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Warship Wednesday Aug 10, 2016: The Dynamite Buffalo of Rio

Posted on August 10, 2016 by laststandonzombieisland 3 comments

Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all of their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places.- Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday Aug 10, 2016: The Dynamite Buffalo of Rio

Cruzador Nitheroy [sic] [i.e. Nictheroy] by Marc Ferrez, Detroit Publishing Co. Image via LOC LC-D4-21236

Here we see the former cargo steamer turned auxiliary cruiser Nictheroy of the Brazilian Navy. She is armed with a very special gun.

A Dynamite Gun, that is.

In March 1892, a group of Brazilian navy commanders and army leaders started to run afoul of President Marshal Floriano Peixoto that led to an open manifesto between the military and the executive branch that basically said, either you listen to us and fix the government, or we will fix it for you. It wasn’t farfetched as the year before the Brazilian Navy had a hand in replacing President Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca.

Well, Peixoto called their bluff and by Sept. 1893 the Navy was in an open revolt known to history as Revolta da Armada, and the best ships, including the ironclad battleship Aquidabã (5,500-tons, 4×9.2-inch guns) went over to the rebels in Rio harbor/Guanabara Bay.

Aquidabã. A formidable foe indeed. Colorised photo by Atsushi Yamashita/Monochrome Specter http://blog.livedoor.jp/irootoko_jr/

This left Peixoto fresh out of a Navy to command and his agents went about assembling what was derided as the “cardboard squadron” to blockade the rogue forces into surrender.

Guns were thrown on fishing vessels coastal steamers acquired locally and manned by whatever mariners could be enticed to put to sea, but everyone knew they and the handful of torpedo boats still loyal to the government would be no match for the big Aquidabã should the leviathan make a determined break for open water.

In New York, agents of the Peixoto government purchased the pleasure yachts Feiseen and Javelin as well as the merchant steamers Britannia (Norwegian-built, 2600-tons) and El Cid for rapid conversion to warships for the new fleet.

The SS El Cid, a 7,080-ton cargo ship with some accommodation for passengers, was built for the Morgan Line at Mr. Collis P. Huntington’s Chesapeake Dry Dock & Construction Company, only the sixth ship constructed by that yard, since known as Newport News Shipbuilding. Delivered for merchant service 24 August 1893, the Brazilians purchased her almost sight unseen on 26 October.

El Cid and her three sisters (El Sud, El Norte, and El Rio) were designed as auxiliary cruisers for wartime service if needed and had three deckhouses, a 17-knot speed (very fast for the merchantmen of the day), coal bunkers arranged to protect her machinery and boilers from naval gunfire, watertight bulkheads, and a main deck with weight and space reserved for a decent naval gun forward.

Speaking of guns, the Brazilians went all out.

Dynamite gun on Brazilian ship, Nitheroy [i.e. Nictheroy] by Marc Ferrez, Detroit Publishing Co. Image via LOC LC-D4-32259

The Dynamite Gun

All guns are projectile weapons. In other words, they use force to propel an object down a barrel out to a target. The only thing that changes is the type of propellant and the projectile. In a Remington 870, a load of shot is scattered out of the muzzle by an explosion of smokeless powder set off by a primer. Well the dynamite gun does the same thing, it’s just that the projectile is made of TNT and it’s pushed out by a charge of compressed air. Kinda like a spud gun, but instead of a potato, you fire a bomb. The father of this device was one Edmund Zalinski.

Born in Kórnik, Prussian Poland on December 13, 1849, Edmund Zalinski immigrated to the US with his parents at age four. Not quite 15 years old, he dropped out of high school and volunteered for the Union Army during the Civil War. Serving in the artillery, he finished the war as an officer and remained in the Army once peace broke out. A pretty smart guy, he taught military science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology while inventing several mechanical doo dads. One of these was a dynamite gun. Showing his device to the military, (he was still on the Army rolls as a First Lieutenant); it was love at first sight.

By the next year, Zalinski had teamed up with a company calling itself the Pneumatic Dynamite Gun Company of New York (presumably to tell itself apart from the Pneumatic Dynamite Gun Company of other towns) and was off and running. The gun was huge, and looked like something Jules Verne would use to shoot a missile to the moon. It had a 15-inch (379.5mm) bore. Using compressed air, it could catapult 500-pounds of dynamite more than two miles with better accuracy than the black-powder cannon of the era. The air was produced by a steam-powered (think locomotive) compressor fueled by coal.

Well the Navy liked the idea so much that they built the world’s first “Dynamite Cruiser.” Ordered for $350,000 from cruiser and battleship maker William Cramp and Sons, Philadelphia, she was laid down in 1887. Named appropriately the USS Vesuvius, its main battery would be these new guns. Mounting three of Zalinski’s 15-inch pneumatic guns, the guns were located with their breech along the keel of the ship three decks down and their 55-foot long barrels poking up through the 01 top deck. To aim the weapons, since the guns could not be turned, the whole ship tacked port or starboard while the pressure of the air was adjusted to correct range. Charges of various sizes ranging up to a quarter-ton could be used to do anything from bombard shore positions to sink ships and, being electrically fused, could fire on a delay or even while submerged.

Vesuvius in 1891…the three tubes on her main deck are 15inch FIXED Dynamite Guns

Other than Vesuvius, the Brazilians were the only other ~~sucker~~ taker for a large caliber Dynamite Gun naval mount. For the gun, they purchased one (1) full caliber 15-inch round and 10 10-inch sub-caliber projectiles meaning the ship had a very big but very brief bark. A further 2 full caliber rounds and 16 10-inch sub-calibers were loaded on the more lightly armed (2×4.7inch QF) steamer Britannia (renamed America by the Brazilians) who would serve as Nictheroy‘s escort of sorts.

As for the two yachts, they were stripped of their above deck structures, given a pivoting Hotchkiss torpedo tube and 1-pounder rapid-fire mount of the same make. They were hoisted aboard Nictheroy‘s deck for the voyage to Brazil.

Unlike on Vesuvius, in which the Dynamite Guns were fixed and the ship had to be tacked one way or the other to bring a target under fire, the gun on Nictheroy was made to slew port to starboard, allowing a much more efficient laying on target. A Rand air compressor below decks provided pneumatics for the gun.

Besides the 15-inch Zalinski forward, Nictheroy was well equipped from the works of Mr. Hotchkiss under the supervision of E. W. Very, late Lieutenant USN and now General Director of the Hotchkiss Ordnance Co, to include a 120mm rapid-fire single mount (with 50 rounds) aft of the after deck house, two rapid-fire 100mm mounts (with 200 rounds) on the bluff of the bow, eight rapid-fire 6-pounders (with 1,419 rounds) distributed broadside firing through the existing freight ports, nine 1-pounders (with 1,340 rounds) distributed on deck, and two 37mm revolving cannon on the bridge wings outside the pilothouse. Ports were cut for four torpedo tubes on deck to launch Howell automobile torpedoes of which the Brazilian agents bought 10, each with a 92-pound gun cotton warhead.

Two magazines were arranged in the former holds, reinforced with wooden planks, equipped with elevators, and flooding capabilities.

(Brazilian auxiliary cruiser, 1893-1898, formerly S.S. El Cid, later USS Buffalo) View on board, probably taken while fitting out for Brazilian Navy service in November 1893 at the Morgan Iron Works, New York City. The gun, which is mounted at the ship’s stern, is almost certainly a 4.7 quick-fire weapon built by the Hotchkiss Ordnance Co. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 105944

View on board, probably taken while fitting out for Brazilian Navy service in November 1893 at the Morgan Iron Works, New York City. Her single 15-inch dynamite gun on the forecastle (left center) was offset 3 feet to starboard of the centerline and was trainable right ahead and on both bows. The gun on the right may be one of the two 33-pounder (4-inch) Hotchkiss quick-fire guns that were listed as having been mounted forward on the bluff of the bow on each side. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 105942

View on board, probably taken while fitting out for Brazilian Navy service in November 1893 at the Morgan Iron Works, New York City. Shown looking forward from near the stern, aft of the main mast. The gun is probably one of the ship’s nine one-pounder Hotchkiss quick-fire weapons, eight of which were mounted on top of the deckhouses. She also had two 1-pounder Hotchkiss machine guns on top of the pilothouse. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 105943

Probably shown fitting out for Brazilian Navy service in November 1893 at the Morgan Iron Works, New York City. Several barges are alongside. Nictheroy’s single 15-inch dynamite gun is on the forecastle. A small quick-fire gun, probably one of her eight 6-pounder Hotchkiss weapons, is barely visible behind a shield on the weather deck aft. Six of the other 6-pounders were carried behind ports in the hull, along with four tubes for Howell torpedoes. Her former name, El Cid, has been painted out on the bow but the ship still wears the rest of her mercantile paint scheme. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 105941

In the span of just 24 days from when the Brazilians purchased El Cid, she was armed, equipped, painted, and recommissioned as Nictheroy. With the two yachts turned torpedo boats lashed to her deck and her holds filled with new shells for her never-fired guns, Nictheroy left New York on 20 November 1893. Her escort Britannia/America, carrying most of her Dynamite Gun shells, set out five days later as her armament was held up in shipping, delaying her departure.

As amazing as it sounds, just four months later this little formation took on the mighty Aquidabã and won.

On 16 April 1894, the ironclad warship was anchored off the coast of Santa Catarina, near the Fortress of Anhatomirim. Early in the morning, the loyalist government-controlled former yacht turned torpedo boat Gustavo Sampaio, accompanied by three other torpedo boats and Nictheroy in support, attacked Aquidabã. They managed to pump at least one Honeywell torpedo (some sources say two) into the bow of the once-proud battleship and, her front compartments open to the sea, she settled in the mud as her crew fled after thoroughly wrecking her.

During the battle, Nictheroy took Anhatomirim and a smaller rebel battery under naval gunfire and kept them from plastering her mosquito boat squadron.

The next day, when Nictheroy and company returned, Aquidabã and the forts were deserted and, as reported by the New York Times, a boarding crew from the Dynamite cruiser soon struck up song on the ironclad’s organ.

Over the next few years, with the naval revolt ended, Nictheroy was increasingly sidelined, no longer needed. The ship was subsequently used as an accommodation hulk for the school for apprentice seamen at Rio de Janeiro.

Going back home

When the United States entered into war with Spain in 1898, Nictheroy‘s three sisters were bought by the U.S. Navy from commercial service and, after a few guns were added, were used as the auxiliary cruisers USS Yosemite, USS Yankee and USS Dixie.

Remembering the Nictheroy, U.S. agents approached the Brazilians and arranged to purchase the former American steamer for the battle line (they already had the only other Dynamite cruiser in service, USS Vesuvius) on 11 July 1898. However, the Brazilians had the last laugh and disarmed the Nictheroy completely, forcing her back to the East Coast to rearm.

Rearmed with a more traditional battery of 2×5″/40cals and 4×4″/40s and refitted, she was commissioned into U.S. service as USS Buffalo on 22 September 1898 at New York Naval Yard. However, as hostilities halted with the signing in Washington of a Protocol of Peace between the United States and Spain more than a month before, her wartime service was moot and she was decommissioned, 3 July 1899 after a cruise to Manila.

A bugler sounding the call to breakfast in 1898. The gun appears to be a 4″/40cal. At this time the ship carried four of these weapons plus two 5/40 guns. Courtesy of Commander Donald J. Robinson, USN (Medical Service Corps), 1975. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 82990

Buffalo was brought back out of ordinary 2 April 1900, to serve as a Training Ship, a role she maintained for the next five years. During this period, she undertook four voyages to the Philippines with replacement crews for the Asiatic Fleet and on one of the return legs accomplished a circumnavigation.

She does look handsome in white! Photographed in 1902, while serving as a training ship. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 56644

USS Buffalo Photographed at Algiers in January 1904 while serving as a training ship. Courtesy of Rear Admiral Ammen Farenholt, USN (MC), 1933. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 434

A footlocker inspection on the main deck in 1904. The Sailor on the left, closest to the camera, is Chester Bryon Harper. Courtesy of Mr. Gene B. Reid (Harper’s grandson), 1983. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 94193

After layup at Mare Island Navy Yard in 1905, she was refitted for work as a transport and largely disarmed. She continued her operations carrying replacement crews to the far off Asiatic Fleet on China station, carried Marines to Nicaragua in 1909, and operated off Mexico during the troubles and civil war there.

In 1914, Buffalo undertook a seven-month expedition to Alaska to build radio stations and towers up and down the coast, many of which remained operational as late as the 1960s. Her expedition, which included some 44 civilian technicians, upgraded the facilities at Woody Island near Kodiak, on St. Paul and St. George in the Pribilof Islands, on the island of Unalga, and at Dutch Harbor near Unalaska as well as built new ones at Sitka and Cordova.

USS Buffalo at Mare Island, California loading materials for the expedition to Alaska radio stations. 1914 NHC Accession #: UA 557

Dressed with flags at Kodiak, Alaska, on 4 July 1914, during the 1914 Alaskan Radio Expedition. Collection of Admiral Montgomery M. Taylor, donated by Louisa R. Alger, 1962. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 105444-A

Dressed with flags at Kodiak, Alaska, on Independence Day 1914, during the 1914 Alaskan Radio Expedition. Note her extensive away boats. Collection of Admiral Montgomery M. Taylor, donated by Louisa R. Alger, 1962. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 105444-A

At the naval coaling station at Sitka, Alaska, in October or late September 1914. During the 1914 Alaskan Radio Expedition. Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation. Collection of Admiral Montgomery M. Taylor, donated by Louisa R. Alger, 1962. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 105470

Teddy, a ship’s mascot, on the ship’s forecastle circa mid-1914 during the 1914 Alaskan Radio Expedition. Teddy, probably an Alaskan bear cub, is also shown posing with one of the ship’s divisions in Photo # NH 105464. Note the ship’s capstain in the background. Collection of Admiral Montgomery M. Taylor, donated by Louisa R. Alger, 1962. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 105596.

When World War I broke out, Buffalo transported the U.S. diplomatic mission to Russia’s Provisional Government after the fall of the Tsar in 1917 and was then refitted as a destroyer tender (AD-8), serving in Europe until Sept. 1919 when she transitioned to the Pacific, serving in China and Japan until 1922.

On 12 November 1918 in European waters wearing pattern camouflage paint. Photographed by E. J. Kelty. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 56642

On 12 November 1918 in European waters wearing pattern camouflage dazzle paint. Note her masts have been enhanced. Photographed by E. J. Kelty. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 56642

At Gibraltar circa December 1918, with USS Schley (Destroyer No. 103 ) alongside and the collier USS Jupiter (Fuel Ship No. 3) in the background. Note that Schley is still wearing pattern camouflage, while Buffalo has been repainted from the image above into overall grey. Also, of interest, Jupiter with her distinctive transfer stations, would go on to become USS Langley CV-1. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 56643

At Villefranche on the French Mediterranean coast in late 1918 or early 1919. Donation of Captain Stephen S. Roberts, USNR (Retired), 2008. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 105907

Now all gray. At Villefranche on the French Mediterranean coast in late 1918 or early 1919. Donation of Captain Stephen S. Roberts, USNR (Retired), 2008. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 105907

The ship’s baseball team ashore in the Azores in March 1919. Photographed by St. Jacques. Courtesy of Paul H. Silverstone, 1983. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 94998

No longer useful, the aging steamer was decommissioned on 15 November 1922 at San Diego. She was used as a barracks ship until stricken from the Navy List on 27 May 1927. She was sold four months later for scrap. It is not believed that any artifacts remain from her although I would like to hope that some museum in Brazil has her Dynamite Gun in a dusty back room.

As for her merchant sisters turned SpAmWar auxiliary cruisers: El Sud/USS Yosemite hunted down the Spanish steamer Antionio Lopez during the war and was scuttled after being wrecked in a storm in 1900; El Norte/USS Yankee was very active off Cuba and survived as a Naval Militia training ship until she ran aground on Spindle Rock near Hen and Chickens lightship in 1908; and El Rio/USS Dixie (AD-1) gave her full measure as a warship then training ship and finally the Navy’s first official destroyer tender before she was sold for scrapping in 1922– meaning El Cid/Nictheroy/Buffalo was the last survivor of her class.

Specs:

Displacement: 7,080 tons (6,635 t)
Length: 406 ft. 1 in (123.77 m)
Beam: 48 ft. 3 in (14.71 m)
Draft: 20 ft. 8 in (6.30 m)
Propulsion
Coal fired boilers
Steam turbine
Single propeller
Speed: Designed for 17 knots, made 14.5 knots (26.9 km/h; 16.7 mph) in Naval service with armament.
Complement: A figure of 350 officers and enlisted given for Brazilian service. In U.S. service this was reduced to as little as 150 by 1898 and to >50 before 1909.
Armament:
(Brazil, 1893)
1×15 inch Dynamite Gun
1x 4.7-inch (120mm) rapid-fire single mount
2 4 inch (100mm) mounts
8 6-pounders
9 1-pounders
2 37mm revolving cannon
4 torpedo tubes
(US, 1898)
2x 5 in (130 mm) guns
4x 4 in (100 mm) guns
(*Disarmed by 1909 though her 5 inchers may have been removed by 1900)

*In 1917 she probably was rearmed, most likely with a few 3″/23 cal mounts and 6-pdrs though I cannot confirm this.

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Warship Wednesday July 27, 2016: The RNs factory for curiosities in gun-mountings

Posted on July 27, 2016 by laststandonzombieisland One comment

Warship Wednesday July 27, 2016: The RNs factory for curiosities in gun-mountings

Via IWM

Here we see the Powerful-type first-class protected cruiser HMS Terrible during her brief career, decked in a tropical white scheme that she used around 1900. Although beautiful in her own respect as a late 19th Century brawler, it was the use of her guns ashore that brought her lasting fame.

Built to rule the waves as independent units capable of raiding enemy merchant ships in time of war– while safeguarding HMs own from the enemy’s similar raiders– the Powerfuls were a two-ship class of very large cruisers with lots of coal bunkerage that enabled them to sail 7,000 nm at 14 knots. Should they stumble on an enemy surface raider, their twin 9.2″/40 (23.4 cm) Mark VIII cocoa-powder breechloaders could fire a 382-pound CPC shell out to 12,846 yards, which was pretty good for the era. A large number of QF 6-inch and QF 12-pounder 12 cwt naval gun (3-inch) guns made up secondary and tertiary armament (though at some point a few 6-inchers were traded for 4.7-inchers, but more on this later).

Class leader HMS Powerful was laid down in 1894 at Vickers Limited, Barrow-in-Furness while her sister and the subject of our tale, HMS Terrible, was laid down at the same time at J.& G. Thomson, Clydebank (Glasgow). As such, she was the seventh such RN vessel with that name dating back to 1694.

HMS Powerful Steaming up the English Channel, 1900, Charles Dixon RI

HMS Powerful Steaming up the English Channel, 1900, by maritime painter Charles Dixon RI. Note the black hull, buff stacks/masts, and white superstructure. Both ships of this class carried this scheme through about 1900.

Completed 8 June 1897 at a cost of £740,584, Terrible beat her design top speed of 22 knots on her trials by hitting 22.4 kn over a four-hour period and made Portsmouth to Gibraltar with an average speed of 18, which was fast for a pre-Dreadnought era cruiser, especially one of some 15,000-tons.

They were stately ships.

The Captain’s cabin was ornate

HMS Terrible portrait via Royal Grenwich Museum

Note how Terrible differed from the first image in this post as she looked in 1897 in these two images.

Her first use in war came when the Boers kicked it off against the British in South Africa.

In November 1899, HMS Terrible disembarked six naval guns (two 4.7″, 4 12 pounders) at Durban and, accompanied by 280 members of the Naval Brigade, saw them off by train to Ladysmith, just before the Boers closed the ring and began the storied Siege of Ladysmith. The naval guns were to play an important role in disabling the fire from the Boer Long Toms long enough till a relieving column rescued the town some months later.

Her sister HMS Powerful likewise dismounted a contingent and more guns at Simonstown, and under Commander AP Ethelston above became part of a Naval Brigade, with four guns, and several hundred men. They were sent by train to join the army of Lord Methuen, which was following the western Cape Colony railway hoping to rout the Boers blocking its advance to relieve the town of Kimberley, and engaging the Boers at Graspan on 25 November, which left half the force dead or wounded.

HMS TERRIBLE He who sups with me require a devil of a long spoon

Note the straw hats common to RN sailors, coupled with Army style field uniforms

4.7 Naval Gun on Carriage Improvised by Capt. Percy Scott of H.M.S. Terrible. Photo by E. Kennard

From “South Africa and the Transvaal War” 1899:

“You may be interested to hear a little about the Navy, who have come to the front as usual and met an emergency. From the first it would seem that what was wanted were long-range guns which could shell the enemy at a distance outside the range of their Mauser rifles, and the captain of the Terrible, therefore, proposed a field-mounting for the Naval long 12-pounder of 12 cwt., which has a much longer range than any artillery gun out here. A pair of waggon wheels were picked up, a balk of timber used as a trail, and in twenty-four hours a 12-pounder was ready for land service. Captain Scott then designed a mounting for a 4.7-inch Naval gun by simply bolting a ship’s mounting down on to four pieces of pile. Experts declared that the 12-pounder would smash up the trail, and that the 4.7-inch would turn a somersault; the designer insisted, however, on a trial. When it took place, nothing of the kind happened, except that at extreme elevation the 12-pounder shell went 9000 yards and the 4.7-inch (lyddite) projectile 12,000 yards. Captain Scott was, therefore, encouraged to go ahead, and four 12-pounders were fitted and sent round to Durban in the Powerful, and also two 4.7-inch guns. People say here that these guns saved the situation at Ladysmith. A Naval friend writing to me from the camp says: ‘The Boers complain that we are not “playing the game”; they only expected to fight rooineks, not sailors who use guns that range seven miles, and they want us to go back to our ships. One of our lyddite shells went over a hill into their camp, killed fourteen men and wounded thirty. Guns of this description are not, according to the Boer idea, at all proper, and[Pg 142] they do not like our way of staggering humanity. Had these guns been landed earlier, how much might have been saved? It is a peculiar sight to see the 4.7-inch fired. Many thought it would turn over, but Captain Percy Scott appears to have well calculated the stresses; there is with a full charge of cordite a slight rise of the fore end, which practically relieves all the fastenings. Hastily put together, and crude as it looks, it really embraces all the points of a scientific mounting, and it wants a great expert to pronounce an opinion on it. The gun is mounted so high that to the uninitiated it looks as if it must turn over on firing, but it does not, and the higher angle of elevation the less strain there is on it. The arrival of our guns practically put the Royal Artillery guns out of use, for they can come into action 2000 yards behind those supplied to the soldiers and then make better practice. Their arrival has, every one admits, quite changed the situation.’

***

“Captain Scott has also rigged up a searchlight on a railway truck with a flasher attachment, the idea being to use it for communication with Kimberley and Ladysmith if these places are surrounded. It has been tested at a distance of forty miles, and proved a great success. I am told, too, that he is now engaged in designing a travelling carriage for a 6-inch gun, and has, indeed, converted the Terrible into a factory for curiosities in gun-mountings.

“Each mounting, by the way, has an inscription upon it, presumably concocted by the ship’s painter. One, a parody upon the Scotch proverb, runs, ‘Those who sup with me will require a devil of a long spoon’; another, ‘For what we are going to receive may the Lord make us truly thankful—Oom Paul’; and a third, ‘Lay me true and load me tight, the Boers will soon be out of sight.’ I saw one of these guns fired with an elevation of 24 degrees and a range of 12,000 yards, and fully expected to see the whole thing capsize, but it hardly moved. After the firing of several rounds I carefully examined the mounting, and noticed that, crude as it might appear, a wonderful amount of practical knowledge was apparent in its construction; the strain was beautifully distributed, every bolt and each balk bearing its proportionate share. It is in every way creditable to the navy that when emergency arises such a thing could be devised and made by the ship’s engineering staff in twenty-four hours.”

Besides her 4.7’s in use, Terrible‘s Marines and Tars manned a series of armored trains that they helped craft.

A British armored train designed and manned by Terrible’s crew during the Second Boer War, covered with 6 inch anchor rope, provided by the Royal Navy, to provide it protection. The improvised additional armor was the source of its name, “Hairy Mary.” (Photo from the McGregor Museum)

Royal Navy bluejackets of HMS Terrible pose by an armored train at Durban during the Boer War. Mounted on the flatbed carriage is an improvised signal lamp consisting of a searchlight and shutter mechanism, powered by a dynamo attached to the train. The officer to the right of the image is possibly Capt. Percy Scott RN. The tower of Durban Post Office can be seen in the background. IWM Q 115145

They also found time to do a spot of fishing:

The next year, Terrible sailed for China station where she repeated her efforts ashore though in a smaller scale, during the Boxer Rebellion. On that trip, she carried 300 Tommies of 2 Btln. Royal Welsh Fusiliers and 40 Royal Engineers.

Arriving in Tientsin 21 June 1900, Terrible landed four of her 12 pounders and, with the help of muscle from Col. Bower’s Wei-hai-Wei (1st Chinese) Regiment, engaged in the relief of that city the next month.

1902 Crewmen of HMS Terrible at Hong Kong. Note the teak decking and that flatcaps have replaced straw hats. The RN was changing…

Returning to the UK, she and her sister were soon obsolete (their 9.2-inch guns were unique) and, after a brief refit, were placed in ordinary in 1904 after less than a decade’s service.

During WWI, she was reactivated and used as a high speed troop transport (sans most of her armament and with reduced crews) in the Med and Northern Africa, bringing as many as 2,000 soldiers at a time to far off ports to support operations in Salonika, Egypt and Palestine.

Great War service had her in a more sedate haze gray with only her small casemate guns still mounted.

In 1920, she was disarmed, renamed the ignoble TS Fisgard III (taken from the old central-battery ironclad ex-HMS Hercules), and used as an accommodations and training ship for another decade. She was sold in July 1932 for scrap.

Likewise, Powerful was renamed TS Impregnable in November 1919, and was sold on 31 August 1929 for breaking up.

The teak decking from both of these vessels was extensively salvaged and crafted into everything from ashtrays to inkwells, chairs and desks and are out there, typically with commemorative brass plates in great numbers.

Even her bell was sold off.

Her most enduring legacy, and that of her sister Powerful, is the long-running Royal Navy Field Gun competition which has in turn evolved into the Royal Military Tournament race, which celebrates the epic Ladysmith (and later Tientsin) gun train that saw the scratch Naval Brigade manhandle six field guns each weighing nearly half a metric tonne over rough terrain to save their Army brethren.

Although a Majestic-class carrier, HMS Terrible (R93), was to carry on the old cruiser’s memory, that vessel was instead sold to Australia who commissioned her as HMAS Sydney (R17/A214/P214/L134) in 1948. Thus, the Royal Navy has not had a “Terrible” on their active list since 1920 when our old girl took the “Fisgard” moniker.

Speaking of which, TS Fisgard itself remains as the National Sea Cadet Engineering Training Centre aboard RNAS Prestwick.

More information about Terrible, especially her use at Ladysmith, can be found at Anglo-Boer War.com, Roll of Honour and the Royal Museums Greenwich.

Specs:

Ship model HMS Terrible by Oldham Hugh, via IWM

Displacement: 14,200 tons deep load
Length:    500 ft. (150 m)
Beam:    71 ft. (22 m)
Draught:    27 ft. (8.2 m)
Propulsion:
Two shafts
4-cylinder VTE steam engines
48 Bellville-type water-tube boilers
25,000 hp
Speed:    22 knots (41 km/h)
Range:    7,000 nautical miles (13,000 km) at 14 knots (26 km/h)
Endurance:    3000 tons coal
Complement: 894 (designed). By 1915, ~300.
Armament:    (Largely disarmed 1915)
2 × BL 9.2-inch (233.7 mm) Mk VIII guns
12 × QF 6 in (15.2 cm) guns
16 × 12 pdr 3 in guns
12 × 3 pdr guns
4 torpedo tubes (deactivated 1904)
Armour:
2–6 inches (51–152 mm) deck
6 inches (150 mm) barbettes
6 inches (150 mm) gun shields

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

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Warship Wednesday July 20, 2016: The Majestic, if unlucky, Aussie flattop

Posted on July 20, 2016 by laststandonzombieisland 8 comments

Warship Wednesday, July 20, 2016: The Majestic, if unlucky, Aussie flattop

Here we see the lead ship of the Majestic class of British Royal Navy carriers, the HMAS Melbourne (R21) with Gannets and Sea Venoms ranged on deck, early during her career in the Royal Australian Navy.

She was one of 16 planned 1942 Design Light Fleet Carriers for the RN. This class, broken up into Colossus and Majestic-class sub-variants, were nifty 19,500-ton, 695-foot-long carriers that the U.S. Navy would have classified at the time as a CVL. 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 (Falklands anyone?) or the Indian Ocean for weeks.

Capable of carrying up to 52 piston-engine aircraft at the time, these carriers had enough punch to make it count.

The thing is, only seven of these carriers were completed before the end of World War II and even those came in during the last months and weeks. They effectively saw no service. Laid down beginning in 1942, most of the ships were launched and afloat in 1945, but construction was canceled when the war ended.

That’s what happened to the hero of our tale, HMS Majestic, which was laid down at Vickers-Armstrongs, Barrow-in-Furness in April 1943, around the time of the invasion of Sicily, though work stopped on her floating hull in 1945.

Fast-forward ten years.

With the Post-WWII Royal Navy not needing 16 flash new oceangoing landing strips, they kept a few, then started selling off the rest. Three went to Canada, one to France, one to Holland, one to India, and others were scrapped.

Of the Colossus/Majestic, light carriers, three– Majestic, Vengeance, and Terrible— were transferred to Australia as HMAS Melbourne, HMAS Vengeance, and HMAS Sydney, respectively.

Completed after a dozen years in the builder’s yard, Melbourne was commissioned on 28 October 1955 and had the benefit of an angled reinforced flight deck, steam catapult, beefed-up arrester gear and a mirror landing aid added during her time under construction– in effect, updating her WWII design to operate jet aircraft.

Gannet landing on Melbourne

Once received, the RAN gave HMAS Vengeance back to the Brits who sold her to Brazil as the Minas Gerais and passed Sydney into use as a training vessel and transport, comfortable with operating just Melbourne as a fleet carrier and flagship, carrying the flag of a rear admiral while in commission.

australia-hmas-sydney-a-214-melbourne-r-21-supply-ao-195-and-yarra-de-45-s

HMAS Sydney (A 214), Melbourne (R 21), Supply (AO 195) and Yarra (DE 45). Note how different the unmodified Syndey on the outside is from Melbourne. Hard to believe they are sisters.

Taking her name from one of the first ships of the Australian Navy, in this case, a WWI cruiser, Melbourne sailed from Glasgow for Australia on 11 March 1956 with 808 Squadron (Sea Venom all-weather fighters) and 816 & 817 Squadrons (Gannet anti-submarine aircraft) embarked, a total of some 64 aircraft packed aboard.

Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne greets her Hawaiian hosts. Pearl Harbor 1958 note 9 Gannets on the stern

For the next several years, she participated in regular South East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) exercises and operations that took her all over the Pacific. During one cruise in 1958, she clocked more than 25,000 nautical miles alone.

HMAS Melbourne conducting damage control drills off Thistle Island, Spencer Gulf, SA, 3 March 1960. She would need them in the future.

In 1963, due to budget constraints, the Sea Venoms and Gannets began to retire, replaced eventually with A-4G Skyhawks, S-2 trackers (whose wingspan was only three feet less than her flight deck width), and Westland Wessex anti-submarine helicopters.

On 17 March of that year, Melbourne celebrated her 20,000th landing when Lieutenant Ryland Gill, RAN, landed his Gannet on board.

HMAS Melbourne, HMAS Vendetta (D08), HMAS Voyager (D04), and HMAS Quiberon (G81) sailing alongside each other. Voyager and Melbourne would soon meet again under less happy conditions

Tragedy struck on 10 February 1964 when Melbourne was performing trials in Jervis Bay and collided with the Daring-class destroyer HMAS Voyager while zigzagging, which left the smaller warship cut in two and sinking, taking 82 lives with her in just 10 minutes.

The bow of HMAS Melbourne after the collision with HMAS Voyager

A Royal Commission ultimately found that Melbourne‘s skipper was unfit to command for medical reasons while an earlier Commission held that Voyager was primarily at fault for failing to maintain effective situational awareness.

After repairs, Melbourne returned to sea on 11 May 1964.

Soon she became involved in the periphery of the Vietnam conflict, with some of her Skyhawk crews training to fly on combat missions there from bases in Thailand, though they ultimately were not used. She escorted her sister Sydney on several trips to Vietnam carrying Australian troops to the war zone. It should be noted that between 1962-75 almost 60,000 Australians, including ground troops and air force and navy personnel, served in Vietnam; 521 died as a result of the war, and over 3,000 were wounded.

It was during that conflict that Melbourne was involved in a repeat of the Voyager incident when on 3 June 1969, while participating in SEATO exercise Sea Spirit in the South China Sea, she collided with USS Frank E. Evans (DD-754), slicing the vessel in two in the dark and killing 74 of her crew.

Evans, her stern cut away, post-collison

Evans, her stern cutaway, post-collision

A joint RAN–USN board of inquiry found officers on both ships to blame. The Wessex unit onboard, 817 Squadron RAN, was later awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for their rescue efforts in the aftermath of the event.

Repaired, Melbourne undertook regular ANZUK, RIMPAC, and SEATO exercises as well as waved the flag extensively around the Pacific. At one point in 1974, she even embarked on a US Coast Guard Sikorsky HH 52 Seaguard helicopter for a time in the spirit of jointness.

National Salutes exchanged as Melbourne enters Manila Bay at 0850, 22 May 1969 prior to anchoring at 0900. she would keep her WWII era bofors, though reduced in number, until her decommisoning

National Salutes were exchanged as Melbourne entered Manila Bay at 0850, 22 May 1969 before anchoring at 0900. she would keep her WWII-era Bofors, though reduced in number, until her decommissioning

A-4G Skyhawks conduct a low flypast 2 September 1971.

A-4G Skyhawks conduct a low flypast on 2 September 1971.

S-2 landing HMAS Melbourne. Via the STOOF Facebook page. Note how big the S-2 is on M’s bow.

RAF Avro Vulcan makes a low pass over HMAS Melbourne (R21) during Exercise Bersatu Padu, South-East Asia 1970.

HMAS Melbourne on RIMPAC ’73– look at those Skyhawks!

Her hangar deck– note the Scooter and Wessex

With Vietnam coming to a close, Melbourne‘s sister and the only other Australian flattop at the time, Sydney, was decommissioned on 12 November 1973 and sold for scrap two years later. That largely disarmed carrier conducted some 25 voyages to Vietnam between 1965 and 1972, earning the ship the nickname “Vung Tau Ferry” after the RVN port she called at so regularly.

When 1977 came, the aging Melbourne took a trip to the land of her birth, passing through the Indian Ocean and the Med to the UK where she participated in Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee– shadowed off and on by Soviet intelligence ships who came dangerously close at times.

1977 Silver Jubilee Fleet Review, note the Commonwealth flattops, HMS Ark Royal (soon to be retired), HMS Hermes, and HMAS Melbourne

HMAS Melbourne. Note how big those S-2 trackers are

Sept.1977 HMAS MELBOURNE [II] and escorts HMNZS CANTERBURY and HMAS BRISBANE

HMAS MELBOURNE SPITHEAD REVIEW JULY 77

HMAS Melbourne celebrates the silver jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 1977.

By the 1980s, her days were clearly numbered. Almost all of her sisters had gone to the breakers already with only the Argentine Navy’s ARA Veinticinco de Mayo (ex-HMS Venerable), Brazil’s Minas Gerais (ex-HMS/HMAS Vengeance), and the Indian Navy’s Vikrant (ex-HMS Hercules) still afloat.

Tracker 848 about to take the wire aboard HMAS Melbourne, 1980 the USN had retired trackers in 1976

Tracker 848 was about to take the wire aboard HMAS Melbourne, In 1980 the USN had retired trackers in 1976. Look how broad that wingspan is.

HMAS Melbourne (R21) at Honiara, Solomon Islands. 1st of April 1980. note Skyhawks on deck

HMAS Melbourne (R21) note Sea King on deck

The plan at the time was hatched for Australia to buy the new British “Harrier carrier” HMS Invincible, then under construction, as Melbourne’s replacement.

HMAS Melbourne was decommissioned on 30 June 1982, having spent 62,036 hours underway and steamed 868,893 nautical miles in her 27 years with the RAN.

However, with the Brits finding HMS Invincible newly useful during the Falkland Islands War, the deal fell through and Australia has been without a carrier for the past 34 years. The last Australian A-4G flights took place on 30 June 1984 followed the next week by the last S-2G.

The stricken Melbourne was initially sold in June 1984 to an Australian company for A$1.7 million, however, the sale fell through, and the next year she was sold to a Chinese company for A$1.4 million to be broken up for scrap metal in the port of Dalian, China.

Though her rudders were welded in place and all sensitive gear removed, the Chinese still got more than some scrap iron and asbestos out of her. During a painstakingly slow disassembly over the next 15+ years, the Chinese reportedly made extensive notes on her construction and steam catapult and landing systems as first steps towards their own carrier program. Reportedly, the Chinese Navy reverse-engineered a land-based replica of Melbourne‘s cat by 1987 and has used it in a series of trials of their own carrier-based aircraft.

The PLAN further compared the 1940s British design to that of the 1970s Soviet helicopter carriers Kiev and Minsk, purchased in the 1990s as floating amusement parks for tourists, to help with their own best practices in flattop construction moving forward.

As for the Australians, the name Melbourne was recycled for the Oliver Hazard Perry/Adelaide-class frigate HMAS Melbourne (FFG 05) that entered service in 1992.

A vibrant veterans group for all ships of that name exists as does a very in-depth page maintained by the RAN from which a number of these images originate.

In the U.S., Melbourne‘s legacy is remembered by the veterans of Evans and the survivors of those who were lost. The Department of Defense has agreed to review a request from families of 74 U.S. Navy sailors to add their names to the national Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall.

The USS Frank E Evans Association keeps that vessel’s story alive.

In 2012, the Australian government issued a formal and official apology to Melbourne Capt. John Stevenson, who was in charge of the vessel during the Evans collision said he was “not treated fairly” by the government of the day and the Australian Navy.

All of the Colossus/Majestic class carriers are now gone, with INS Vikrant, saved briefly as a museum ship, scrapped in 2014, ending the era of these light carriers.

However, Australia’s two Canberra-class landing helicopter docks, 30,000-ton ships larger than Melbourne and Sydney ever were by far, are envisioned to be capable of handling the F-35B with some modifications and Prime Minister Tony Abbott instructed 2015 Defence White Paper planners to consider the option of embarking F-35B squadrons aboard the two ships, though at present it seems unlikely.

Specs:

Displacement:
Standard: 15,740 long tons (17,630 short tons)
Full load: 20,000 long tons (22,000 short tons)
Length:
213.97 m (702 ft.) overall
Increased by 2.43 m (8 ft.) in 1969
Beam: 24.38 m (80 ft.)
Draught: 7.62 m (25 ft.)
Propulsion: Two Parsons single-reduction geared turbine sets; four Admiralty 3-drum boilers; two screws (port: 3 blades, starboard: 4 blades); 40,000 shp (30,000 kW)
Speed: 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph)
Range:
12,000 nautical miles (22,000 km; 14,000 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
6,200 nautical miles (11,500 km; 7,100 mi) at 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph)
Complement: 1,350, including 350 Air Group personnel
Sensors and processing systems:
Radar:
1955–1968:
3 × Type 277Q height finding set
1 × Type 293Q surface search set
1 × Type 978 navigational set
1969–1982:
1 × Type 293Q surface search set
1 × Type 978 navigational set
1 × LW-02 air search set
1 × SPN-35 landing aid radar
Armament:
1955–1959:
25 × 40 mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns (6 twin mountings, 13 single mountings)
1959–1968:
21 × Bofors (6 twins, 9 single)
1969–1980:
12 × Bofors (4 twins, 4 single)
1980–1982:
4 × Bofors (4 single)
Aircraft carried: Up to 27 aircraft, including helicopters.
Typical air group 1956-1965: 8 Sea Venoms, 16 Gannets, 2 Sycamore helicopters
Typical air group 1965-1972: 4 Skyhawks, 6 Trackers, 8 Wessex
Typical air group 1972-1984: 8 Skyhawks, 6 Trackers, 8 Sea Kings, 3 Wessex
If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International

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

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

Nearing their 50th Anniversary, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

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Warship Wednesday July 13, 2016: The tale of the pre-owned polar sub

Posted on July 13, 2016 by laststandonzombieisland 2 comments

Warship Wednesday, July 13, 2016: The tale of the pre-owned polar sub

Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1978 #: NH 86969

Here we see the O-class diesel-electric submarine USS O-12 (SS-73) at the Lake Torpedo Boat Co., Bridgeport, Connecticut, on 7 October 1918, just before her completion. Although her Naval service during the Great War and immediately after was limited, her mark on history was not.

The U.S. Navy, dating back to the Revolutionary War’s Turtle and the Civil War’s Alligator, was a world leader in submarine development.

Starting with the 64-ton gas/electric USS Holland (SS-1) in 1900, the Navy proceeded with the 7-vessel Plunger-class; 3-ship Viper/B-class; 5-ship Octopus/C-class (the first United States submarines with two-shaft propulsion and an overall length longer than 100-feet); 3-ship Narwhal/D-class (designed to survive flooding in one compartment); 2-ship E-class (first US diesel-powered submarines and first with bow-planes); 4-ship F-class; 4-ship G-class; 9-ship H-class; 8-ship K-class; 11 L-class boats (first US submarine class equipped with a deck gun); the unique M-1 (world’s first double-hulled design); 3 large 1,500-ton AA-1-class boats capable of 20-knots; and 7 smaller N-class boats (first US Navy submarine class completed with metal bridge shields) by 1917.

In all, some 67 submersibles were built in less than two decades, with each teaching a lesson.

This led to the most capable class of U.S. Navy subs commissioned in World War I, the O-class.

Originally designed to fight off German U-boats along the East Coast, the boats of this class were not gigantic (500-600 tons, 173 feet oal) but had a decent 5,500 nm range and could carry 8 torpedoes as well as a deck gun. Laid down in five different yards (and two slightly different designs, one by Electric Boat the other by Lake) on both coasts starting in March 1916, all 16 were completed in 1918.

Built for $550,000 each, they were the first U.S. boats with really reliable diesel engines as well as the first in which each officer and man had his own berth and locker (even later designs would require “hot-bunking” well into the 1970s)

Wartime service on the O-class was limited, with two being shelled by an armed British steamer who thought them to be U-boats being the closest they came to combat.

The hero of our tale, USS O-12, was laid down at the Mr. Simon Lake’s Torpedo Boat Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut and commissioned 18 October 1918.

USS O-12 (SS-73) Photographed as she left her dock at the Lake Torpedo Boat Co., to start her official trials, Bridgeport, Connecticut, 21 August 1918. Note damaged bridge in the background. #: NH 44559

Made part of Submarine Division 1, she was sent with several sisters to secure the Panama Canal, where she spent almost all of her U.S. Naval career.

USS O-12 (Submarine # 73) At Coco Solo, Panama Canal Zone in February 1920. Donation of Lieutenant Gustave Freret, USN (Retired), 1971. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 74644

"O" Class Submarines photographed in port by A.E. Wells of Washington, D.C., circa 1919, with S.S. SOTHERLAND in background. Subs are (l-r): O-12 (SS-73), O-15 (SS-76), O-16 (SS-77), O-14 (SS-75), O-13 (SS-74), O-11 (SS-72).#: NH 44558

“O” Class Submarines photographed in Panama by A.E. Wells of Washington, D.C., circa 1919, with S.S. SOTHERLAND in background. Subs are (l-r): O-12 (SS-73), O-15 (SS-76), O-16 (SS-77), O-14 (SS-75), O-13 (SS-74), O-11 (SS-72).#: NH 44558

Submarines O-12, O-14, O-11, and others in dry-dock circa 1919 with floating Derrick No. 5 (YD-5). Description: Courtesy Philadelphia evening ledger. #: NH 42566

On 17 June 1924, after just a few years in commission, she was pulled from service along with all of her Lake Torpedo Boat Company design sisters, replaced by newer R and S-class submarines. Meanwhile, nine of her Electric Boat-designed classmates continued service (one, USS O-5, was lost in a collision on 28 October 1923).

Rusting away in Philadelphia, O-12 was stricken on 29 July 1930 and was soon leased for $1 per year (with a maximum of five years in options) to Lake’s company for use as a private research submarine– as far as I can tell the first time this occurred. As part of the lease, she was disarmed and had to be either returned to the Navy or scuttled in at least 1,200 feet of water after her scientific use.

Australian explorer and man of letters Sir George Hubert Wilkins, MC & Bar, and American polar explorer and philanthropist Lincoln Ellsworth (whose family bankrolled Roald Amundsen’s 1925 attempt to fly from Svalbard to the North Pole) hammered out a deal to use the retired sub on a private trip to the North.

Simon Lake was all-in and made tremendous modifications to the ex-O-12.

Cutaway illustration of the Nautilus for Modern Mechanics magazine, 1931

Cutaway illustration of the O-12/Nautilus for Modern Mechanics magazine, 1931

The prow of the submarine was equipped with a rounded plunger, which served as extra protection while diving under the ice. Her topside structure cleared for operating under ice, she was outfitted with a custom-designed drill that would allow her to bore through the ice pack overhead for ventilation and even transfer crew through the pack.

Elevating conning tower showing crewman exiting through tube on to ice

Elevating conning tower showing crewman exiting through the tube on to the ice

All 18 crewmembers–mostly ex-Navy men– had to sign a contract indemnifying Lake, the submarine’s skipper Sloan Danenhower and the Expedition against damages, including particularly claims for death.

Jean Jules Verne, grandson of Jules Verne, author of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was present at christening, at the invitation of Lake, and the ship was named Nautilus. She was christened with a bucket of ice cubes.

Ellsworth contributed $90,000 to the project while newspaper tycoon Randolph Hearst added $61,000 for exclusive rights to the story. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute pitched in $35,000 and even Wilkins chipped in $25,000 of his own money. There were also several moneymaking tie-ins.

During the expedition, special radio telegrams were sent as were a series of 12,655 postal covers (mailed during the voyage at London, Bergen, Spitsbergen and from an unidentified port at the end of the expedition. The basic fee was 75 cents per cover for the first three legs, $1 for the final leg with additional fees for registry service and autographs.)

However, things started going bad almost immediately.

A June 1931 crossing to Europe almost ended in failure had Nautilus not been towed by the battleship USS Wyoming in the mid-Atlantic and emergency repairs in England. Setting out from Norway in August, they only had 600 miles to go to reach the Pole and make history.

Nautilus in the dry dock in Devonport, England undergoing repairs to the engines and other items things that failed during the first part of the voyage

Ex O Class Submarine USS O-12 pictured loading what looks like powdered milk at Bergen in 1930.

Nautilus reached 82°N, the farthest north any vessel had reached under its own power, and preparations began to dive –the first submarine to operate under the polar ice cap.

Captain Sloan Danenhower opening the conning tower hatch following a dive. A huge cake of ice can be seen jammed on the main ice drill

The Nautilus in the Arctic, 1931.

The thing is, she was missing her diving planes, suffering from mechanical issues, facing thicker ice than anticipated, and fighting severe storms and by September had to turn back for Spitsbergen and then Norway, for repairs, without ever reaching the Pole.

In Bergen

There in Norway, Wilkins threw in the towel on Nautilus and agreed with the Navy to sink her in deep water outside Bergen, which was done 30 November 1931.

Her wreck, in over 1,100 feet of water, was found in 1985 and has been visited several times since then. In good condition, the Bergen Maritime Museum has an extensive exhibit on her though there are no plans to raise this world’s first Arctic submarine.

As for her sisters, the five other Lake designs were scrapped in 1930, USS O-9 (SS-70) and her 33 officers and men were lost on a test dive in 1941, and seven Electric-design classmates served through World War II at New London training thousands of students at the Submarine School, being scrapped in 1946. Few enduring relics remain of the class.

The Ohio State University Libraries have an extensive online exhibit on Nautilus as does PigBoats.com from which many of the images in this post originate. Dr. Stewart B. Nelson has a great post covering the vessel and her discovery here while the Universal Ship Cancellation Society Log details the philately history of the Nautilus covers in a way far outside the scope of this post.

Wilkins’ 1931 book “Under the North Pole: the Wilkins-Ellsworth Submarine Expedition” is available for download free online in multiple formats.

After his death, the Navy later took his ashes to the North Pole aboard the submarine USS Skate on 17 March 1959. The Navy confirmed on 27 March that, “In a solemn memorial ceremony conducted by Skate shortly after surfacing, the ashes of Sir Hubert Wilkins were scattered at the North Pole in accordance with his last wishes.”

Specs:

Simon Lake’s O-12 (SS-73) retained his trademark stern and amidships planes (shown folded down in the outboard view). Note the separate flooding ports in the watertight superstructure. Drawing by Jim Christley, text courtesy of U.S. Submarines Through 1945, An Illustrated Design History by Norman Friedman. Naval Institute Press. Via Navsource

O-12 (SS-73) was discarded in 1930 to be rebuilt by Lake & Danenhower Inc., of Bridgeport CT., for the Wilkins Artic expedition. Lake had long thought about submarine operations under ice; in 1903, he built a trestle atop his Protector and deliberately operated her in iced waters. The Nautilus conversion, shown here, was far more sophisticated. Drawing by Jim Christley, text courtesy of U.S. Submarines Through 1945, An Illustrated Design History by Norman Friedman. Naval Institute Press. Via Navsource

O-12 (SS-73) was discarded in 1930 to be rebuilt by Lake & Danenhower Inc., of Bridgeport CT., for the Wilkins Arctic expedition. Lake had long thought about submarine operations under ice; in 1903, he built a trestle atop his Protector and deliberately operated her in iced waters. The Nautilus conversion, shown here, was far more sophisticated. Drawing by Jim Christley, text courtesy of U.S. Submarines Through 1945, An Illustrated Design History by Norman Friedman. Naval Institute Press. Via Navsource

Displacement:
491 long tons (499 t) surfaced
566 long tons (575 t) submerged
Length: 175 ft. (53 m)
Beam: 16 ft. 7 in (5.05 m)
Draft: 13 ft. 11 in (4.24 m)
Propulsion:
Diesel-electric
2 × 500 hp (373 kW) Busch Sulzer diesel engines
2 × 400 hp (298 kW) Diehl electric motors
1 shaft
18,588 US gallons (70,360 l; 15,478 imp gal) fuel
Speed:
14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) surfaced
11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph) submerged
Test depth: 200 ft (61 m)
Complement: 2 officers, 27 men (Naval service), 20 scientists, explorers, and crew in civilian
Armament: (Disarmed 1930)
4 × 18 in (457 mm) torpedo tubes, 8 torpedoes
1 × 3″/50 caliber deck gun

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

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

Nearing their 50th Anniversary, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

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

I’m a member, so should you be!

Warship Wednesday July 6, 2016: Of British frogmen and Japanese holy mountains

Posted on July 6, 2016 by laststandonzombieisland One comment

Warship Wednesday July 6, 2016: Of British frogmen and Japanese holy mountains

Colorized photo by Atsushi Yamashita/Monochrome Specter

Here we see His Imperial Japanese Majesty’s Ship Takao, the leader of her class, who would go on to fight giants only to be crippled by midgets.

Beginning in the 1920s, the Imperial Japanese Navy had progressed from their traditional enemies– the Chinese, Russians, and Imperial Germans– to the prospect of taking on the British and Americans in the Pacific. This led to new battleships and carriers.

To screen these ships, heavy cruisers were needed. This led to the eight ships that included the 9,500-ton Furutaka-class, 8,900-ton Aoba-class, and 14,500-ton Myōkō-class heavy cruisers built between 1925-29. Building on the lessons learned from these, the Navy ordered four impressive 15,490-ton Takao-class ships, each mounting 10 20 cm/50 3rd Year Type naval guns (the heaviest armament of any heavy cruiser in the world at the time) and buttressed by up to five inches of armor plate.

Bow turrets of Takao about 1932. Via Navweaps

Capable of making 35+ knots, these were bruisers and if their main guns did not catch you then their eight tubes of Type 90 (and later Type 93) torpedoes would.

Laid down at Yokosuka Naval Arsenal on 28 April 1927, class leader Takao was named after the holy mountain in Kyoto which is home to the Jingo-ji temple that dates back to the 9th Century.

She was commissioned 20 May 1932 and soon three sisters followed her into service.

IJN heavy cruiser Takao as published in The Air and Sea Co. – The Air and Sea, vol.2, no.6 1933

Japanese heavy cruiser ship: H.I.J.M.S. TAKAO Catalog #: NH 111672

May.11,1937 Takao class Heavy-cruiser Takao at Sukumo Bay. Note her extensive bridge and mast location. Colorized photo by Atsushi Yamashita/Monochrome Specter

Proving top-heavy, Takao and to a lesser degree her sisters were modified by having their bridge reduced, main mast was relocated aft, and hull budges added to improve stability.

World War II era recognition drawings, showing the configuration of Takao (1932-1945) and Atago (1932-1944), as modernized in 1938-39. The original print came from Office of Naval Intelligence files. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 97770

July 14, 1939 Takao-class Heavy cruiser “Takao” on sea trials at Tateyama after reconstruction. Colorized photo by Atsushi Yamashita/Monochrome Specter

1939 Yokosuka

Takao cut her teeth patrolling off the coast of China during military operations there and on Dec. 8, 1941 fired her first shots in anger against Americans when she plastered the shoreline of the Lingayen Gulf on Luzon in the Philippines.

Moving into the Dutch East Indies operating with Cruiser Division 4, she quickly sank five Dutch merchantmen, the British minesweepers HMS Scott Harley and M-51, the Clemson-class destroyer USS Pillsbury (DD-227) with all hands, and the Royal Australian Navy sloop HMAS Yarra in the first part of 1942.

During the Battle of Midway, Takao and her sister Maya took part in the diversionary task force to capture Attu and Kiska in the Aleutians.

November 1942 found her off Guadalcanal with Adm.Nobutake Kondō’s task force built around the battleship Kirishima, Takao and her sister Atago, light cruisers Nagara and Sendai, and nine destroyers. There they collided with TF-64 under Admiral Willis A. Lee made up of the new battleships USS Washington (BB-56) and South Dakota (BB-57), together with four destroyers.

By Lukasz Kasperczyk

In the ensuing melee, Takao hit SoDak multiple times with shells, knocking out her radar and fire controls and fired Long Lance torpedoes at Washington but missed. Kirishima sank and the battle was a strategic victory for Halsey and the U.S. fleet.

For the next year, she spent her life on the run, hiding from the ever-increasing U.S. submarine force while she helped evac Guadalcanal and hid out at Truk. During the war her armament and sensor package changed a number of times (as evidenced by the plans under the specs section below).

In Nov. 1943 Takao was shellacked by SBDs Dauntless from USS Saratoga, dodged torps from USS Dace the next April, then sucked up two torpedoes from USS Darter that October which left her unable to do much more than limp around the ocean at 10-knots.

By Halloween 1944, Takao was the last of her class. Sisterships Atago, Maya and Chokai were all sunk (two by submarines) within the same week during the Battle of Leyte Gulf/Samar by U.S. forces.

A wreck, by Nov. 1944 she was largely immobile at Singapore, afloat with nothing but a skeleton crew on board and no ammunition for her large guns. Her value strictly as a floating and heavily camouflaged anti-air battery.

Crucero pesado Takao en 1945 - Lukasz Kasperczyk

Crucero Takao en 1945 – Lukasz Kasperczyk

She was joined there by Myōkō, who like Takao and the rest of the available Combined Fleet, had participated in the Battle of Leyte Gulf which left her with an air-dropped torpedo in her hull and another, picked up from the submarine USS Bergall as the heavy cruiser staggered off to Southeast Asia, left her irreparable at Singapore without more materials, and impossible to tow to Japan.

Operation Struggle

During the war, the British built a more than two dozen 54-foot long X/XE/XT-class midget submarines. Capable of just a short 24-36 hour sortie, they had to be launched close to their target (think SMS Tirpitz) by a tender ship and, after penetrating an enemy harbor, frogmen would attach demo charges to ships belonging to the Emperor or Der Fuhrer.

They carried a crew of four: typically a Lieutenant in command, with a Sub-Lieutenant as deputy, an Engine Room Artificer in charge of the mechanical side and a Seaman or Leading-Seaman. At least one of them was qualified as a diver.

In January 1945, the converted freighter HMS Bonaventure (F139) set sail for the Pacific with six XE-type submarines on her deck, arriving at Brisbane, Australia on 27 April– as the European war ended. The first action these Lilliputian subs saw was in an attempt to cut the Japanese underwater telegraph lines off Borneo.

In Hervey Bay, Queensland, XE3 prepares for trials July 1945

Warming up for more daring missions, the Brits launched Operation Struggle in August in which Bonaventure sailed for the coast near Singapore and launched HMS XE1 and XE3 into the waves with a mission to sink the (already busted) Japanese cruisers Myōkō and Takao respectively. Escorted closer by the S-class submarine HMS Stygian, the tiny XE boats took all afternoon and night to penetrate the harbor defenses.

Lieutenant Ian Edward Fraser RNR, commanded the three-man crew inside XE-3 when they found Takao, then lying in the Johore Straits to guard the entrance to occupied Singapore, and what he saw was surreal.

The plates of the hull and the rivets of the big cruiser could be seen very clearly through the porthole of XE-3 in the 18-feet of seawater between the bottom of the ship and the mud. One side tank held 2-tons of amatol high explosive, the second one held six 200-pound limpet mines, and Fraser held two “spare” limpets in the casing of the midget sub.

After setting all of their charges, Fraser surfaced the tiny sub not too far off from the cruiser so the crew could see the vessel for what they thought was the last time, “I thought they might like to see it,” he said in a post-war interview.

Six hours later the charges tore a gaping hole in the cruiser’s hull, putting her turrets out of action, damaging her range finders, flooding numerous compartments and immobilizing the cruiser for the remainder of the war. She settled six feet six feet deeper into the harbor though her 01 deck was still above water even at high tide and was still technically afloat.

Both Magennis and Fraser gained the Victoria Cross for this hazardous mission, with the other two crew members also decorated ( Sub-Lieutenant William James Lanyon Smith, RNZNVR, who was at the controls of XE3 during the attack, received the DSO; Engine Room Artificer Third Class Charles Alfred Reed, who was at the wheel, received the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal).

James Magennis VC and Ian Fraser VC WWII IWM 26940A

A week later, after aerial recon showed the Takao was still in the harbor– though nearly on the bottom of it– Fraser and his crew were readying a second go round on the ship and the Myōkō that was postponed by the dropping of the A-bomb and then later canceled once the surrender was announced.

This, Fraser said, made him a big fan of the Bomb and left him with a rough attitude towards Japanese.

Both Myōkō and Takao surrendered to the British when they arrived in Singapore in force on Sept. 21 as part of Operation Tiderace, and when the RN got a closer look at the two found out the truth about their condition.

Fraser even returned to inspect the Takao in Singapore himself just after the end of the war. The beaten cruiser, however, would never see Japan again. She was patched up and scuttled 27 October 1946 by British Forces, with the Crown Colony-class light cruiser HMS Newfoundland (59) sending her into very deep water by the judicious use of naval gunfire and torpedoes– likely one of the last time a cruiser used a torpedo on another.

Her crew was repatriated to Japan in 1947.

As for XE-3, she was scrapped along with most of the other British midgets with only XE8 “Expunger” saved and put on public display at the Chatham Historic Dockyard.

For Takao, little remains.

A 1930 1:100 scale builder’s model of the Takao, captured in Japan in 1945, is in the collection of the Naval History and Heritage Command and has been displayed off an on for generations.

Catalog #: NH 84079. Note her original mast and bridge.

Takao has, however, inspired a number of pieces of naval art, mainly for model covers over the past several decades.

In the UK, the Imperial War Museum has the frogman swim suit worn on by Leading Seaman James Joseph Magennis RN, VC when as the diver of the midget submarine XE3 (commanded by Lieutenant Ian Edward Fraser RNR) he attached limpet explosive charges to the hull of ‘Takao‘, as well as a white IJN captain’s field cap recovered from the vessel.

The IWM also has a 1980 interview with XE 3 skipper Lt. Comm. Ian Fraser, V.C., D S.C. that includes his own account of the Takao strike (reel 2 and 3).

He wrote a book about his WWII exploits, which is long out of print but is still very much in circulation.

Specs:

Takao plans via shipbucket http://www.shipbucket.com/images.php?dir=Real%20Designs/Japan

Takao’s ever-changing plans via shipbucket

Displacement:
9,850 t (9,690 long tons) (standard)
15,490 t (15,250 long tons) (full load)
Length:
192.5 m (632 ft.)
203.76 m (668.5 ft.) overall
Beam:
19 m (62 ft.)
20.4 m (67 ft.)
Draft:
6.11 m (20.0 ft)
6.32 m (20.7 ft.)
Propulsion:
4 shaft geared turbine
12 Kampon boilers
132,000 shp (98,000 kW)
Speed: 35.5–34.2 knots (65.7–63.3 km/h; 40.9–39.4 mph)
Range: 8,500 nautical miles (15,700 km; 9,800 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Complement: 773
Armament:
Original layout:
10 × 20 cm/50 3rd Year Type naval guns (5×2)
4 × Type 10 12 cm high angle guns (4×1)
8 × 61 cm torpedo tubes (4×2)
2 × 40 mm AA guns (2×1)
2 x 7.7 mm Type 92 MG (2×1)
Final Layout (Takao):
10 × 20 cm/50 3rd Year Type naval guns (5×2)
4 × Type 89 12.7 cm (5 in) dual-purpose guns, (4×1)
66 × Type 96 25 mm (1.0 in) AA guns (26×1, 12×2, 24×3)
4 × Type 93 13.2 mm (0.5 in) AA machine guns
Type 93 torpedoes (4×4 + 8 reloads)
depth charges
Armor:
main belt: 38 to 127 mm
main deck: 37 mm (max)
upper deck: 12.7 to 25 mm
bulkheads: 76 to 100 mm
turrets: 25 mm
Aircraft carried:
One Aichi E13A1 “Jake”
Two F1M2 “Pete” seaplanes
Aviation facilities: 2 catapults

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

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Warship Wednesday June 29, 2016: Greely’s last hope

Posted on June 29, 2016 by laststandonzombieisland 2 comments

Warship Wednesday June 29, 2016: Greely’s last hope

Library of Congress LC-DIG-det-4a14781

Here we see the gunboat USS Thetis, a 189-foot, 1,250-ton barquentine-rigged sealer and whaler constructed with a reinforced hull for operations in ice, purchased by the Navy for the Greeley relief expedition, for which it had been so employed about a decade before the above image was taken.

What was the Greely expedition?

Officially dubbed the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition, it was a wholly U.S. Army (Signal Corps) backed endeavor led by 1st Lt. Adolphus Greely (5th U.S. Cav), and numbered some 20 officers and enlisted men along with tag along civilians astronomer Edward Israel and Dr. Octave Pavy; joined by two Inuit dogsled drivers/hunters, Frederick Thorlip Christiansen and Jens Edward.

Embarked on the charted merchant ship SS Proteus (formerly a steam sealer hired by the War Department), the expedition was one of science and not warfare with its members dressed in civilian mufti for press photographs.

The expedition…. via NOAA G2V1-040-B

Proteus Photo: NOAA

The hardy and rather dapper group set sail for the Far North, being disembarked by Proteus at Lady Franklin Bay near the northeastern shore of Ellesmere Island 11 Aug 1881 to establish a meteorological-observation station as part of the First International Polar Year from where they would winter over and collect weather and geophysical information (as well as push as far north as possible).

Two men, 1SG David Legge Brainard, late of the 2nd Cavalry and the Nez Perce War, and Lt. James Booth Lockwood, pushed the furthest north that any expedition until then ever had. Suffering through average temperatures of -75 degrees, violent storms and rough ice, they reached latitude 83 degrees 30′ North, within 350 miles of the North Pole, the farthest north ever reached by man. A silk U.S. flag made by Mrs. Greeley was unfurled on land they named Lockwood Island. Their record stood for 13 years until Norwegians Fridtjof Nansen and Fredrik Hjalmar Johansen reached latitude 86°14′ N.

As time wore on, shit got real, with 1882 coming and going and no resupply ship able to reach the expedition. This led to a rescue mission the next year.

Proteus, placed under the command of young Army 1st Lt. Ernest Albert Garlington (USMA 1876 and later a MOH recipient), attempted to retrieve Greely and company in 1883 along with the yacht Yantic, but failed dramatically when the big sealer was crushed in the ice. They had left New York with 50,000 rations and had only succeeded in landing 1,000, some of which Greely later found at Cape Sabine.

However, the rations would not be enough and the expedition wound up eating bird eggs, moss, seals, tiny shrimp, their dogs, their shoes, and any other thing they could (more on this) to keep alive as madness, scurvy and frostbite set in.

Then, with 1884 rearing its head with the prospect of our desperate Army meteorologists and civilian experts (whose contracts had expired and really wanted to go home) becoming popsicles or polar bear scat, the Navy stepped in.

Which brings us to Thetis.

The Scottish firm of Alexander Stephen & Sons Ltd., Greenock, was renowned at the time for being a global leader in the craft of large ocean-going sealers and whalers. One hull, the 198-foot/703-ton sealer Bear, was completed by the firm in 1874 and had been operating out of St. Johns, Newfoundland for a decade when the U.S. Navy bought her up for use in helping to rescue the Greely expedition.

Another Alexander Stephen & Sons’ vessel, the brand new and slightly larger sealer, Thetis, was just finishing her fit out in Dundee and purchased by the Navy 2 February 1884 to accompany Bear as the flag of the mission. She was a beautiful and very functional vessel with a strengthened wooden hull capable of operating in light ice conditions in the days before dedicated icebreakers.

Thetis put into New York for a very brief militarization and was ready for service as a commissioned warship within weeks.

USS THETIS at New York Navy Yard, 1 May 1884. Description: Courtesy of Ray Spear Catalog #: USN 900793

Commanding Officer, Commander Winfield Scott Schley’s cabin on the USS THETIS, May-June 1884. Description: Catalog #: USN 900624

Hold of the relief ship USS THETIS showing the method of providing against an ice crush, 1884. Description: Catalog #: USN 900625

With the two-ship expedition placed under the command of CDR. Winfield Scott Schley (later to become a hero and Rear Admiral for his actions at the Battle of Santiago de Cuba in 1898), they set out from New York on 11 May 1884.

USS THETIS leaving New York Navy Yard, 11 May 1884. Description: Courtesy of Ray Spear Catalog #: USN 900798

Bow of the USS THETIS, Eskimos with their dogs, sleds, and a seal, during the Greely relief expedition in Greenland, May-June 1884. Description: Collection of Mr. Ray Spear, 1933 Catalog #: NH 1724

Thetis, HMS Aurora, SS Arctic, and USS Bear threading their way through the ice

Thetis, Royal Navy steam sloop HMS Alert mislabled as “Arctic,” British merchantman Aurora and USS Bear threading their way through the ice. The two British ships, not ice strengthened, only went part of the way and were used to set up supply dumps to support Bear and Thetis in the extrication of Greely and his men

Crewmembers of USS THETIS at the time of the North Pole Expedition, 1884 Description: Courtesy Capital Gazette Press, INC., Annapolis, MD Catalog #: NH 119220

Schley (4th from left) and the crew that rescued the survivors of Adolphus Greely's expedition on Thetis June 1884

CDR Schley (4th from left) and his officers on Thetis June 1884

May – August 1884 USS Thetis (1884-1899) in the ice off Horse Head Island, Greenland on 4 June 1884, early in the search for survivors of the Greely polar exploration party. USS Bear (1884-1885, later AG-29) is astern (at left). U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 2145

Bird’s eye view from the crow’s nest of the USS THETIS of the USS BEAR among the ice floes, 22 June 1884. Description: Courtesy of Ray Spear Catalog #: USN 900738

USS THETIS plows through ice by use of a torpedo explosion off Waigat Straits, Greenland, 4 June 1884. USN 900610

USS THETIS plows through ice by use of a torpedo (mine) explosion off Waigat Straits, Greenland, 4 June 1884. USN 900610

The way was hazardous as there was much more ice back in the 19th century and today’s satellite and aerial survey was not available. Nevertheless, the two ships along with a pair of Royal Navy vessels in partnership poked through some 1,400 miles of ice, sometimes having to blow a course through the pack until on 22 June, near Cape Sabine in Grinnell Land, Schley rescued Greely and his six remaining emaciated companions who were sheltering in a broken down tent.

That’s right. Just seven of 25 were taken alive from the frozen wasteland after 34 grueling months in the inhospitable North. The dead had succumbed to starvation, hypothermia, drowning, and other perils.

Greely himself, who enlisted in the 19th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment at the age of 17 during the Civil War and had over two decades of legit campaigning under his belt, was a task-maker and conducted a 3-man firing squad execution of at least one private (Charles B. Henry, the heaviest man on the expedition) who proved an incurable food thief.

Portrait of Survivors of the Greely Relief Expedition, on board USS THETIS, at Cape Sabine on July 4-8, 1884. Caption: Survivors are shown on board the USS THETIS, at Cape Sabine on July 4-8, 1884. Back row, left to right: Private Francis Long, Sergeant Julius R. Frederick, Private Maurice Connell, Hospital Steward Henry Bierderbick. Seated, left to right: Sergeant David L. Brainard and Lieutenant A.W. Greely (not facing the camera). A seventh survivor was languishing below decks and would die before making Portsmouth. Description: Catalog #: NH 2146

Then came the 1,400-mile trip back through the same ice.

One of the seven rescuees, Sgt. Joseph Ellison, who was recovered from Cape Sabine missing a foot and a finger, died 16 days later while at a weight of just 78-pounds.

Then soon after the expedition made Portsmouth, there were allegations of cannibalism.

Second in command 2nd Lt. Frederick F. Kislingbury, a Little Big Born survivor who died of starvation (and whose fork is in the Smithsonian), was found to have his cadaver “methodically carved” postmortem.

From the New York Times, 12 August 1884:

When their food gave out the unfortunate members of the colony, shivering and starving in their little tent on the bleak shore of Smith’s Sound were led by the horrible necessity to become cannibals. The complete history of their experience in that terrible Winter must be told, and the facts hitherto concealed will make the record of the Greely colony — already full of horrors — the most dreadful and repulsive chapter in the long annals of arctic exploration.

As noted by the Army in their official history, all was forgiven due to the circumstances:

Criticized at first, Greely was eventually absolved of blame and recognized for his accomplishments. In 1886, he received the Founder’s Medal of the Royal Geographical Society of London and the Roquette Medal of the Societe de Geographie of Paris. In 1923, the American Geographical Society awarded him the Charles P. Daly Medal.

As for the Thetis, and Bear for that matter, the Navy had little continued use for ice-strengthened rescue ships from Scotland in a time when every dollar counted so both were laid up rapidly after their return from the Arctic. Thetis, her total time of active service in the Navy being just over nine months, was decommissioned 26 November 1884 and laid up at New York.

Refitted for work as a gunboat to include mounting a single Hotchkiss 53mm 5-barreled revolving cannon forward (the largest gatling gun model ever made), she was recommissioned 15 Jan 1887. This gun appeared to be the only one in federal service for a time so you can call her armament unique.

Detail of the gatling gun from the LOC photo that is the first one of this post above

Thetis then sailed from New York to San Francisco on a leisurely eight-month low budget patrol during which she stopped at most of the large Latin American ports and waved the flag.

Then came three lengthy summer survey patrols along the Alaskan coast, which took her as far as Point Barrow and Cape Sabine– where she had rescued Greenly and his men a few years before. Pressed into work as a gunboat, Thetis sortied to El Salvador to babysit American interests there during an attempted coup in July 1890, which lasted several months.

Then came more Alaska surveys, a trip to Hawaii in 1892, and a four-year period conducting coastal surveys off the Mexican Pacific coast, going out of commission in 1897.

Transferred to the Revenue Cutter Service as USRC Thetis in 1899– after landing her peculiar 53mm gatling gun for a more appropriate trio of 3-Pdr (47mm) singles– she served out of Seattle where she sailed on the Bering Sea Patrol along with her old Greely companion USRC Bear.

Eagle? Is that you? Note her scheme has change to Revenue Cutter Service standard white and buff

While stationed there, Thetis cruised the Bering Sea for the “protection of seal fisheries,” assisted vessels in distress, and carried officials from a U.S. District Court to become a “floating court.”

c. 1901 Broadside view of USRC Thetis at Pt. Barrow Donated to Mare Island Shipyard in 1987 by 2nd LT Francis R. Shoemaker Mare Island photo PG Thetis Pt. Barrow 1901-01 via Navsource

For many years, the Revenue Service was the sole source of Federal authority in the territory, including seven years when the Treasury Department was given charge of the rugged landmass. Duties of these vessels and men included protection of sealers and whalers, providing general police protection, and emergency operations.

One of the more unusual tasks Thetis performed was importing 81 Siberian reindeer to provide a food staple for starving Eskimos and she had an abundance of mascots aboard.

Officers of the Cutter THETIS circa 1904. Note the USRCS shields on their uniforms and the dog at their heels

Officers of the Cutter THETIS circa 1904. Note the distinctive USRCS shields on their uniforms, modified M1852 Naval officer’s swords and the dog at their heels

Mascot of the Revenue Cutter Thetis, somewhere up in Alaska in 1913. As the dog has 10 years of service marks, providing they aren’t in dog years, it may be the one in the photo above.

Probably the largest mascot that ever served in the Coast Guard. Here is an unnamed black bear, another mascot of the cutter Thetis, taking a break from duty– sleeping on a block of ice

In May, 1904, Thetis sailed from Seattle to Honolulu, dropped off supplies for the station at Midway, and then continued to Lisianski Island. At Lisianski, 77 Japanese feather hunters were found illegally killing terns and gooney birds. These trespassing Japanese aliens were apprehended and transported to Honolulu.

c. 1905 USRC Thetis in Hawaiian waters Donated to Mare Island Shipyard in 1987 by 2nd LT Francis R. Shoemaker Mare Island photo PG Thetis Hawaii 1904-05. Via Navsource

c. 1905 USRC Thetis in Hawaiian waters Donated to Mare Island Shipyard in 1987 by 2nd LT Francis R. Shoemaker. Note the new pilothouse. Via Navsource

Thetis contiued operations in Hawaiian waters where she investigated poaching by Japanese fishermen and transported officials of the Department of Agriculture who were studying bird populations. For the remainder of her career she shipped between Hawaii and Alaska, continuing duty as a floating court (with a U.S. District Court judge, assistant U.S. Attorney, deputy U.S. Marshall, clerk and a stenographer aboard) and investigating bird reservations throughout the Pacific, including making voyages to Midway Island and even serving as a tour boat to take the territorial governor around on goodwill visits.

Thetis was decommissioned 30 April 1916 after some 32 years of U.S. maritime service equally split between the Navy and Revenue Service.

She was sold in June to the W&S Job Co, NY, NY for $24,800 and used as a Newfoundland-based sealer until 1950 when the old girl was grounded approximately 2 miles from St. Johns and broken up, seven decades on her keel.

Today, one of the few relics of her on public display is the oddball 53mm Hotchkiss she carried from 1887-99, preserved at the Mare Island Shipyard Museum.

USS Thetis’s 53mm Hotchkiss 5-Barrel Revolver Gun, Mare Island Shipyard, by Vladimir Yakubov

Thetis, of course, was named for a sea nymph of Greek mythology who was the daughter of the sea god Nereus and the mother of the Trojan War hero Achilles. While the first Navy or Coast Guard ship to carry the name was our crush-proof sealer/rescue ship/gunboat/cutter, it would not be the last in either service.

The Navy commissioned USS Thetis (SP-391), an armed 100-ton yacht during WWI and kept her on the Navy List until 31 March 1919; then in 1944 commissioned the escort carrier USS Thetis Bay (CVE-90/CVHA-1/LPH-6) which remained in service through 1964.

USS Thetis Bay pictured underway transporting PBY Catalinas and other aircraft in need of repair to Alameda,CA. July 8,1944

For the Coast Guard’s part, they celebrated their former Revenue Marine Cutter with the 165-foot patrol cutter Thetis (WPC-115) who served from 1931-47 and chalked up at least one German U-boat during WWII as well as the more modern 270-foot medium-endurance cutter USCGC Thetis (WMEC- 910) which has been based out of Key West since 1989.

USCGC Thetis (WMEC-910) docked in the La Puntilla USCG base in San Juan, Puerto Rico

As for Greely and his expedition, he went on to become head of the Signal Corps, led the government’s responce to the San Francisco earthquake in 1906, retired as Maj. General, was issued a MoH for lifetime achievement, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Of the other survivors, many were active in exploration the rest of their lives:

1SG David L. Brainard went on to serve throughout the Spanish-American War, wrote two books about the expedition, and was the last member of the group to die in 1946. Rising to Brig. Gen., he was U.S. military attaché in Buenos Aires then Lisbon, Portugal during the Great War.
Hospital Steward Henry Bierderbick was active in the National Geographic Society, Explorers’ Club, and the Arctic Club until his death on March 25, 1916 and wrote several scholarly works about the polar region.
Pvt. Julius Frederick named his daughter Thetis and worked for the Weather Bureau for years.
Pvt. Francis Long would later join the Baldwin-Ziegler Expedition, which would attempt to reach the North Pole.
Pvt. Maurice Connell continued working for the Weather Bureau well into the 20th century after his retirement from the Signal Corps.

The expedition, gathering three years of met data in the far North at a time when none existed, produced a wealth of information that is still proving useful today.

“We are now using [Greely’s] data to understand how global warming happens,” says historian Michael Frederick Robinson, “to understand how the climate has changed over the last hundred years.”

A memorial placed in 1923 by the National Geographic Society near the site of the Greely Expedition’s landing on Pim Island endures.

Image via Wiki

Then of course, there is the Bear, but that is another story…

Specs:

Displacement: 1,250 tons
Rig: Barquentine
Length: 188′ 6″
Beam: 29′
Draft: 17′ 10″
Machinery: Compound-expansion steam
Propellers: 1
Armament:
(As commissioned)
Small arms and mines
(USN, 1887-97)
1x53mm Hotchkiss 5-barreled gatling gun
(USRM)
3 x 3-pounder 47mm rapid-fire guns

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

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Warship Wednesday June 22, 2016: A hard luck mini battlewagon

Posted on June 22, 2016 by laststandonzombieisland 2 comments

Warship Wednesday, June 22, 2016: A hard-luck mini battlewagon

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 46708. Colorized by irootoko_jr.

Here we see the proud Mississippi-class battleship Lemnos, sometimes spelled Limnos (Greek: Θ/Κ Λήμνος) of the Royal Hellenic Navy at Constantinople, Turkey, probably in 1919. The Greek torpedo boat Dafni (completed 1913) is alongside. At the time this image was taken she had but 15 years on her oldest keel plate and another 22 years of service ahead of her.

First, let us talk about her background.

Authorized under the Naval Budget of 1903, the two-ship Mississippi-class battlewagons were the last pre-dreadnought battleships to be designed for the U.S. Navy and were a compromise design aimed at saving money while still being able to compete with the British, French, Germans and, increasingly, Japanese on a global scale.

Smaller than the 16,000-ton Connecticut-class that preceded them, the Misssip‘s were squatty 13,000-ton ships with roughly the same armament (4x 12″/45 caliber Mark 5 guns in a pair of twin turrets) but could carry more rounds per tube (71 vs the Connecticut‘ 60) and could be built for about 70 percent of the price. However, they were slower (just 17 knots compared to 18.85), and even if coal was wedged in every nook and cranny (which could lead to fire and explosions) they could only steam 5,800 nautical miles at 10 knots whereas some of the Connys could go 7,590nm.

And of course, when HMS Dreadnought was commissioned 2 December 1906, every battleship in every navy around the world was obsolete.

When meant that when the Greek battlewagon of our tale, which started off as USS Idaho (Battleship #24), Mississippi‘s sister ship, was commissioned after construction at William Cramp and Sons on 1 April 1908, she was already second-class at best.

At best.

Still, Idaho was beautiful and new and the Navy had fun showing her off to the citizens of the country in the days of the Great White Fleet.

NH 60214 Naval History and Heritage Command. Both ships of this class initially carried a pole mast above the conning tower, though shortly after commissioning, both ships had lattice masts added aft, and in 1910, the forward masts were replaced with lattice masts. Also note the elegant white and buff scheme, similar to that of the Great White Fleet that she was built too late for, that she carried for just a few months.

Idaho in 1909 just after commissioning. NH 60214 Naval History and Heritage Command. Both ships of this class initially carried a pole mast above the conning tower as shown in the plans above this photo, though shortly after commissioning, both ships had lattice masts added aft, and in 1910, the forward masts were replaced with lattice masts. Also note the elegant white and buff scheme, similar to that of the Great White Fleet that she was built too late for, that she carried for just a few months.

Figurehead, USS IDAHO Caption: Photographed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 28 June 1909. Description: Presented by information section, O.N.I., 1927. This was soon removed in the effort to make the fleet more battle-ready, but I cannot find what happened to it. Most of these ornate crests were donated to state legislatures or kept by the Navy and used to adorn bases. Catalog #: NH 115210

(Battleship # 24) Photographed in 1909 by Brown & Shaffer. Collection of Chief Quartermaster John Harold. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 101497

Idaho (Battleship # 24) Photographed summer 1909 by Brown & Shaffer. Note how she is now wearing haze gray and her figurehead shown above is removed. Collection of Chief Quartermaster John Harold. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 101497

Idaho joined the giant international naval review that was Hudson-Fulton in New York City from 25 Sept- 9 October 1909 upon the Hudson River just after greeting the Great White Fleet at Hampton Roads upon their return to U.S. waters.

Idaho (Battleship # 24) In the Hudson River off Fort Lee, New York, 1909. Photographed by William H. Rau. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

Then the 1911 Naval Review

USS IDAHO (BB-24) Off New York City, 3 October 1911, during the naval review. Note she now has two lattice masts rather than the single aft one shown above. Catalog #: 19-N-13812 National Archives

USS IDAHO (BB-24) Off New York City, 3 October 1911, during the naval review with Grant’s Tomb visible just over her port side. Note she now has two lattice masts rather than the single aft one shown above. Catalog #: 19-N-13812 National Archives

And the 1912 Naval Review

USS Idaho (Battleship # 24) Dressed with flags during the Naval Review off New York City, October 1912. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives. The number 30 is her place in the review.

In fact, in the 6.3 years of semi-active service she gave her nation, Idaho‘s only tense times were a trip right after she was commissioned to Panama where she observed the elections there and then in the summer of 1913 when she was in Mexican waters for the near-constant series of crisis during that country’s revolution and civil wars.

Idaho did embark mids and naval militia on training cruises, wave the flag in Europe, and even sail as far up the Mississippi River as Vicksburg– possibly the last battleship to do so.

Still, in a move to make way for newer, larger dreadnought-style vessels, Asst. Scty of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt was able to put enough pressure on to get rid of low-mileage Idaho and her sister Mississippi by selling them to Greece amid the growing crisis in Europe that would bloom into World War I– making them the largest warships the Hellenic Navy ever operated.

The Greek battle line at the time consisted of the Italian-made Pisa-class armored cruiser Georgios Averof (10,200-tons/4×9.2-inch guns) and their elderly French-built ironclads: Hydra, Spetsai, and Psara– which were exceptionally small at just 5,300-tons, lightly armed (3x 10-inch guns) and slow (16 knots).

In a capital move, Greece paid $12,535,275 for the two American battleships– their full building cost.

The mighty Lemnos!

So in effect, the U.S. got a refund on the vessels when they transferred on 30 July 1914. Further, the funds were used to construct the New Mexico-class super-dreadnought, Idaho (BB-42), which at the time was unfunded by Congress.

Class leader Mississippi was renamed Kilkis after the crucial battle of the Second Balkan War, while Idaho became Limnos in honor of a victorious naval battle over the Turkish Navy during the First Balkan War.

Can you tell who Greece’s main rival was at the time?

Cruiser Averoff sandwiched with Kilkis and Lemnos

Cruiser Averoff outboard with Kilkis (ex-Mississippi) who has a very dark new scheme and Lemnos (ex-Idaho)

Greece’s World War I record was spotty and the French disarmed the two battleships in 1916 just to be on the safe side, reducing their crews and impounding their shells, breechblocks, rangefinders, and torpedoes. However, after a change of government, the Greeks were allowed to rearm and nominally served in the Aegean in the last months of 1918– keeping an eye on the Turks.

Battleship Kilkis in Piraeus port, 1918. Note the poor children in the foreground. Greece spent huge funds they did not have on new military equipment to fight the Turks. Photo via Bernard Flament

Greek pre-dreadnought battleship Kilkis (former USS Mississippi), Grand Harbour, Malta 1917.

Kilkis (EX USS Mississippi) – 1917 Colourised by Postales Navales

After the end of the war, Lemnos penetrated the Straits with the Allies and remained in and out of the Black and Marma Seas supporting Allied Intervention Forces in South Russia and the general occupation effort in rapidly imploding Turkey.

Speaking of which, both ships became very active once Greece and Turkey went to war in May 1919 and remained that way for the next three years.

Lemnos (Greek battleship, 1914) Firing a salute to U.S. Navy Admiral Mark L. Bristol, at Smyrna, Turkey, 15 September 1919. Lemnos is flying the U.S. and Greek flags at the foremast peak and the Italian flag at the mainmast peak. A British D-class light cruiser is in the right distance, also with the Italian flag at the mainmast peak. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

Lemnos (Greek battleship) Firing a salute to U.S. Navy Admiral Mark L. Bristol, at Smyrna, Turkey, 15 September 1919. Lemnos is flying the U.S. and Greek flags at the foremast peak and the Italian flag at the mainmast peak. A British D-class light cruiser is in the right distance, also with the Italian flag at the mainmast peak. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

Lemnos Dressed with flags at Smyrna, Turkey, in 1919, possibly on 15 September. She is flying the Greek flag at the foremast peak and the Italian flag at the mainmast peak. Photographed by Wayne. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.Catalog #: NH 46707

The two battleships helped in the occupation and then evacuation of Smyrna in the disaster following the Greek collapse and their skippers cast their lot with the uprising by the Greek army and navy against the government in Athens in Sept 1922 that effected regime change by forcing the unpopular King Constantine I to abdicate and leave the country, with a military junta ruling the country until early 1924, shortly before the Greek monarchy was abolished and the Second Hellenic Republic established.

After 1932, Lemnos landed most of her guns, turrets and even a good bit of her armor plate, which were utilized as coastal defense batteries around island straits and choke points in Greek waters for another couple of decades (more on this below). She remained afloat with her likewise mothballed but still armed sistership, being utilized for barracks, receiving and depot duties until World War II.

When the Germans busted through Greece in April 1941, both ships were found at anchor in shallow water at Salamis near Athens by Luftwaffe Ju-87 Stukas and were plastered.

German still of Lemnos and Kilkis under attack 13 April

German footage of Lemnos foreground and Kilkis background under attack 23 April

Photo #: NH 77440 Greek battleships Kilkis and Lemnos sunk in the basin of the Greek naval base at Salamis after they were hit by German air attacks on 23 April 1941. Seen from the harbor pier following the arrival of the German army. Kilkis, the former USS Mississippi (Battleship # 23), is in the foreground. Lemnos, ex-USS Idaho (Battleship # 24), is in the distance, with her guns removed. Franz Selinger, via the U.S. Naval Institute, provided the photograph and some caption information. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

Battleship Kilkis sunk German aerial photo. Note she still has her guns. Those on Idaho/Lemnos were removed before the war for use ashore.

Both ships remained on the bottom and they were broken up after the war.

Wreck of the Greek battleship Kilkis being refloated, with Averof alongside her in Salamis port, 1949, via George Kapadoukakis‎

Salamis Naval base, 1949. Averof and the sunken hulk of battleship Kilkis being raised. Photo by George Stasinopoulos

But what of the guns we mentioned above?

The twin 12 inch (305mm) turrets from the Lemnos were installed in the 1930s at Cape Tourlos (37.767069, 23.554406) on the island of Aegina where they helped to defend the approaches to the port of Athens.

Captured by the Germans in 1941, they were manned by Marineartillerieabteilung 603 (MKB Ägina-Nord) until October 1944 and– along with the 19 152mm guns manned by the Italians on the island of Leros– helped proved the basis for the fictional “Guns of Navarone” by the Scottish writer Alistair MacLean, though in the book they were described as 280mm railway guns.

The emplacements (sans guns) appear to be still visible on Google Earth. Idaho‘s 8″ and 7″ guns were likewise scattered and, knowing the Germans, may have been relocated anywhere in Festung Europa.

While some of Idaho’s guns and armor may be somewhere in a forgotten coastal defense battery long since left to ruin, items left in the States from these briefly-used ships are slim.

The silver service and ship’s figurehead shield from the Mississippi are in downtown Jackson at the Magnolia State’s Capitol.

Idaho‘s Tiffany & Co. presentation silver service, seen below in a 1912 photo, went on to serve on the Greek-funded USS Idaho BB-42 and was turned over to her namesake state in 1942 to prevent it from being lost during WWII. It had been paid for by a $7,500 allocation by the legislature in Boise and presented by Gov. Hawley to BB-24 some four years after she was commissioned.

I can only assume it is somewhere in Boise, hopefully on display.

The USS Idaho website remembers all ships of that name.

Specs:

As-built, U.S. service, image via Shipbucket

In Greek service, image via Shipbucket

Displacement: 13,000 long tons (13,200 metric tons); 14,500 full load
Length:    382 ft. (116 m)
Beam:    77 ft. (23 m)
Draft:    24.7 ft. (7.5 m)
Speed:    17 kn (20 mph; 31 km/h)
Range:        1,900 nm at 10 knots with standard 600t coal bunkerage. When overloaded with 1,800 tons could make 5,800
Complement: 34 officers and 710 enlisted in U.S. service. Unknown in Hellenic service.
Armament:    (As commissioned, largely disarmed 1932)
4 × 12 in (305 mm)/45 caliber Mark 5 guns (2×2)
8 × 8 in (203 mm)/45 caliber guns (4×2)
8 × 7 in (180 mm)/45 caliber Mark 2 guns
12 × 3 in (76 mm)/50 caliber guns
2 × 21 in (530 mm) torpedo tubes
Armor:
Belt: 7–9 in (178–229 mm)
Barbettes: 6–10 in (152–254 mm)
Turret (mains) 8–12 in (203–305 mm)
Turret (secondary): 7 in (178 mm)
Conning tower: 9 in (229 mm)

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

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Warship Wednesday June 15, 2016: It’s you, you’re the rocket mail

Posted on June 15, 2016 by laststandonzombieisland 15 comments

Warship Wednesday, June 15, 2016: It’s you, you’re the rocket mail

Source: NARA San Francisco, Mare Island Naval Shipyard Ship Files. USN photo # NY9-27726-1-56

Here we see a port-quarter view of the Balao-class diesel-electric submarine USS Barbero (SS/SSA/SSG-317) at Mare Island on 18 January 1956. Though she served a hair over 20 years in the fleet, not a very long time at all, her appearance and mission morphed numerous times.

A member of the 128-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. U.S. subs, unlike those of many navies of the day, were ‘fleet’ boats, capable of unsupported operations in deep water far from home.

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 5000-ton Maru or warship by surfacing and using their 4-inch/50 caliber and 40mm/20mm AAA’s. The also served as the firetrucks of the fleet, rescuing downed naval aviators from right under the noses of Japanese warships.

We have covered a number of this class before, such as carrier-sinking USS Archerfish the long-serving USS Catfish and the frogman Cadillac USS Perch —but don’t complain, they have lots of great stories.

Laid down 25 March 1943 at General Dynamics Electric Boat, Groton, Connecticut, the hero of our tale, Barbero, was commissioned 13 months later on 29 April 1944, T/Cdr. Irvin Swander Hartman, USN, in command.

Destination Tokyo! Launching the submarine USS Barbero (SS-317), type Balao, December 12, 1943

I can’t find a good wartime profile of Barbero, but here is her most excellent sistership USS Baya SS-318 in 1944, who was built the same week she was, for reference

Transiting the Panama Canal, Barbero arrived at Pearl and departed on her first war patrol on 9 Aug 1944, headed for the Philippine Sea.

The only Japanese warship she spotted, an armed trawler in San Bernardino Strait, escaped harm but Hartman surfaced his boat and plastered the occupied Batag Island lighthouse over two nights 23/24 September, firing 58 rounds of 4-inch and some 40mm from a range of just 4,500 yards, peppering the keeper’s structures and extinguishing the light.

The Batag Island light today http://loydtraveltrail.blogspot.com/2015/03/lakbayloyd-lighthouse-series-21-el-faro.html

The Batang Island light today

Barbero departed on her second war patrol 26 Oct 1944 from Freemantle, Australia and made for the South China Sea where on 2 November she attacked a transport and two escorts with seven torpedoes in a six-hour long-running battle, in the end sinking the Japanese army cargo ship Kuramasan Maru (1995 GRT, built 1927) in Makassar Strait in position 04°30’S, 118°20’E.

She followed this up a week later by splashing the merchant tanker Shimotsu Maru (2854 GRT, built 1944) in the South China Sea about 250 nautical miles west of Manila in position 14°32’N, 116°53’E.

Barbero closed out her patrol on the holidays with a sinking on Christmas Eve– the submarine chaser Ch-30 (built 1942) in the South China Sea in position 02°45’N, 110°53’E– and on Christmas itself of the transport Junpo Maru (4277 GRT, built 1911) about 30 nautical miles west-south-west of Kuching, Borneo in position 01°10’N, 108°20’E.

While returning to Freemantle, Barbero was attacked on the surface by aircraft and damaged, put out of action for the rest of the war, arriving at Portsmouth Navy Yard in May 1945 for repairs and refit. She won two battle stars for her brief wartime service.

With the end of the conflict, the need for a scratch and dent sub, though with low miles on her, was little, so she was placed in commission in reserve, 25 April 1946 at Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, California.

There, Barbero was converted to an experimental cargo submarine (redesignated SSA-317) complete with forward and aft cargo booms.

The Navy had used submarines extensively to resupply Corregidor in early 1942 and the idea was that such a conversion could prove useful in the future– especially in resupplying isolated outposts and islands. For this conversion, she landed most of her deck guns and achieved a more streamlined topside.

USS BARBERO (SSA-317) Caption: Off the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Mare Island, California, September 1948, following conversion to a cargo carrier.Description:Catalog #: NH 90818

USS BARBERO (SSA-317) Caption: Off the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Mare Island, California, September 1948, following conversion to a cargo carrier. Catalog #: NH 90818

Using sling and cargo boom to lower cargo into LVT from Barbero (SSA-317) on 10 March 1949. USN photo # 80-G-422914 by PFC William R. Keating, from NARA, College Park, Maryland, courtesy of Sean Hert via Navsource

So converted, she was one of the first submarine force units to operate in the Arctic when in 1950 sistership USS Perch (APSS 313), and Barbero, conducted a joint reconnaissance patrol and simulated amphibious raid in the Bering Sea.

Perch, photographed from Barbero.

Returning from the Arctic, her conversion proved unsuccessful and she was decommissioned, 30 June 1950 then laid up.

Barbero (SS-317), pre-1950, place unknown note modifications

In 1955, Barbero was the second of her class to be picked for conversion to a floating missile slinger (redesignated SSG-317), firing the immense 42-foot long SSM-N-8A Regulus submarine-launched, nuclear-armed turbojet-powered cruise missile.

Capable of carrying a Mark 5 nuclear bomb (120kt yield) or a ton and a half of high explosives, this updated buzz bomb could fly 600 miles and was reasonably accurate for the era.

An enormous hangar was built on her stern that held two of the big missiles and a trolley ramp to accommodate their undercarriage. Likewise, her aft tubes were removed to help trim weight.

Barbero (SSG-317) with a Regulus missile exiting from launcher.

Barbero (SSG-317) with a Regulus missile exiting from the launcher.

Recommissioned 28 October 1955, she embarked on life anew.

Barbero spent the next three years in the Atlantic performing deterrence patrols. Before moving to the Pac in 1959, she was designated an official U.S. Post Office for a brief experiment in Missile Mail.

You read that right.

On 8 June 1959, off the northern Florida coast, Barbero fired a red-painted training Regulus towards an impact zone at Naval Auxiliary Air Station, Mayport, Florida loaded with some 3,000 canceled pieces of mail. Just 22 minutes later, the inert missile landed on a cleared runway 100 miles away and its warhead compartment, containing officially marked Postal Service containers, was removed intact.

“Missile Mail” Regulus 1 fired from Barbero

Regulus I missile landing at Mayport, Florida

Reporters and photographers patiently wait the removal of the first Missile Mail from Regulus. The missile was fired from USS Barbero (SS 317) and landed Mayport, Florida

Reporters and photographers patiently wait for the removal of the first Missile Mail from Regulus. The missile was fired from USS Barbero (SS 317) and landed Mayport, Florida

Summerfield removes mail from Regulus I after flight

U.S. Postmaster Gen. Summerfield removes mail from Regulus I after the flight

Letter carrier Noble Upperman places first guided-missile letters in mailbag as other postal officials look on. Postmaster General Arthur E. Summerfield is to the right of Upperman holding the bag. The Regulus missile fired from USS Barbero (SS 317) landed at Mayport, Florida. NHHC Photograph Collection, L-File, Weapons.

President Eisenhower (left) receives Regulus I mail from DC letter carrier Noble Upperman the day after the flight while PMG Summerfield (middle) looks on

Barbero‘s footnote in postal history complete, she chopped the Pacific where she conducted regular deterrent patrols until Regulus was retired in 1964 in favor of the new Polaris SSBNs.

With her reason for being gone and the Rickover Navy full steam ahead for atomic boats, the thrice-commissioned Barbero passed once again into mothballs on 30 June 1964 and was stricken the next day.

She was disposed of by the submarine USS Greenfish (SS-351)—a sistership– off Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on 7 October 1964.

Barbero remains the only ship in the fleet every named for the humble surgeonfish.

Few artifacts remain from her, though a special exhibit at the Smithsonian remembers her Missile Mail experience. It was the only time U.S. Mail has been delivered by missile.

Regulus I Missile Mail container. Third Assistant Postmaster General files, NPM, National Postal Museum. June 8, 1959.

Philatelic Cover from USS Barbero (SS 317) commemorating the first Missile Mail. The missile was fired from USS Barbero (SS 317) and landed Mayport, Florida. Courtesy of the National Postal Museum, Smithsonian.

Philatelic Cover from USS Barbero (SS 317) commemorating the first Missile Mail, complete with canceled postmark made aboard the sub. The missile was fired from USS Barbero (SS 317) and landed at Mayport, Florida. Courtesy of the National Postal Museum, Smithsonian.

Although she is no longer afloat, eight Balao-class submarines are preserved (for now) as museum ships across the country.

Please visit one of these fine ships and keep the legacy alive:

-USS Batfish (SS-310) at War Memorial Park in Muskogee, Oklahoma.
–USS Becuna (SS-319) at Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
–USS Bowfin (SS-287) at USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park in Honolulu, Hawaii.
–USS Clamagore (SS-343) at Patriot’s Point in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. (Which may not be there much longer)
–USS Ling (SS-297) at New Jersey Naval Museum in Hackensack, New Jersey. (Which is also on borrowed time)
–USS Lionfish (SS-298) at Battleship Cove in Fall River, Massachusetts.
-USS Pampanito (SS-383) at San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park in San Francisco, California, (which played the part of the fictional USS Stingray in the movie Down Periscope).
–USS Razorback (SS-394) at Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum in North Little Rock, Arkansas.

Specs:

Displacement, Surfaced: 1,526 t., Submerged: 2,424 t.
Length 311′ 10″
Beam 27′ 3″
Draft 15′ 3″
Speed, Surfaced 20.25 kts, Submerged 8.75 kts
Cruising Range, 11,000 miles surfaced at 10kts; Submerged Endurance, 48 hours at 2kts
Operating Depth Limit, 400 ft
Complement 6 Officers 60 Enlisted
Armament, (as built) ten 21″ torpedo tubes, six forward, four aft, 24 torpedoes, one 4″/50 caliber deck gun, one 40mm gun, two .50 cal. machine guns
(Regulus conversion)
1 × Regulus missile hangar and launcher
2 × Regulus I missiles
6 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes (forward)
14 torpedoes
Patrol Endurance 75 days
Propulsion: diesels-electric reduction gear with four Fairbanks-Morse main generator engines., 5,400 hp, four Elliot Motor Co., main motors with 2,740 hp, two 126-cell main storage batteries, two propellers.
Fuel Capacity: 94,400 gal.

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

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

Nearing their 50th Anniversary, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

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Warship Wednesday June 8, 2016: Indonesia’s biggest stick with a James Bond twist

Posted on June 8, 2016 by laststandonzombieisland 4 comments

Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all of their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places. –– Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday, June 8, 2016: Indonesia’s biggest stick with a James Bond twist

Here we see the Soviet Navy’s Sverdlov-class light cruiser Ordzhonikidze with her crew manning the rails in June 1954 on a peaceful port visit to Helsinki, a capital that was being bombed by Soviet aircraft just nine years prior. Obsolete before she was completed, she sowed enduring mystery in her brief career with the Motherland and went on to become Sukarno’s wooden sword.

At the end of World War II, Stalin was only beginning his arms race with the West, which included several of the world’s largest navies. The Red Banner Fleet had armadas of submarines and small craft but was lacking in capital ships. The Sovs had no carriers and, even though battleships and gun-armed cruisers were fast approaching block obsolescence as a whole in the Atomic age, Stalin was desperately short of these as well with only a few lingering Gangut-class battlewagons and Maxim Gorky/Chapayev class cruisers on the list as “prestige ships.”

This led to an order for a staggering 30 brand new 16,000-ton Sverdlov (Project 68bis) class cruisers.

They had good lines and were a good design– for 1938.

Capable of a 9,000-mile range, equipped with a half-dozen air, surface and navigation radars, and capable of breaking 32 knots, they had long legs, big eyes, and high speed, all things you want in a cruiser to both screen a naval task force and perform as a surface action group on their own accord. The thing is their armament was hopelessly dated.

These all-gun love boats had a dozen powerful 152 mm (6 in)/57 cal B-38 guns in four triple Mk5-bis turrets which were outstanding guns for the time (though they had been designed in 1938). They could sling a 121-pound AP pill out to 34,080 yards (30,215 m) every nine seconds or so, which means the 12-gun battery could pepper a 78-round broadside in the time it takes to watch an extended commercial. A dozen 100 mm/56 (3.9″) B-34 Pattern 1940 guns in twin mounts, 32x37mm AAA guns, and (likely for the last time in a major warship design) surface-launched anti-ship torpedoes rounded out the Sverdlovs.

They compared well against the U.S. Navy’s Cleveland-class light cruisers (14,500-tons, 4 × triple 6″/47cal guns), which the Americans had commissioned 27 of by the end of 1945 (see where the figure of Stalin wanting 30 Sverdlovs came from?), but the catch was that Washington laid up virtually all of their low-mileage Cleveland’s by 1950 and those that remained in service did so as hybrid guided-missile cruisers with a limited big-gun armament.

The beautiful Cleveland-class cruiser USS Miami (CL-89) plowing through a wave during her shakedown cruise, 17 February 1944. She was everything the Sverdlovs were and more, but only saw 46 months of active duty before she was decommissioned on 30 June 1947– before the first Svedlov was even commissioned– and only left red lead row in 1961 to be scrapped.

The first Sverdlov was laid down on 15 October 1949 and before Stalin passed into that great Georgian gangster paradise in the ground in 1953, construction on another 20 was started. Then came Nikita Khrushchev who canceled most of the class outright. In all, out of Uncle Joe’s planned 30 cruisers, just 14 were finished and commissioned into service. Nikita himself was said to comment that the ships were good only for state visits and as a missile target.

This leads us to the hero of our tale.

Georgian-born Grigol Ordzhonikidze (Орджоникидзе) was a buddy of Uncle Joe and led a Red Army into that breakaway republic of their mutual birth in 1921 to bring them back into the fold of Moscow’s bosom. This didn’t stop the fantastically mustachioed revolutionary from passing in 1937 during the Great Purge, officially of a heart attack at just age 50.

This guy, who looks kinda like Gabe Kaplan from Welcome Back Carter and John Turturro had a baby…

Never officially out of standing, Stalin originally named a Chapayev-class cruiser after his buddy which was never completed during World War II and replaced on the list by a nicer Sverdlov-class vessel laid down at Plant #194 (Admiralty Shipyard, Leningrad) as serial #600 on 19 October 1949.

Ordzhonikidze was completed and joined the Baltic Fleet on 31 August 1952, just months before Stalin’s own demise.

Ordzhonikidze on parade in Leningrad, 1954. Note the pennants and giant illuminated red star in her rigging. Also, note the extensive radar suite used by these ships. The Soviets benefited from Lend-Lease British and American naval radars in 1944-45 and learned valuable lessons from both, meaning that by the 1950s they were roughly comparable.

A beautiful new ship in the Baltic, she was tapped to perform several state visits with Soviet political figures– to include Khrushchev aboard– stopping in Helsinki for four days in 1954 as well as a later visit to Copenhagen.

The Soviet light cruiser ORDZHONIKIDZE at the Neva River, Leningrad, 1955, wearing 310 hull number. Note the Winter Palace in the background

Her next international stop was the UKs Portsmouth Harbor– the first time Soviet leaders visited Britain– where she arrived 18 April 1956 with two destroyers as escorts.

Baltika 01.08.1956 KRL pr. 68-bis Ordzhonikidze

Sverdlov-class Soviet cruiser Ordzhonikidze arrives in Portsmouth carrying Khrushchev April 1956 From the LIFE Magazine Archives – Carl Mydans Photographer

LIFE Magazine Archives – Carl Mydans Photographer

Greeted by the RM band

It seems, however, that a wetsuit-clad group of Soviet Naval Spetsnaz, who mounted an undersea patrol around the vessel, also accompanied the cruiser. It was during the visit that British MI6 frogman and WWII diving legend Lionel “Buster” Crabb disappeared on 19 April while allegedly investigating the props on Ordzhonikidze.

Commander Crabb. He was something of a true-life James Bond figure.

In the meantime, the Soviets reported to the British they had seen a diver swimming at the surface at 7.30 a.m. that morning between their ships, which sparked something of an international incident that queered the week that the Soviet Premier spent kissing babies in England.

Photo via UK National Archives

Then, some 14 months later what was left of a body in a green Royal Navy type frogman suit, sans head and hands, was found floating in Chichester Harbor.

In 2007, a former Soviet Naval Spetsnaz combat diver by the name of Eduard Koltsov gave an interview to the BBC in which he stated that he had slit Crabb’s throat in undersea combat and proudly displayed both the knife he claims he used and the Order of the Red Star he was awarded for his actions. Several documents, heavily redacted, were released by the UK’s National Archives that kinda sorta but not really verified what happened.

Now back to the story of the Ordzhonikidze herself.

Орджоники́дзе 1960

Ordzhonikidze on parade in Baltiysk (Pillau), 1960 on the anniversary of VE-Day. Note the salute. Kinda classy in a town that was German just 15 years before.

Transferring to the Black Sea Fleet, she arrived in Sevastopol in February 1961, though her time in the ancient sea would be brief.

On the other side of the globe, Indonesian strongman Sukarno was getting stronger, having dissolved Parliament in 1960 as well as several Islamic-based political parties while leaning on support from the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) — which brought the new nation firmly into Moscow’s arms as he sought out a policy of Confrontation (Konfrontasi) against the Dutch over West Papua New Guinea (Irian).

In February 1960, Khrushchev paid a visit to Sukarno, and soon after the floodgates of Communist fellowship opened.

Nikita Khrushchev and Sukarno, 1960, during the honeymoon stage that saw Indonesia make out like a bandit on gear from Moscow

This turned into a massive outlay of military gear transferred from the CCCP to Jakarta as Indonesia for a time became second only to Red China in Soviet arms deliveries ranging from 150,000 SKS-45 rifles to modern jet fighters. This included making the TNI-AL (Indonesian Navy) the most powerful submarine force in the Asia-Pacific region with a full squadron of Whiskey-class submarines, two torpedo retrievers, and one submarine tender, all purchased for a song. By comparison, no other Southeast Asian nation possessed a submarine force of any size, with the closest runner-up being the Royal Australian Navy having only six British-made Oberon’s.

Therefore, it made sense that the only major surface ship exported by the Cold War-era Soviet military was to be sent to Indonesia. Sure hundreds of patrol craft, missile boats, destroyers, and frigates were given away, but cruisers, battleships, and carriers before 1989? Nyet!

On 5 April 1962, with a handful of Indonesian military personnel aboard, Ordzhonikidze departed from Sevastopol after spending 14 months undergoing modifications for operations in the tropics (more ventilators and generators) and leisurely sailed to the Far East, arriving 5 August in Surabaya.

Ordzhonikidze in the Indian Ocean on the way to Indonesia

Btw, if the shifting hull numbers on our cruiser have you confused, don’t be as they are more of a temporary tactical marking than anything else. The Soviet Navy’s pennant numbers were related to the fleet in which the ship was serving, so if you changed fleets you changed numbers. Further, there is evidence to support that Moscow changed the whole shebang at least once or twice just to add to the ship-watching confusion in the West, making the fact that our cruiser sports the hull numbers 057, 435, 310, and 21 inside of eight years petty common.

Once in the Far East, her crew proceeded to work side-by-side with 1,200 handpicked Indonesian sailors for six months, training men who had never conned a ship larger than a frigate to control a 14,000-ton cruiser that had everything written in Cyrillic. It was also likely that some of the local crew were simply Soviet officers and michmen wearing Indonesian uniforms. The Dutch naval intelligence service, MARID (Marine Inlichtingendienst), received information in the summer of 1962 that Soviet crews were largely manning Indonesian-flagged submarines and Tuepolev bombers.

Note the Indonesian crew side by side with the Soviets. There are few images of her afloat in TNI-AL service

KRI Irian and her Crew in the 1960s. Note the Western-style dungarees and dixie cups. Via Perpusnas RI (National Library of the Republic of Indonesia)

The helicopter looks to be an Aérospatiale SA 313 Alouette II, a type used in the 1960s by both the Indonesian Army and Navy. Via Perpusnas RI (National Library of the Republic of Indonesia)

Via Perpusnas RI (National Library of the Republic of Indonesia)

A closer look at the Alouette. Via Perpusnas RI (National Library of the Republic of Indonesia)

Note the name board. Via Perpusnas RI (National Library of the Republic of Indonesia)

Doesn’t the Alouette look like an erector set? Note the sunglasses and Panama-hatted VIP. Via Perpusnas RI (National Library of the Republic of Indonesia)

Note the 37mm Bofors-style AAA twins and life rafts. Via Perpusnas RI (National Library of the Republic of Indonesia)

In the meantime, the Indonesians embarked on Operation Trikora, pitting their 16 newly acquired Soviet-built destroyers and frigates and dozen submarines against the Royal Netherlands Navy’s four destroyers and three subs in the area, pushing them out while infiltrating small landing teams and paratroopers through the area. Although the Dutch have a proud naval tradition of combat at sea that stretches back to the 16th century and would no doubt have given a good account of themselves if the balloon went up, quantity is a quality of its own.

By 5 August 1962, the Netherlands finally recognized Indonesia’s claim to Western New Guinea in the New York Agreement — without the big Russian cruiser having to fire a shot or even sail through the disputed waters. In October, a UN peacekeeping force arrived to effect the transfer.

To make it official, on 24 January 1963, Ordzhonikidze was decommissioned by the Soviets and five days later handed over to the Indonesian Navy who promptly commissioned her as the Kapal Republik Indonesia (Republic of Indonesia Ship) Irian (C201), becoming the fleet’s instant flagship.

On May 1, Indonesia officially annexed Western New Guinea as Irian Jaya, the nation’s 26th province, while the ship of the same name sat at anchor offshore as cement to the deal, bringing His Excellency President Dr. Ir. H. Sukarno to the islands for the occasion.

However, KRI Irian‘s continued service was limited at best, especially with the crisis abated.

Soon after her transfer, she suffered a collision with a submarine and then an escorting destroyer within weeks. In November 1963, six of her boilers were destroyed after being used improperly while underway, effectively crippling her as a warship less than a year after her transfer.

Irian slowly made for Vladivostok as soon as that port was clear of ice in the Spring of 1964 and spent the summer there being overhauled by the Soviets, who were reportedly shocked at how bad she had deteriorated in her short time with the Indonesians.

On a lighter note, they were surprised to see the officer’s wardroom had been converted to a chapel, something that had been banned on Soviet ships since 1922.

Escorted back to Surabaya by a Red Navy destroyer and fleet tug, Irian resumed operations in August 1964, which primarily consisted of leaving port every few months for a couple of days then heading back to the dock.

The next year, with Sukarno not needing outside muscle against the Dutch anymore, death squads liquidated Indonesian communists with the help of lists gathered by the CIA, and Soviet support for their weapons rightly vanished. In all, an estimated 1 million communists disappeared.

By 1967, Irian was in poor shape again and a new leader, Gen. Suharto, an Army man with a dim view on naval affairs and an even dimmer one on human rights turned the deteriorating former Soviet cruiser into a floating prison ship for his opponents.

This went on for a few years, and with the possibility of the Irian sinking at her moorings, she was beached on a sandbar in 1970. Sometime after this Soviet “tourists” came aboard and removed/destroyed sensitive equipment. Two years later she was sold for scrap to a Taiwan concern, where no doubt any secrets the ship had that the U.S. didn’t know about already were revealed.

In all, she lived just over 10 years and to this day was the largest warship the Indonesian navy operated, sticking with small (under 3,000-ton) frigates and corvettes since then.

I can find no remnants of the big cruiser on public display.

Of Irian’s 13 completed sisters, most remained in Soviet service until the end of the Cold War although their usefulness in a naval battle in the age of anti-ship missiles and combat jets was questionable, even though several were equipped as missile slinging hybrids. Stricken when the Wall came down, they were quickly (or in the case of sistership Murmansk, not so quickly) scrapped.

Just one remains– Mikhail Kutuzov, preserved as a museum ship in Novorossiysk, part of the last Russian presence on the Black Sea, where she sits as an important reminder to the Ukrainians of Tsar Putin’s reach.

Mikhail Kutuzov museum ship

As for the frogman Crabb, he is remembered by a monument at Milton Cemetery, Milton Road, Portsmouth, though it is still not clear how he disappeared.

Finally, in Papua/Irian, a local insurgency against the Indonesian authorities that began in 1963 continues to this day.

Specs:

In Indonesian service, via Shipbucket

Displacement: 13,600 tons standard, 16,640 tons full load
Length: 210 m (689 ft. 0 in) overall, 205 m (672 ft. 7 in) waterline
Beam: 22 m (72 ft. 2 in)
Draught: 6.9 m (22 ft. 8 in)
Installed power: 6 boilers, 118,100 shp (88,100 kW)
Propulsion: 2 shaft geared steam turbines
Speed: 32.5 knots (60.2 km/h; 37.4 mph)
Range: 9,000 nautical miles (17,000 km; 10,000 mi) at 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph)
Complement: 1,250
Armament:
12 × 152 mm (6 in)/57 cal B-38 guns in four triple Mk5-bis turrets
12 × 100 mm (3.9 in)/56 cal Model 1934 guns in 6 twin SM-5-1 mounts
32 × 37 mm (1.5 in) anti-aircraft guns
10 × 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes
Armour:
Belt: 100 mm (3.9 in)
Conning tower: 150 mm (5.9 in)
Deck: 50 mm (2.0 in)
Turrets: 175 mm (6.9 in)
If you liked this column, please consider joining the International Naval Research Organization (INRO), Publishers of Warship International

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

Nearing their 50th Anniversary, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

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Warship Wednesday June 1, 2016: One well-traveled sloop

Posted on June 1, 2016 by laststandonzombieisland Leave a comment

Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period (though our ship today is a pure sailing vessel from that era) and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all of their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places. – Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday June 1, 2016: One well-traveled sloop

Photo #: NH 51494 Vincennes in Disappointment Bay Line engraving by C.A. Jewett, after a sketch by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, USN, depicting USS Vincennes in the Antarctic ice, circa January-February 1840. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

Photo #: NH 51494 USS Vincennes in Disappointment Bay. Line engraving by C.A. Jewett, after a sketch by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

Here we see the Boston-class second rate sloop-of-war USS Vincennes in Disappointment Bay, Antarctica, circa January–February 1840.

The fledgling U.S. Navy in the 1820s was a mix of the remaining six original frigates and a few vessels commissioned and taken up during the War of 1812. This led Congress to authorize 10 new sloops of war for economical overseas service, intended to wave the new country’s flag far and wide.

These wooden-hulled, three-masted sloops (Boston, Fairfield, Falmouth, Warren, Natchez, St. Louis, Lexington, Concord, Vandalia, and Vincennes) were commonly about 700-tons in displacement with a 127-foot overall length. Able to float in 16-feet of water, with their 18-sail plan, they could keep 11-knots over ground as long as the wind was up. They were manned by crews that could vary between 125-200 bluejackets, Marines and officers depending on tasking.

They could carry between 16-20 smoothbore guns and this could vary as needed. These were primarily “new” Model of 1816 24-pound long guns, basically an updated Revolutionary War design made by Cecil Iron Works. These could fire round, grape, chain, case or canister shot out to an impressive 1,200 yards– which was much better than the typical 300 yards capable of the same type of guns used a generation prior. Each 24-pounder could be fired once every three minutes by a trained crew of 13 men and powder monkeys but a full 18-gun battery would need 234 blue jackets to be fully crewed, which often led to shifting gun crews on the sparsely manned sloops, alternating broadside gunnades port and starboard as needed.

In addition to the 24 pounders, some of the class often substituted a number of short-barreled Columbia Iron Works 32-pounder carronades, which were murderous at short range (400 yards) in broadside, but less useful at extended artillery duels.

It should also be noted that Fairfield and Vandalia were built with an additional quartet of 68-pounder (8″) shell-firing Paixhans guns in place of a similar number of 24 or 32s.

All 10 sloops built at six naval yards along the East Coast from 1825-28 and officially rated at “18-guns” on the Naval List despite their varying armaments.

Photo #: NH 86690-KN (color) USS Boston (1826-1846) Painting by Rod Claudius, Rome, Italy, 1962. It was made for display on board USS Boston (CAG-1). Courtesy of the U.S. Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C

Photo #: NH 86690-KN (color) 18-gun sloop of war USS Boston (1826-1846) with 9 gun ports on her port side. Painting by Rod Claudius, Rome, Italy, 1962. It was made for display on board USS Boston (CAG-1). Courtesy of the U.S. Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C

The subject of our tale, Vincennes, was the first U.S. Navy ship named for the Siege of Fort Sackville, a three-day battle in 1779 in what is now Vincennes, Indiana by about 120 militia under George Rogers Clark (brother of Meriwether Clark of Lewis and Clark fame), that took about 300 redcoats/Native allies and the stockade they relied on with very few casualties.

Built at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, USS Vincennes was commissioned 27 August 1826 at New York City and, like the rest of her class, was soon sailing the high seas.

Within a few months, she was in Hawaii, then China…then kept going. From 3 September 1826 to 8 June 1830, when she made it back to New York, she became the first U.S. Navy ship to circumnavigate the globe, though it took 45 months.

USS Vincennes (1826-1867) Colored lithograph published by N. Currier, 2 Spruce Street, New York City, 1845. Courtesy of the Naval Art Collection, Washington, D.C. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 66524-KN

USS Vincennes (1826-1867) Colored lithograph published by N. Currier, 2 Spruce Street, New York City, 1845. Note 9 very clear gun ports on her starboard side which are contrary to the four shown in the plan detail below, which is likely incorrect. Courtesy of the Naval Art Collection, Washington, D.C. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 66524-KN

The next few years she patrolled the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific once again, then in 1838 was chosen to carry the flag of one rather peculiar and very Captain Bligh-like Lieutenant Charles Wilkes who had entered the Navy as a mid in 1818 and was a close acquaintance of President Jackson through the Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences.

Wilkes would lead the six-ship United States Exploring Expedition, commonly just known as the “Wilkes Expedition,” that included a wealth of scientists, taxidermists, engravers and artists with Vincennes as flag, the old 22-gun sloop USS Peacock, brig USS Porpoise (230 tons), store-ship USS Relief, and schooners USS Sea Gull (110 tons) and USS Flying Fish (96 tons) in the train.

One peculiar weapon picked up for the expedition was the .54 caliber Elgin-patent percussion cutlass pistol produced by C.B. Allen of Springfield, Massachusetts. Note these are different from the similar guns made by Morill, Mosman and Blair (notable for their round barrel) of nearby Amherst.

It is a boxlock type frame with a 5-inch octagonal barrel and a 11” Bowie type blade underneath for stabby purposes.

Photo: Chris Eger

Less than 150 (all octagonal-barreled Allen guns) were purchased by the Navy for the expedition and several went missing with the loss of the USS Peacock in 1854– making this example that I came across in Louisville last week (above) rare indeed. It was very modern in the respect that these Elgin Cutlass pistols were the first percussion firearms adopted by the U.S. military– all prior being flintlocks.

The crews of the expedition would put their Elgins to good use.

Departing from Hampton Roads on August 18, 1838, the expedition sailed for South America, Australia, Hawaii and along the Antarctic Coast.

Sketch of the sloop-of-war USS Vincennes running before a gale amid the Antarctic ice. From The Narrative, courtesy Smithsonian Institution Libraries as found in “Sea Of Glory: The Epic South Seas Expedition 1838-42” by Nathaniel Philbrick. Robert Hurst/Navsource

“View of the Antarctic Continent”. Line engraving by Jorban & Halpin, after a sketch by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, USN, depicting men and dogs of the U.S. Exploring Expedition “ashore” on the ice, with the Antarctic mountains in the distance, circa January-February 1840. USS Vincennes is amid the ice flows at right. The print is copied from “U.S. Exploring Expedition”, Volume II. US Naval History and Heritage Command photo # NH 51495.

Then in Fiji, Wilkes got in a scrap with locals over food bartering that left his nephew, a midshipman, dead as well as 40 Fijians.

The American punitive expedition against Malolo, Fiji in 1840 by Alfred Agate. Some 60 bluejackets from the expedition carried out the raid

Vindovi, a Fijian chief held prisoner on board the Vincennes. (October 1840)

Vendovi, a Fijian chief held prisoner on board the Vincennes. (October 1840)

In all the fleet would fight Pacific islanders on no less than three occasions: at the above-mentioned Battle of Malolo (where a naval party burned two villages to the ground in reprisal of the younger Wilkes’ death), Drummon’s Island (against 700 Gilbertese warriors) and Upolu in the Samoan chain.

Science can be messy sometimes.

Wilkes made sure his ashore bases were carefully defended. The above sketch of the Wilkes Campsite at Mauna Loa is by Alfred Thomas Agate.

Wilkes made sure his ashore bases were carefully defended. The above sketch of the Wilkes Campsite at Mauna Loa, Hawaii is by Alfred Thomas Agate, 1840, who shipped aboard Vincennes.

After trekking up the Pacific Northwest, Wilkes expedition went back down to New Zealand and across the Indian Ocean back to the Atlantic, becoming the last all-sail naval mission to circumnavigate the globe (and Vincennes second evolution!) when they arrived in New York on 10 June 1842.

The trip took just under four years but produced the first map of the Oregon Territory, a wealth of exhibits and papers still maintained by the Smithsonian and something like 26 volumes of scientific reports.

However, at least 30 sailors were killed and two vessels lost: Sea Gull (at sea, April 1839 with all hands) and the Flying Fish (sold at Singapore as unfit to travel forward).

Vincennes after the expedition was reassigned to the Home Squadron but it was just a tease as she was soon again off to the Far East, accompanying the much larger ship-of-the-line USS Columbus (74-guns) for Commodore Biddle’s first American contact with the Empire of Japan. They arrived, anchored off Uraga for nine days in June 1846, and sailed off after the Japanese refused to talk.

First U.S. Navy visit to Japan, July 1846 Description: Copy made by Mr. Renjo Shimo Oka from an original Japanese painting, depicting USS Columbus and USS Vincennes anchored in Yeddo (Tokyo) Bay, Japan, circa 20-29 July 1846. They were under the command of Commodore James Biddle, USN. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 63523

Photo #: NH 54485 Departure of the U.S.S. Columbus and Vincennes from Jeddo Bay, July the 29th 1846 Contemporary lithograph published by Wagner & McGuigan, based on sketches by John Eastly. It depicts USS Columbus (right), flagship of Commodore James Biddle, and USS Vincennes (left) being towed out of Jeddo Bay, Japan, by a fleet of Japanese small craft on 29 July 1846. The nine days these ships spent in Jeddo (Tokyo) Bay was the first visit made by the U.S. Navy to Japanese waters. Courtesy of Mrs. Macomb, Washington, D.C., circa 1920. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

Photo #: NH 54485 Departure of the ship of the line U.S.S. Columbus and sloop of war Vincennes from Jeddo Bay, July the 29th 1846 Contemporary lithograph published by Wagner & McGuigan, based on sketches by John Eastly. It depicts USS Columbus (right), flagship of Commodore James Biddle, and USS Vincennes (left) being towed out of Jeddo Bay, Japan, by a fleet of Japanese small craft on 29 July 1846. The nine days these ships spent in Jeddo (Tokyo) Bay was the first visit made by the U.S. Navy to Japanese waters. Courtesy of Mrs. Macomb, Washington, D.C., circa 1920. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph.

When Vincennes came back to New York the next year, it was her third circumnavigation.

For the next decade, Vincennes remained a darling of long range oceanography explorations, hosting CDR Cadwalader Ringgold’s survey of the China Sea, the North Pacific, and the Bering Strait and a subsequent investigation of the Bonin, Kurile and Ryuku chains by Lt. John Rodgers (where she got in her fourth circumnavigation) before spending three years with the African Squadron on the slavery patrols.

During this time, with the Navy severely underfunded and staffed, her crew rarely broke 80 able-bodied sailors and Marines of all ranks. In such scenarios, only 4-5 guns could be fully manned should the sloop be engaged in naval combat.

Although long in the teeth by the time of the Civil War (most of her sisters were already stricken), and officially in ordinary, Vincennes was dusted off and assumed station between Santa Rosa Island, Florida and Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, chiefly in the Mississippi Sound and off Fort Massachusetts and Fort Pickens. There she spent the entire war on patrol and reconnaissance duty.

She captured no less than four Confederate vessels and the blockade running British bark Empress. However, this service was just delaying the inevitable. She was laid up in ordinary at the Boston Navy Yard on 28 August 1865, just four months after Appomattox, and sold to the breakers two years later.

She traveled much further than most of her class, and outlasted many:

Natchez was scrapped at the New York Navy Yard in 1840 after just 13 years’ service.
Concord ran aground and was abandoned in 1842.
Fairfield was decommissioned 3 February 1845 and broken up by 1852.
Boston was wrecked on Eleuthera Island, Bahamas, during a squall on 15 November 1846.
Lexington was decommissioned on 26 February 1855 and sold before the Civil War.
Warren and Falmouth were both decommissioned 24 May 1859 and sold in Panama.
Vandalia was decommissioned at the New York Navy Yard on 4 February 1863 and used as a receiving ship until 1872.
St. Louis outlasted them all, decommissioned on 12 May 1865 and used as a receiving ship until 1907.

Vincennes’s name went on to be used by three cruisers in the 20th Century: the New Orleans-class heavy cruiser (CA-44) commissioned in 1937 and lost in the Battle of Savo Island in 1942; the Cleveland-class light cruiser (CL-64) commissioned in 1944 and sunk as target in 1969; and the Tico-class (CG-49) commissioned in 1985 and scrapped in 2011.

There is a four-sided monument to all of the USS Vincennes in Vincennes, Indiana’s Patrick Henry Square (though it calls our sloop a 24-gun vessel, which she never was)

Photo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Vincennes_%281826%29#/media/File:USS_Vincennes_%281826%29_monument.jpg via Wiki

Photo via Wiki

Specs:

Via Windjammer arts http://www.windjammer-arts.com/SAIL.htm

Via Windjammer arts This image, while showing a correct sail plan, is far short on the number of gun ports

Displacement: 700 long tons (710 t)
Length:    127 ft. (39 m)
Beam:    33 ft. 9 in (10.29 m)
Draft:    16 ft. (4.9 m)
Speed:    11 kn (13 mph; 20 km/h)
Complement: 80-200
Armament:    18 × 24 pdr (11 kg) smoothbore guns, fancy smallarms

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

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

Nearing their 50th Anniversary, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

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

I’m a member, so should you be!

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laststandonzombieisland

Weapons, Wars, Preparation and Security from a recovering gun nut turned bad writer

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