Category Archives: warship wednesday

Former USS/USCGC Mohawk Sunk July 2nd…

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You may remember Mohawk from a Warship Wednesday column

After two years in the builders yards being born, then 13 years in the US Coast Guard and Navy including hard service in World War Two, 30 years as a pilot boat for the Delaware Bay and River Pilots’ Association, 22 years lying idle as a forgotten  ship, and 11 years as a restored Museum Ship in Florida, the 165-foot long Patrol Gunboat was sent to the deep in just under 3-minutes by a controlled explosion. She was 79 years old and has found her final resting place.

While the boat largely had been stripped, items such as an 18th century rum bottle with a treasure map inside, as well as a case of aged Caribbean rum, were left on board as bounty for the first divers.

Warship Weds July 4

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steampunk navies of the 1866-1938 time period and will profile a different ship each week.

– Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday,  July 4

Here we have the Patoka. This funny looking (the one in the water) ship was laid down about six weeks after the end of WWI as an oiler  at Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock, Co., Newport News, VA. Commissioned as Fleet Oiler No. 9, 13 October 1919, she soon became a balloon tender and was the service’s only one for tw decades.  Patoka was modified as a tender for the Navy’s rigid airships, receiving a distinctive mooring mast on her stern and facilities for handling seaplanes. She was subsequently used as an operational and experimental base by three of the Navy’s great dirigibles, USS Shenandoah (ZR-1) in 1924-1925, USS Los Angeles (ZR-3) in 1925-1932, and USS Akron (ZRS-4) in 1932.

Decommissioned, 31 August 1933 after the loss of her airships, she spent six years without a mission. Redesignated Seaplane Tender (AV-6), and commanded by CDR. Clifton Sprague (later Rear Admiral of Taffy-3 Fame) in 1939. She spend most of the war as a oiler, mine craft tender and was reclassified Miscellaneous Auxiliary (AG-125), 15 August 1944. Decommissioned, 1 July 1946 she was sold for scrapping, 15 March 1948 by the Maritime Commission to Dulien Steel Products, Co.

Note how big the Zepplins were…..Patoka herself is over 400-feet long…

Specifications:
Displacement 5,400 t.(lt) 16,800 t.(fl), 17,820 t.(lim)
Length 447′ 10″
Beam 60′ 3″
Draft 27′ 8″(lim)
Speed 11.2 kts.
Complement
Officers 29
Enlisted 272
Largest boom capacity 40 t.
Cargo Capacity
Navy Standard Fuel Oil 62,300 bbls
Gasoline 309,000 gals
Armament
two single 5″/38 dual purpose gun mounts
four twin 40mm AA gun mounts
four twin 20mm AA gun mounts
Fuel oil capacity 4,780 bbls.
Ships’ service generators
four turbo-drive, 60kW 120V D.C., 1 75kW 120V D.C.,
two diesel-drive, 100kW 450V D.C.
Propulsion
one Newport News vertical quadruple expansion engine
two Yarrow boilers, 265psi Sat°
single screw, 2,800 shp.

Warship Wednesday, June 27

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steampunk navies of the 1866-1938 time period and will profile a different ship each week.

– Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday,  June 27

Here we have the Sardegna (Sardinia) was a Re Umberto-class pre-dreadnought battleship built for the Italian Navy in the 1880s. She came from the ways at La Spezia and was completed after more than 11 years under construction.

Sardegna was 411 feet 9 inches (125.5 m) between perpendiculars and 428 feet 10.5 inches (130.7 m) long overall. She had a beam of 76 feet 10.5 inches (23.4 m) and a draft of 29 feet (8.8 m). Normally she displaced 13,641 long tons (13,860 t) and displaced 15,426 long tons (15,674 t) at full load. She was built with a ram bow.

Sardegna was the first Italian warship fitted with two three-cylinder vertical triple expansion steam engines with a total designed output of 22,800 indicated horsepower (17,002 kW). Eighteen cylindrical boilers provided steam to the engines. On trials, the ship had a top speed of 20.3 knots (37.6 km/h; 23.4 mph). She carried enough coal to give her a range of 4,000–6,000 nautical miles (7,408–11,112 km) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). She had three funnels, but, unusually, the two forward funnels were side-by-side.

Sardegna’s main armament consisted of two pairs of breech-loading British BL 13.5-inch (343 mm) Mk I–IV 30-caliber guns mounted in twin barbettes fore and aft. These guns had a maximum elevation of 13.5° and could depress to -3°. They fired a 1,250-pound (570 kg) shell at a muzzle velocity of about 2,016 ft/s (614 m/s) to a range of about 11,950 yards (10,930 m) at maximum elevation. They had a rate of fire about 2–3 minutes per round.

The eight 6-inch (152 mm) 40-caliber guns were mounted on pivot mounts on the upper deck. They were protected by gun shields 2 inches (51 mm) thick. The anti-torpedo boat armament consisted of sixteen 4.7-inch (120 mm) 40-caliber guns. Twelve of these were in casemates on the main deck and four were mounted in the fore and aft superstructures, protected by gun shields. Twenty 57-millimeter (2.2 in) six-pounder and ten 37-millimeter (1.5 in) one-pounder guns were mounted in the superstructure. Sardegna carried five 17.7-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes, all above water

Sardegna’s steel armor was made by the French company Schneider et Cie. The side of the hull between the barbettes was completely protected with a maximum thickness of 4 inches (102 mm) of armor. The barbettes were 13.75 inches (349 mm) thick and she was the only ship of her class to receive 4-inch gun shields for her main armament. The conning tower had 11.8 inches (300 mm) walls. The armor deck was 3 inches (76 mm) thick

She served in much colonial service in the Meditteranian and then in World War One before being stricken on 4 January 1923 after nearly thirty years service

Warship Wednesday, June 20

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steampunk navies of the 1866-1938 time period and will profile a different ship each week.

– Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday,  June 20

Here we have the Here we see  the Annapolis-class gunboat USS Vicksburg. The U. S. Navy gunboats Annapolis, Vicksburg, Newport, and Princeton were authorized in 1895. Their functions were to show the flag and keep order in foreign ports, in keeping with the “gunboat diplomacy” policy of the period. They were attractive ships, with fine lines, composite construction (wood planks on steel frames), vertical triple-expansion engines, and three-masted barkentine rigs for economical operation over great distances

Specs (1900)
Displacement:     1,010 long tons (1,030 t)
Length:     204 ft 5 in (62.31 m)
Beam:     36 ft (11 m)
Draft:     12 ft 9 in (3.89 m)
Installed power:     1,118 ihp (834 kW)
Propulsion:     1 × triple expansion steam engine
1 × screw
Speed:     Under Steam: 13 kn (15 mph; 24 km/h)
Under Sail: 6.5 kn (7.5 mph; 12.0 km/h)
Complement:     143
Armament:     6 × 4 in (100 mm) guns
4 × 6-pounder (57 mm (2.24 in)) rapid-fire guns
2 × 1-pounder (37 mm (1.46 in)) rapid fire guns
1 × Colt machine gun

In her time with the Navy, from the date of her acquisition on 27 June 1897 until she was transferred to the US Coast Guard 18 August 1922, a span of just slightly over 25 years, she was decommissioned and recommissioned a total of four times. She spent  a total of just 11 of those 25 years on active service. However the service she did see, was very active indeed.

In the Spanish American War she blockaded the Cuban coast and captured the blockade runners Oriente, Ampala, and Fernandito in addition to exchanging shots with Havana’s shore batteries. She assisted the US Army in the occupation and pacifcation of the Philippines including capturing the Philippine president, Emilio Aguinaldo, at Palanan, Isabela in March 1901. She watched the Russian cruiser Varyag (see Warship Weds June 13) destroyed at Inchon during the Russo-Japanese War. She patrolled the coast of central America and Mexico during the Mexican revolutions and intervened in Nicaragua where she landed marines. During World War One she captured the German schooner and alleged surface raider Alexander Agassiz in the Pacific in 1917.

Plan of the Hamilton 1922. Note the 4-inch and 6-pdrs still aboard. USCG Historians Office plan

She then found herself transferred to the USCG in 1922 for use as a sail training ship at the US Coast Guard Academy (a task that the USCGC Eagle performs to this day.) She carried the name USCGC Alexander Hamilton from 1922 until 1936. After that she was simply reassigned as a station ship with a number and no name. She finished her career as a unmanned and unarmed training platform in Curtis Bay where she trained World War Two coasties how to fix things until December 1944.

The Hamilton at sea, 1978 painting at USCG Museum

She was given back  to the US Navy 12 March 1945 at just over 47-years young who held on to her for a year. On 28 March 1946, the old gunboat was turned over to the War Shipping Administration and her ultimate fate is unknown.

Warship Weds June 13

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steampunk navies of the 1866-1938 time period and will profile a different ship each week.

– Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday,  June 13

Here we have the beautiful Russian cruiser Varyag (Viking.) She was built at William Cramp and Sons of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with her keel was laid in October 1898. She was commisoned January 2, 1901 and sailed immediately for the Russian Far East where she visited many foreign ports and waved her flag proudly for her Tsar.

Specs:
Type:     Protected cruiser
Displacement:     6,500 long tons (6,604 t)
Length:     129.6 m (425 ft 2 in) w/l
Beam:     15.8 m (51 ft 10 in)
Draught:     6.3 m (20 ft 8 in)
Propulsion:     2-shaft Vertical triple expansion steam engines
30 Niclausse water-tube boilers
20,000 ihp (15,000 kW)
Speed:     23 knots (26 mph; 43 km/h)
Complement:     570
Armament:     12 × 1 – 152 mm (6 in) guns
12 × 1 – 75 mm (3.0 in) guns
8 × 1 – 47 mm (1.9 in) guns
2 × 1 – 37 mm (1.5 in) guns
6 × 1 – 381 mm (15.0 in) submerged torpedo tubes

When the Russo-Japanese war erupted she was anchored as shown above in the harbor at Inchon in Chemulpo Bay, Korea (at that time part of the Japanese Empire) her only companion was the small sailing gunboat Korietz.

At the harbor mouth appeared an entire Japanese squadron led by Rear Admiral Uryu Sotokichi who commanded 6 cruisers and 8 torpedo boats, outnumbering and outgunning  the pair of Russian ships by a factor of about 700%.

Instead of surrendering, the Varyag‘s captain Vsevolod Rudnev, built steam and charged at the Japanese ships with all flags flying and the ship’s band playing.

A number of neutral vessels in the bay, including the British cruiser Talbot, the French cruiser Pascal, the Italian cruiser Elba, and the U.S. gunboat USS Vicksburg and collier USS Pompey, watched the action that unfolded.

From the Varyag logbook:

11:10 All hands on deck on Varyag.
11:20 Cruiser goes to open sea, Korietz in 1 cable length (200 meters) behind. English and Italian crews cheer Russians; on the Italian cruiser Elba the Russian anthem is played.
11:25 Battle alarm on “Varyag“. Japanese cruisers Asama, Naniwa, Takachiho, Chiyoda, Akashi and Niitaka in bearing line from Richy island to Northern passage. Japanese torpedo-boats behind cruisers.
11:45 Varyag opens fire with port guns.
11:47 Asama opens fire with 8″ gun; all Japanese squadron then open fire.
One of the first Japanese shells that hit cruiser, destroyed the port wing of front bridge, set fire in chart house and broke the fore shrouds. Junior navigating officer midshipman Count Alexey Nirod was killed, all personnel on range finding station #1 were killed or wounded.
Damaged 10.2″ gun #3, all personnel killed or wounded, battery commander midshipman Gubonin was wounded, but refused to go away until he fall. Fire on bow and quarterdeck (was put out by midshipman Chernilovsky-Sokol). With the same shell, that caused fire was damaged guns: 10.2″ #8 and #9, 75mm #21 47mm #27 and #28. With other hits was nearly destroyed main battle top, destroyed range finding station #2, damaged guns #31 and #32, fire in lockers on accommodation deck (was put out lively).
12:05 After passing traverse of “Yo-dol-mi” island trunk with rudder drive was damaged. At the same time, Captain Rudnev was shell-shocked in head by fragments of another shell, hitting foremast. Staff-bugler and drummer, who stay astride him was deadly killed, helmsman petty officer Snegirev was badly wounded in back, and orderly of captain quartermaster Chibisov was lightly wounded too. Ship from now was steered from steering compartment, but orders were stiffed, so course permanently was corrected with engines. At strong current cruiser steered badly.
12:15 Willing to go out of fire range to repair as possible steering drive and put out fires in different places begin to turn with machines, as cruiser steered badly. Near Yo-dol-mi island engines on full back.
Cruiser was put in disadvantage position relatively to island when steering drive was broken with rudder at 15-20° on port side.
Distance to enemy shortens to 28-30 cable length, fire strengthens, hits increase.
Near the same time large caliber shell hit port side under water, water gushed into huge hole, stokehold #3 begins to full with water, which level raised up to furnaces. Chief Officer and chief boatswain placed patch under the hole, water was pumped all time, its level decreased continuously, but cruiser continue to listing at port side.
With shell passing through officer cabins, which were wrecked, deck was pierced and meal in provision berth was inflamed. Then cot netting at waist under the sick quarters was pierced, wherein fragments get into sick quarters, cots in netting catch fire, which was put out lively. Serious damage forced us to get out of fire range for a more long time, that is why we come to roadstead at full speed, firing with port and bow guns.
Throughout the battle with one shot of 10.2″ gun #XII bow bridge of Asama cruiser was destroyed and put afire, Asama stop fire for some time. bow turret on her was apparently damaged, as it not fired up to the end of battle.
12:40 With cruiser approached the berth and Japanese fire become dangerous for neutral ships on roadstead, two cruiser pursuing us stop the fire and return to the rest of squadron out of Yo-dol-mi island.
12:45 Distance to the Japanese so increased, that our fire become ineffective, so we stop it.

Unable to break past the Japanese squadron by mid-afternoon, Korietz and the badly battered Varyag returned to Chemulpo harbor at 13:15, where both took refuge near the neutral warships. At 16:00, Korietz was scuttled by her crew by blowing up two powder-rooms. Fragments of the blown-up ship landed dangerously close to neutral vessels. Fearing a greater explosion with potential casualties, the captains of the neutral warships present urged Rudnev not to blow up Varyag in a similar manner. At 18:10, scuttled by her crew, Varyag rolled over on her port side and sank. Crewmen from Varyag　were dispatched to the Russian transport Sungari, which had remained behind in the harbor during the battle, and set her on fire to prevent her from falling into Japanese hands.

Varyag as the IJN Soya 1907-1916…

These efforts were for naught and the Japanese raised the ship, renamed her Soya  and dubbed her a 3rd class cruiser. The Soya was used primarily for training duties. From 14 March 1909 to 7 August 1909, it made a long distance navigational and officer cadet training cruise to Hawaii and North America. It repeated this training cruise every year until 1913.

During World War I Russia and Japan became allies and the Soya (along with several other vessels) was transferred back to Russia at Vladivostok on 5 April 1916, and its original name of Varyag restored. While being refit in Great Britain the Russian revolution gripped Russia and the British seized her. In 1920, judging the vessel in poor repair, the British sold her to a German breaking yard. That same year, while under tow in the Firth of Clyde, she ran aground on rocks near the Scottish village of Lendalfoot, and was scrapped there. Her remaining hull finally sank in 1925 and was never recovered.

In November 2010 the government of South Korea turned over a number of captured relics in their possession to the Russian government. The Japanese Navy had in 1904 recovered 14 artifacts from the Varyag, including its flag, artillery rounds, shells, gun and mast, and stored them at a location in Inchon. Now the Inchon Metropolitan Museum, which acquired them after Japan’s defeat at the end of World War II, returned them to Russia under an honor guard of ROK Marines.

Warship Wednesday June 6

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steampunk navies of the 1866-1938 time period and will profile a different ship each week.

– Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday,  June 6

Montauk taking the CSS Nashville/blockade runner Rattlesnake, a 1221-ton side-wheel steamer, was originally a passenger steamer built at Greenpoint, New York, in 1853. She was seized by the Confederacy at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1861 and converted to a lightly-armed cruiser. Nashville made one combat cruise under the Confederate Navy flag, starting in October 1861. She captured and burned the sailing merchantman Harvey Birch in the English Channel on 19 November, and spent some time at Southampton, England. Returning to American waters early in 1862, she captured and burned the schooner Robert Gilfillan on 26 February. Two days later, she ran the blockade into Beaufort, North Carolina, remaining there until mid-March, when she went to Georgetown, South Carolina.
Sold to private interests and renamed Thomas L. Wragg, she operated as a blockade runner, but was hindered in this employment by her deep draft. After arrival near Savannah, Georgia, she was sold again in November 1862, to become a privateer under the name Rattlesnake. On 28 February 1863, while still in the Savannah area, she was destroyed by the monitor USS Montauk.

Here we have the ironclad monitor USS Montauk pasting a rebel blockade runner.

Before 1861, an armored warship was a curiosity. After 1862, they were the only legitimate warship afloat. One of these was the USS Montauk. Built in Brooklyn and commissioned at New York on 14 December 1862, she went right into battle. Within a month she was battling it out with rebel seacoast defense positions at Fort McAllister, Georgia. Although hit 14 times, Montauk was undamaged. The ironclad made a second attack the next day, badly battering the fort; and Montauk was hit 48 times but still capable of fighting. She later sank the blockade runner Rattlesnake, bombarded Fort Sumter, and helped attack Fort Wagner.

Most famously she was at the Washington Naval Yard at the close of the war and Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Boothe was brought for autopsy aboard along with several of the  other captured conspirators.

One of the most surreal pictures ever, of caught Lincoln conspirator Louis Payne aboard USS Montauk, leaning against her turrent.

Her war finished, the ironclad was retained in ordinary commission for more than four decades. She was brought out of retirement at age 36 during the Spanish American War to serve as a coast defense ship when it was thought the Spanish fleet would attack the US east coast. Finally in 1904 she was scrapped.

USS Montauk at age 38 on far left of picture at League Island Navy Yard in Philadelphia, better known at the time as red-lead row, in 1900. The new gleaming white pre-dreadnought battleship USS Iowa is at the far right. Note the shacks and storage sheds on the monitors. In just a few years they would go to the scrappers.

Specifications:
Type:     Ironclad monitor
Displacement:     750 long tons (760 t)
Length:     200 ft (61 m) o/a
Beam:     46 ft (14 m)
Draft:     10 ft 6 in (3.20 m)
Installed power:     320 ihp (240 kW)
Propulsion:     1 × Ericsson vibrating lever engine
2 × Martin boilers
1 × shaft
Speed:     7 kn (8.1 mph; 13 km/h)
Complement:     75 officers and enlisted
Armament:     1 × 15 in (380 mm) smoothbore, 1 × 11 in (280 mm) smoothbore
Armor (all iron plate):

Side: 3–5 in (7.6–13 cm)
Turret: 11 in (28 cm)
Pilothouse: 8 in (20 cm)
Deck: 1 in (2.5 cm)

Can the FBI Understand Intelligence?

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Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the FBI, the world’s leading law enforcement agency, has labored to transform itself into an intelligence organization — while preserving its policing pre-eminence. This challenge has proved difficult.
There are major cultural and structural differences between law enforcement and intelligence. I saw how different when I was a senior CIA officer on loan to the FBI, as the deputy chief of the International Terrorism Operations Section from 1998 to 1999. I retired from government service — but recent conversations with knowledgeable government officials suggest that this remains true today.

The FBI is still measuring success, according to one well-informed confidant, based on arrests and criminal convictions — not on the value of intelligence collected and disseminated to its customers.

When I served as U.S. coordinator for counterterrorism, from 2005 to 2007, I was a voracious consumer of intelligence. Yet I never saw an FBI intelligence report that helped inform U.S. counterterrorism policy. Has there been any improvement?

The sharp contrasts between the FBI and the CIA have hampered their full cooperation. Here are 10 key differences, as noted in my new book, “The Art of Intelligence.” We need to consider which — particularly those relevant to FBI intelligence effectiveness — are still true?

First, the FBI valued oral communications as much as or more than written. The FBI’s special-agent culture emphasized investigations and arrests over writing and analysis. It harbored a reluctance to write anything that could be deemed discoverable by any future defense counsel. It maintained investigative flexibility and less risk if its findings were not written — or at least not formally drafted into a data system. Its agents were not selected or trained to write.
This is also tied to rank and status: Clerks and analysts write, not agents. Agents saw writing as a petty chore, best left to others.
In contrast, most CIA operations officers had to write copiously and quickly. To have the president or other senior policymakers benefit from clandestine written reports — that was the holy grail. CIA officers prized clear, high-impact written content.

The second major difference between the FBI and CIA was their information systems. The FBI did not have one — at least one that functioned. An FBI analyst could not understand a field office’s investigation without going to that office and working with its agents for days or even weeks. With minimal reporting, there was no other choice.
CIA stations, in contrast, write reports on just about everything — because without written reports, there was no intelligence for analysts and other customers to assess. The CIA required high-speed information systems with massive data management, and upgraded systems constantly.

The third difference was… (continued at Politico)

Warship Weds May 30

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steampunk navies of the 1866-1938 time period and will profile a different ship each week.

 

– Christopher Eger

 

Warship Wednesday,  May 30

Here we have the Chiliean battleship Almirante Latorre (Formerly the HMS Canada)

Chile, part of a three-way South American Naval Race just before world war one ordered a pair of Battleships from Britain that went on to lead a life on their own.

The Chilean Battleship Order

Entering late into the South American battleship race was Chile. She ordered two Almirante Latorre-class battleships in 1910 from England. They were the best armed and equipped of any of the “ABC” country’s warships. Weighing in at 32,000 tons with ten 14inch (355mm) guns they could make 22.5 knots. They were more than a match for the Brazilian and Argentine vessels that they were build to compete with. Global events however prevented the pair of ships from being delivered. When World War One broke out in 1914 British shipbuilders halted work on the Chilean ships in order to fill dire domestic needs. The ships were later purchased by British authorities while still in construction to complete for the Royal Navy as the war went on.

This was not the first time this had happened to Chile. In 1903 a pair of 12,000 ton ‘pre-dreadnought’ battleships -the Constitucion and Libertad– ordered by Chile from English shipbuilders were confiscated by Britian while still on the builders slips to keep them from being bought by Russia.

The Almirante Latorre aka HMS Canada

The Almirante Latorre was completed to a slightly modified design in 1915 as the HMS Canada. She served in the Grand Fleet with a British crew and fought in the epic Battle of Jutland (along with the former Brazilian battleship Rio de Janeiro). She Fired 42 14in rounds and received no damage. In 1920 after refit she was resold to Chile for a nominal fee (half her original purchase cost) and finally took her original name to the seas. She was involved in a mutiny in 1931. When World War Two arrived the Chilean government offered her to purchase to the US but was declined. Chile did not declare war on Germany in World War Two until the final months of the conflict and the Almirante Latorre did not see combat against her old foe. Kept in perfect condition until she suffered an engine room fire in 1951 she was placed in reserve. She finished her service in 1959 as the last battleship afloat that had fought at Jutland. Her name is still carried by a frigate in the Chilean navy today

Warship Weds May 23

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Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out every Wednesday for a look at the old steampunk navies of the 1866-1938 time period and will profile a different ship each week.

– Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday,  May 23

Here we have the yacht Mystic. Launched in 1936 and finished 1939 at Covacevich Shipyard in Back Bay Biloxi she is a classic of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The Covacevich Shipyard was founded in 1896 by J. D. (“Jacky Jack”) Covacevich, an immigrant from Croatia, and was later operated by his three sons, A. W. ( “Tony Jack”) , Oral and Neal.  The shipyard stopped building new vessels in 1982 but continued in the repair business until it was destroyed by Katrina in 2005.

As built she was named the Zoric. She was a 59-foot, 39-ton diesel driven fishing yacht that carried its passengers and owners as a yacht running charters to the Chandelier Islands.  She has a 18.4-foot beam and a shallow water draft of just four feet.

In 1941 the navy and then the Coast Guard acquired her for coastal patrol for U-boats and as an emergency inshore minesweeper (if needed) in the 8th Coast Guard District. Robert Scheina’s USCG Cutters and Craft of WWII list her as a Coast Guard Reserve list the vessel as pennant number 949 from March 1942 until presumably the end of the war. While information on the ship during this time is sketchy, odds are she carried a couple water cooled machine-guns, a few depth charges, and a 4-6 man crew while in the corsair navy.

By the late 1940s she was used by the Louisiana State Wildlife and Fisheries Commission until at least 1953. The fleet of conservation boats numbered just five vessels to patrol hundreds of miles of coastline, and Zoric was the largest. While a mullet marshal boat she was “manned by a licensed boat captain and a cook, the latter also acting as a deckhand. Each of these, of course, is a fully accredited law enforcement officer.”

By 1991 the Zoric, now dubbed the Mystic, was in disrepair in Ocean Springs Mississippi in the old World War Two-era USAAF Crash Boat harbor. She was bought by maritime conservationist Matthew Hinton in 2009 and after a three year restoration at the Gautier, Mississippi Pitalo Shipyard she is again on the water close to what her 1939 appearance was.

The current owner wants to  do eco-tours, sunset cruises, family trips out to the barrier islands and offer kayak trips on the 76-year old beauty.

Old Warrior Sailing Away

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The Mohawk is inching towards her final resting place. The battered old coast guard cutter that LSOZI covered as a Warship Wednesday entry is on her last legs.

With no more money to keep the elderly 70+ year old ship around, she is being sunk as a reef in the next few days. The nonprofit museum that owned her donated the Mohawk to Lee County because it couldn’t afford the $400,000 needed to overhaul it. The ship has not been dry-docked since 1984 and is in rough condition below the waterline.

A USCG honor guard from her great niece, the current 270′ WMEC USCGC Mohawk received her colors and are caring for them.
She was involved in 14 attacks against German U-Boats.

• Her crew rescued 293 survivors from the U.S. Army Transport Chatham on

Aug. 27, 1942, and 25 survivors from the British freighter Barberry on Nov. 22, 1942, both of which had been torpedoed by German submarines.

• Acting as a weather ship in the North Atlantic, she was the last vessel to radio Gen. Dwight Eisenhower the weather would be clear enough to launch the invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944.

The local media is giving her some attention but overall her sendoff is sad and lonely.

I guess we are all alone in the end.

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