The Balao-class submarine USS Batfish (SS/AGSS-310), is a famed “sub-buster,” credited with sinking no less than three Imperial Japanese Navy submarines– RO 55, RO 112, and RO 113— in only four days while on a single war patrol. The secret was radar warning receivers picking up on Japanese emissions– the classic trace buster-buster, so to speak.
Navy photographers were waiting for her return to port to record the mighty Batfish’s sixth war patrol.
USS Batfish (SS 310). Battle flags fly from the boat’s superstructure as she heads for her base at the end of a war patrol, in May 1945. Note radars, periscope, and battle flag at the top of the scope. 80-G-468626
Batfish was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation and earned six battle stars for her World War II service.
She claimed 14 ships sunk (7 warships and 7 merchantmen) and three others damaged during her seven war patrols. Over a period of four days in February 1945, she sank three Japanese submarines. For this feat, the “sub killer” was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation. Her other WW II exploits included blasting a grounded destroyer, bombarding a Japanese village, and rescuing downed aviators.
Postwar, she was never Guppy’fied like most of her sisters, and instead largely kept her WWII layout, continuing to serve in USNRF training operations in the Caribbean and along the Gulf and East Coast until 1960 when she was laid up in Orange Texas.
Since then, she has been largely safe and sound on dry ground (except for a historic 2019 flood that left her afloat for the first time in 47 years), and it looked like she would endure as the last preserved Balao save for the USS Drum, which is likewise ashore in Mobile.
However, that may not be the case.
As reported by local news in Muskogee, the boat may be homeless at the end of the month:
The Muskogee Memorial Park, popular for its World War II submarine the USS Batfish, is being forced to move.
“To have a museum like this is just a reminder to the rest of the population what history is,” said James Erb, the museum’s curator.
For the last 50 years. the park has leased its property from the Port of Muskogee.
This year, the port didn’t renew their lease and is asking them to move. This has lead to rumors of the Batfish being scrapped. Erb says that isn’t true.
The park plans on moving everything to Three Forks Harbor.
“The land is confirmed, we just have to make financial arrangements to do it,” said Erb.
I had my eye on Rock Island Auction Company’s premier auction over the weekend and almost pulled the trigger on one item of interest. Some of the more newsworthy and curious pieces were as follows.
Elvis’s Russell Smith-signed and factory engraved exhibition grade Smith & Wesson Model 53 in .22 Magnum Jet. One of the neat things about this hogleg is that it was silver inlaid in a Bicentennial Commemorative theme as it was produced for Presley in 1976 by S&W on spec from Hiram’s of California.
His collection consisted of 10 period guns including the millionth Liberator Pistol presented by the Guide Lamp Division of General Motors to Lt. Fred Thacker, U.S. Army, who was the military representative on the FP-45 project. Also included was an incredibly rare CIA Deer Gun– the 9mm plastic version of the Liberator created in the Vietnam era, of which only an estimated 20 remain in circulation.
Made by the Guide Lamp Division of the General Motors Company in Anderson, Indiana, the factory cranked out 1,000,000 LP-45s in just 12 weeks.
They shipped in a cardboard box with instructions, a packet of ten .45 hardball rounds, and a wooden dowel used for extracting fired cartridges.
This one, technically sn 1,000,001, was made from spare parts after the run was complete and presented to Lt. Fred Thacker, the Army inspector for the project. (RIAC)
The Liberator saw a very limited number used in Europe, and most deployed went to occupied Philippines and China. In the end, though, most were destroyed.
Personally, I think it would be a great idea if some maker were to produce a run of these guns, correct with the picto-instruction sheet and craftboard box. Vintage Ordnance did so in 2011, asking $515 a pop.
Fuller’s Mosin
My choice, which I was watching and almost pulled the trigger on had it not been for the fact that I just bought a whole shelf of T&E guns from FN that I have been reviewing, was this awesomely historic circa 1929 hex receiver Soviet Izhevsk Arsenal Model 1891 Mosin-Nagant Dragoon inscribed as a Korean War trophy bring back presented to Lt. Gen. Francis (“Frank”) William Farrell of WWII 11th Airborne fame.
It seems to have been captured by 1st Bn, 7th Cav Rgt, 1st Cav Division at Tabu-dong in Sept. 1950, early on in the conflict, while Farrell was head of the Korean MAG which was training the nascent ROK Army.
In a sort of follow-up to the one-day 9 April 1940 invasion that saw an overwhelming German force steamroll the country by lunch, on 29 August 1943– some 80 years ago today– while we covered the actions of the Danish Navy already (see Copenhagen’s Finest), the Hæren made a final attempt to resist their unwanted neighbors to the south when the Germans made a move to stamp out a growing resistance and uprising through an armored fist.
The prelude included the famed Danish “cold shoulder” campaign, no less than 800 sabotage actions in the first eight months of 1943, and a series of strikes and public disorders in Esbjerg (9-11 August), Odense (18-23 August), Aalborg (23-29 August), and Århus (26-29 August), culminated with the Danish government submitting their resignation to the King on 28 August.
This led Gen. Hermann von Hanneken, the supreme commander of the German forces in Denmark, to declare martial law in an “emergency action” (Operation Safari) that led to the Danish military being disarmed and its personnel interned, at least briefly.
Denmark was largely used by the German military during the war as a training ground for its garrison, with many units stationed there long-term filled with older (age 38 was average) men unlikely to do well on more active fronts. Often units were sent to the country– unofficially dubbed the “Whipped Cream Front” due to the widespread availability of dairy products long scarce in Germany– to rest and reform before being shipped out to the Ostfront or elsewhere.
At the time of Safari, the Germans had at their disposal in Denmark three infantry divisions including one Landesschützen (fortress infantry) (416. Inf.Div) and two second-line (160. Res.Div. and 166. Res.Div.), a Luftwaffe Field Division (20. Lw.-Feld Div.) made up of mobilized ground personnel pressed into an infantry role, and a second-line panzer division (233. Res.Pz.Div.) which had just arrived and included a mixed regiment of rebuilt Pz Kpfw IIIs and IVs.
A new infantry division (361. Inf.Div.) was being formed in the country from remnants of the battered 86th, 94th, and 137th Infantry Divisions under the command of Ritterkreuz-adorned GenLt. Siegmund Freiherr von Schleinitz, late of the old 9th Infantry.
Unternehmen Safari: German panzers of 233. Res.Pz.Div. on the move in Copenhagen on the morning of 29 August 1943. FHM-170533
The occupied country’s pre-war left-socialist government had stripped the ostensibly 30,000-man two-division Danish Army by April 1940 to its bare minimum of just 15,000, then furloughing most of them until the force stood at just a 2,000-man cadre and about 6,600 conscripts on month two of their 11-month national service orders.
Even at this, post the German occupation, the Danish Army was paired down even further to just 2,200 men: the battalion-sized Royal Life Guards (Kongelige Livgarde) who were still allowed to protect the King, caretaker forces required for maintenance work at bases, and a small number of reserve officers and NCOs were allowed to train in the Army’s Kornet og løjtnantskole (Cornet and Lieutenant School).
Facing 60,000 panzer- and air-supported German troops, it was a no-win situation.
Still, there was resistance offered and the Danish army suffered about 60 casualties, inflicting roughly half as many on the Germans.
An understrength company-sized unit at the Holbæk Barracks on the island of Zealand took to the street…
Soldiers from Holbæk Barracks prepare for battle, on Aug 29, 1943. Note the Madsen LMG with its distinctive 40-round magazine forward, Krag rifles, and their iconic Danish M23/38 Staalhjelm. FHM-170147
FHM-170119
…Then, with German armor coming up, saw the futility of their actions and managed to turn the resulting hour-long stalemate into an opportunity to scrap their guns.
They even paraded with their broken weapons before stacking them.
Soldiers from the garrison in Holbæk 29 August 1943 parade with broken guns before the arrival of the Germans. FHM-170129
FHM-170112
Several period color images, snapped by Flemming Find Andersen, detailing the Army Officer’s School detachment at the Jægersprislejren training grounds in Horns Herred, about 50 km from Copenhagen, going on alert on 29 August 1943 endure in the collection of the Nationalmuseet.
Drink in that period Danish battle rattle including Krag rifles and a M35 Swedish-Danish 37mm antitank gun the distance. FHM-159177
FHM-159176
At one point in the morning, they loaded up in privately owned trucks and readied to rush off to meet the Germans. Some discussion was made about a trip into the capital to link up with the Life Guards.
FHM-159178
FHM-159179
FHM-159182
In the end, the prospect of a company or so of officer cadets facing off against a German division proved futile, and they were ordered to lay down their arms.
FHM-159181
FHM-194501
They were interned at the Jægersprislejren until 31 October and then paroled, with most of the men going on to join the local resistance movements alongside the Freedom Council and donned their uniforms again during the final days of occupation, girded by both homemade STEN guns and weapons dropped via the SOE and OSS.
Perhaps the most important contribution the Danish Resistance had to the war was to smuggle acclaimed Danish physicist Niels Bohr out of the country to Sweden, where the RAF further extracted him to England and then to the U.S. where he met with Oppenheimer’s crew on the Manhattan Project. While Bohr only made minimal contributions to The Bomb, he did shed light for Opie and the gang on just what German big brain Werner Heisenberg was working on for Hitler– the two had met in Copenhagen in 1941— and importantly that he was doing it wrong– one of the most unsung kernels of strategic intelligence in WWII.
Flash forward to May 1945
The Hæren effectively reformed in the streets and countryside on 4 May 1945, when upwards of 20,000 armed Danes took their country back.
Old helmets and uniforms were taken out of attics, and new guns added to old stocks carefully put away, as “The Day” had come.
Meeting of Danish Resistance fighters in a farm in Rødvore just after the Freedom message aired on the BBC at 20:35 pm on the 4 of May 1945. (DINES BOGØ)
Rally of Danish Resistance fighters (Rødvore company) in the periphery of Copenhagen, days after the Freedom declaration of the 4th of May 1945. (DINES BOGØ)
Danish resistance fighters leading collaborators to the courthouse in Copenhagen, following the liberation of Denmark in May 1945. The resistance fighters are wearing black-painted Danish Army M23/40 Staalhjelms (without the front emblem) and are all armed with 9mm Swedish M37/39 Suomi pattern submachine guns.
Members of the Danish Resistance Movement (den danske modstandsbevægelse) photographed in Kalundborg in 1945. They are armed with Swedish-made 9mm Kpist M37/39 submachine guns (licenced-made variants of the Finnish Suomi KP/-31) and are wearing M23/40 Staalhjelms.
Freedom fighters in Aalborg after the liberation on 5 May 1945 FHM-238616
German soldiers surrendered to Danish Resistance FHM-218347
Danish resistance Frederiksberg Castle. Note the mix of Army, Navy, and police uniforms, helmets, and arms. FHM-320918
Battles in Odense 5 May 1945 FHM-239539
Resistance groups from Kulhuse, Kyndby, and Strandgården reoccupied the Jægersprislejren, on 6 May 1945, two days before VE-Day, and fired a salute on the parade ground as the Dannebrog was raised once again.
Today, the total strength of the Danish Army is approximately 9,000 professional troops, excluding conscripts undergoing basic training which brings total active strength to nearly 23,000, bolstered by some 60,000 reserves. Meanwhile, the Danish Home Guard counts some 40,000 members.
Springfield Armory has been importing its American take on the Croatian-made VHS2 5.56 NATO chambered bullpup carbine for a minute, and now they have expanded the lineup to include both 18- and 20-inch variants, really growing the family.
The HS Produkt VHS is a legit combat rifle, already seeing some real-life service around the globe in some very armpit-quality places even though it is only about 15 years old. The improved second-gen VHS2, which was introduced back in 2013, first came into the U.S. in early 2022 as a semi-auto version with enough Section 922 tweaks (BCM Gunfighter grip, Magpul mag, etc.) to make it compliant.
The standard 16 inch model, which I reviewed in 2022
Debuted over here as the Springfield Armory Hellion with a 16-inch barrel, it has gained a reputation as a reliable, easy shooting, accurate, and feature-rich (user-adjustable gas system, fully ambidextrous, 5-position collapsible stock, swappable ejection port, excellent flip up iron sights on a full Pic rail, etc.) bullpup, outclassing a lot of the competition such as the Tavor, AUG, and FS 2000.
Well now, Springfield has introduced two new variants that share every feature and only change with the barrel length and type.
The new models include an 18-inch and a 20-inch, the latter with a ribbed forward section for enhanced cooling as well as an integrated bayonet lug (with the company promising compatible bayonets on the way). Springfield points out that the 20-inch model sports a similar configuration to that of the Croatian Army’s VHS-D2, a super accurate designated marksman version of the VHS-2.
16, 18, and 20…
Hellion 18-inch model
Hellion 20-inch model. Note the ribbed barrel and bayonet lug. Springfield says this model is a ringer for the VHS-designated marksman rifle
Hellion 16
Hellion 18
Hellion 20
Barrel Length:
16 inches
18 inches
20 inches (includes bayonet lug)
Overall Length:
28.25 – 29.75 inches
30.25 — 31.75 inches
32.25 — 33.75 inches
Weight:
8 pounds
8 pounds, 3 oz
8 pounds, 6 oz
MSRP:
$1,999
$2,016
$2,031
The neat thing is that the price point is practically the same, and, while some other Springfield platforms (looking at you, Prodigy) have gotten some downright mixed to bad reviews, it seems like everyone kind of likes the Hellion.
U.S. Coast Guard Forces Micronesia/Sector Guam’s Fast Response Cutters conducted four patrols over 44 days, enhancing safety and prosperity in the Pacific Islands region while combatting illicit maritime activity, including illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing and the illegal and unsafe transport of passengers.
Lt. j.g. Sims and Ensign Salang welcome the Marine Corps Detachment in Chuuk for Operation Koa Moana aboard the USCGC Frederick Hatch (WPC 1143) for a tour while visiting Chuuk, Federated States of Micronesia, on July 28, 2023. The crew conducted a patrol in FSM in support of Operation Rematau. (U.S. Coast Guard photo)
The crews of USCGC Frederick Hatch (WPC 1143), USCGC Myrtle Hazard (WPC 1139), and USCGC Oliver Henry (WPC 1140):
Conducted seven boardings and five observation reports.
Completed over 20 training evolutions.
Qualified 18 new shipboard members.
Supported the investigation into the transport of 11 people aboard an overloaded vessel transiting to Guam from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands on an illegal charter following their rescue by DoD partners.
Supported operations such as Operation Blue Pacific, Operation Rematau, Operation Nasse, and Operation Koa Moana.
Operational Achievements and Highlights
USCGC Frederick Hatch (June 21 – July 2 and July 18 – Aug. 3): Enhanced international relations, streamlined boarding processes, qualified new personnel, and improved communication with FSM Maritime Police.
USCGC Myrtle Hazard (July 3 – 16): Strengthened connection with CNMI, ensured maritime law enforcement presence in less patrolled areas, and enhanced collaboration with customs and public safety departments.
USCGC Oliver Henry (July 18 – 23): Increased U.S. presence, enforced fishing regulations, and fostered crew readiness with weapons proficiency and collaboration.
Myrtle Hazardhas also been invited by Papua New Guinea (PNG) to join their lead in maritime operations to combat illegal fishing and safeguard maritime resources during August 2023. This comes after Oliver Henry became the first U.S. Coast Guard Fast Response Cutter to call on port in Papua New Guinea during their southern expeditionary patrol in the fall of 2022 to build relations, conduct engagements, and resupply and the two countries inked a security agreement a couple of months ago.
The crew of the USCGC Myrtle Hazard (WPC 1139) arrive in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea on Aug. 20, 2023. The U.S. Coast Guard is in Papua New Guinea at the invitation of the PNG government to join their lead in maritime operations to combat illegal fishing and safeguard maritime resources following the recent signing and ratification of the bilateral agreement between the United States and Papua New Guinea. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Chief Warrant Officer Sara Muir)
Via USCG:
This collaborative effort marks the first time a joint patrol effort will be executed at sea since the signing and ratification of the recent bilateral defense agreement between PNG and the United States, which allows the U.S. to embark ship riders from PNG agencies aboard the ship to conduct at sea boardings on other vessels operating in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) under their national agency authority. This is the U.S. Coast Guard vessel deployment first announced during Secretary of Defense Austin’s engagement with Prime Minister James Marape in July.
The Coast Guard has ordered 65 Sentinel (Webber)- class Fast Response Cutters (FRCs) to date.
With the recent commissioning of USCGC Patterson (WPB 1153) in Portland Maine earlier this month–the fourth of six FRCs to be stationed in Boston– 53 FRCs are in service: 13 in Florida; seven in Puerto Rico; six in Bahrain with PATFORSWA; four each in California and Massachusetts; three each in Alaska, Guam, Hawaii, Texas and New Jersey; and two each in Mississippi and North Carolina. Future FRC homeports include Astoria, Oregon; and Kodiak and Seward, Alaska.
At least one more FRC will be sent to Guam, where she will no doubt be put to good use.
The late Robert William “Bob” Barker, who was the brightest part of staying home sick as a kid, also did his bit as part of the Greatest Generation.
Bob enlisted in the Navy Reserve Aviation Cadet (AvCad) program in November 1942 at age 18 while attending Drury College in Springfield, Missouri on a basketball scholarship.
He trained at 11 locations including eight Navy air bases on six different types over the next three years:
William Jewell College – Liberty, Missouri: 6th Battalion Cadet ground school and athletic training.
Ames, Iowa—Iowa State University: Taylorcraft L-2 Grasshopper flight training.
University of Georgia: Preflight School and Navy Basketball Team.
Millington Naval Air Station- Memphis, Tennessee: Stearman NS2 Biplane Training.
Corpus Christi, Texas Naval Air Station: Completed flight training and received Commission as a Navy Ensign.
Cabaniss Field Texas: Vultee BT-13 Valiant Training.
Beeville, Texas: SNJ Texan flight training.
DeLand Naval Air Station—DeLand, Florida: FM2 Wildcat flight training (during his honeymoon)
Great Lakes Naval Air Station—Lake Michigan: Carrier landing qualifications on USS Wolverine (IX-64)— the infamous paddlewheel “Covered wagon of the Great Lakes.”
Banana River Naval Air Station: Gunnery runs on U.S. Navy Mariner aircraft to train their crews.
Goose Island Michigan: F4U Corsair training with VF-97 and advancement to Lieutenant Junior Grade (LTJG).
He was in line to be deployed to the Pacific to fight the Empire in August 1945 when the whistle was blown.
As Barker summed up:
“I was a Naval Aviator, a Fighter Pilot. I completed all facets of my training, including my qualifying landings on a carrier. I was all ready to go, and when the enemy heard that I was headed for the Pacific, they surrendered. That was the end of World War II.”
Demobilized in November 1945, he remained in the inactive Naval Reserve until 1960.
You will be missed, sir.
And, with that, I’ll leave you with one of his greatest three minutes, which he filmed at a spry 73.
Built by Boeing in 1962, she was the first of a series of hydrofoil craft designed to evaluate the performance of this kind of propulsion in the modern Navy, one that ultimately led to the design (by Boeing) of the Pegasus-class patrol combatant missile hydrofoils, or PHMs.
Decommissioned by the Navy in March 1975 after a decade of testing, High Point was used briefly by the Coast Guard until her main turbine exploded, then was stricken in 1980.
428-GX-K108129 Patrol Craft, Hydrofoil, USS High Point (PCH-1) underway during a search and rescue exercise off San Francisco by JOC(AC) Warren Grass, 25 April 1975
Powered just by her auxiliary Detriot Diesel, she was retained as a non-commissioned experimental hulk until finally disposed of by MARAD in 1991. She passed through a series of private owners until she came up for sale once again for $70,000– with no takers.
All is not totally lost as a number of relics from the vessel were apparently passed on to a local, free cannery museum on the condition they set up and display the foil propeller.
A Requiem for a Ship that Could Fly; A Ship of local notoriety, USS HIGH POINT PCH-1
There were no flags flying, no bands playing on the pier, no dress uniforms with gold braids waiting to congratulate the captain and crew for a successful mission. No, there was none of that. Only an excavator with a hydraulic crusher awaited. And over a period of four days, in the middle of August, this once proud foilborne warrior was reduced to a heap of scrap and hauled away.
She deserved better, but you can’t save them all.
The only American “fighting foil” left afloat is the ex-USS Aries (PHM-5) museum in Gasconade, Missouri. Please pay them a visit or at least throw them a few dollars.
Some 80 years ago this week, in the North Atlantic west of the Canary Islands, the German Type IXC/40 U-boat, U-185 (Kptlt. August Maus), with 31 waterlogged survivors of the lost U-604 aboard, met her end at the hand of depth charges dropped from Willie 9, a TBF Avenger aircraft of VC-13 from the deck of the Bouge-class escort carrier USS Core (CVE-13).
The event was chronicled by Core’s airwing.
The explosion caused by Lt. Williams’ two exploding depth charges dropped on a German submarine, U-185. The bow of the submarine protrudes from the bottom of the explosion. Incident #4082. Released August 24, 1943. Official U.S. Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-77195
German submarine, U-185, sinking after the combined attack of several aircraft from USS Core (CVE 13), principally from two depth charges from an Avenger piloted by Lieutenant R.P. Williams, USNR. Incident #4082. Released August 24, 1943. Official U.S. Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-77196
In all, U-185 went down with 29 dead (including 14 men from U-604) while 22 survivors were rescued and eventually became POWs.
German survivors from the German submarine, U-185, in the water after being sunk by aircraft from USS Core (CVE-13), piloted by Lieutenant R.P. Williams, USNR, August 24, 1943 They were in the water for six hours before being picked up by destroyer. Incident #4082. Official U.S. Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-77198
Submarine survivors of U 185 and U 604 resting on the flight deck of USS Core (CVE 13). Released August 24, 1943. Official U.S. Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. 80-G-77202
From Core’s war diary, a very matter-of-fact entry for that Tuesday morning:
Core had a particularly effective “hunter-killer patrol” in the late summer of 1943.
Per DANFS:
Core’s second hunter-killer patrol, from 16 August to 2 September 1943 netted her planes U-86 on 24 August in 27-09′ N., 37-03′ W., and U-185 the same day in 27-00′ N., 37-06′ W. Putting to sea again 5 October in TG 21.15, Core’s planes sank U-378 on 20 October in 47-40′ N,, 28-27′ W. She returned to Norfolk 19 November.
USS Core (CVE-13) underway in the Atlantic, probably on 10 October 1943. The wing of the plane from which the photograph was taken is in the foreground. Note also that the planes of her air group are painted white and gull grey to make it difficult for U-boats to see against the sky. Core would continue to serve after the war as an aircraft transport, taking helicopters to Vietnam. She was scrapped in 1971. NH 106565
As for the good Kapitänleutnant August Wilhelm Hugo Maus, he had claimed some 70,000 GRT in tonnage while he was active and earned a Knights Cross while in American custody. Speaking of which, he and five other U-boat officers were able to escape from the lightly guarded POW camp at Papago Park, Arizona on 12 February 1944 but was soon after recaptured in Tucson. Maus later helped dig a tunnel that allowed 25 POWs to escape on the night of 23-24 December 1944, but he elected to remain behind due to an injury. He was eventually repatriated and died in Hamburg in 1986, aged 81.
The splasher of Maus’s boat, LT Robert Pershing Williams, then a 26-year-old Naval pilot hailing from Snoqualmie, Washington who formerly had flown an SBD dive bomber with Bombing Two from USS Lexington (earning a Navy Cross) during the Battle of Coral Sea, flew against U-185 with Morris C. Grinstead, Aviation Radioman, First Class, U.S.N., 21, of Letts, Iowa and turret gunner Melvin H. Paden, Aviation Machinist’s Mate, Second Class, U.S.N., 19, Route 4, Box 17, Salinas, California. The action earned Williams a second Navy Cross.
Acclaimed cartoonist, Wood Cowan used his story to help sell War Bonds.
Above we see the Department of Commerce’s United States Lighthouse Service’s Violet-class coast-wise tender Lilac standing by the wreck of a derelict sailing ship in New York harbor, circa 1930s, with Lady Liberty in the background, likely during one of the vessel’s regular trips to the Service’s St. George Depot on Staten Island. If you look closely, you’ll note the USLHS’s brass lighthouse emblem bolted to her bow.
Lilac would later go on to serve, including a spell in haze gray, for another 40 years, and continues to clock in today.
The last tenders of the USLHS
The U.S Lighthouse Establishment was founded in 1789 and morphed across several iterations until, as the U.S Lighthouse Board in the 1890s, developed a basic design for its largest steam tenders that would remain little changed for a century. Between 1892 and 1939, no less than 33 such large coast-wise tenders were built, typically ranging in length from 164 to 174 feet and outfitted to carry about two dozen crew to work a series of large steam-powered booms to service a growing array of federally maintained aids to navigation– 11,713 in 1910 when the USLHS was formed swelling to 30,420 by 1939. These included lighted aids (lighthouses, lightships, and buoys), fog signals, radio beacons, unlighted buoys, and daymarks.
The trio of Violet class tenders (joined by the near-sister Arbutus) was led by the Manitowoc-built USLHT Violet, contracted in September 1929, followed by our Pusey & Jones Co. built Lilac and Mistletoe. Modern vessels, they were built almost entirely of riveted steel, including hulls, decks, deckhouses, and masts, edged with wood as a protective against heavy buoys, chains, and cement anchors. They had electric lights throughout and refrigerated storerooms.
Some 173 feet in length (163 feet six inches on the waterline) the class had a molded breadth of 32 feet, and the minimum depth of hull at the side, from the top of the main deck to the top of the keel, of 14 feet 6 inches. At a displacement of approximately 770 tons (799 is full load), the draft is 10 feet seven inches in salt water, essential to being able to tread in hazardous shoals.
Early plans of near-sister Arbutus, which was of the same overall type although slightly deeper of hold and with Foster-Wheeler boilers rather than Babcock & Wilcox as used by the Violets.
Arbutus out of the water before launch at Pusey & Jones. Note the wooden strakes to protect her hull while working buoys and the USLHS lighthouse insignia on her bow. (USCG photo)
The fuel capacity of the class was 29,000 gallons of fuel oil for their pair of Babcock & Wilcox boilers, each driving a triple expansion engine. The designed top speed of the class was approximately 13.7 knots at 1,000 hp– although later maximum speed was in the typically 11.5 knot range. They were not built as racehorses. The range, at 10 knots, was 1,734 nm which allowed them to range along the coast and keep station for weeks if needed.
Lilac, seen here ready for launch at Wilmington Delaware in 1933. She was moved through the water by twin four-bladed propellers 7 feet 5 inches in diameter. Each propeller was driven by a triple expansion, reciprocating steam engine developing 500 indicated horsepower at 160 revolutions per minute. The engines were built by the ship’s builders, Pusey & Jones of Wilmington, Delaware, and had high, intermediate, and low-pressure cylinders 11 1/2, 19, and 32 inches in diameter respectively with a 24-inch stroke. Steam to operate the engines and booms was supplied at 200 pounds per square inch by two Babcock & Wilcox oil-fired watertube boilers. (Hagley Library)
The deck gear included a 20-ton capacity boom with a steam-powered hoist, here seen in action aboard Lilac in 1948. (Philadelphia Inquirer archives)
Besides normal crew berthing of about six officers and 20 crew while on USHLS orders, the class also had spare accommodations to allow ferrying rotating crew members to lightships and keepers to lighthouses as well as providing space for district and national officials on periodic inspection tours.
Meet Lilac
Our subject had been planned to be named Azalea, contracted on 13 April 1931 to Hampton Roads Shipbuilding of Portsmouth, Virginia. However, Pusey & Jones subsequently underbid Hampton Roads, and the former was awarded the contract, after which the USLHS changed the new tender’s name to Lilac.
The name “Lilac” was the second in the USLHS, with the first being a 155-foot tender built in 1892 that served in the Navy during the Great War on patrol off the East Coast and in the Caribbean.
Ordered for $334,900 from Pusey & Jones on 16 August 1932, she was launched on 26 May 1933 and entered service with the service later that same year under the command of Capt. Andrew J. Davidson, a man who began his long career 42 years prior as a ship’s carpenter aboard the lighthouse tender Zizania and would be her skipper for five years.
Lilac was assigned to the Fourth Lighthouse District, which covered the Delaware River, from Trenton, New Jersey south to the mouth of the Delaware Bay. She replaced the old (c. 1899) tender Iris and was based in Edgemoor, Delaware, just north of the mouth of the Christina River, where she would spend the next 15 years. Among her more famous charges was the Breakwater Lighthouse, founded in 1885 and now part of the Cape Henlopen State Park.
The Delaware Breakwater Lighthouse. LOC.
Joining the Coast Guard
On 1 July 1939, with the world edging towards war, the USLHS merged with the U.S. Coast Guard, which is still in charge of the maintenance and operation of all U.S. lighthouses, lightships, and aids to navigation. Lilac and her sisters were among 63 existing and building tenders of all sorts transferred to the USCG. With that, the triangular pennant of the Lighthouse Service was lowered for the last time on 7 July and the Coast Guard pennant ran up.
Upon commissioning into the Coast Guard, the vessels were given the WAGL designation meaning “auxiliary vessel, lighthouse tender” with the “W” being the USCG’s service differentiator. Lilac’s pennant number, therefore, became WAGL-227.
Other changes included repainting the all-black stacks to the standard Coast Guard buff with a black cap and removing the brass USHLS lighthouse emblems from the bows. Internally, the complement switched to two officers, two warrant officers, and 34 enlisted. Room for a small arms locker was set aside and plans were made to mount a topside armament drawn up.
When the Coast Guard was transferred to the Navy under Executive Order 8929 of 1 November 1941, out came the guns and thick haze grey paint. The Violets would pick up a single 3″/50 DP mount on the foc’sle, a pair of 20mm/80 Oerlikon single mount amidships behind the wheelhouse, and a pair of depth charge tracks over the stern. They would also, late in the war, pick up an SO-1 (Violet, Lilac, and Arbutus) or SO-8 (Mistletoe) detection radar on the top of their masts and WEA-2 sonars.
Mistletoe seen in 1943 during WWII before she had her SO-8 radar fit.
Lilac seen in late Sept. 1945, with her armament apparently landed but still wearing her “war paint.” 4th Naval District Photographer WC Dendal
Lilac would spend her war in the 5th Naval District on orders in the Delaware River system and would be fitted with a degaussing system for protection against magnetic mines laid off the mouth of the Delaware Bay by German U-boats. She would stand by when they brought in the surrendered U-858 in May 1945 and docked her at Fort Mills.
Mistletoe and Violet, also under 5th District Orders based in Norfolk and Baltimore, respectively, would work in Chesapeake Bay during the war.
Arbutus, assigned to the 1st Naval District, was used as a net tender at Newport RI. Her armament would be much the same with the exception of a smaller 3″/23 rather than a 3″/50 and a BK series radar initially fitted as early as 1943.
The men who tended the lights and buoys were in the war as well, and it should be remembered the USLHS lightship LV-71 was sunk in the Great War by the German submarine U-104 near Diamond Shoals, North Carolina while the unarmed USCG Speedwell-class buoy tender Acacia (which had joined the old USLHS in 1927) was sent to the bottom by gunfire from U-161 in 1942 during WWII. Another tender, the former 173-foot circa 1904 USLHT Magnolia, was lost in USCG/Navy service in 1945 when the American Mail Line freighter SS Marguerite Leland in Mobile Bay ran her down.
Postwar
Postwar, Lilac and her sisters would return to a more typical life, reverting to their peacetime livery. At first this would be a black hull with a white superstructure and bow eyebrow and buff stack with a black cap.
Tender Lilac 5 Sept 1946 near Burlington NJ Photographer McKisky
Tender Lilac 5 Sept 1946 at Harbor of Refuge. Note the radar fit on her mast top. Photographer McKisky
Mistletoe, 1947, note her SO-8 radar on her top mast. USLHS Digital Archive
Then this would change to an all-black hull, losing the eyebrow, and wearing large white hull numbers.
Tender Lilac 5 W227 1950s
Lilac underway circa 1940s (U.S. Coast Guard)
Lilac with unidentified light
In 1948, Lilac was transferred to Gloucester City, New Jersey, where, in addition to her ATON work, would be remarkably busy in a series of SAR cases.
As detailed by the Coast Guard Historian’s Office, here is just a two year-run down:
On 15 to 17 May 1952, she assisted following the collision between the motor vessels Barbara Lykes and F. L. Hayes in the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal.
On 22 May 1952, she assisted the tug Pateo and the Atlantic Dealer in the Delaware River.
On 26 May 1952, she assisted following the collision between the tanker Michael and the motor barge A. C. Dodge near Ready Island.
On 30 January 1953, she assisted the fishing vessel Benjamin Brothers in the Delaware River.
From 6 to 12 June 1953, she assisted following the collision between the tankers Pan Massachusetts and the Phoenix in the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal.
On 24 and 25 June 1953 she fought the fire on board the tanker Pan Georgia and searched for survivors in the Christina River.
On 30 December 1953, she assisted the motor vessels Atlantic Dealer and Atlantic Engineer in the Delaware River.
On 13 July 1955, she assisted the yacht Nip and Tuck in the Delaware River.
LILAC underway circa 1950s (U.S. Coast Guard)
Taking buoy on board Lilac (Philadelphia Enquirer)
Bridge, buoy tender LILAC 220211-G-G0000-011
Wheelhouse of Lilac (Philadelphia Enquirer)
In a 1961 refit for a further decade of service, she would be equipped with an SPN-11 radar and UNQ-1 sonar.
By 1965, the USCG switched the WAGL designation to WLM for “‘medium or coastal buoy tender” and Lilac became WLM-227.
She would pick up the now-classic Coast Guard racing stripe after 1967.
She was decommissioned on 3 February 1972, capping just under 40 years with the USLHS/Navy/USCG.
Tender Lilac decommissioning
Her sisters Arbutus, Mistletoe, and Violet had been taken out of service already, decommissioned and disposed of between 1963 and 1969. None are afloat.
Arbutus met her end in Florida in the 1980s after serving as one of treasure hunter Mel Fisher’s “sentry” vessels over the Atocha wreck site.
The Arbutus wreck was celebrated, and she was later used by Jimmy Buffett for a back cover shot for his 1985 album ‘Songs You Should Know By Heart’.”
Switching careers
Just a few months after she was decommissioned, ex-USCGC Lilac was donated to the Harry Lundeberg Seafarers International Union seamanship school in Maryland, where she was used as a stationary pier side training vessel until 1984. In this role, she provided accommodation and class space to mariners upgrading their ratings across both bridge, deck, and engine room departments.
After 1984, she passed hands a few times and was used as a salvage company’s office for a spell, grounded in a dredged berth along the James River outside of Richmond, before she was listed in 1999 for scrap value, still relatively intact but showing her age.
Preservation
The non-profit NYC-based Tug Pegasus Preservation Project became involved in the prospect of saving Lilac and she was refloated on 25 February 2003, then towed to a shipyard in Norfolk where, after a favorable report on the condition of the ship’s hull– she had spent most of her life in freshwater– she was purchased on 11 March 2003, with the intent to return her to operation as a steam vessel based in New York harbor.
After berthing at the Hudson River Park’s Pier 40 and transfered to the newly created non-profit LILAC Preservation Project, she was eventually moved to the newly built Pier 25 in Tribeca in 2011 and has since opened as a museum ship.
The last unaltered American steam-propelled and steam-hoisting lighthouse tender designed for work on the open sea and connecting bays and sounds, Lilac is special and, other than the diesel-powered tender Fir (which was still under construction when the service was absorbed by the USCG was preserved at the Liberty Maritime Museum in Sacramento for a half-decade and is now apparently looking for a new owner) is the only USLHS tender still around– and the only one on display.
She is the oldest Coast Guard “black hull” afloat.
If you have a chance to visit her, please do.
Ships are more than steel and wood And heart of burning coal, For those who sail upon them know That some ships have a soul.
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USCGC Mellon (WHEC 717) sits in full dress at the pier before a decommissioning ceremony in Seattle on Aug. 20, 2020. USCGC Mellon was a High Endurance Cutter homeported in Seattle and served as an asset in completing Coast Guard missions around the world for 52 years. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Michael Clark)
The Hamilton class of Coast Guard cutters served the USCG well for over 50 years, including most working the Market Time gun line off Vietnam as well as standing toe-to-toe with the Soviet Navy in the Cold War.
Equipped from the beginning as a patrol frigate, they entered service starting in 1967 with a 5″/38 DP mount and an ASW suite that included the AN/SQS-38 sonar and Mk32 torpedo tubes for launching lightweight ASW torpedoes, first the Mk44, then the Mk46. They had to requal for both surface warfare and ASW every year and often bird-dogged Russki subs, especially off New England and in Alaska waters.
1972 Hamilton-class USCGC Boutwell (WHEC-719) close aboard a Soviet Submarine. USCG Historian’s Office. 230802-G-G0000-102.
During the late 1980s and early 1990s the Hamiltons a FRAM program that replaced the 5″/38 gun with the MK 75 76mm OTO, upgraded the MK 32 Surface Vessel Torpedo Tubes to Mod 7, installed MK 36 SRBOC launchers and the AN/SLQ-32 electronic warfare suite, added a CIWS and Harpoon capability, and upgraded the cutters’ air and surface search radars. This came in tandem with the ability to operate a Navy LAMPS I (Sea Sprite) helicopter should they need to clock in as convoy escorts.
Then, in 1996, the USCG got out of the ASW biz, pulling its tubes and sonar suites. Everyone figured it would never be needed again. After all, the world was at peace and sub-busting was so WWII.
In recent years, the Coast Guard retired all 13 of its long-serving Hamiltons and Uncle Sam has since gifted them to overseas allies. This included three sent to the Philippines– the former USCGC Hamilton (WHEC-715), renamed BRP Gregorio del Pilar (PF-15); USCGC Dallas (WHEC-716) renamed BRP Ramon Alcaraz (PF-16), and USCGC Boutwell (WHEC-719) as BRP Andres Bonifacio (FF-17).
Two Gregorio del Pilar-class frigates (former Hamilton-class cutters) of the Philippine Navy during naval exercises with the US Navy
And, it seems the Philippine Navy is fitting them for ASW once more, with ELAC SONAR GmbH, a German supplier of hydroacoustic systems, announcing recently that it completed sea acceptance tests of the HUNTER 2.0 hull-mounted sonar for the class.
The company notes:
HUNTER 2.0 is a hull-mounted sonar carrying out anti-submarine warfare (ASW) in active and passive modes in shallow and deep waters for panoramic detection of submarines and other objects.
As for teeth, the PI last year contacted with the UK SEA firm for its Torpedo Launcher System (TLS) for a class of corvettes being built in South Korea. It is not a stretch they could add a few more to the contract for the old Hamiltons, and in fact, the presser at the time said clearly: “The contract follows the successful delivery of SEA’s TLS for the Philippine Navy’s frigates.”
SEA’s TLS is a weapon-agnostic, close range and rapid-reaction system capable of firing a variety of NATO-compatible standard light weight torpedoes, including the US Mk44, Mk46 and Mk54 torpedoes, UK Sting Ray, Italian A244S, French MU90 and the Korean Blue Shark.
