM 095778
Same as the above, a Corsair riding the elevator from hangar to flight deck off Rabaul, 6 September 1945, to provide CAP over the surrender. AWM 095740
The conference was held in the captain’s cabin. Left to right: Admiral Jin-Incha Kusaka, Commander Japanese S E Navy; General Imamura, General S E Japanese Army; Lieutenant General V A H Sturdee, GOC First Australian Army; Brigadier E L Sheehan, BGS, First Australian Army; and Captain Wass Buzzard, RN, discussing the immediate occupation of Rabaul by the 11th Australian Division. IWM (A 30501)
The surrender ceremony for 139,000 Japanese in New Britain, New Ireland, the Solomons, and New Guinea, which took place on the flight deck of HMS Glory off Rabaul. The surrender of the Japanese army in the southwest Pacific area was signed by General Imamura, Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Army in the region. Here General Imamura is bending over the table reading after Admiral Jin Icha Kusaka signed the treaty for the Japanese Southeastern naval forces. In the background are officers and ratings of HMS GLORY. Note the men stood at ease on either side of the flight deck. Photo by Lt C Trusler, Royal Navy. IWM (A 30499)
Note the RM with the Lancaster SMG ready to the left! General Imamura, Japanese South-Eastern Army Chief, signing the official document for the surrender of 139,000 Japanese in New Britain, New Ireland, the Solomons, and New Guinea. The surrender ceremony took place on the flight deck of HMS GLORY off Rabaul. Lieutenant General Sturdee, GOC First Australian Army, who signed for the Allies, is closely watching the Japanese General from the other side of the table. Admiral Jin Icha Kusaka signed the treaty for the Japanese southeastern naval forces. Photo by Lt C Trusler, Royal Navy. IWM (A 30498)
Lieutenant General Hitoshi Imamura, Commander of the Japanese 8th Area Army, signing the instrument of surrender on board HMS Glory near Rabaul. Vice Admiral Jinichi Kusaka, Commander of the Japanese Southeast Area Fleet, stands by to add his signature to the document. AWM 045213
Gen. Hitoshi Imamura, who surrendered his sword to Sturdee, was tried by an Allied war crimes tribunal and imprisoned until 1954. Finding his punishment to be too light, Imamura built a replica of his prison in his garden and confined himself there until he died in 1968. VADM Kusaka Jinichi died in 1972, aged 83. No war crimes indictments were leveled against him personally, though subordinate officers faced trials at Rabaul for atrocities against Allied prisoners and local populations.
Glory then proceeded to Manila to embark liberated Commonwealth POWs from Japanese camps, with part of the carrier’s hangar turned into a temporary hospital. Many of the men had been captured in Singapore in 1942. She would take these men across the Pacific to Esquimalt/Vancouver in Canada for further repatriation. Over 1,000 men were carried, and the ship made three such trips from October through the end of the year.
9 October 1945, HMS Glory embarks released British and Canadian POWs at Manila. Five members of the RAF who spent three years in captivity in Japan. Left to right: AC1 Melville of Clydebank, Scotland; AC1 Barry of Frindale, Glamorgan; LAC Duncan of Leeds; LAC Parish of Arsett, Essex; and Corporal Painey of Tamworth, Birmingham. Photo by BT Hawk. IWM (A 30943)
British aircraft carrier H.M.S. “Glory” at dock, Vancouver BC, November 1945, sporting Victory Bond signage. Keep in mind that the Crown was broke as a joke for a generation after VJ Day. Photo by James Crookall, Vancouver City Archives. AM640-S1-CVA 260-1539
Same as above, giving a good dockside view, giving a good look at her mast. Note the Canadian Pacific boarding gangway and the building in the Marine Building, a renowned Art Deco skyscraper that was the tallest building in the British Commonwealth when completed in 1930– and had been designed with a zeppelin tower. AM640-S1-: CVA 260-1537
Same as above, photo by William Donn. AM1545-S3-CVA 586-4077
Quiet Interbellum
Her POW Magic Carpet rides completed, Glory remained in the Pacific for the first eight months of 1946 and called on Australia again that January with the larger carriers Indefatigable and Implacable, along with sister Venerable.
HMS Glory (R62) upon her arrival at Melbourne, Australia, on January 23, 1946. Note the dress uniformed RM band on her bow. Photo by Allan Green. State Library Victoria H91.108/2063
Aircraft carriers HMS Implacable (left), HMS Indefatigable (right), and HMS Glory (back right) at Station Pier in Melbourne, Australia, January 1946. Note how well the little 13,000-ton/695-foot light carrier compares to her 32,000-ton/766-foot armored deck big sisters.
Station Pier, Melbourne, Australia, Jan 1946 HMS Indefatigable near opposite Implacable, ahead HMS Glory Victoria State Library
HMS Glory on a visit to Melbourne, 1946. Argus news image. State Library Victoria H98.104/2475
Visit by British aircraft carriers H.M.S. Glory, H.M.S. Indefatigable, H.M.S. Venerable, and H.M.S. Implacable to Melbourne, 1946. State of Victoria Archives
Visit by British aircraft carriers H.M.S. Glory, H.M.S. Indefatigable, H.M.S. Venerable, H.M.S. Implacable to Melbourne, 1946 State of Victoria Archives
HMS Glory leaves Waitematā Harbour with aircraft and vehicles of No. 14 Squadron RNZAF bound for Japan. 8 March 1946. RNZAF Archives
By August 1947, Glory departed for home with her paying off pennant flying via Singapore, Trincomalee, and the Mediterranean, arriving back at Portsmouth in October, where she entered ordinary for the next two years, reactivated in October 1949 and, after a stint at Devonport dockyard, sailed to join the Mediterranean Fleet.
It was in Malta in December 1949 that Princess (future Queen) Elizabeth came aboard Glory on the occasion of the King’s birthday for a visit and inspection.
The parade on the flight deck of HMS Glory was inspected by Princess Elizabeth. IWM (A 31630)
Princess Elizabeth inspects officers and men of the Mediterranean fleet on HMS Glory on the King’s birthday. 14 December 1949, on board the light fleet carrier HMS Glory, at Malta. IWM (A 31626)
In July 1950, she was part of Exercise Bandit, off the island of Skiathos, then went on to receive a very smoky salute from the elderly Turkish battlecruiser Yavuz (ex-SMS Goeben).
July 1950. The cruiser HMS Phoebe entering Marmice Harbor, Turkey, for the Fleet Regatta. HMS Glory in the foreground. Fireflies of 812 on the flight deck of HMS Glory. IWM (A 31691A)
August 1950. HMS Glory, the flagship of the Flag Officer (Air) Mediterranean, Rear Admiral Guy Grantham, CB, CBE, anchored off Tangier during the summer cruise of the Mediterranean Fleet. The bow of the Italian training ship Amerigo Vespucci in the foreground. IWM (A 31716)
War! (of the Korean variety)
One of Glory’s sisters, HMS Triumph (R16),was the first British aircraft carrier deployed to the Korean War, dispatched on 29 June 1950. As part of the Royal Navy’s Far Eastern Fleet, she and her 13th Carrier Air Group—equipped 800 Naval Air Squadron equipped with the Supermarine Seafire F.R Mk. 47 and 827 Naval Air Squadron with the Fairey Firefly F.R.Mk.1—conducted the first British carrier strikes against North Korean targets at Pyongyang and Haeju by 3 July.
Another of Glory’s sisters, HMS Theseus (R64), relieved Triumph, carrying 23 Furies from 807 Squadron and 12 Fireflies from 813 Squadron, 17th Carrier Air Group, beginning strikes on North Korean targets on 9 October 1950. All told, Theseus launched 3,500 sorties on 86 days during its seven-month deployment. During the first six months, Theseus’ air wing dropped 829,000 lbs. of explosives and fired 7,317 rockets and “half a million rounds of 20mm ammunition.”
Then Glory clocked in to relieve Theseus, with the 14th CAG’s 804 Squadron (Sea Fury) and 812 Squadron (Firefly) embarked.
Her first tour, 23rd April to 30th September 1951, would cover nine patrol periods, each of about two weeks, in which her Furies and Fireflies would hammer enemy positions in conjunction with American carriers.
She also picked up a U.S. Navy HO3S-1 (Sikorsky H-5 Dragonfly) C-SAR helicopter det, which would put in yeoman service not only for her downed aviators but also for others.
Glory suffered her first loss in the campaign on Saturday, 28 April 1951, when Lt. EPL Edward, FAA, a Sea Fury pilot of 804 Squadron, crashed into the Yellow Sea while on a patrol near Clifford Island. He was listed MPK (missing, presumed killed) and never recovered, one of 254 British personnel considered MIA during the Korean War.
Korea, 1951. Aircraft positioned on the flight deck of HMS Glory following a strike on Korea during the Korean War. AWM P00320.001
A Sea Fury takes off from HMS Glory circa 1951 off Korea. AWM P00320.010
A war photographer apparently shipped aboard in June 1951 and captured some amazing images.
June 1951. Off Korea. A Sea Fury aircraft of 804 Squadron being maneuvered into position on the flight deck of HMS Glory. The aircraft is already bombed up and ready to fly off on another sortie. Note the deck tractor and 60-pound rockets under wings. IWM (A 31912)
June 1951. Off Korea. A Sea Fury aircraft of 804 Squadron, assisted by rockets, takes off from HMS Glory. IWM (A 31910)
June 1951. Off Korea. A Firefly aircraft of 812 Squadron with rocket-assisted take-off leaving the flight deck of HMS Glory for an anti-submarine patrol in Korean waters. IWM (A 31911)
June 1951. Off Korea. HMS Glory’s U.S. Navy Sikorski Dragonfly helicopter landing on the flight deck. This helicopter has been christened “The Thing”. It has saved several of the Glory’s pilots. IWM (A 31916)
June 1951. Off Korea. A Firefly aircraft (FR 5, 812 Squadron), touching down on HMS Glory. The ‘bats’ are watching his charge safely down. His assistant with binoculars is reporting the next aircraft coming in to land. IWM (A 31914)
June 1951. Off Korea. One of HMS Glory’s Sea Fury aircraft of 804 Squadron goes down on the flight deck lift for servicing in readiness for the next day’s strikes. IWM (A 31909)
August 1951. Off Korea. Cleaning the pilot’s windshield is one of the many essential tasks performed by the Pilot’s Mate before takeoff. Leading Airman R Colebrook, of Mitcham, Surrey, is cleaning the windshield of his Sea Fury aircraft in HMS Glory. IWM (A 31960)
August 1951. Off Korea. Naval Airman J Davies of Birmingham loads the cannon of a Sea Fury aircraft with 20mm shells before the next flight takes off from HMS Glory. Note the airman’s sandals and the Firefly in the background. IWM (A 31957)
On 26 September, Glory handed over her station to the arriving Australian Majestic-class near-sister carrier HMAS Sydney (ex-HMS Terrible) and made for Kure, where she spent four days cross-decking her Fireflies and most of the air stores to the Ozzie flattop.
25 September 1951, on board the light fleet carrier HMS Glory, operating in Korean waters shortly before her relief by HMAS Sydney. Sea Fury aircraft of 804 Squadron flying past the carrier’s island before landing after accomplishing their last strike mission of their first Korean deployment. IWM (A 31982)
September 1951. Two aircraft carriers, HMAS Sydney (left) and HMS Glory, side by side in dock. The flight decks of both carriers are packed with aircraft whose wings are folded up. The Sydney is carrying Hawker Sea Fury and Fairey Firefly aircraft of Nos. 805, 808, and 817 Squadrons, 20th Carrier Air Group, RAN Fleet Air Arm. (Original print housed in P run in AWM Archive Store) AWM P01838.005
Glory then sailed for Hong Kong for a four-month refit and much-needed R&R for her crew and squadrons.
Thus refreshed, Glory relived Sydney and began her second tour off Korea on 27th January 1952, and would continue it until 5 May, conducting five patrols.
April 1952. Off Korea. A Stork perched on the wing of an aircraft in HMS Glory. IWM (A 32115)
Glory left the area on 29 April and headed for Sasebo, where she de-ammunitioned. On 1 May, she sailed for Hong Kong and turned over to her sister HMS Ocean on the 3rd. This wrapped the 14th CAG’s war.
When Glory started her third tour (8 November 1952 to 19 May 1953) for a further 11 patrols, she did so with a new air group as the 14th CAG had been disbanded. She also carried an RN helicopter C-SAR det rather than having to go with a loaner from the USN.
From the Small Wars Journal:
When Glory returned in November 1952 to the Korean theatre, she had embarked two independent squadrons, in place of 14th CAG, these being No.801 squadron, flying Sea Furies, and No.821 Squadron flying Fireflies. She rendezvoused with Ocean on 4th November, and participated in exercise Taipan, the defense of Hong Kong, at the end of which, she embarked five Sea Furies, three Fireflies, and two Dragonfly helicopters from Ocean, along with some pilots. The Fireflies were modified for operational work by having HF radio and ASH radar removed, and a fuel tank fitted in place of the radar nacelle. A map box was fitted in place of the pilot’s PPI mounting. A Sten gun was carried, in case of an emergency landing in enemy territory, and the observer had an R/T press-to-transmit switch fitted in the rear cockpit, so he could warn of approaching hostile aircraft. The white spinners were painted grey.
On 6th November, Glory sailed for Sasebo and arrived on the 9th, embarking stores and fuel, before leaving for the operational area the next day.
HMS Glory with Sea Fury FB.IIs of 801 NAS and Firefly AS.5s of 821 NAS (Firefly AS.5) embarked Korea, winter of 1952-53.
HMS Glory and a Town-class cruiser, probably HMS Birmingham, during the Korean War, circa winter 1952-53. A Dragonfly helicopter is approaching the cruiser’s stern. IWM (A 31911)
Across her three tours, Glory lost 22 aircraft destroyed or damaged beyond repair. These included one of the ship’s SAR Dragonfly helicopter and crew on 16 December 1952, when it was caught in a crosswind on the flight deck and, despite a snatch takeoff, it toppled into the sea, taking its two-man crew to the bottom.
She suffered no fewer than 20 Air Crew Casualties during the war:
Lieutenant E.P.L. Stephenson, 26 April, 1951.(804 Squadron)
Aircrewman G.B. Wells, 28 June 1951 (812 Squadron)
Lieutenant R. Williams, 16 July 1951 (812 Squadron)
Sub-Lieutenant I.R. Shepley, 16 July 1951 (812 Squadron)
Commissioned Pilot T. Sparke, 18 July 1951 (804 Squadron)
Sub-Lieutenant R.G.A. Davey, 22 July 1951 (812 Squadron)
Lieutenant R.J. Overton, 15 March 1952 (804 Squadron)
Lieutenant R. Neville-Jones, 18 November, 1952 (801 Squadra)
Lieutenant A.P. Daniels, 16 December 1952, SAR helicopter crew
Aircrewman E.R. Ripley, 16 December 1952, SAR helicopter crew
Lieutenant P.G. Fogden, 20 December 1952 (821 Squadron)
Lieutenant R.E. Barrett, 25 December 1952 (821 Squadron)
Sub-Lieutenant B.E. Rayner, 5 January 1953 (801 Squadron)
Sub-Lieutenant J.M. Simmonds, 5 January 1953 (801 Squadron)
Lieutenant C.A. MacPherson, 11 February 1953 (801 Squadron)
Sub-Lieutenant R.D. Bradley, 11 February 1953 (801 Squadron)
Lieutenant J.T. McGregor, 25 April 1953 (801 Squadron)
Sub-Lieutenant W.J.B. Keates, 25 April 1953 (801 Squadron)
Glory also had one of her aircrew captured, 801 Squadron’s Lieutenant (E)(A/E/)(P) Derek Graham Mather, shot down during an attack on the bridges near Chaeyoung on 5 January 1953.
“We had some secondary targets, one of which was another bridge. I led the second attack in — they were waiting for us. It was a flak trap. I released my bombs, and suddenly there was a bang from a 76mm shell,” noted Mather, who managed to escape his shattered Sea Fury only to be met in the snow by a waiting Chinese patrol.
During her three tours in Korean waters, Glory had spent 530 days at sea and had steamed 157,000 miles. The period included 15 months of war service and 316 days in Korean waters. An impressive 9,064 operational sorties (7,388 offensive and 1,676 defensive) had been flown with 13,070 flights made in total when non-combat missions were logged.
Across those three tours, Glory and her squadrons had expanded:
278 1,000-pound bombs
7,080 500-pound bombs
24,238 60-pound rockets
20 depth charges
1,441,000 20mm shells
Targets destroyed included 712 buildings, 33 road bridges, 37 rail bridges, and 162 railway lines cut.
In recognition of her service, Glory was authorized the battle honor “Korea 1950-53” while her crew and CAG accumulated six DSOs, 20 DSCs, two CBEs, two OBEs, three MBEs, eight BEMs, a Queen’s Commendation (PoW), and 33 Mentions in Despatches.
July 1953. A Sikorsky Dragonfly helicopter, operating from Malta, hovers over HMS Glory when she called in at Malta on her way to the UK. The broken plate gives a pleasing frog skin camo effect. IWM (A 32604)
Throughout the war, Commonwealth-manned Colossus and Majestic-class light carriers endured off the coast– the Admiralty tasking them rather than larger flattops to save money– with Glory being replaced by HMS Ocean and HMAS Sydney, while the Canadian-manned HMCS Warrior transported replacement aircraft from Britain.
In all, FAA and RAN pilots flew at least 25,366 combat sorties from these budget light carriers during the Korean conflict– with Glory alone accounting for 36 percent of these by herself.
Continued Cold War service
By 1954, the Royal Navy had been reduced to 139,000 billets, down from 153,000 seen at the end of the Korean War the year prior, and was targeted to be reduced to just 133,000 by 1955. The signs of things to come!
The number of Glory’s sisters in RN service had greatly decreased. Venerable, renamed Karel Doorman, had been sold to the Netherlands in 1948. Colossus, renamed Arromanches, was sold to France in 1951. Vengeance was lent to the Australians in early 1953. Half-sister ferry carriers Perseus and Pioneer were on the bubble, with the latter slated to be scrapped that year.
This just left Glory, Ocean, Theseus, Triumph, and Warrior in RN service, as listed in Jane’s 1954-55 volume, as seen below.
The Brits still had a very significant carrier force headed into the rest of the Cold War, with the 46,000-ton sisters HMS Ark Royal and Eagle, the twin 33,000-ton armored carriers Implacable and Indefatigable of WWII fame, the 29,000-ton Indomitable, the 32,000-ton Illustrious, the 30,000-ton Victorious (then being refit with an angled flight deck), the four 20,000-ton Hermes class sisters (Hermes, Albion, Bulwark, and Centaur), the 19,000-ton Hercules and Leviathan, plus our five Glory and two ferry carriers (Perseus and Unicorn).
That’s 20 flattops, which are a lot of flattops by any standard!
Taken in hand with Britain’s last battlewagon, HMS Vanguard, still in service as flagship of the Home Fleet, her four mothballed KGVs (Anson, Howe, Duke of York, and King George V), and two laid up monitors (Abercrombie and Roberts), and you could mistake the RN as the world’s second largest fleet in the world at the time.
Silhouettes as per the 1954 Jane’s:
Of course, all was subject to change, and many of the above were laid up or pending disposal or transfer.
Following a post-Korea refit in Rosyth, Glory went back to the Med for another round of flying exercises and flag-showing visits before returning to Portsmouth in February 1954.
Glory in the Grand Harbour, Valletta, Malta, in January 1954
That saw the end of the Glory’s flying as she now became a ferry carrier, making a trip out to the Far East, again dropping off and picking up men and supplies en route, spending a few hours on a mud bank in the Great Bitter Lake on her way out there.
Shortly after her return, she took part in delivering relief supplies in Scotland during the blizzards of January 1955. The remainder of that year was spent in Rosyth before, in May 1956, leaving for Plymouth for a few weeks before she returned to Rosyth in June and was finally Paid Off.
In 1957, all preservation work was stopped, then after being on the disposal list for a time, the tugs arrived on 23 August 1961 to tow her to Inverkeithing to be broken up.
Tugs pulling HMS Glory, Colossus aircraft carrier, to the breakers in Inverkeithing, August 23 1961
By 1960, the RN had drawn down to 102,000 officers and men and had no battleships or monitors and just nine carriers of all types (Ark Royal, Eagle, Hermes, Albion, Bulwark, Centaur, Magnificent, Victorious, and Leviathan), with only about half considered active fleet carriers.
The last of her Glory’s sisters in the Royal Navy, Triumph, was kept around as a repair ship until 1975, then scrapped.
The final vessel of her class sent to the breakers, the third-hand ex-HMS/HMAS Vengeance/ex-NAeL Minas Gerais, was sold for scrap by the Brazilian owners in 2004, torched to man-portable pieces on the beach at Alang.
Of Glory’s WWII and Korean War squadrons, 837 NAS disbanded in 1947, 1831 NAS in 1982, 804 NAS in 1961, 812 NAS in 1956, 821 NAS in 1953, and 801 NAS in 2007, the latter flying Harriers in the Falklands.
In the early 1960s, when Glory was being decommissioned, Lord Mountbatten, Chief of the British Defence Forces and Admiral of the Fleet, allowed the ship’s 1944-marked brass bell to be taken by Mr. F C Wilkins CB, a retiree of the RN who had served for 47 years. It, along with its clapper, marlinspike bell rope, plaque, and a WWII flown ensign, now resides in the collection of the Australian War Memorial.
The IWM contains a collection of interviews with past members of Glory’s crew, of which at least 21 are available to listen to online.
Her WWII skipper, RADM Anthony Wass Buzzard DSO, OBE, RN, retired in 1951, capping a 29-year career. He passed away in 1972, at age 69.
The aviator lost as a POW during Korea, Sea Fury driver Derek Graham “Pug” Mather, underwent brutal mistreatment over nine months as a Chinese prisoner, including attempted brainwashing, but was eventually released post-cease fire and returned to service, on Glory— welcomed back aboard by a Royal Marines band– in January 1954. Converting to helicopters, he did an exchange tour with the USN, served aboard the commando carrier HMS Albion, and retired as a captain in 1969 with his last post as Director of the Air Engineering School at HMS Daedalus in RNAS Lee-on-Solent. On retirement, he spent 10 years with Marconi Underwater Systems, then assumed charitable work as a hospital driver and domestic governor of the King William IV Naval Foundation Cottages. Pug passed in 2007, aged 79, leaving two daughters and two sons.
Sadly, the Admiralty’s naval list has not been graced with a “Glory” since 1961.
Thanks for reading!
Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive
***
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The 190-foot, 1,200-ton Miami-class auxiliary gunboat/steel-hulled “cruising cutter” Tampa (WGC-11) was built to spec at Newport News and commissioned on 19 August 1912.
Constructed at $250,000 for the Revenue Cutter Service, she was a simple coastwise vessel, armed with a trio of 6-pounders in peacetime, with weight and space reserved to upgrade those to 3-inchers during war.
USCGC Tampa photographed in harbor, before World War I. Note her two visible whalers. Completed in 1912 as the U.S. Revenue Cutter Miami, she was renamed Tampa in February 1916. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. NH 1226
She spent her first few years stationed in southern Florida (go figure), under her original name (Miami), service she alternated with heading to the North for the International Ice Patrol every spring– remember these were the years just after the loss of the Titanic.
Crew photo of the Revenue Service Cutter Miami (future USCGC Tampa) while on Ice Patrol, circa 1912-16. Note one of her 6-pounder guns to the right of the photo
Revenue Cutter Miami, the future USCGC Tampa, USCG 190326-G-G0000-1001
Then came war, and Tampa was quickly modified for overseas service with five other large cutters.
As detailed by the CG Historian’s Office:
On 1 February 1916, three days before the Gasparilla Carnival and South Florida Fair in Tampa, her name was changed to Tampa. Again that year, she made the ice patrol and then returned to Key West. The year 1917 was very eventful for the crew of Tampa. The South Florida Fair and Gasparilla Carnival at Tampa was the greatest yet, lasting nine days, from 2 February through the 10th. With four days to recuperate from this gala affair, they went on to patrol the Annual Motor Boat Regatta at Miami from 15 to 17 February 1916. On 27 and 28 March, they patrolled the races of the St. Petersburg Yacht Club in St. Petersburg, Florida.
There was a shadow over the spring gaiety of 1917, however. On 2 February 1917, the opening day of the Fair and Carnival in Tampa, was the day the United States broke off diplomatic relations with Germany. Perhaps the men of Tampa sensed that this would be their last celebration with the citizens of their favorite city. On 6 April 1917, the United States declared war on Germany, and immediately, Tampa and other Coast Guard cutters were transferred to the Navy. During the next four months, she received heavier armament by trading her three six-pounders for four 3-inch guns and a pair of machine guns. After preparations at the Boston Navy Yard, Tampa moved to the New York Navy Yard on 16 September and reported for duty to the commanding officer of USS Paducah (Gunboat No. 18). Ordered to duty overseas, the warship departed New York on 29 September in company with Paducah, Sterling, B.H.B. Hubbard (SP-416), and five French-manned, American-made submarine chasers in tow. After stops at Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Ponta Delgada in the Azores, Tampa and her sailing mates reached Gibraltar on 27 October 1917.
Based in Gibraltar, the Tampa, Seneca (her companion ship during the ice patrols), Yamacraw, Ossipee, Algonquin, and Manning made up Squadron 2 of Division 6 of the Atlantic Fleet Patrol Forces. Their mission was to protect convoys from submarine attacks. In the little more than a year left to her, Tampa escorted 18 convoys, comprising a total of 350 vessels, through the U-boat-infested waters from Gibraltar to Britain. Her record during this period was outstanding. She was never disabled, and her one request for repairs had been on two minor items, in spite of spending more than fifty percent of her time at sea and steaming an average of 3,566 miles a month.
A haze grey USCGC Tampa moored in a European port (possibly Gibraltar), circa 1917-1918. Note the paddle tug astern of Tampa and the large converted yacht in the distance. The latter may be a British Navy vessel. Donation of Charles R. Haberlein Jr., 2009. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. NH 106706
She was sunk while escorting a convoy on 26 September 1918– just seven weeks before the Armistice– in the Bristol Channel off the coast of Wales by German UB III-class submarine UB-91 (Kptlt. Wolf Hans Hertwig).
Tampa, in company with her fellow escorts, departed Gibraltar with the 32-ship convoy HG 107, bound for Liverpool, on 17 September 1918. The convoy proceeded without incident beyond Cornwall and into the Irish Sea. During the late afternoon of 26 September, Tampa parted company with the convoy as she was in need of refueling. Ordered to put into Milford Haven, she proceeded independently toward her destination. At 7:30 p.m., as she steamed toward the Bristol Channel, UB-91 (Kapitänleutnant Wolf Hans Hertwig) spotted the ocean escort and, according to the U-boat’s war diary entry, dived and maneuvered into an attack position. From a range of about 550 meters, UB-91 fired one G6AV torpedo with a special attachment from her stern torpedo tube at 8:15 p.m. Minutes later, the warhead detonated on Tampa’s port side amidships, throwing up a huge, luminous column of water. Two minutes later, the U-boat was shocked by a second detonation, most likely caused by Tampa’s depth charges reaching pressure fuse depth, as the cutter sank.
All 131 souls aboard— 111 Coast Guardsmen, four U.S. Navy signalmen, a captain of the British Army, 10 seamen of the Royal Navy, and five British dock workers– were killed, representing the largest single loss of life for the Coast Guard during the conflict and, except the disappearance of the collier USS Cyclops, was the largest loss of life suffered by U.S. Naval forces in any incident of the First World War.
Painting of the sinking of Cutter Tampa by the German submarine UB-91, painted by noted marine artist John Wisinski. Photo by: USCG Historian’s Office, VIRIN: 220818-G-G0000-1001
Admiral William S. Sims, the senior U.S. naval officer on duty in Great Britain, received the following letter from the Lords of the British Admiralty:
“Their Lordships desire me to express their deep regret at the loss of the USS Tampa. Her record since she has been employed in European waters as an ocean escort to convoys has been remarkable. She has acted in the capacity of ocean escort to no less than 18 convoys from Gibraltar, comprising 350 vessels, with a loss of only two ships through enemy action. The commanders of the convoys have recognized the ability with which the Tampa carried out the duties of ocean escort. Appreciation of the good work done by the USS Tampa may be some consolation to those bereft, and Their Lordships would be glad if this could be conveyed to those concerned.”
Two bodies in U.S. naval uniforms later washed ashore, one of which was identified by a waterlogged pocket tag as being Seaman James Marconnier Fleury, USCG. They were both buried with full military honors at Lamphey Churchyard (a small country churchyard in Wales). Fleury’s family later brought home his body and buried him in a cemetery in Long Island, New York, but the unidentified Coast Guardsman still rests in Lamphey Churchyard. Local citizens care for his grave to this day.
Unknown Tampa Crewman, Lamphey Churchyard, Wales, United Kingdom, ca. 2014 “In loving memory of our unknown shipmate from the USS Coast Guard Cutter Tampa torpedoed in the Bristol Channel September 26th, 1918. Erected by the USS Tampa Coast Guard Post 719 American Legion, New York. USCG 170602-G-XX000-152
The UB-91 was surrendered at Harwich on 21 November 1918. Operated by a British crew, she toured several cities, including Cardiff and Newport, where she was displayed from 12–20 January 1919 and visited by local officials to raise funds for mariners’ charities. After the boat’s breakup at Briton Ferry in 1921, her deck gun was moved to Chepstow’s war memorial. Her only wartime skipper, Hertwig, credited with 14,668 tons of shipping (Tampa and three steamers) returned to Germany on board the transport Lucia Woerman and resigned from the Imperial Navy in 1920. He later joined the Kriegsmarine in 1937 at age 52 and held a series of training and desk jobs. KzS Hertwig was taken prisoner by the British during the liberation of Denmark in May 1945 and held in a PoW camp till the end of 1946. He passed in 1958, of cancer.
Until now, the only tangible part of Tampa that has ever been located was a brass boat plate from one of her whalers, found on 14 April 1924, almost six years after she was lost, discovered by a 14-year-old lad while beachcombing at Rest Bay, Porthcawl, England.
Tampa boat plate NH 41869
Now it seems, as reported by the Gasperados Dive Team, that the final resting place of Tampa is in 320 feet of water, some 50 miles off Newquay, England.
“Since 1790, the Coast Guard has defended our nation during every armed conflict in American history, a legacy reflected in the courage and sacrifice of the crew of Coast Guard Cutter Tampa,” said Adm. Kevin Lunday, commandant of the Coast Guard. “When the Tampa was lost with all hands in 1918, it left an enduring grief in our service. Locating the wreck connects us to their sacrifice and reminds us that devotion to duty endures. We will always remember them. We are proud to carry their spirit forward in defense of the United States.”
In 2023, the Coast Guard Historians Office was contacted by the Gasperados Dive Team regarding the Tampa. Over the past three years, the all-volunteer team conducted an extensive search for the wreckage.
“We provided the dive team with historical records and technical data to assist in confirming the wreck site,” said Dr. William Thiesen, Coast Guard Atlantic Area Historian. “This included the archival images of the deck fittings, ship’s wheel, bell, weaponry, and archival images of the Tampa.”
The Coast Guard is now developing plans for underwater research and exploration in coordination with its offices of specialized capabilities, historians, cutter forces, robotics and autonomous systems, and dive locker.
And so we remember.
In Waters Deep– Eileen Mahoney
In ocean wastes no poppies blow, No crosses stand in ordered row, There young hearts sleep… beneath the wave… The spirited, the good, the brave, But stars a constant vigil keep, For them who lie beneath the deep. ‘Tis true you cannot kneel in prayer On certain spot and think. “He’s there.” But you can to the ocean go… See whitecaps marching row on row; Know one for him will always ride… In and out… with every tide. And when your span of life is passed, He’ll meet you at the “Captain’s Mast.” And they who mourn on distant shore For sailors who’ll come home no more, Can dry their tears and pray for these Who rest beneath the heaving seas… For stars that shine and winds that blow And whitecaps marching row on row. And they can never lonely be For when they lived… they chose the sea.
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Warship Wednesday 22 April 2026: The Morning Star
Photo via the Danish Naval Museum (Orlogsmuseet) Archives THM-6115
Above, we see the small protected (krydseren) Gejser(also variously known as Gisjer and Geyser) of the Royal Danish Navy in Copenhagen, with the historic St. Alban’s Church in the background.
The class leader of a new series of modern warships under the Dannebrog, she joined the fleet’s 1st Squadron (I Eskadre) some 130 years ago this month and would go on to perform a solid 30 years of enjoyable, even picturesque, service, punctuated by a moment of horror.
Danish cruisers
The first warship rated as a “cruiser” in Danish service was the 2,663-ton ram-bowed iron-hulled sail-rigged steam schooner cruiser (skonnert-krydseren) Fyen, which commissioned in 1884. She carried an impressive 16 5.9-inch Krupp guns (two 149/32 RK L/35 C/80s and 14 shorter 149/22 RK L/25 C/78s), along with two 356mm bow torpedo tubes, protected by 39mm of armor plate. Capable of 12.5 knots, she was swathed in a 1.5-inch armored steel deck.
Danish cruiser Fyen’s armor and gunnery plan, showing her impressive battery of 16 5.9″ Krupp guns and two torpedo tubes, which wasn’t bad for 1884
Danish cruiser Fyen photographed during the winter of 1885-86, likely during one of her early Mediterranean cruises. By 1907, replaced by newer and more modern ships, she was disarmed and immobilized, turned into a barracks/school hulk, a role she held until scrapping in 1962. NH 85361
Then came a quartet of old (built 1862-78) armored screw schooners/sloops: St. Thomas (1,550 tons) Dagmar (1,200 tons), Ingolf (1,019 tons) and Absalon (533 tons) which were modernized in 1885-88 with new powerplants and a main battery of 4.7″/27 RK L/30 C/84 Krupp guns, backed up by 87mm and 37mm QF guns, to be reclassed as 3rd rate cruisers (krydstogtskib 3. klasse), to remain in service as such for a decade.
The 228-foot Danish Orlogsskonnerten St. Thomas in white tropical paint with yellow stacks and masts, common for service in the Danish West Indies (the Virgin Islands), where she was a station ship during the Spanish-American War. She had been re-armed in 1885 with eight 4.7″27 Krupp breechloaders along with six 37mm Hotchkiss 1-pdrs and redesignated a cruiser corvette (krydserkorvet)
Then came the British-built 3,000-ton krydserkorvet (cruiser corvette) Valkyrien, a close cousin of the Armstrong-built Chilean protected cruiser Esmeralda. Entering service in 1890, she cruised the world and waved the Dannebrog as far away as Siam and Hong Kong, and is most notable for overseeing the Danish West Indies (Virgin Islands) to the U.S. in 1917.
Valkyrien, dansk krysser, krigsskip, Oslofjorden Norwegian archives HHB-15663
This brings us to the 1,322-ton Helka, which would be the first of three planned protected cruisers to replace the old, converted 3rd rates, which were nothing but a stopgap for new construction. Laid down as Yard No. 70 on 9 April 1889, at the Royal Dockyard Copenhagen (Orlogsværftet, København), Hekla had a sloping (1.75-inch to 1-inch) “turtle back” armor deck right, fore, and aft, protecting engines, magazines, steering engines, and shell hoists. Meanwhile, her open gun mounts were all protected by shields.
As noted in 1889’s (London) Engineer [notes mine].
The upper deck is clear fore and aft, leaving ample scope for firing the two 6-inch [149/32 RK C/88 Krupp Schnelladekanone Länge 35] guns, one of which is placed at each end of the ship. Amidships are four [57/40 M.1885] rapid firing guns and two torpedo [381mm] launching tubes. Above the deck houses are six machine guns [37mm M.1875 Hotchkiss 1-pounder Gatling types]. The bridge and a conning tower constructed of nickel steel armor plate are forward. A powerful electric search light is placed on the top of the conning tower and another at the stern of the ship. The Hekla is 225 feet long, her breadth being 33 feet, and of light draught. The engines have been supplied by the Burmeister and Wain Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Copenhagen.
Before she was even fully outfitted and commissioned, the guns on the old third-rate cruisers were evaluated on the new Hekla.
Danish protected cruiser Hekla photographed at Copenhagen dockyard, 1891, after trials of her cellulose protection in which a 4.7″ shell was fired at 30-35 m. distance by gunboat (3rd rate cruiser) Absalon. The dotted line indicates the bow wave. Searchlights and secondary armament are not in place. NH 85349
Same as above of Hekla, NH 85363
Proven satisfactory in terms of arms and armor, Hekla’s 8-pack of coal-fed locomotive boilers and twin VTEs generated 3,000 shp on twin screws, which was good for 16 knots. Her bunkers could hold 113 tons of coal, which was enough for 1,700nm at 10 knots.
The Danes thought they could tweak that powerplant to do better.
Meet Gejser
Named for the turbulent steam and water discharge common to Iceland (then a Danish territory), Gejser was based on Hekla and nearly identical above water save for the fact that she had a single funnel rather than Hekla’s twin pipe arrangement.
Ordered from Burmeister & Wain, the future Gejser launched on a beautiful summer day on 5 July 1892 with HM King Christian IX in attendance.
Gejser photographed at launch, 5 July 1892, at Burmeister & Wain in Copenhagen. Note her forward 450mm torpedo tube in her ram bow, restraining cable, two old hulks (probably steam frigates Sjaelland and Jylland) in the background, and coast defense battleship Helgoland to the right. Local reports noted, “The beautiful weather had lured many spectators out to the naval yard to watch the launch, both ladies and gentlemen.” NH 85379
As completed, Gejser had roughly the same armament scheme as Hekla save smaller main guns (4.7″/38 QF L/40 C/92s) rather than Hekla’s 5.9s, while retaining the same four 3.45″/37 SK L/40 secondary guns, six 37mm Hotchkiss 1-pdr machine guns, and four torpedo tubes (one 450mm bow, two 381mm beam, one 381 over the stern).
She also had two 35-inch searchlights (Spejlprojektører) and two 8mm machine guns. It should be noted that, while our cruiser had smaller main guns than Hekla, Gejser’s guns could fire more than five rounds per minute compared to one round in Hekla, to a range of 9.2 km compared to 8 km for Hekla’s guns.
Danish Krydseren Gejser
Danish cruiser Gejser NH 85350
Danish cruiser Gejser NH 85354
Gejser had more significant changes from her half-sister when looking below deck, which included the first installation in an armored ship (not a torpedo boat) of eight Thornycroft water tube style boilers (instead of the locomotive boilers on Hekla), which enabled a combined SHP of 3,157 on her full power trial and a speed of 17.1 knots. Further, the smaller (and faster to heat) boilers and other minor changes shaved some 80 tons off Gejser’s displacement when compared to Hekla, even while allowing a gently strengthened armor scheme because of lessons learned from the latter’s 1891 trials.
Via the December 1892 edition of the Engineer (London):
The Danes liked the new Thornycroft boilers so well that they used them on the new “bathtub battleship” armored coastal defense ship Skjold, which was 2,160 tons and mounted 9.4-inch SK L/40 Krupp guns and had up to 10 inches of armor.
Gejser and Skjold in Aarhus THM-6470
The Danes also ordered a near carbon-copy of Gejser, the single-funneled Orlogsværftet-built cruiser Hejmdal (Heimdall), which launched in August 1894 and commissioned in 1895. Meanwhile, Hekla had her boilers upgraded to the new standard in a later refit.
The one-stacked Danish Gejser-class cruiser Hejmdal anchored in a harbor, probably in France, during the summer of 1910 when she was employed as a training ship for naval cadets. She spent much of her early service as the Icelandic station ship, patrolling those waters from March to October-November, then retiring to metropolitan Denmark for the winter. THM-16033
Danish Krydseren Gejser, Heimdal, Hekla, Janes 1904, with several errors.
Quiet Peacetime service
Delivered on 8 May 1893, Gejser spent her first few years in the fleet in a series of extended tests, trials, and showboating, later steaming that fall on a Baltic cruise with the coastwise battlewagon Iver Hvitfeldt, the cruiser Valkyrien, and four torpedo boats.
Gejser, showing off her stern “stinger” torpedo tube. THM-3241
Then came a series of shipyard availabilities in 1894, followed by a mission to neighboring German waters in the summer of 1895 with her sister Hekla, and the torpedo boats Narhvalen, Støren, Søløven, and Havhesten to represent Denmark at the opening of the Kiel Canal. Seventy-six warships totaling 380,000 tons from 15 different nations anchored in the roadstead for this historic event.
The Danish ships were positioned in the international naval parade ahead of the German cruisers SMS Kaiserin Augusta and Gefion and behind the American USS Marblehead (Cruiser No. 11) and New York (Armored Cruiser No. 2), anchored just off the German Marine Akademie.
The squadron representing Denmark at the official opening of the Kaiser Wilhelm Kanal in Kiel in 1895. The ships, identified in verso of the frame, consist of modern war vessels: the torpedo boats “Nahrvalen” (launched 1888), the “Havhesten”, the light cruiser “Hekla” (launched 1890), the torpedo boat “Støren” (launched 1887), the light cruiser “Gejser” (launched 1892) and the “Søløven” by Vilhelm Karl Ferdinand Arnesen.
Plan of the harbor, showing anchorages of warships present for ceremonies opening the Kiel Canal, June 1895. NH 89539
Fully operational, Gejser joined the 1st Squadron in 1896 and remained in the fleet’s first line until 1903. One of her skippers during this period was Prince Valdemar, a career naval officer who just happened to be the last son of King Christian IX of Denmark and brother to King George I of Greece and Frederick VIII of Denmark.
She was then tasked as a training ship (Øvelsesskib), home to the gunnery and torpedo school.
She would continue in this role, clocking in for regular Squadron exercises each fall, until November 1905, when she was used, along with the bruising coastal battleship Olfert Fischer, to escort the royal yacht (kongeskibet) Dannebrog to Oslo, the latter taking Prince Carl of Denmark to become the king of newly independent Norway upon the dissolution of that country’s near century-long union with Sweden.
The Danish Prince Carl sailing on his way to becoming King Haakon VII of Norway. The Dannebrog was escorted by the Danish coastal defense ship Olfert Fischer (to the right) and the small cruiser Geiser (behind O.F.). Painted by Vilhelm Karl Ferdinand Arnesen.
Prince Carl and Princess Maud arriving in the Oslofjord as King Haakon VII and Queen Maud of Norway in 1905. The royal yacht Dannebrog leads the column, escorted by the Danish naval ships Olfert Fischer and Geiser and joined by two Norwegian coastal defense ships. Painted by Vilhelm Karl Ferdinand Arnesen.
After spending most of 1906 in refit (she had 10 years of squadron service behind her), Gejser shipped out with the Royal Division (Kongedelingen) alongside the Danish EAC steamer Birma (ex-Arundel Castle) to carry King Frederick VIII and the members of the Danish Parliament to the Faroe Islands and Iceland in the summer of 1907.
King Frederik VIII’s departure from Reykjavik, 1907. Frederik VIII visited Iceland in 1907 with a deputation of members of parliament. The picture depicts the king’s departure from Reykjavik on board EAC’s Birma. Cruiser Gejser following. Painted by Vilhelm Karl Ferdinand Arnesen.
Gejser then returned to service as the training ship for the Artillery and Torpedo School (Artilleri- og Torpedoskolen), a stint interrupted by escorting Frederik on his visit to relatives in Russia (the Tsar was his first cousin) in the summer of 1909, with the Danish royal family gathering at the Tsar’s palace at Peterhof.
Russian Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, Queen Louise of Denmark, Victoria Battenberg, King Frederik, Tsar Nicholas II, Grand Duchess Olga, Tsarevich Alexei, Grand Duchess Marie, Grand Duchess Anastasia, Princess Thyra of Denmark, and Princess Dagmar of Denmark in front of the Lower Dacha in Peterhof, July 1909.
During a circa 1910 refit, both Gejser and Hejmdal landed their half-dozen 37mm Hotchkiss guns in exchange for a quartet of more modern 57mm 6-pounder M.1885 Hotchkiss high-angle anti-aircraft (antiluftskytskanoner) guns. Meanwhile, older half-sister Hekla was transferred to the reserve and disarmed. Hekla was converted into a depot and logistics ship by 1913. Hejmdal returned to service as a cadet training vessel.
In ordinary from 1 October 1912 to 7 January 1914, Gejser was brought back into active service for use as a submarine tender, leaving the Valkyrien as the Danish Navy’s only active cruiser.
At the time, the Danish fleet had nine submarines: eight Whitehead (Fiume) diesel-electric types of 129 feet/200 tons and the older gasoline-engined Fiat-built 114-foot/130-ton Dykkeren.
War!
When the lights went out across Europe in August 1914, the Danish navy counted some 4,000 officers, men, and cadets. They protected not only the country’s coastline and overseas possessions (Iceland, Greenland, Faroes, West Indies), but also its merchant fleet, which at the time had some 558 registered steamers (398,323 tons all told) and over 3,400 sailing vessels of all sizes.
At its disposal were five coastal battleships (Peder Skram, Olfert Fischer, Herluf Trolle, Skjold, and Iver Hvitfeldt), three remaining cruisers (Gejser, Hejmdal, and Valkyrien) rushed back to front-line service, 20 assorted torpedo boats, the nine small submarines detailed above, and a handful of mine ships, gunboats, and “fisheries cruisers” (inspetionsskibe), with none of the latter larger than 700 tons.
With that, on 4 August 1914, the fleet was put on a war footing and, as the Security Force (Sikringsstyrken), was divided between the 1st Squadron in the Øresund in the North between Denmark and Sweden and the 2nd Squadron in the Great Belt (Storebælt) to the West between Zealand and Funen.
Gejser spent most of the war alternating between squadrons, with exceptions for a refit (from September to December 1916) and for brief stints as a training ship.
She even carried King Christian X from Copenhagen to Korsør in November 1915.
King Christian X onboard Danish cruiser Geiser in snow squall on the way to Korsor, 25 November 1915, with three torpedo boats following. By Vilhelm Karl Ferdinand Arnesen
One of Gejser’s past skippers, CDR Rord Hammer, who commanded her from 1905-09, would lead the delegation carrying the bodies of the men killed aboard HM submarine E.13, which, after being grounded at Søndre Flindt, was fired upon by German torpedo boats on 19 August 1915.
Post-war tragedy
With peace, of a sort, falling over Europe, Gejser was moved back to her regular mission of summer cadet cruises and school ship duties, interspersed with training evolutions.
Gejser’s training cruise, 1919 THM-33595
Coal gang during Gejser’s training cruise, 1919 THM-33597
Cutlass drill during Gejser’s training cruise, 1919 THM-33598
Gejser’s training cruise, 1919 THM-33599
To the cutlass! Gejser’s training cruise, 1919 THM-33605
Gejser’s training cruise, 1919. THM-35518
Danish Krydseren Gejser 1921 Janes
A ship designed with naval thinking that predated the Spanish-American War, Gejser was well past her prime in the 1920s. Her typical service during this period was in summer exercises and maneuvers (May-July).
The worst day aboard Gejser came on 25 May 1923 when, during a demonstration of a new fog generating apparatus (Taageudviklingsapparater), an explosion occurred.
The device used “the devil’s element,” yellow phosphorus, held in a tank that, when fed via a steam line from the ship’s boilers, would yield great clouds of billowing smoke used to hide the cruiser and its accompanying force. Shown off to an assembled crowd of officers gathered from throughout the fleet, the novel device exploded with a shot like that of a cannon, and Gejser was enveloped in an extremely poisonous and flammable cloud of vaporized phosphorus, glowing like a morning star through the smoke.
No less than 47 men were extremely injured, including her skipper, Capt. Godfred Hansen, the famed second-in-command of Amundsen’s Gjoa expedition through the Northwest Passage in 1903-06.
Most of the commanders of the exercise squadron’s nine torpedo boats and three minelayers were also among the wounded. LCDR Paul C. Rützou, commander of the torpedo boat Delfinen, died at the Garrison Hospital in Vordingborg after an agonizing 16 days. Crown Prince Frederik (later King Frederik IX from 1947), then a junior officer, had only left Gejser moments before returning to his torpedo boat.
Many of the men suffered terrible disfigurement, with Sir Harold Delf Gillies, known as the father of plastic surgery in Britain, traveling to Denmark especially to treat them.
Gejser was repaired and returned to service. Notably, she conducted a series of cadet training cruises around the Baltic and Mediterranean in 1924, 1925, 1926, and 1927. She also functioned as an escort ship in the Royal Division for King Christian X’s trip to the Faroe Islands and Iceland in 1926.
Danish cruiser Gejser 1926
Geyser in dry dock Naval Yard 1926 THM-7305
She was removed from the fleet’s list on 28 May 1928 and sold for her value in scrap.
Her sister Hejmdal was likewise disposed of in 1930.
Danish cruiser Hejmdal circa 1922 THM-8985
Their collective older half-sister Hekla, hulked in 1915, amazingly was only disposed of in 1955.
Epilogue
Little remains of our cruiser that I can locate, other than an abundance of maritime art.
Danish cruiser Gejser, by Vilhelm Arnesen, showing off her bow torpedo tube
As Iceland gained sovereignty as a separate kingdom under the Danish crown in 1918, and then moved toward complete independence in 1944, Denmark had little impetus to name another warship after geysers.
When it comes to Gejser’s former skippers, Emmanuel Briand de Crevecoeur (as headmaster of the artillery school in 1923 and then as her commanding officer proper from 1926-27), was a rear admiral holding the tough dual seats of Chief of the Naval Command and Acting Director of the Ministry of the Navy in 1940 after the Germans occupied Denmark, assuming the spots vacated by RADM Hjalmar Rechnitzer, who had resigned in disgrace. Later interned by the Germans, De Crevecoeur retired after liberation in 1945, wrapping up a career that he began as a cadet in 1898. Spending his retirement as a professor of languages at Krogerup College, he passed away in 1968.
Perhaps the best-known of Gejser’s skippers, the polar explorer Hansen, recovered from his wounds and held several further seagoing commands before becoming commandant of the Danish naval academy. He passed in 1937, aged 61, while still a rear admiral on the naval rolls.
However, the legacy of Gejser’s 1923 explosion echoed well into the 1950s.
One of Gejser’s junior officers, 1Lt Kai Hammerich, was so debilitated in the blast that he was under medical treatment in both Denmark and England for several years thereafter. Later transferring to the country’s lighthouse service, he soon became active in the Danish Red Cross and, as head of the organization in 1950, took command of the 356-bed Danish hospital ship MS Jutlandia during the Korean War. Serving for 999 days during the conflict, Jutlandia cared for 4,981 gravely wounded soldiers from 24 different nations, as well as over 6,000 Korean civilians.
Royal Danish Navy Reserve Capt. Kai Hammerich aboard MS Jutlana during the Korean War, one of Gejser’s most prominent veterans. Hammerich was awarded a South Korea’s Order of Merit (대한민국장), the country’s highest honor, in March 1952 UN Photo 7667766
Thanks for reading!
Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive
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Warship Wednesday 15 April 2026: The Fastest Yugo
Courtesy of Mr. C.W. Beilstein 1983. Naval History and Heritage Command Catalog #: NH 94341
Above we see the class-leading destroyer (razarac) Beograd of the Royal Navy of Yugoslavia (Kraljevska mornarica Jugoslavije, KMJ) shortly after she was completed at Nantes in 1939. Note her “B” hull identifier.
Lightning-fast at 39 knots during her trials, she was captured 85 years ago this week and went on to serve under two other flags until the final days of WWII.
The KMJ’s tin can needs
Emerging from the wreckage of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire, mashed together with the kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro by the Versailles Treaty in 1919, Yugoslavia needed a fleet.
The country inherited eight small 188-foot/250-ton torpedo boats, four Danube River monitors (the ex-Bosna, Enns, Körös, and Bodrog), four small TBs converted to minesweepers, and some scratch-and-dent auxiliaries from the Austrians. The largest ship collected from the smashed empire was the circa 1887 7,000-ton ironclad SMS Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf, which was condemned and sold for scrap within a couple of years.
In 1921, the budding polyglot country bought six surplus 500 ton German minelayers as tugs on the open market and armed them with new Skoda 3.5″/45s then followed that up in 1926 with the elderly German Gazelle-class light cruiser ex-SMS Niobe (2,370 tons) and added six new Skoda 3.4″/55s to that hulk, bringing her into service as the flagship Dalmacija.
Moving to purchase new construction, in 1927-31 the KMJ bought two small (236-foot/975-ton) 6-tubed Armstrong-built coastal submarines (Hrabri and Nebojsa), another two similarly small subs from France (Smeli and Osvetnik), the 250-foot/1,870-ton seaplane tender/minelayer Zmaj from Germany (capable of supporting 10 floatplanes, which the Yugos didn’t seem to have), and five 174-foot/130 ton Maclinska-class minelayers, the latter built by Yarrow’s Adriatic Yard in Kraljevica.
As part of the 1928 naval program, the KMJ moved to order from Yarrow, Scotstoun, what would be their most modern and well-armed surface combatant, the 2,800-ton destroyer leader Dubrovnik.
At 371 feet overall and powered by three oil-fired Yarrow boilers and dual sets of Parsons steaming and Curtis cruising turbines, she had 48,000shp on tap and was designed for 37 knot speeds (made 37.2 on trials).
Crtež razarača Dubrovnik, Yugo destroyer leader
Yarrow had built the experimental one-off destroyer HMS Ambuscade for the RN, delivered in 1927, and it could be argued that Dubrovnik was basically an enlarged take on that design.
Dubrovnik photographed by A.T. Kelly of Glasgow, while fitting out at the shipyard of Yarrow & Co., during the winter of 1931-1932. Courtesy of Mr. C.W. Beilstein. NH 94345
Same as above. NH 94344
Outfitted with four new 5.5″/56 Skoda single mounts— guns capable of firing 87.7-pound HE rounds at up to eight rounds per minute per tube out to 25,600 yards– Dubrovnik was one of the most heavily armed destroyers in the world at the time. In fact, her guns were the largest the KMJ ever had afloat, barring the trio of 12-inch Krupp M1888 L/35 guns on the old Erzherzog Rudolf, which were likely never put into service.
Škoda 140mm guns, Yugoslav destroyer Dubrovnik, May 1932, during a visit to the Netherlands, Den Helder, to install Hazemeyer fire control devices
Going past the 5.5″/56s, she had weight and space for an embarked seaplane, carried several 83mm M.1929 and 40mm/L67 Skoda AAA guns, and two triple 21-inch tubes for French-designed 1923DT torpedoes as well as depth charges and mines.
Dubrovnik was essentially a lead-in for the construction of a very similar new series of large (2,500-ton/377-foot) British destroyers authorized under the 1935 program, the well-liked Tribal class, which also had four gun mounts (for smaller 4.7″/45s), two funnels, and a three-boiler/two-turbine 44,000shp power plant for 36 knots.
The Yugoslavian fleet, circa 1937.
Yugoslav destroyer Dubrovnik in 1934
Delivered in May 1932, it was planned to build two sisters to Dubrovnik, and, since they were destroyer flotilla leaders, a whole class of modern tin cans for them to lead.
Which brings us to our subject of this week’s Warship Wednesday.
Meet Beograd
Named for the Yugoslav capital (Belgrade), the lead ship was ordered to a design from Ateliers et Chantiers after the fast French destroyer L`Adroit, which had entered service in 1929.
French destroyer torpilleur l’Adroit. The speedy French greyhound went 1,380 tons (standard) and ran 351 feet overall and, powered by three three-drum Temple boilers and two turbines for 31,000shp, could make turns for 33 knots.
French destroyer torpilleur l’Adroit. Armed with four 5.1″/40s and two triple torpedo tubes, she was a brawler, and the French would build 14 of her class.
Beograd would run a little shorter than L`Adroit (321 feet overall, 316 at the waterline with two funnels instead of three and less of a clipper bow) and hit the scales at 1,200 tons standard (1,655 full). Powered by three Yarrow boilers on two sets of Curtiss geared steam turbines, she had 44,000shp on tap and made just over 39 knots on trials versus a designed speed of 38.
Schemat niszczyciela Beograd
Armament would be four new model 4.7″/46 Skoda DPs, which could fire 52.9-pound HE shells at 10 rounds per minute to 18,000 yards. Secondary battery would be two twin 40mm Swedish Bofors with Dutch Hazemeyer fire control devices (one of the first mountings of such guns that would go on to become iconic), two 15mm Skoda heavy MGs, and two triple 21-inch torpedo tubes in addition to a stern depth charge rack. As many as 30 mines could be carried as well.
Laid down as Yard No. 585 at Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire in Nantes in 1936, Beograd took to the water on 23 December 1937 and was completed in August 1939, just as Europe was marching to another world war.
Beograd photographed before World War II. Courtesy of Mr. C.W. Beilstein, 1983. NH 94342
Just 300 miles to the north of Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia had just been swallowed up by Germany, Hungary (which occupied Carpathian Ruthenia), and Poland (which occupied and annexed the Zaolzie area), and things were getting tense between Russia, Poland, and Germany. Meanwhile, Italy invaded and swiftly annexed Albania to Yugoslavia’s south in April 1939, sending 22,000 troops across the Adriatic supported by two battleships, six cruisers, and two dozen escorts.
The first of at least two of Beograd’s planned sisters, Zagreb and Ljubljana, were ordered in 1936 from the new Ateliers et Chantiers-founded Jadranska Brodogradilista shipyard in Split, as Yard Nos. 22 and 23, respectively, and were likewise delivered in the summer of 1939.
Yugoslav Beograd-class destroyer Zagreb in the Bay of Kotor
Destroyer Zagreb, 1939
Jadranska brodogradilišta A.D shipyard in 1933, where Zagreb and Ljubljana were constructed between 1936 and 1939. The yard is still around, as Brodosplit, one of the largest Croatian shipyards.
War!
As noted by Dr. Milan Vego in his 1982 Warships International article on the KMJ, in 1940, the force counted 326 officers, 1,646 petty officers, and 1,870 seamen. At that time, just 64 former Great War era Austro-Hungarian officers (1 VADM, 27 CAPT, 27 Senior CDR, 5 CDR) were still on the rolls, while 336 officers were educated in the Yugoslav schools after 1918 (14 CDR, 110 LCDR, 27 ensigns).
The U.S. military attaché in Belgrade then observed that the “discipline and morale of navy personnel was very good. The men are content and like their life.” However, “higher commanders appear somewhat discouraged at the inferior position of the Yugoslav Navy due to totally inadequate appropriations.” In his view, “under such conditions the fleet units kept in service may be said to be in very good condition considering the small amount available for upkeep and training.”
Less than a month after commissioning, as Hitler marched into Poland, Beograd was sent to Britain with a large part of Yugoslavia’s gold reserves (7,344 ingots), which were deposited at the Bank of England for safekeeping.
Keeping their heads down in the event of a surprise attack from Italy, in which they had orders to make to sea to raid the Italian coast and shipping, Beograd and her sister ship Zagreb were deployed to the 1st Torpedo Division in the Bay of Kotor (Cattaro) with Dubrovnik. The third sister, Ljubljana, was undergoing repairs in the Tivat Arsenal after sinking in an accident on 24 January 1940.
It became clear that the Germans and Italians planned to move Yugoslavia into their orbit, especially after Mussolini invaded Greece in October 1940, using Albania as a springboard. When the 27/28 March 1941 coup in Belgrade changed the government’s polarization from semi-German to semi-Allied, the writing was on the wall. By 30 March, it became known that Germany and Italy had started evacuating their citizens living on the Yugoslav coast.
Mobilization orders were passed, and the KMJ’s warships were ordered to keep full bunkers, magazines, and stores, as well as charge the air valves in their torpedoes and depth charges. To keep from being picked off at pier side, they were ordered dispersed, and the crews of the ships camouflaged themselves along the coast; the destroyer Dubrovnik in the Bay of Kotor, the destroyers Beograd and Zagreb near Dobrota.
Royal Yugoslav Navy destroyer Zagreb heavily camouflaged with foliage on April 15, 1941
On the eve of the expected Axis (German, Italian, and Hungarian) invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, the Zagreb and Beograd, along with four 250-ton class torpedo boats and six MTBs, were sent to the port of Sibenik, about 50 miles south of Zadar– an Italian enclave on the Dalmatian coast which had been occupied since the Treaty of Rapallo in 1920– in preparation for an attack on the Italians, to be joined by a reinforced Yugo army division from landward.
While the assault on Zadar kicked off three days into the war on 9 April, it faltered, and Beograd suffered damage from Italian aircraft off Sibenik, which knocked out her starboard engine. Sailing back to the Bay of Kotor for repairs, Beograd and the rest of the Zadar assault flotilla set up a triangular kill box for attacking Italian aircraft, firing on successive waves over the next few days while the KMJ high command dithered over what to do.
Eventually, it was decided to try to evacuate the ships that could still fight to join the Allies in Greece and North Africa, and on the evening of 16 April, the submarine Nebojsa set out for Alexandria, followed the next day by the torpedo boats Kajmakcalan and Durmitor— without orders. Word was flashed to the KMJ that the surrender would begin at 0500 on the 17th.
With many of Zagreb’s crew heading ashore during the looming collapse, two of Zagreb’s lieutenants, Milan Spasić and Sergej Mašera, scuttled the destroyer, sacrificing their lives in the process on the afternoon of 17 April.
Spasic and Masera were posthumously decorated by exiled Yugoslav King Peter II with the Order of the Karađorđe Star with Swords in 1942, then awarded the Order of the People’s Hero by Tito in 1973. Zagreb never sailed again.
With Beograd hamstrung by her damaged engines, her crew disembarked in lifeboats and landed ashore at Kotor. She was captured there by rapidly advancing Italian forces just after Zagreb settled.
The destroyers Dubrovnik (left) and Beograd (right) photographed in the port of Kotor in 1941 after being captured by the Italian army. Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-185-0116-22A
Beograd in Bay of Kotor April 1941
Yugoslav Navy Beograd in Bay of Kotor, April 1941, Dubrovnik in the background
Beograd in Bay of Kotor April 1941 b
Dubrovnik in Bay of Kotor April 1941. Note the tall German Sd.Kfz. 231 armored car in the background.
Other vessels lost during the short war included the river monitor Drava, bombed and sunk by Luftwaffe aircraft off Cib with the loss of 54 of her 67 crew on 12 April, while her fellow monitors Morava, Vardar, and Sava were scuttled by their crews on the same day. The coasters Senj and Triglav were scuttled to prevent capture at the Island of Krk. Meanwhile, the cargo ships Karadjordje and Prestolonasledik Petar were sunk by Italian mines off Sibenik.
Germany’s Balkanfeldzug sideshow had only cost the Axis about 4,500 casualties to conquer Yugoslavia in less than a fortnight, but is generally believed to have forced the delay of Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, by some five precious weeks, which could have made a huge difference in the outcome of the frozen Battle of Moscow that winter, which was a hard-won victory for the Red Army.
Under a different king
Much of the KMJ was put back into enemy service under either Italian or puppet (Croatian) flags over the next couple of years.
Dubrovnik served as the Italian destroyer Premuda from 1941 to 1943.
The destroyer Premuda (ex-Dubrovnik ) in the port of Patras on August 5, 1942.
Ljubljana, sidelined during the war in the shipyard, was completed by her new owner, renamed Lubiana (the Italian translation of her name), and sent to escort convoys to North Africa. She ran aground on 1 April 1943 near Tunisia and was destroyed the next day by an Allied air attack.
Italian destroyer Lubiana, formerly the Beograd-class Yugoslav destroyer Ljubljana, at Pola in January 1943
Destroyer Ljubljana under the Italian flag
Beograd, repaired and up-armed with several Breda Model 35 20mm L/65 AAA guns, was commissioned into the Regia Marina as Sebenico in August 1941.
Italian Navy destroyer Premuda, former Yugoslavian Navy Dubrovnik, crossing into Taranto circa 1942
Sebenico ex Royal Yugoslav Navy Beograd, weighing anchor, autumn 1942. Note her camo scheme and SB identifier.
Beograd/Sebenico’s career in Italian service was much more active than under the KMJ ensign. She was immediately put to work as a convoy escort on routes between Italy and the Aegean Sea and North Africa, completing over 100 runs over a period of two years.
Yugoslav destroyer Dubrovnik (Premuda) and Beograd (Sebenico) listed incorrectly as the former Ljubljanka, USN ONI 202 Flashbook on Italy 1943
Under the Reichskriegsflagge
After the capitulation of Italy in September 1943, several ex-Yugoslav and ex-Italian units were taken over by the Kriegsmarine and designated Torpedoboot Ausland (foreign torpedo-boat). These included TA32 (ex-Premuda, ex-Dubrovnik), TA43 (ex-Sebenico, ex-Beograd), and the TA48 (ex-Italian and Yugoslav T3, ex-Austrian 78 T), which were amalgamated into the hodge-podge 9. Torpedobootsflottille, tasked with escort and minelaying in the still Axis-held northern Adriatic.
In German service, TA43/Sebenico/Beograd landed her torpedo tubes and saw her armament augmented by seven 37mm flak guns in one twin and five single mounts, as well as two single 20mm guns.
Surviving air attacks and both Italian and Yugoslav partisans, TA43 was scuttled by her German crew in Trieste on 1 May 1945, just a week before VE-Day. She narrowly survived Dubrovnik, which had been lightly damaged by British destroyers in March 1945 during the Battle of the Ligurian Sea and was scuttled in Genoa on 25 April.
Varying accounts have Beograd raised and scrapped postwar, generally in the 1947-48 time frame, as Trieste was under UN mandate as a Free Territory before it was split between Italy and Yugoslavia.
Salvage of the destroyer TA32 (ex-Dubrovnik) in Genoa in 1950.
Epilogue
Little remains of our destroyer that I can locate.
As for the treasure that Beograd rushed to London for safekeeping, following the war, the Bank of England restituted 334,654.186 ounces of gold and coins to the National Bank of Yugoslavia between 1948 and 1958.
Models of Zagreb, who had the most heroic ending of her class, dot museums in Zagreb, Belgrade, and Kotor, her story and that of her two defiant lieutenants retold throughout the past 85 years.
Thanks for reading!
Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive
***
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Warship Wednesday 8 April 2026: Front Runner
USN Photo 80-G-08937 via the National Archives.
Above we see the Cramp-built Balao (not Tench) class fleet boat USS Tusk (SS-426), some 80 years ago this week, in April 1946, just after she was commissioned. Note her late WWII style “gunboat” arrangement with two 5″/25s and two 40mm Bofors clustered around her fairwater.
Remember, National Submarine Day is on April 11th, and Tusk, which never fired a torpedo in anger (that we know of), nonetheless has one of the most epic careers in naval history
The Balao Class
A member of the 180+-ship Balao class, she was one of the most mature U.S. Navy diesel designs of the World War Two era, constructed with knowledge gained from the earlier Gato class. Unlike those of many navies of the day, U.S. subs were “fleet” boats, capable of unsupported operations in deep water far from home.
The Balao class was designed to dive deeper (400 ft. test depth) than the Gato class (300 ft.) due to the use of high-yield-strength steel in the pressure hull.
Able to range 11,000 nautical miles on their reliable diesel engines, they could undertake 75-day patrols that could span the immensity of the Pacific. Carrying 24 (often unreliable) Mk14 Torpedoes, these subs often sank anything short of a 5,000-ton Maru or warship by surfacing and using their deck guns. They also served as the firetrucks of the fleet, rescuing downed naval aviators from right under the noses of Japanese warships.
Some 311 feet long overall, they were all-welded construction to facilitate rapid building. Best yet, they could be made for the bargain price of about $7 million in 1944 dollars (just $100 million when adjusted for today’s inflation) and completed from keel laying to commissioning in about nine months.
USS Roncador (Balao) class plans
USS Roncador (Balao) class plans
An amazing 121 Balaos were completed through five yards at the same time, with the following pennant numbers completed by each:
Cramp: SS-292, 293, 295-303, 425, 426 (12 boats)
Electric Boat: 308-313, 315, 317-331, 332-352 (42)
Manitowoc on the Great Lakes: 362-368, 370, 372-378 (15)
Mare Island on the West Coast: 304, 305, 307, 411-416 (9)
Portsmouth Navy Yard: 285-288, 291, 381-410, 417-424 (43)
Our subject is the only U.S. warship named for the cusk or tusk, a large edible saltwater fish related to the cod. The 14th and last submarine to be built by the Cramp Shipbuilding Company of Philadelphia, she was laid down as the future SS-426 on 23 August 1943, and launched into the Delaware River on 8 July 1945; sponsored by Mrs. Carolyn Park Mills, wife of RADM Earle Watkins Mills (USNA 1917) who was soon to take over the Maritime Commission from the retiring VADM Emory S. Land.
Mrs. Mills christens the future Tusk, 8 July 1945. Temple University Libraries, Special Collections Research Center, George D. McDowell Philadelphia Evening Bulletin Collection, SCRC 170
Launch of Tusk, 8 July 1945. The sign on her bow says she was paid for via War Bond Purchases made by the people of Philadelphia. There were eight war loan drives from 1942 to 1945. By the end of the war, 85 million Americans had purchased 185.7 billion dollars of bonds. Temple University Libraries, Special Collections Research Center, George D. McDowell Philadelphia Evening Bulletin Collection, SCRC 170
With the end of the war, construction slowed, and Tusk was only commissioned on 11 April 1946.
Tusk had a late war “gunboat” style arraignment, including two 5″/25s and two Bofors guns, along with points for detachable 50 cals
Her first skipper was CDR Raymond A. Moore, USN, who seems to just be a placeholder as he was replaced within a fortnight by CDR Marshall Harlan Austin (USNA 1935), who had commanded the Gato-class fleet boat USS Redfin (SS-272) on her 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th War Patrols, sinking a Japanese destroyer and four merchantmen to earn a Navy Cross.
These images were taken the day before her commissioning:
(Cold) War!
Under Austin, Tusk completed her shakedown cruise in the South Atlantic, visiting ports in Brazil, Curacao, and Panama from June to July 1946. She returned to New London in August and the week before Thanksgiving 1946, President Harry S. Truman, ADM William D. Leahy, and Annapolis Commandant, VADM Aubrey W. Fitch, toured Tusk while she was tied up at the Naval Academy.
Photograph of President Truman and Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy inspecting the USS Tusk, a submarine, during the President’s visit to the U.S. Naval Academy. Note the well-turned-out MM1 watch stander’s dolphins and hash mark on the sleeves of his cracker jacks. National Archives Identifier: 198606
Photograph of President Truman aboard a submarine, the USS Tusk, during his visit to the U.S. Naval Academy: (left to right) the President; Vice Admiral Aubrey Fitch, Superintendent of the Naval Academy; Fleet Admiral William Leahy, Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief; and General Harry Vaughan, Military Aide to the President. NARA 198648
Truman waves from Tusk’s conning tower. NARA 198649
The next year saw Tusk participate in a series of exercises and a minor collision with the hospital ship USS Consolation (AH-15).
Repaired in Philadelphia, she then conducted oceanographic work along the Atlantic shelf with Columbia University and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
She ended 1947 at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard for a Greater Underwater Propulsion Power Program (GUPPY) II conversion, one of 24 Balao and Tench-class subs that received the SCB 47 rebuild.
During the subsequent seven months, Tusk underwent significant modifications to enhance her submerged performance. Four high-capacity 126-cell batteries replaced her original batteries, which had half as many cells, bedded into larger wells. The hull was streamlined by adding a rounded bow, recessing anchors, capstans, deck rail stanchions, and cleats; and eliminating propeller guards, improving hydrodynamic efficiency.
Topside, her deck guns were removed and sail enlarged and refined to accommodate three new masts (snorkel induction, snorkel exhaust and ESM), the snork enabling diesel-powered operation at periscope depth and battery recharging while submerged. The periscope and radar mast were enclosed. A BQR-2 sonar was fitted with hydrophones under the forefoot and its electronics housed in the forward torpedo room. Likewise, her Elliot Motor Co. high-speed drive electric motors with reduction gear were swapped out for low-speed direct drive motors of 2,500 hp per shaft, up from 1,370.
Her step-side Portsmouth Sail had a thinner top than those fitted to other GUPPYs by EB, with a curved trailing edge, square windows, and a sharper lower forward edge. They also had a fitting for the sub’s SV radar screen.
These upgrades transitioned Tusk from a submersible to an actual submarine and, while her surface speed was cut by about two knots, her submerged speed rose from 10 knots to about 15 knots.
After her G.II conversion in early 1948, she emerged looking very different from her original 1946 configuration, and, amid the Berlin Crisis, conducted a simulated war patrol to the Canal Zone in June and July as part of her post-modernization shakedown.
Her skipper during the cruise was CDR Guy F. Guggliotta, USN, another wartime sub driver who had commanded USS S-28 (SS 133), Halibut (SS 232) on her 10th War Patrol, and Raton (SS 270) on her 8th War Patrol, earning a pair of Silver Stars in the process.
Tusk, post GUPPY II conversion with her step side Portsmouth sail, seen off the New London Harbor Lighthouse.
Tusk seen between 1948 and 1962 post GUPPY II conversion with her step side Portsmouth sail, NH 67826
Cochino’s Last Dive
Attached to Submarine Development Group 2 out of Newport for the first six months of 1949, she sortied to the North Atlantic that July with SubRon 8 for a series of multinational NATO exercises that saw her visit Londonderry and Portsmouth in the British Isles.
At this point, Tusk was on her fourth skipper, WWII sub captain CDR Robert Kemble Rittenhouse Worthington, USN, who had earned a Navy Cross during Balao’s 8th, 9th, and 10th Patrols after sinking over a half-dozen small vessels, adding to a Silver Star he earned as a junior officer on four patrols aboard USS Silversides.
As noted of Cochino by DANFS, “huge waves slammed the submarines’ snorkel so violently, and jolted the boat so severely, that the pounding caused an electrical fire and battery explosion, followed by the release of deadly hydrogen [chlorine] gas,” forcing the stricken sub’s crew to evacuate the surfaced boat in terrible weather, and hunker down on her deck.
The last known photograph of USS Cochino (SS 345) was taken in July 1949. She now lies in deep water north of Norway near 71.35N. 23.35E, sunk stern first on 0146 on 26 August 1949 with no personnel aboard.
Receiving the underwater sonar signal from Cochino “Casualty surfacing,” Tusk worked over the next 14 hours on the rough seas to save first Cochino herself, then, after a second battery explosion made that impossible, to rescue Cochino’s 77 embarked souls via a prow rigged between the two boats on the open sea. Tragically, Tusk wound up trading 11 of her own crew and an embarked Philco techrep (Mr. Robert Wellington) to Poseidon in the deal, with only six later recovered from the sea alive.
A depiction of the USS Cochino battery fire that led to the sinking of the submarine in 1949, and cross-decking to Tusk, by Stanley Borack.
Greater detail from Tusk’s deck log:
Tusk, packed with nearly 150 personnel, many of them injured and suffering from exposure, she made for Hammerfest Harbor, Norway, and tied up at 0845 on the 26th to immediately receive a Norwegian medical team aboard.
Besides an officer (LCDR Richard M. Wright) sent to a Norwegian hospital in Tromso and four men flown home to Westover AFB for transfer to the Navy hospital at Chelsea, Massachusetts, the remaining 72 Cochino survivors crammed aboard Tusk once again two days later tor the return trip back across the Atlantic, arriving at New London on 9 September for a home town welcome.
Truly an epic sea story.
The 1950 Silent Service installment “The Last Dive” (Season 1, Episode 22) covered Cochino and Tusk’s final 14 hours together. A young Walter Matthau, DeForest Kelley, and Leslie Nielsen portrayed Cochino crewmembers, with LCDR Wright appearing at the end of the show, having completed 14 months of medical rehab.
Continued Cold War service
Tusk was assigned to the Submarine School at New London, then Submarine Development Group 2, interspersed with regular Atlantic Fleet exercises.
One of her declassified Dev Group tests now in the public archives is one for the Naval Research Laboratory in 1957, which involved the use of a light pulse transmitter to communicate with aircraft while submerged at depths of 90 feet.
In November 1949, during maneuvers 175nm off the Labrador coast in 40-foot seas, Tusk struck her periscope on the screw of a Navy supply ship USS Aldebaran (AF-10), picking up minor damage but suffering no casualties.
In late 1952, Tusk was assigned to SubRon 10 for a six-month Med cruise with the 6th Fleet, visiting Malta, Gibraltar, Cannes, Piraeus, Izmir, and French Oran.
USS Tusk (SS 426) post GUPPY II conversion 1 August 1952 USN 477116
Tusk would make four further European cruises over the next two decades. Notably, this would include a visit to Fiumicino during the 1960 Rome Olympics, calling in Portugal to mark the 500th anniversary of Prince Henry the Navigator, and a 1967 cruise where she would visit Bremerhaven, Aarhus, and Göteborg.
USS Tusk sailing into Malta on one of her Med deployments, pre 1965
Jane’s 1960 entry for the Tench class, with both the Cramp-built GUPPY’d Tusk and Trumpetfish listed incorrectly as members. At the time, the Navy was also operating at least 80 Balaos, including NRF ships and those in mothballs.
Tusk also pulled three shorter Operation Springboard readiness deployments to the Caribbean, a region of growing importance post-Castro. As you can imagine, annual Springboard exercises involved high-profile mock ASW, amphibious landings, and fleet maneuvers around Puerto Rico. It was a common gathering for GUPPYs in the 60s and 70s.
Balao-class Springboard GUPPYs with North Atlantic sails: USS Bang (SS-385) preparing to tie up alongside USS Chivo (SS-341) at San Juan Naval Station, Puerto Rico, during Operation Springboard. Of note, the lowest point on the keel to the IFF antenna atop the lowered snorkel was 49 feet 8.25 inches, while the height to the top of the whip antenna is 78 feet from the keel. You weren’t going to submerge one of these bad boys in 10 fathoms! Bang’s skipper, CDR R.J. Carlin, is giving orders from atop her sail. The bow of a Canadian Ojibwa (Oberon) class SSK is visible in the lower left, and a U.S. Coast Guard HU-16 Albatross amphibian is flying low in the center background. Photograph by PHC CJ Wiitala, USN, released 14 March 1968 by Tenth Naval District Public Affairs Office. NH 98697
Further, Tusk was involved in at least two extensive polar ice operations, including with USS Tench (SS-417) on ICEX ’60 and SUBICEX 1-62 with Skate (SS-578) and Entemador (SS-340).
USS Tusk, USS Entemedor, and USS Skate dusted with snow, 1962, during SUBICEX
Tusk on ICEX March 1960 with Tench
Entering Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in July 1965, Tusk was given a six-month major overhaul that including removing all her engines, motors, and generators for rebuild, receiving a new periscope with a built in electronic sextant for taking star shots while still submerged, and picking up the tall streamlined fiberglass/plastic clamshell “North Atlantic” style fairweather typically seen on most American GUPPYs after the mid-60s.
The new sail allowed extra room for the growing number of masts and aerials, a higher observation platform for lookouts, and a more habitable position for watch standers while on the surface. Tusk also received the new Prairie Masker bubbler system, increased air-conditioning capacity, additional storerooms, and additional fresh water tanks as part of the modifications.
Balao class GUPPY II sister USS Catfish post refit 1960s North Atlantic sail. Tusk had the same layout.
Balao class GUPPY II sister USS Catfish post refit 1960s North Atlantic sail. Tusk had the same layout.
Rejoining the fleet in January 1966, Tusk was transferred to SubRon 8.
Submarine Squadron Eight at New London, 1968, with a wild mix of eight Cold War fleet boat conversions. Left to right: USS Sea Robin (SS-407)(GUPPY IA with Portsmouth style step sail); Tusk (SS-426)(GUPPY II w North Atlantic sail); Sea Owl (SS-405)(Fleet Snorkel w EB style step sail and large Project Kayo BQR-4A horseshoe passive sonar array); Sablefish (SS-303)(Fleet Snorkel w North Atlantic sail); Halfbeak (SS-352)(GUPPY II w North Atlantic sail); Blenny (SS-324)(GUPPY IA w North Atlantic sail) and Becuna (SS-319)(GUPPY IA w Portsmouth step-sail). The eighth unidentified submarine on the left has PUFFS passive underwater fire control arrays for the BQG-4 system. NH 88415
Tusk (SS-426) at New London, Connecticut, June 1, 1968, as part of SubRon 8. USS Becuna (SS 319) is across the pier. Sailors on deck, civilians observe from the pier. Courtesy of D.M. McPherson, NH 86627
By 1969, Tusk had been transferred to SubRon 2 but was still based out of her traditional New London home. She was known as The Front Runner, so dubbed “due to its reputation for excellence and high-performance.”
This was supported by her being awarded the Fire Control “E” for several consecutive years and the Battle Efficiency “E” for fiscal year 1973.
Tusk underway in Hampton Roads, Virginia, 11 February 1970, as part of SubRon 2. NHHC K-81809
USS Tusk 1972 Provided by Tom Robinson QM2 (SS)
While on her fifth European deployment on 12 August 1972, while off the coast of Spain, the well-traveled Tusk made her 10,000th dive and surface, a benchmark few submarines have reached. Of note, Tusk’s Balao-class sister USS Spikefish (SS-404) had set the 10,000 record first in 1960 and earned the title of “The divingest Submarine in the World,” which was later claimed by another Balao, USS Piper (SS-409), who logged 13,724 before her decommissioning.
Speaking of decommissioning…
Under the Cog
In 1960, the ROC (Taiwan) Navy embarked on the Sea Shark Project, designed to create a submarine force.
This morphed into the Wuchang Project and, in October 1964, after months of wrangling, Capt Wang Xiling, the ROC naval attaché stationed in Rome, overcame diplomatic difficulties and ordered two 58-foot SX-404 class midget-submarines with a displacement of only 40 tons from the Italian commercial shipyard Cos.Mo.S. SpA, Livorno. Two CosMoS CE2F/X100 human torpedo chariot-style frogman SDVs were acquired as well.
ROCN 58-foot SX-404 class midget submarine Haijiao (Sea Dragon) (S-1) between 1968 and 1973
To avoid complications, the components were shipped from Europe to Tamsui and then assembled in Taiwan by CoS.MoS personnel. The two SX-404 boats were commissioned on 8 October 1969 as Haijiao (Sea Dragon) (S-1) and Hailong (Sea Dragon I) (S-2), and were immediately put to work as training vessels of the Wuchang Submarine Squadron for the nascent ROCN sub force. The CNO of the fleet, ADM Feng Qicong, personally handed out the country’s first dolphin badges that day to the program’s members.
By late 1970, and with two years of midget sub operations under the ROCN’s belt, Capt Wang Xiling, then moved to the embassy in Washington, persuaded the U.S. to sell two submarines to Taiwan as training vessels, citing the need to enhance the navy’s anti-submarine warfare capabilities. In other words, “tame mice” for the ROCN’s two dozen destroyers and frigates to play with.
On 21 April 1971, the U.S. confirmed the planned handover of two surplus GUPPY IIs, initially designated “Project Poseidon” by the Navy, and renamed “Project Mercury” in December. In March, 1972, the first batch of ROCN personnel receiving the Project Mercury submarines arrived at the U.S. Naval Submarine School in New London for training.
Tusk’s sister, USS Cutlass (SS 478), was transferred to the ROCN as ROCS Hai Shih (Sea Lion) (SS 91) on 12 April 1973, her hull number later changed to S-791
By May 1973, with Tusk just returned from a three-month Caribbean training cruise that saw her call at Guantanamo Bay, Ocho Rios, Port au Prince, and Montego Bay, she welcomed aboard 81 officers and men from the Republic of China to commence training for turnover.
In anticipation of the new (to them) vessels, Taiwan laid up its SX-404s and redesignated the Wuchang Submarine Squadron as the Republic of China Navy’s 256th Squadron (Submarine) in August 1973.
On 18 October 1973, Tusk was decommissioned at New London and was simultaneously transferred, by nominal sale, to the Taiwan Navy. Her name was struck from the Navy list on the same day.
She became ROCS Hai Pao (Seal) (SS 92) in the same ceremony, with LCDR David H. Boyd, USN, turning over the boat to CDR Cheng Kuo-Yu, ROCN. Kuo-Yu had served in the Wuchang Squadron since 1969 and had spent seven months in Sub School in New London before beginning training on Tusk/Hai Pao.
Jane’s 1975 entry on the Cutlass/Hai Shih and Tusk/Hai Pao. They have since changed their hull numbers to S-791 and S-792
Amazingly, both of Taiwan’s GUPPYs, for decades the last remaining Balaos in service, are still in operation with the 256th Squadron, training ROCN submariners for the current front-line subs, the Dutch Zwaardvis-class ROCS Hai Lung (Sea Dragon) and ROCS Hai Hu (Sea Tiger), which were delivered in 1988.
Nonetheless, they are still officially combat-ready and undergo regular dry docking, inspection, overhaul, and sea periods.
ex USS Tusk, now ROCS 海豹(seal), SS792 circa 2005
ex USS Tusk, now ROCS 海豹(seal), SS792 internals
ex USS Tusk, now ROCS 海豹(seal), SS792 Zuoying Naval Base Oct 2017 Tuo Chiang-class corvette
ex USS Tusk, now ROCS 海豹(seal), SS792 circa 2014
ex USS Tusk, now ROCS 海豹(seal), SS792 circa 2014
ex USS Tusk, now ROCS 海豹(seal), SS792 sail
ex USS Tusk, now ROCS 海豹(seal), SS792 circa 2014 Keelung
ex USS Tusk, now ROCS 海豹(seal), SS792 circa 2014 Keelung
ex USS Tusk, now ROCS 海豹(seal), SS792 circa 2014 Keelung
ex USS Tusk, now ROCS 海豹(seal), SS792 control room
ROC President Tsai Ing-wen attended the “2017 Naval Goodwill Flotilla Launch Ceremony and Submarine Indigenous Construction Design Initiation and Cooperation Memorandum Signing Ceremony,” emphasizing that submarine indigenous construction is the most challenging aspect of the national defense autonomy policy and a responsibility of the Commander-in-Chief to the nation. The ROC Navy’s Tusk/Hai Pao (SS-792) is moored to Tsai Ing-wen’s left fore-south.
When the first two domestically built Haikun (Seagull)-class SSKs arrive in service in 2026 and 2027 (?), Cutlass/Hai Shih and Tusk/Hai Pao are expected to be retired with the 40-year-old Dutch boats rotating to fill the roles of the old GUPPYs.
The President of Taiwan presides over the naming and launching ceremony of the prototype submarine built domestically, the future ROCS Haikun (SS-711), on September 28, 2023.
Epilogue
Tusk’slogs and plans are in the National Archives.
There is at least one blog and one crewmember reunion group (who last met in 2017) to cherish Tusk’s memory and those who served on her.
Her U.S. service is remembered in Cold War classic maritime art.
“Cat and Mouse” by Wayne Scarpaci shows the GUPPY II USS Tusk (SS-426) with a Lockheed (P2V) Neptune flying overhead in ASW training.
Her skipper during the Cochino rescue, CDR Worthington (USNA ’38), had been on subs that earned a dozen battle stars and sunk 100,000 tons of shipping during WWII, earning him a Navy Cross, Silver Star, and three Bronze Stars. He didn’t need more medals. He retired from the fleet as a Captain on the staff of the Twelfth Naval District in San Diego in 1962, capping a very busy 24 years of active service. Worthington received an M.S. in Physics and Electronics from UCLA and worked for Lockheed Corporation on the design and construction of the pioneering submersible Deep Quest,which achieved a depth of 8,000 feet during a test dive. Leaving Lockheed in 1975, Worthington returned to the sea, sailing as master on several ocean vessels in Caribbean and Alaskan waters. He passed away in 1996, in San Diego, leaving a wife and two children behind. His papers are in the U.S. Naval War College Archives, of which he was an alumnus.
Thanks for reading!
Meminisse est ad Vivificandum – To Remember is to Keep Alive
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The U.S. Embassy in Panama recognized the importance of the recent visit of the USS Nimitz (CVN 68) to Panama City on the country’s West (Pacific) coast as the supercarrier sails to her new homeport in Norfolk from Bremerton. She also hosted representatives from Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador for flight ops in the process as part of the 4th Fleet’s Southern Seas 2026.
Panamanian distinguished visitors and U.S. Embassy Panama personnel pose for a photo during flight operations on the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) in the Pacific Ocean, March 28, 2026. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jaron Wills)
Note, there are over 25,000 American citizens living in Panama, and something like 300,000 former Canal Zone expats and their descendants.
Armed Forces of El Salvadoran and civilian distinguished visitors observe flight operations on the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) in the Pacific Ocean, March 27, 2026. Nimitz is deployed as part of Southern Seas 2026, which seeks to enhance capability, improve interoperability, and strengthen maritime partnerships with countries throughout the region through joint, multinational, and interagency exchanges and cooperation. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd
Mexican military and civilian distinguished visitors observe flight operations on the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) in the Pacific Ocean, March 23, 2026. Nimitz is deployed as part of Southern Seas 2026, which seeks to enhance capability, improve interoperability, and strengthen maritime partnerships with countries throughout the region through joint, multinational, and interagency exchanges and cooperation. (U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jaron W
An F/A-18E Super Hornet, attached to the “Kestrels” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 137, launches from the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) during flight operations in the Pacific Ocean, March 19, 2026. Nimitz is underway in the U.S. 3rd Fleet area of operations as part of a scheduled homeport shift to Norfolk, Virginia. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Timothy Meyer)
Nimitz is accompanied by her escort, USS Gridley (DDG-101).
Of course, Nimitz can’t pass through the Canal as she is both too tall (252 feet to the top of the mast) to sail under the Bridge of the Americas which has a 200 foot clearance at high tide, and is too wide (252-foot beam across deck) to fit into even the new 1,400-foot-long Neopanamax locks, opened in 2016, which are only 180 feet wide.
The Embassy said it was the first visit by a U.S. carrier to Panama in “over 50 years.”
The Canal, which opened in 1914, was first transited by an American carrier in January 1924, when USS Langley transitioned from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Langley in Gaillard Cut, Panama Canal, Nov 16, 1924 185-G-0947 National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) photo. NARA Identifier: 100996474; Local Identifier: 185-G-947; Agency-Assigned Identifier: 80-C139; Container ID: Box 5, Volume 10. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/100996474
Throughout the rest of the 1920s and 30s, it was common to see Lexington and Saratoga pass through the Canal, swapping from Atlantic to Pacific war games and exercises.
Palm trees form a picturesque setting for USS Saratoga (CV 3) in Pedro Miquel Locks, Panama Canal, Canal Zone, 21 January 1935.
Then came Ranger, Yorktown, Enterprise, and the gang. Of note, Ranger made the passage at least four times in her career.
USS Ranger, in the Panama Canal, late 1930s.
Some 15 of the 24 completed Essex-class carriers were completed on the East Coast and, when rushed west to the Pacific, did so via the “Ditch” to save time and fuel, with many later making their way back through the Canal post VJ Day for mothballs or continued service.
USS Yorktown (CV-10) transiting the Panama Canal, bound for the Pacific combat zone, circa 11 July 1943. Note Grumman TBF-1 and Douglas SBD-5 aircraft on deck. SBDs carry markings of VB-4. Also note camouflage screens alongside the canal lock. Photographed by Lieutenant Charles Kerlee, USNR. 80-G-K-15334
While CVEs and CVLs were soon disposed of in all but auxiliary service and the new Midway class CVBs (and every American flattop class after) were too big to transit the man-made wonder, the Canal remained on the menu when redeploying the dwindling Essexes for Korea and Vietnam. Valley Forge did so at least five times, with the last being in 1962.
USS Philippine Sea (CV-47) transits Gatun Locks during her transit of the Panama Canal on 31 May 1950. Note crew on deck, and ship utility unit North American SNJ-type aircraft. 80-G-439853
USS Valley Forge (CVA-45) approaches the Pedro Miguel Lock while transiting the Panama Canal, circa 18 August 1953. Her deckload includes several TBM, F4U, and F2H aircraft and many automobiles. The photograph was released for publication on 16 September 1953. NH 96943
USS Valley Forge (CV-45/LPH-8) passing through the Panama Canal, north to south, en route to San Diego, CA., January 1962
However, it should be noted that some East Coast-based CV9s were sent to Vietnam via the Suez (such as Intrepid in 1967) to both boost American presence in the Med and Middle East, even briefly, and because it was a slightly shorter trip (10,350 from Norfolk to Singapore via Suez, versus 10,900 Norfolk to Singapore via Panama and Pearl). Another outlier, USS Shangri-La, made an epic circumnavigation the long way via Cape Town, going East and Cape Horn going West on her 1970-71 Vietnam deployment.
While I cannot pinpoint the final Canal transit by an American carrier, it can be a safe bet that Lexington, which operated from Pensacola, may have called at Panama sometime between the Cuban Missile Crisis and her decommissioning in 1991.
The “more than 50 years” quote would dial it back to circa 1976 and before. I just wish I could say which flattop that was…
Some 80 years ago this week. Off Istanbul, Turkey, on 5 April 1946.
Here we see the famed Iowa-class fast battleship USS Missouri (BB 63) moored in the Bosporus. She had just brought home for burial the body of the late Turkish Ambassador to the U.S., Mehmet Munir Ertegun. This visit was also aimed at influencing Russian Middle East policy. The Gearing-class destroyer USS Power (DD-839) is at left.
Note that Missouri is wearing a more peacetime solid-blue hull (Measure 22) over her wartime Measure 32/22d camouflage, which she wore through the end of WWII, just seven months prior. National Archives. Catalog #: 80-G-702557
At right is the infamous Turkish Moltke-class battle cruiser Yavuz Sultan Selim (ex-SMS Goeben), some 36 years old at the time.
When Missouri, the light cruiser Providence (CL-82), and Power had entered the straits on 5 April, Missouri and Yavuz exchanged 19-gun salutes, two great bookends in battlewagon history.
A better look at Missouri on this cruise. Note the Curtiss SC-1 Seahawk floatplane on her catapult. Official caption: “Mediterranean Cruise 1946 of USS Missouri (BB 63). USS Missouri (BB 63) anchored in the harbor of Piraeus, Greece.” 80-GK-9343
Off Istanbul, Turkey, 5-9 April 1946. Missouri center. She had brought the body of the Late Turkish Ambassador to the United States, Mehmet Munir Ertegun, home for burial, on a mission that was also made to influence Soviet Middle East policy. USS Power (DD-839) is at left, and the Turkish Battlecruiser Yavuz (formerly the German Goeben) is at right. The Dolmabahce Mosque is in the foreground. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-366179
The camouflaged Yavuz (Turkish Battlecruiser, 1911, formerly the German Goeben). Off Istanbul, Turkey, in April 1946, during USS Missouri’s visit there. Photographed by Lieutenant Commander Dewey Wrigley. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-376888
Still somewhat capable of at least scratching the paint of a Soviet battleship or providing NGFS against land forces trying to close the strait, when Turkey joined NATO in 1952, Yavuz picked up a B-series hull number (B70) before she was decommissioned in 1954 after 42 years of service (40 of those to the Turks). Even while laid up, she continued to be used as a stationary headquarters for the Battle Fleet until 1960.
Offered as a museum ship to West Germany, and unable to preserve the historic 25,000-ton vessel themselves, Goeben/Yavuz was instead sold by the Turks for scrap to M.K.E. Seyman in 1971, although several relics were preserved.
Check out this great original color clip of the old girl in 1973 as she was preparing for tow to the breakers:
