Here at LSOZI, we are going to take out 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.

- Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday April 2, The Lost Dorado

Here we see the Gato-class fleet submarine USS Dorado (SS-248) fitting out just before commissioning–note the Rosie the Riveter types on deck.  Named after the mahi mahi fish, the Dorado had a very short life, but one that will live on forever in what she left behind.

A member of the famous Gato-class of fleet submarines, Dorado was but one of 77 of that extended family commissioned between 1943-44. These 311-foot long boats could make 21-knots on the surface, which meant they could chase down just about any Japanese Maru that was on the ocean. Her 11,000-mile range and 24 torpedo magazine allowed her to stay at sea, taking the war to the Japanese home islands, for upto 75 days at a time.

The Gatos were some of the most famous of US fleet boats in WWII, and they suffered for it, with 20 being lost at sea. Ships of this class included USS Wahoo who, under Mush Morton, slaughtered an entire Japanese convoy off New Guinea all by her self. USS Cavalla, assassin of the Japanese aircraft carrier (and Pearl Harbor veteran) Shokaku. USS Albacore, who took the carrier Taiho, the flagship of Vice-Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa’s fleet– was a Gato. The USS Flasher, the most successful US sub of the war, with over 100,000-tons to her credit, was also Gato.

All of these 77 Gatos, save the Dorado, would fight in the Pacific, but the ill-fated submarine would never make it that far.

Laid down 27 August 1942 at the famous General Dynamics Electric Boat yard, Groton, Connecticut, Dorado was completed just one year and one day later, and commissioned 28 August 1943.

In September, she took aboard two artists employed by the US War Department, Thomas Hart Benton  and Georges Schreiber to document the ship’s cruise and preserve the images of a fleet boat at sea during wartime operations (although safely in US waters most of the time).

Schreiber and Benton along with the Dorado’s skipper, Sept 1943

While underway  Schreiber and Benton sketched, painted and interacted with the crew. They even got some excitement when the ship encountered a derelict vessel in the sea-lanes that Dorado dispatched with her deck guns.

The art from that cruise lives on for eternity.

Going Home by Georges Schreiber

Up Periscope by Thomas Hart Benton,

Score Another One, Thomas Hart Benton

Dorado‘s sea trials proved the readiness of the crew, and she sailed from New London, Connecticut, on 6 October 1943 for the Panama Canal Zone.

She did not arrive.

It is thought that she was sent to the bottom by a friendly fire attack of the US Mariner aircraft (of VP-210 USN/P-9, pilot Lt(jg) Daniel T. Felix, Jr.) stationed on NAS Guantanamo Bay, Cuba on 12 Oct, 1943. The aircraft was patrolling around the convoy GAT-92 and dropped three depth charges and one bomb on a surfaced U-boat at 20.51 hours on 12 October.

Another theory is that she ran into a minefield set by German U-214. Between 15.51 hours on 19.02 hours on 8 Oct, 1943, U-214 had laid a mine field of 15 mines off Colon. It is possible that USS Dorado (SS 248) was lost on one of these mines when she passed the area on her way to Colon on 14 October. The mine field was detected on 16 October and ten mines swept.

Overdue at Colon, Dorado is still considered on eternal patrol.

A memorial to Dorado has been constructed in the Veterans Memorial Park in Wichita, Kansas while the USS Dorado Assoc still keeps watch that some day she will be found. In 2007 a remote sensing survey was conducted to try and find her resting place.

To visit a sister-ship of the lost Dorado, Six retired Gatos are on display in the United States:

USS Cavalla is at Seawolf Park near Galveston, Texas (in SSK configuration).
USS Cobia is at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum.
USS Drum is at Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile, Alabama.
USS Cod is on display in Cleveland. It does not have doors cut through its pressure hull nor stairwells added.
USS Croaker is on display in Buffalo, New York (in SSK configuration).
USS Silversides is on display in Muskegon, Michigan.

Go aboard and pay your respects.

Specs:

Click to embiggen

Displacement:     1,525 long tons (1,549 t) surfaced, 2,424 long tons (2,463 t) submerged
Length:     311 ft 9 in (95.02 m)
Beam:     27 ft 3 in (8.31 m)
Draft:     17 ft (5.2 m) maximum
Propulsion:     4 × General Motors Model 16-248 V16 diesel engines driving electrical generators
2 × 126-cell Sargo batteries
4 × high-speed General Electric electric motors with reduction gears
two propellers
5,400 shp (4.0 MW) surfaced
2,740 shp (2.0 MW) submerged
Speed:     21 kn (39 km/h) surfaced,[4] 9 kn (17 km/h) submerged
Range:     11,000 nmi (20,000 km) surfaced @ 10 kn (19 km/h)
Endurance:     48 hours @ 2 kn (3.7 km/h) submerged, 75 days on patrol
Test depth:     300 ft (91 m)
Complement:     6 officers, 54 enlisted
Armament:     10 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes  (six forward, four aft) with 24 torpedoes
1 × 3-inch (76 mm) / 50 caliber deck gun
Bofors 40 mm and Oerlikon 20 mm cannon

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/

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

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.

I’m a member, so should you be!

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 June 25, The Fighting Swenson

1945 in the Pacific, photographed from DD-745. Courtesy Robert Baumbrucker, NHC NH 89376. Ed Zajkowski

Here we see USS Lyman K. Swenson (DD-729), an Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer, in all of her World War Two glory pounding it out on the high seas. She is the only ship named for naval hero Lyman Knute Swenson (USNA 1916).

One of those rare early 20th century officers who did everything, from battleships to submarines to destroyers, he was the wartime commander of the hard-luck light cruiser USS Juneau (CL-52). Twice torpedoed during the Battle of Guadalcanal, in what historian S. E. Morison called the “wildest most desperate sea fight since Jutland,” Juneau sank rapidly, taking under Swenson and most of her crew, including the five Sullivan brothers. This battle prevented the Japanese from landing reinforcements on Guadalcanal and Swenson was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions.

A warbaby, the destroyer that carried his name was laid down September 11th, 1943 at Bath Iron Works in Maine with his daughter sponsoring the vessel. Commissioned in Boston 2 May 1944, she was rushed off to war.

The 58-ship Sumner-class were large and heavily armed when compared to the old flush-deck destroyers that preceded them. Sandwiched between the svelte Fletcher-class and the follow-on Gearing-class (which were nothing but modified Sumners), these boats cost some $8 mill a pop (although Bath contracted for $5.1 million for Swenson) and Uncle Sugar got a swell deal from them, with most of the class serving into the 1970s.

At 3500-tons full load and 376-feet long, these bruisers packed a half-dozen 5-inch/38 DP guns (in twin mounts) as well as a dozen 40mm Bofors, another dozen 20mm guns, a brace of 10 torpedo tubes to take on Japanese cruisers, plus depth charges to bust enemy subs with. As such, they had much more kick than the Fletcher-class that preceded them, while still being able to float in as little as 16 feet of water (at a light load) and make 34-knots when needed. Capable of carrying more than 500 tons of fuel oil for her boilers, these ships had long legs, and could run 6000-nm on a full load, more than three times early pre-war built destroyers– which was important in the far-flung pacific.

Swenson arrived in the Philippines as part of the screen of Carrier Task Group 38.4 in October, 1944. There, off Samar on 30 October, she was the first US ship to fire on the first Japanese Kamikaze suicide planes. She went on to sail with Task Group 38.1 on the epic 3800-mile raid around the Pacific rim in January 1945, participated in the daring nighttime anti-shipping run thorough the entrance of Tokyo Bay with DESRON 61 on 22/23 July, helping to sink two freighters with her 5-inch guns, and witnessed the surrender of Japan that September.

All in all she had a very successful and lucky war, putting some 200,000 miles on her hull in just over a year.

USS Swenson in heavy swells alongside USS Wasp, January 1945. Photo 80G 301572 by John Chiquoine

She spent the next five years in quiet peacetime operations around the Pacific, finding herself stationed in Japan when the balloon went up in Korea in 1950. Pressed into service as a transport, she transported the US Army’s 560th MP company to Pusan then sent the next several months in plane guard and shore bombardment missions.

She fired no less than 1700 rounds of 5″ shells into the forces attacking the Pusan perimeter, exploded floating mines with her 40mm guns at Inchon, and traded shots with North Korean shore batteries on the island of Wolmi-Do. In covering the landings at Inchon she fired another 1400 rounds of 5″ and three thousand rounds of 40-mm. For this action Swenson and the five other destroyers with her were awarded the Navy Unit Commendation and the Korean Presidential Unit Citation.

A Chaplain reads the Last Rites service as Lieutenant (JG) David H. Swensen is buried at sea from USS Toledo, off Inchon, where he had been transferred for his wounds. The Lieutenant had been struck by shrapnel from North Korean shore-based artillery while his ship, USS Lyman K. Swenson was bombarding enemy positions on Wolmi-do island, Inchon, on 13 September 1950. The USS Swenson is seen observing the service in the distance.

After stateside refit in 1951 where she received up to date radars and electronics, as well as new barrels for her shot-out five inchers, she returned to Korean waters where she landed troops behind enemy lines, rescued downed fliers, and pummeled North Korean railway yards and trains, being one of the few members of the club of naval ships that have sent locomotives cartwheeling through the air.

Following the cessation of hostilities there, came more peacetime service.

She was FRAMM’d in 1960. This removed most of her WWII era AAA armament, added facilities for the nifty Drone Anti-Submarine Helicopter (DASH) UAV (yes, they had them back then!) replaced her 21-inch torpedo tubes with two triple Mark 32 tubes for the Mark 44 ASW torpedo, and added Variable Depth Sonar (VDS). She also got her first ECM gear and modern sonars and radar, effectively making her as effective as a contemporary new destroyer at a fraction of the cost.

DASH drone on USS Swenson. Photo by Curt Helmer, DD729 website

As soon as Vietnam got hot she was there, participating in naval gunnery support missions along the I Corps area during 15 days in October 1964, she fired no less than 2966 rounds of 5″ ammunition.

Follow-on tours in 1967, 68, 69, well you get the idea, saw more gunfire support with her miniature drone deck being just large enough to accommodate the occasional Huey. She also played plane guard on Yankee station during this time between participating in the Mekong Yacht Club.

USS Swenson in 1969 Vietnam coastal waters. Image courtesy of Earl Faubion, DD729 website

With the looming wrap up of the Vietnam conflict (at least for the Americans) her days were numbered. The Navy was pushing for a new fleet of huge 7000-ton Spruance class destroyers, twice as large as the Sumners, and room had to be made.

The old fighting Swenson was decommissioned and struck from the Naval List 1 February 1974, just shy of her 30th birthday.

In addition to the Navy Unit Commendation, the ship earned the following awards: American Campaign, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign (with 5 battle stars), World War II Victory, Navy Occupation Service, China Service, National Defense Service, Korean Service (with 6 battle stars), Armed Forces Expeditionary, Vietnam Service (with 10 stars), United Nations Service, Philippine Liberation (with one star), Korean Presidential Unit Citation, and Republic of Vietnam Campaign.

A dozen of the Sumner-class destroyers were sold to the Republic of China (Taiwan) between 1969-1974, with Swenson being one of the last to go. She was never recommissioned into the ROC navy, being used as a floating source of spare parts.

Finally by the 1990s she was scrapped. However there are undoubtedly parts from her that still remain afloat on the USS Taussig, which since 1970 served Taiwan as the as Lo Yang (DD-14). Since 2000, that hardy old tin can, the last of her class still in military service, has been semi-preserved as a floating museum at Cijin Port, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan.

The only Sumner class destroyer in the U.S is the USS Laffey DD-724. Known as the “Ship that would not die” Laffey survived a swarm of 22 kamikazes during WWII and served alongside Swenson at Inchon in 1950. She is preserved as memorial and berthed at Patriot’s Point, Charleston, South Carolina.

Please visit her when you get a chance.

The former crew-members of the might Swenson have their own reunion site and at http://www.dd729.com/ which supplied many of the images here.

Specs:

(Off Mare Island 1945)

(As built)
Displacement: 2,200 tons (3500-fl)
Length: 376 ft 6 in (114.8 m)
Beam: 40 ft (12.2 m)
Draft: 15 ft 8 in (4.8 m)
Propulsion: 60,000 shp (45 MW);
2 propellers
Speed: 34 knots (63 km/h)
Range: 6500 nmi. (12,000 km) @ 15 kt
Complement: 336
Armament: 6 × 5 in./38 guns (12 cm),
12 × 40mm AA guns,
11 × 20mm AA guns,
10 × 21 in. torpedo tubes,
6 × depth charge projectors,
2 × depth charge tracks

After FRAM II: (1960)
6 × 5 in/38 cal guns (127 mm) (in 3 × 2 Mk 38 DP mounts)
2 × triple Mark 32 torpedo tubes for Mark 44 torpedoes
1 × Drone Anti-Submarine Helicopter (DASH)
Variable Depth Sonar (VDS), ALR-1 EW suite
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/

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

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.

I’m a member, so should you be!

Ran across an excellent piece over at Foxtrot Alpha on the real life experience of being a P-3 Orion/P-8 Poseidon pilot. Its long but really worth it. Ive been inside a Charlie variant on the ground and briefly in the air but the article really gives you a feel for it.

NAVAL AIR STATION JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (April 6, 2011) Three P-3C Orion aircraft with heritage paint schemes are positioned on the tarmac next to the Navy’s next generation of anti-submarine warfare and long-range maritime patrol aircraft, the P-8A Poseidon, rear left, and the unmanned Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) aircraft, center. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist William Lovelady/Released)

On capabilities:

“Overall, the P-3C and provide very useful capabilities to a commander. For example, a Carrier Strike Group (CSG) commander could task an Orion to screen the carrier from submarine threats while passing through a geographical choke point. The next day, the very same crew and aircraft could re-arm with AGM-65’s and provide overwatch of an enemy nation’s port, engaging any small craft that might depart to threaten the carrier. The next day, the same crew and aircraft can launch on an ISR mission, mapping possible mobile surface to air missile (SAM) sites to determine whether launchers or radars are present, all while staying safely outside of these air defense emplacements’ range. The flexibility and capability inherent to a modern P-3C brings a great deal to the fight. “

On black ops:

“I should tell you that it has long been a Maritime Patrol Community rumor that a ‘black’ P-3B flown by the CIA over China shot down a MiG with a Sidewinder. This was allegedly in the 1960s. I have zero information to back that claim up but author David Reade in the book Age of Orion makes claims that this incident occurred. I suppose we’ll never know what really happened. By the time the truth is allowed out, anyone who flew these planes or operated them in such a manner will be long gone.”

On pucker moments:

“I was flying with a junior copilot while my commanding officer rested in the bunk back in the rear of the aircraft. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a bright red flash and jumped in my seat as I heard an alarm scream. I looked to see what was wrong with the aircraft, but the light and alarm were gone as quickly as they had came. As I turned to ask my flight engineer “was that a fire warning,” the fire warning tone blared for one second and the fire light on the #3 engine lit up….”

More here:

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 July 30th, 150th Anniversary of the Great Tennessee

Battle of Mobile Bay by Louis Prang. CSS Tennessee at left

Here we see the great steam-powered casemate ironclad warship, CSS Tennessee, pride of the Confederate Navy sailing out to meet the Union fleet. Never fully operational, she met her fate and proved her metal 150 years ago this week at the Battle of Mobile Bay. Designed by John L. Dixon, she was the largest Confederate ironclad completed during the war.

Her 209-foot long hull constructed at the heart of the Confederate steel industry in Selma, Alabama, in 1862, she was shipped incomplete down the Mobile River system to Mobile herself for completion. One of the last southern ports, Mobile was vital to the South’s continued resistance in the last stages of the war. There, in the shallow mud flats, she was neared to completion under the direction of Joseph Pierce, Acting Naval Constructor in the area. She was fitted with some 5-6 inches of heavy steel armor plate, three sheets thick, made in Shelby, Alabama. She was equipped with a pair of hard-hitting 7-inch double banded Brooke guns and another four, slightly smaller, 6.4-inch guns, making her perhaps one of the most formidable vessels afloat in the hemisphere if not the world at the time.

The problem was she had a slow and inefficient steam plant salvaged from the old steamer Alonzo Child. With this plant operating at maximum capacity, it could push the 1200-ton battleship to just 5-knots if lucky. This made her ram bow almost a joke of a weapon as most ships could evade the slowly moving but heavily armored ironclad.

Watercolor by F. Muller, circa 1900. Courtesy of the U.S. Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C.

Made the flagship of Confederate Admiral Buchanan, who had helmed the earlier CSS Manassass to her fitful clash with the USS Monitor just two years before, the nearly finished met the might of the Union Navy at the mouth of Mobile Bay on August 5, 1864. There, U.S. Rear Admiral David G. Farragut was leading an armada of eighteen ships, including four new monitors, past the two forts barring the entrance to the last sovereign Confederate watershed.

All Buchanan had at his disposal was the Tennessee and three sad little wooden gunboats armed with popguns. This placed the ironclad at the heart of the southern fleet’s answer to the invaders. Steaming into the fray, the ship closed with Farragut’s classic naval frigates Hartford and Brooklyn and exchanged cannon fire with these wooden ships at point-blank distance. This continued until the new USS Chickasaw, a Milwaukee-class river monitor, closed with the larger beast and raked her with fire, keeping her at bay. Over the course of the next several moments the fleet pounded Tennessee, taking away her steering chains and holing her in several places.

Tennessee broadside-to-broadside with the Oneida; monitor Chickasaw coming in on the Confederate from point-blank range at left, Winnebago in background; bowsprit-less gunboat USS Pequot at right rear. Painting by Tom Freeman

With no other alternative, and fighting a losing battle with a predetermined outcome, Tennessee surrendered.

Capture of Ram Tennessee Mobile Bay by Alfred R. Waud

Within days the Yankees had repaired the ship and placed it under the star-spangled banner as the USS Tennessee, using her, in the ultimate irony, against the Confederates at Fort Morgan. Following victory there she was sent to New Orleans for more extensive repairs and kept in service with the U.S. Navy’s Mississippi Squadron. In 1867 the ship was scrapped.

Port quarter view, probably taken off New Orleans, Louisiana, circa 1865. She was formerly CSS Tennessee (1864-1864).U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Her guns are on display around the country including several of her Brookes at the Washington Navy Yard, Washington, D.C, another at Norfolk, and one at Selma, where it was cast.

If you are free and around Mobile this weekend, there is the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Mobile Bay. Centered around Fort Morgan, they will have a mock-up of the Tennessee. You should check it out if in the area.

Specs:

Displacement: 1,273 long tons (1,293 t)
Length:     209 ft (63.7 m)
Beam:     48 ft (14.6 m)
Draft:     14 ft (4.3 m)
Installed power:     4 boilers
Propulsion:     2 Shafts, 2 Steam engines
Speed:     5 knots (9.3 km/h; 5.8 mph)
Complement: 133 officers and enlisted men
Armament:     2 × 7 in (178 mm) Double-banded Brooke rifles
4 × 6.4 in (163 mm) Double-banded Brooke rifles
ram
Armor:
Casemate: 5–6 in (127–152 mm)
Deck: 2 in (51 mm)

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/

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

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.

I’m a member, so should you be!

Above is the Prototype RAMICS gun and mount on an MH-60S helicopter.

The gun is an upgrade of the the 25 mm M242 Bushmaster cannon stretched to fire the same 30mm round as the GAU-8 Avenger gun found on the A-10 Warthog.

First thought up in 1997, the AN/AWS-2  Rapid Airborne Mine Clearance System (RAMICS) system took a 30mm cannon and mounted on the side of a Seahawk helicopter with the idea being that it could blow the ever loving shit out of mines detected afloat or just under the surface. In 2002 Northrop Grumman started working on the program.

From their site:

“RAMICS uses a gated electro-optic Laser Imaging Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) sensor for target re-acquisition and a 30mm MK44 Bushmaster II gun for neutralization.

The gun uses a MK 258 Mod 1 armor-piercing, fin-stabilized tracer round which is stable during flight, and after penetrating the water, supercavitates to greatly reduce drag and improves underwater flight performance. Supercavitation takes place when the tip of the high velocity RAMICS projectile vaporizes the water to steam allowing the projectile to travel through the resulting gas pocket in the water column. The accuracy of the system will destroy the mine with a minimum number of rounds.

The system has undergone a series of tests to confirm projectile depth and lethality. Testing in November 2002 validated the system’s operational utility and application to future missions. RAMICS has also demonstrated rated capabilities to penetrate earth, metal and a six foot solid block wall.”

Funding was cut in 2011 although it was tested “capable of deflagrating a mine down to 13m depth; causing rapid sinking down to 45m; and slow sinking of mines at 60m.”

Yes, capable of hitting a sea mine through 196-feet of seawater and still having enough force to cause it to sink.  Why would we want to fund something like that?

The USS Independence of the General Dynamics Independence Class and USS Freedom of the Lockheed Martin Freedom Class littoral combat ships. U.S. Navy photo by Lt. Jan Shultis

Two new (and lengthy) reports out on the littoral combat ship (LCS) program. The first at 108-pages is complied by the CRS, the second, a 60-page GAO report. They provide a good background of the program so far and raise some questions.

The fact is that the Big Blue is trying to make one class of now just 32 ships (in two variants) take the place 77 legacy hulls: 51 FFG-7 Oliver Hazard Perry Class frigates (most of which are already gone without replacement), 14 MCM-1 Avenger Class mine countermeasures vessels, and 12 MHC-51 Osprey Class coastal mine hunters. That’s a big gamble to make on such an unproven design.

These ships, which are not fully outfitted yet and each is fairly unique as they come off the ways with an ever-evolving series of tweaks, are pushing the Naval architectural limit for weight allowances, which is a bad thing in a new vessel expected to be multi-mission/multi-role/plug and play wonder platforms.

Also the GAO report found that in USS Freedom‘s recent 10-month deployment to Singapore, multiple problems arose. For instance the ship lost 55 days to a variety of mechanical issues that had to be corrected. Further, the GAO raised questions about habitability on the ship with increased crew size (from 40 as designed to well past 50 as deployed). Even with the increase in bluejackets on deck, the report still mentioned that the ship was heavily dependent on contractor support, requiring five days in port with flown-out contractors aboard for every 25 deployed. Then there is the fact that the lightly armed and short-legged warship that isn’t had a hard time being deployed on worth-wild missions in the far-flung 7th Fleet West Pac area of responsibility.

So it would seem there are some bugs to work out.

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 Sept 10. 2014, Australia’s Most Silent Sub

Here we see the E-Class submarine AE2 of the Royal Australian Navy Presenting the Submarine Threat in the Sea of Marmara, April 1915 by Charles Bryant. The ship, just 181-feet long, sailed into history and proved her mettle.

One of the 58 British-built E-class submersibles constructed between 1912-1916, these ships were considered the first really successful Royal Navy submarines. Built from experience with earlier D-class boats, these 780-ton (submerged) ships could make a decent 15-knots on their twin 800hp Vickers diesels when surfaced on an attack run, or a more sedate 10-knots while submerged and on a set of 313kW electric motors. Although very small and cramped ships, they had a respectable 3,000-nm range and were capable of spending two weeks or more at sea before hiding places for food to stoke their 30-man crew ran out. Four 18-inch tubes (arranged bow, stern, port and starboard– talk about variety!) and four torpedo racks allowed the boats to carry as many as eight warshots with a fish in every spot. Cheap (about 100,000-pounds) and able to both conduct ops in blue and brown water due to their shallow 12-foot draft, they were the perfect steel shark for the Royal Navy.

Therefore, the infant Royal Australian Navy ordered up two of their own designated HMAS AE1 and HMAS AE2 from Vickers Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness, England, in 1912. Commissioned in the spring of 1914, they were the first subs to carry the Australian flag. Therefore, to spin up the Aussie crew, they carried a mixed complement of RN/RNAS personnel. For instance, it is known that of the 37 crewmembers who served on the ship in 1915 only 14 were born in Australia. Twenty-one crew members were born in Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland), one in New Zealand, and another in Brazil.

Sailing for the Pacific, these ships covered an epic 13,000-nm route in 83 days, impressive for the time.

HMAS AE2 passing through Suez Canal

When the war broke out, the subs, a rarity on the West Pac, were dispatched as part of the Australian force to capture the German colony of Rabal, Deutsch-Neuguinea (Kaiserwilhelmsland).

An Australian soldier of the AN&MEF and his mother in Sydney, 1914, prior to departing for Rabaul

With no German ships to oppose the landing of some 2000 Australians, a force of about a tenth that size German reservists and local police lost the sharp but bloody Battle of Bita Paka. However, HMAS AE1 vanished while on patrol during the operation, never to be seen again. This was Australia’s first major loss of World War I.

With the German colony’s surrender, and the destruction of Adm. Von Spee’s Asiatic Squadron leaving the Pacific free of the Hun, AE2, Australia’s only remaining sub, left for Europe where she could be put to good use. Leaving in December 1914, she was the sole escort for a convoy of 17 ships carrying Australian troops to Africa, being towed most of the way to be able to keep up. Since AE2 had no deck guns, her value as an escort was questionable at best, but nonetheless her charges arrived at the Suez Canal at the end of Jan. 1915 without a scratch on them.

On route to take part in the Dardanelles campaign, the AE2 is making her own way into Aden after being towed across the Indian Ocean by the transport HMAS Berrima (background). Australian War archive P02029.027

Once in the Med, the Royal Navy soon detailed the Australian sub to penetrate the Dardanelles, work its way through thick Turkish minefields that had foiled the combined fleets of Great Britain and France, and then run amok in the Sea of Marma. With traditional pluck, the ship set off and did just that on April 25, 1915.

From the Australian Navy’s website of the event as told from the report of Lieutenant Commander H H G D Stoker, commander:

‘Having proceeded from the anchorage off Tenedos, I lay at the entrance off the Dardanelles until moonset and at about 2:30 am on 25th April entered the straits at 8 knots. Weather calm and clear. As the order to run amok in the Narrows precluded all possibility of passing through unseen, I decided to travel on the surface as far as possible.’

Searchlights continually swept the Strait but AE2 continued unmolested until 4:30 am when batteries opened fire from the northern shore. The submarine dived and began her passage through the minefield. Wires, from which the mines were moored, continually scraped AE2’s sides for the next half hour. Twice she surfaced in the minefield to make observations. At 6:00 am she was within two miles of the Narrows submerged at periscope depth. The sea was flat calm. Forts on both sides of the Narrows sighted her and immediately opened heavy fire. Stoker, watching through his periscope, observed a number of ships and decided to attack a small cruiser of the PEIK-E-SHETHEK type. His report continued:

‘At a range of three hundred yards I fired the bow tube at her. One of the destroyers was now very close, attempting to ram us on the port side, so at the moment of firing I ordered 70 feet. A last glance, as the periscope dipped, showed the destroyer apparently right on top of us, and then, amidst the noise of her propeller whizzing overhead, was heard the big explosion as the torpedo struck’.

After a brief interval underwater Stoker decided to risk a look around.

‘As the vessel was rising, she hit bottom and slid up on to the bank to a depth of ten feet, at which depth a considerable portion of the conning tower was above water. Through the periscope I saw that the position was immediately under Fort Anatoli Medjidieh.’

The fort opened fire and for some minutes shells fell on all sides until efforts to refloat her succeeded. AE2 then slid into the safety of deep water. The relief on board the submarine proved brief and it was not long before AE2 was again stranded.

‘Through the periscope I judged the position to be immediately under Serina Burnu, and I further observed two destroyers, a gunboat, and several small craft standing close off in the Straits firing heavily and a cluster of small boats which I judged to be picking up survivors of the cruiser.’

‘As my vessel was lying with inclination down by the bows I went full speed ahead. Shortly afterwards she began to move down the bank, bumped, gathered way and then bumped very heavily. She, however, continued to descend and at 80 feet I dived off the bank. The last bump was calculated to considerably injure the vessel, but as I considered my chief duty was to prove the passage through the Straits possible, I decided to continue.’

Shortly afterwards AE2 again rose to periscope depth. She was seen to be approaching Nagara Point. On all sides she was surrounded by pursuit craft. Each time she showed her periscope the destroyers tried to ram her and each time she eluded them. At last in an attempt to shake the enemy off Stoker decided to lie on the bottom on the Asiatic shore to await developments.

All day, 25 April, AE2 lay in 80 feet of water while the searching enemy ships passed and repassed overhead. Once she was hit by a heavy object being trailed along the bottom. At 9:00 pm she rose to the surface to charge batteries. All signs of shipping had vanished.

At 4:00 pm on 26 April, AE2 proceeded on the surface up the Straits. Stoker commented:

‘As soon as light permitted, I observed through periscope, two ships approaching – both men-o-war. Sea was glassy calm and I approached with periscope down. On hoisting periscope I observed ship on line of sight of port tube. I immediately fired but ship altered course and the torpedo missed. I discovered I had fired at the leading ship and found it impossible to bring another tube to bear on second ship (a battleship Barbarossa class) with any chance of success. I therefore did not fire.’

‘I continued on course through the Straits, examined the Gallipoli anchorage, found no ship worthy of attack and so proceeded in the Sea of Marmora, which was entered about 9:00 am.’

About 9:30 am AE2 sighted several ships, but since only six of her eight torpedoes remained Stoker decided not to fire until he was certain his target was a troop transport.

‘With this intention I dived close to the foremost ship – a tramp of about 2,000 tons. Passing about 200 yards abeam of her I could see no sign of troops; but as I passed under her stern she ran up colours and opened rifle fire at the periscope. I dived over to the next ship and attacked at 400 yards with starboard beam torpedo. The torpedo failed to hit.’

Half an hour later AE2 surfaced and spent the rest of the day on the surface, charging batteries and making good defects. Shortly after dark she was attacked by a small anti-submarine vessel and throughout the night of 26/27 April she was attacked on several occasions shortly after surfacing.

At dawn on 27 April she sighted a ship escorted by two destroyers. Evading the escort, she manoeuvred into position at 300 yards but this time the torpedo refused to leave the tube. A destroyer tried to ram, forcing a hurried dive. Nothing else was sighted that day. The following night Stoker rested his crew on the bottom of Artaki Bay. Twice on 28 April she made attacks only to see the torpedoes narrowly miss the target.

‘At dawn on 29 April I dived towards Gallipoli and observed a gunboat patrolling ahead of Strait off Eski Farnar Point. Dived under gunboat down Strait, and returned up Strait showing periscope to give the impression that another submarine had come through. Destroyers and torpedo boats came out in pursuit; having led them all up towards Sea of Marmora, I dived back and examined Gallipoli anchorage but found nothing to attack.’

AE2 then proceeded out into the Sea of Marmora pursued by anti-submarine units. She surfaced half an hour later, spotted the gunboat, fired and missed by one yard.

On the same day, off Kara Burnu Point, she met HMS E14, the second British submarine to successfully pass through the Dardanelles. A new rendezvous was arranged for 10:00 am the following day.

On the night of 29/30 April, AE2 lay on the bottom north of Marmora Island. Arriving at the rendezvous at 10:00 am she sighted a torpedo boat approaching at high speed. Stoker commented on subsequent events:

‘Dived to avoid torpedo boat; whilst diving sighted smoke in Artaki Bay, so steered south to investigate. About 10:30 the boat’s nose suddenly rose and she broke surface about a mile from the torpedo boat. Blew water forward but boat would not dive. Torpedo boat firing very close and ship from Artaki bay, a gunboat was also firing; flooded a forward tank and boat suddenly assumed big inclination down by the bows and dived very rapidly. AE2 was only fitted with 100 foot depth gauges. This depth was quickly reached and passed. After a considerable descent the boat rose rapidly, passed the 100 foot mark and in spite of efforts to check her broke the surface stern first. Within seconds the engine room was hit and holed in three places. Owing to the inclination down by the bow, it was impossible to see torpedo boat through the periscope and I considered any attempt to ram would be useless. I therefore blew main ballast and ordered all hands on deck. Assisted by LEUT Haggard, I then opened all tanks to flood the sub and went on deck. The boat sank in a few minutes in about 55 fathoms, in approximate position 4 degrees north of Kara Burnu Point at 10:45 am. All hands were picked up by the torpedo boat and no lives lost.’

Stoker and his crew, although saved, spent the next four years in a series of Turkish prisons, only freed by the end of the war.

The AE2 herself lay forgotten for 83 years until a joint Turkish-Australian effort found the stricken sub in some 236-feet of seawater. She is not set to be salvaged, but instead saved as a war wreck, marked and protected. In 2010 the RAN awarded the sub the two official honors, “Rabaul 1914″ and “Dardanelles 1915″.

A very active society is in place to celebrate the legacy of Australia’s sacred submarine.

Specs:

Click to embiggen

Cost:    £115,000
Built:   Vickers at Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire, England
Launched:       18 June 1913
Commissioned: 28 February 1914
Complement: 35
Length:            181 feet [55.17m]
Beam: 22 feet 6 inches [6.86m]
Draught:          12 feet, 6 inches [3.81m]
Displacement: 660 tonnes surfaced, 800 tonnes submerged
Speed:             15 knots surfaced, 10 knots submerged
Armaments: Four 18-inch Whitehead torpedo tubes – single bow tube: two tubes in the beam port and starboard, stern tube. AE2 carried 8 torpedoes: two at each of the 4 firing positions
Periscopes: Two: the main a fixed lens and another with moveable optics to view the sky
Crew: 32 (three officers and 29 seamen)

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Back in the Civil War, what we know today as land and naval mines and demolition charges were all lumped into the same title of : Torpedo.

While these infernal devices were most commonly used by the troop-poor South, the Union also got into the act. One of their generals, B.Gen Herman Haupt (USMA Class of 1835), was also a respected professor of mathematics and engineering who came up with one of the better ones, designed to destroy railroad and foot bridges as required.

Haupt’s torpedo for quickly wrecking wooden bridges. LOC image Click to big up

I made the following report on how to destroy bridges and locomotive engines expeditiously:

From Civil War Documents.com  : General Haupt’s report on his device
Washington, D. C, November 1, 1862.

A simple and expeditious mode of destroying bridges, and rendering locomotive engines useless to an enemy, is often a desideratum. Cavalry may penetrate far into an enemy’s country, may reach bridges forming viaducts on important lines of communication, which, it may be desirable to break effectually; or, in retreat, the destruction of a bridge may be essential to the safety of an army, and yet time may not be sufficient to gather combustibles, or they may not be accessible, or the fire may be extinguished, or the damage may be so slight as to be easily repaired.

What is required is the means of certainly and effectually throwing down a bridge in a period of time not exceeding five minutes, and with apparatus so simple and portable that it can be carried in the pocket or a saddle-bag.

These requirements are fulfilled by a torpedo, which consists simply of a short bolt of seven-eighths inch iron, eight inches long, with head and nut—the head to be two inches in diameter, and about one inch thick. A washer of same size as the head must be placed under the nut at the other end, with a fuse-hole in it. Between the washer and the head is a tin cylinder one and three-quarters inches in diameter, open at both ends, which is filled with powder, and, when the washer and nut are put on, forms a case which encloses it.

In using this torpedo, a hole is bored in a timber; the torpedo (head downwards) is driven in by a stone or billet of wood, and the fuse ignited. The explosion blows the timber in pieces, and, if a main support, brings down the whole structure.

The time required is only that which is necessary to bore a hole with an auger. Ordinary cigar lighters, which burn without flame, and cannot be blown out, are best for igniting the fuse, which should be about two feet long.

For portability, the auger should be short, say thirteen inches, and the handle movable and of same length.

The proper place at which to insert the torpedo is of much consequence. Most of the Virginia bridges are Howe trusses without arches. In this kind of bridge, the destruction of the main braces at one end, and on only one side of a span, will be sufficient to bring down the whole structure. There are usually but two main braces in each panel, and two torpedoes will suffice to throw down a span. Two men can bore the two holes at the same time without interfering with each other.

Cartridges containing a fulminate would be more portable, but they are not always conveniently procurable, and their use is attended with risk of explosion.

It is only necessary to operate at one side and on one end of a bridge. If one side falls, the other side is pulled down with it.

If the structure contains an arch, two additional torpedoes will be required; but in this case it may be equally advantageous to operate upon the lower chord.

Experiments made at Alexandria proved that a timber placed in the position of a main brace, and similarly loaded, was shattered into many pieces, some of which were projected by the force of explosion more than a hundred feet.

To Render Locomotives Unfit for Service: The most expeditious mode is to fire a cannon ball through the boiler. This damage cannot be repaired without taking out all the flues.

The usual mode of disabling engines consists in burning the flues

by letting out the water and making a fire in the fire-box; but this is generally done so imperfectly that the enemy soon gets them in running order.

Cars are Readily Destroyed by Burning: On this subject no instructions are necessary. The destruction of more than four hundred cars by our own troops within the last six months proves that in the work of destroying such property perfection has been attained, and no room left for winning fresh laurels in this field.

The Superintendent of the Orange & Alexandria Military Railroad has instructions to furnish sample torpedoes to officers who may order them.

Address “J. H. Devereux, Superintendent of Orange & Alexandria Railroad, Alexandria, Va.”

H. HAUPT

Brigadier-General,
In Charge of United States Military Railroads

Charles Pears working on an oil painting of ‘R.M.S. Orcades’

Born in the quiet market town of Pontefract, Yorkshire was an Englishman by the name of Charles Pears on 9 Sept. 1873. A professional illustrator from the time he was 17, Charles did his duty in the Royal Marines as an officer in World War I, although in his 40s at the time. He also served as an official war artist through the Second World War, by then in his later 60s, but still on the list of the Royal Naval Reserve. A thorough Englishman, he made his living by drawing and painting amazing and captivating travel images for the Empire Marketing Board, and British Railway as well as in periodicals like Punch and Yellow Book. Between 1902-1933, with a break for his wartime service, he illustrated more than 50 books ranging from A Christmas Carol to The Great War.

Whenever possible, it seems he tried to work warships into his commercial illustrations.

“Gibraltar” by Charles Pears, for the Empire Marketing Board, 1930. Note that its a travel poster– but he still was able to work in a plethora of Royal Navy ships on the horizon.

Again, its a travel poster– but you see the naval aspect clearly.

Charles Pears paid the bills through illustrating.

“New Fast Turbine Steamers” GWR poster, 1923-1947. Poster produced for the Great Western Railway (GWR) to promote the new turbine steamers St Julien and St Helier which operated on services between Weymouth and the Channel Islands. Artwork by Charles Pears, a marine painter in oil who was an Official Naval Artist during the World Wars. He worked as a poster artist for rail companies and other clients and was also a book illustrator. Dimensions: 1050 mm x 1300 mm.

Poster produced for the Great Western Railway (GWR) promoting rail travel to Paignton, South Devon. The poster shows a bathing belle waving a towel on the beach, with the promenade stretching out behind her and sunbathers enjoying themselves on the beach. Artwork by Charles Pears,

However it is is maritime art in oils that Pear excelled in. He lived in the age of the mighty dreadnought and as such, captured some of the best battleship painting ever to grace a canvas.

“HMS Queen Elizabeth” by Charles Pears. he Royal Society of Marine Artists; Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation

“Transport by Sea: Supplying the Navy 1917″ by Charles Pears 1873-1958 Presented by the Ministry of Information 1918

Charles Pears “HMS Courageous in drydock”

“Battleship HMS Howe in Suez Canal”by Charles Pears. Click to very much biggup

“Jervis Bay action” by Charles Pears

“The Bombing of The British Chancellor in Falmouth Docks, 1940″ by Charles Pears

“British sub K22 in drydock at Rosyth, Winter” by Charles Pears. The Royal Society of Marine Artists; Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation

“Streaming the para-vanes” by Charles Pears. The Royal Society of Marine Artists; Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation

“HMS Ullswater torpedoed. ” by Charles Pears. The Royal Society of Marine Artists; Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation

A motor launch recovering a torpedo. The Royal Society of Marine Artists; Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation

Pears – Hard Lying

“A Boarding Party of Royal Naval Reserve Men Going Aboard a Prize under Searchlight” by Charles Pears

During WWII he painted “MV San Demetrio gets home” which was turned into a Post Office Savings Bank stamp.

“San Demetrio gets home” By Charles Pears. Collection of the IWM

His original artwork presently part of the collection of the National Maritime Museum, Imperial War Museum, and others. In all an amazing 83 of his works are held on public display in the UK.

Charles Pears, member of the Royal Society of Marine Artists, Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolor, Royal Institute of Oil Painters and the first elected President of the Society of Marine Artists, died in 1958 at age 84 in Cornwall, but his art is timeless. Many of the ships he captured are immortalized no where else and it is through his scholarship that generations who will never know the experience of a true leviathan ship of war, may gaze upon his art and remember.

Thank you for your work, sir.

WATERS SOUTH OF THE KOREAN PENINSULA (Oct. 21, 2014) Mineman 1st Class (SW) Douglas Reynolds gives commands to the crane operator during deployment of the Mine Neutralization Vehicle (MNV) AN/SLQ 48 aboard the Avenger-class mine countermeasures ship USS Chief (MCM 14). The MNV is used to identify and neutralize simulated mines during training as part of exercise Clear Horizon 2014.

Clear Horizon is an annual bilateral exercise between the U.S. and Republic of Korea navies designed to enhance cooperation and improve capabilities in mine countermeasure operations. (U.S. Navy Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class (SW/AW) Frank L. Andrews / Released)

141116-N-PO203-042
ARABIAN GULF (Nov. 16, 2014) The Afloat Forward Staging Base (Interim) USS Ponce (ASB(I) 15) conducts an operational demonstration of the Office of Naval Research (ONR)-sponsored Laser Weapon System (LaWS) while deployed to the Arabian Gulf. (U.S. Navy photo by John F. Williams/Released)

We have talked about the 30kW active laser on the USS Ponce, the converted old gator used as an afloat forward staging base with a hybrid 55-man USN/150 MSC crew conducting spec op/counter mine/counter-terr operations in the Persian Gulf several times.

Well it looks like the Navy is finally going full frontal with the deployed laser on board.

141116-N-PO203-134
ARABIAN GULF (Nov. 16, 2014) Chief Fire Controlman Brett Richmond, right, and Lt. j.g. Katie Woodard, operate the Office of Naval Research (ONR)-sponsored Laser Weapon System (LaWS) installed aboard the Afloat Forward Staging Base (Interim) USS Ponce (ASB(I) 15) during an operational demonstration in the Arabian Gulf. Directed energy weapons can counter asymmetric threats, including unmanned and light aircraft and small attack boats. (U.S. Navy photo by John F. Williams/Released)

ARLINGTON, Va (NNS) — Officials at the Office of Naval Research (ONR) announced today the laser weapon system (LaWS) – a cutting-edge weapon that brings significant new capabilities to America’s Sailors and Marines – was for the first time successfully deployed and operated aboard a naval vessel in the Arabian Gulf.

The operational demonstrations, which took place from September to November aboard USS Ponce (AFSB[I] 15), were historic not only because they showed a laser weapon working aboard a deployed U.S. Navy ship, but also because LaWS operated seamlessly with existing ship defense systems.

“Laser weapons are powerful, affordable and will play a vital role in the future of naval combat operations,” said Rear Adm. Matthew L. Klunder, chief of naval research. “We ran this particular weapon, a prototype, through some extremely tough paces, and it locked on and destroyed the targets we designated with near-instantaneous lethality.”

During the tests, LaWS – a collaborative effort between ONR, Naval Sea Systems Command, Naval Research Laboratory, Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division and industry partners — hit targets mounted aboard a speeding oncoming small boat, shot a Scan Eagle unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) out of the sky, and destroyed other moving targets at sea.

Sailors worked daily with LaWS over several months since it was installed, and reported the weapon performed flawlessly, including in adverse weather conditions of high winds, heat and humidity. They noted the system exceeded expectations for both reliability and maintainability.

The system is operated by a video-game like controller, and can address multiple threats using a range of escalating options, from non-lethal measures such as optical “dazzling” and disabling, to lethal destruction if necessary. It could prove to be a pivotal asset against what are termed “asymmetric threats,” which include small attack boats and UAVs.

Data regarding accuracy, lethality and other factors from the Ponce deployment will guide the development of weapons under ONR’s Solid-State Laser-Technology Maturation program. Under this program, industry teams have been selected to develop cost-effective, combat-ready laser prototypes that could be installed on vessels such as guided-missile destroyers and the Littoral Combat Ship in the early 2020s.

More here

Lets just call a spade a spade. The Navy has a critical shortage of Subchaser/Destroyer Escort/Frigate type ships…again.

Going back to the old steam and steel navy of the 1900s, the torpedo boat was put out to pasture by the destroyer (who could both kill torpedo boats and launch torps while keeping up with the fleet). This gave the navy four distinct category of vessels:

1. Battleships– the default capital ship from 1890-1942
2. Large, armored or heavy cruisers– who could fight and kill anything up to a battleship
3. Smaller ‘light’ or protected cruisers– who could screened the fleet and scouted ahead
4. Destroyers– who provided escort for all of the above and could be assigned to expendable missions

Then came World War One and the Navy realized that, while they had a bunch of destroyers, they were tied to the fleet rather than being able to break away from it. You see every destroyer you pulled away from the battle fleet left a cruiser or battleship open to a torpedo from the ship that effectively replaced the torpedo boat– the submarine.

WWI-era 110-foot Subchaser #57 of the “Splinter Fleet” these boats were small but had a lot of heart. Don’t knock them for their size– submarines of the day weren’t much larger

The answer was the “subchaser,” little boats able to bust U-boats, escort merchant ships, creep into shallow littoral waters, wave the flag in areas not deemed worthy of sending a larger vessel, and, when used in fleet service, effectively escort destroyers. Hundreds of SCs were built and used by the Navy in WWI and even remained in service into the 20s to some degree. Then the Navy got rid of them, saying that anything a SC could do a Destroyer could do better so why waste the money.

Then came World War II and the Navy realized that, while they had a bunch of destroyers, they were tied to the fleet rather than being able to break away from it. You see every destroyer you pulled away from the battle fleet left a cruiser or battleship or carrier open to a torpedo.  (Sound familiar?)

USS Buckley (DE-51), your typical WWII DE. 1740-tons, 306-feet, built for the fight at hand.

The answer was the “destroyer escort,” little boats able to bust U-boats, escort merchant ships, creep into shallow littoral waters, wave the flag in areas not deemed worthy of sending a larger vessel, and, when used in fleet service, effectively escort destroyers. Hundreds of DEs were built and used by the Navy in WWII and even remained in service into the 50s to some degree. Then the Navy got rid of them, saying that anything a DE could do a Destroyer, of which they had hundreds of left over from the Big One, could do better so why waste the money.

Then came the depths of the Cold War in the 1960s in which the Russkies were cranking out enough submarines to walk from Martha’s Vineyard to Hamburg without getting your feet wet and the Navy realized that, while they had a bunch of destroyers, they were tied to the fleet rather than being able to break away from it. You see every destroyer you pulled away from the battle fleet left a cruiser or carrier or amphibious assault ship open to a torpedo. (Could have sworn I heard this song before)

Aerial view of Knox-class frigate USS McCandless (FF-1084) 4260-tons 438-feet long, these were excellent ASW/ASuW boats and held the line in the Atlantic for 25 years.

The answer was the “frigate,” little boats able to bust U-boats, escort merchant ships, creep into shallow littoral waters, wave the flag in areas not deemed worthy of sending a larger vessel, and, when used in fleet service, effectively escort destroyers. Over a hundred frigates (46 Knox-class FF, 51 Perry-class FFG, 10 Bronstein-class FF, 6 Brooke-class FFG) were built and used by the Navy in the Cold War and even remained in service into the 21st century to some degree. Then the Navy got rid of them, saying that anything a frigate could do a Destroyer could do better so why waste the money.  In turn, a group of expendable Littoral Combat Ships that are frigate-sized but not frigate-like will pick up the slack and serve as minesweepers if needed (hey any ship can be a minesweeper once, right?)

Now we have a resurgent and chest-pounding China, who is bullying its neighbors as it reaches out for Lebensraum and to return ethnic-Chinese to the fold while it rebuilds its military (augmented by a New Russia led by Tsar Vladimir I who is doing much the same thing but on a smaller asymmetric scale, and the always fun Persian Gulf follies in a world of unstable oil prices). Both of their navies rely on submarines to do the heavy lifting and (insert shock) the Navy realizes that, while they had a bunch of destroyers, they are tied to the fleet rather than being able to break away from it. You see every destroyer you pull away from the battle fleet left a cruiser or carrier or amphibious assault ship open to a torpedo.

What they need is a (wait for it) class of little boats able to bust U-boats, escort merchant ships, creep into shallow littoral waters, wave the flag in areas not deemed worthy of sending a larger vessel, and, when used in fleet service, effectively escort destroyers.

What they have are 32 ( mostly still building) lightly armed LCSs that currently cannot fool with a submarine, fight a surface contact larger than a speedboat or pirate launch, and, while they can escort a merchant or auxiliary ship in areas with such lightweight threats, if faced with any sort of actual foreign naval presence, is hard-pressed to even escort itself. About the only thing they do have in common with the 100 years of sub-chasers/destroyer escorts/frigates that preceded them is the ability to creep into shallow littoral waters and wave the flag in areas not deemed worthy of sending a larger vessel.

Now that is going to change.

As reported by the USNI and others the last 20 LCS built will instead be much-augmented Small Surface Combatants (SSC)– presumably 10 on each hull.

The ships will pick up some sub-buster creds with multifunction towed array, provisions for ASW torps (helicopter carried), and torpedo countermeasures (Nixie or TRAPR DCL?).

For increased ASuW punch they will get an over-the-horizon anti-ship missile (likely an advanced Harpoon or possibly the excellent new Norwegian Naval Strike missile which has been tested on LCS-4 already), and confusingly, more light guns to include Mk.38 25mm remote mounts forward. While twin Mk44/46/50 gun mount (using a 30mm Bushmaster and the rounds from the GAU-8 Avenger cannon on the A-10) is already slated as a module for the series and is much superior to the 25mm is still listed as a possibility which would make it the first USN combatant to have three 25-57mm caliber batteries on board in modern history if fielded like this.

There will also be some survivability improvements to include more armor, signature management, an active EW system, upgraded decoys and an over the horizon search radar.

Sadly, no on-board Mk32 tubes or even a 8-cell Mk41 VLS for a few ASROC or ESSM bulk packs, but hey, at least this version of the LCS is closer to what the original one should have been and can control some ocean if needed. Perhaps this is an option later however….

Maybe the first 32 LCS can be modernized to SSC standard during their mid-life refit.  An SSC will cost $60-$75 million more than a Flight 0 LCS, and procurement of the type is to begin by 2019.

And then just go ahead and call them frigates.

Just saying.

“Frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG 58) Returns to Naval Station Mayport. Courtesy HD Video | Navy Media Content Services | Date: 12.15.2014. Family and friends welcome back the guided-missile frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG 58) to Naval Station Mayport. Samuel B. Roberts returned from deployment to the U.S. 6th Fleet area of responsibility in support of U.S. national security interests in Europe and Africa. The ship is scheduled for decommissioning on May 22, 2015. (U.S. Navy video by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Nathan Lang/Released)”

If the ship sounds familiar, the Sammy B was in the very last batch of Oliver Hazard Perry (FFG-7) class frigates to commission in April 1986. You could still smell the new paint on board when she was sent to the Persian Gulf to stand guard between Saddam’s Iraq and the Iranian rogue state. It was there on 14 April 1988, as part of  Operation Earnest Will, the escort of re-flagged Kuwaiti tankers during the Iran–Iraq War, that she struck a Soviet-made M-08 naval mine in the central Persian Gulf. The mine blew a 15-foot hole in her, knocked her GE LM2500 turbines off their mounts, and broke her keel.

16 April 1988: Dubai – A view looking through the hole in the hull of Samuel B. Roberts sustained when the ship struck a mine while on patrol in the Persian Gulf. The ship is in dry dock undergoing temporary repairs. (U.S. Navy photo DVID #DN-SN-93-01451 by PH2 Rudy D. Pahoyo)

30 July 1988: Newport RI- An aerial view of the Dutch heavy lift ship Mighty Servant II transporting the guided missile frigate Samuel B. Roberts. (U.S. Navy photo DVID #DN-ST-89-01414 by PH2(SW) Jeff Elliott)

Normally, this would have been a death sentence for such a small “tincan”. However Sammy was rebuilt, the Iranians, whose mine it was, were plastered in Operation Preying Mantis which sank the Iranian frigate IS Sahand (F74), and things got back to being normal.

Unlike most of the Perrys that are being decommed, the 29-year old Sammy B will not be going overseas as Foreign Aid to some needy third world fleet.

She will be scrapped after her planned decommissioning in May.

Saw this today in which it appears that a quartet of Confederate submersibles, scuttled in Louisiana mud to prevent those darned Yankees from grabbing them up, have been located– right where they were left 150~ years ago.

Marty Loschen, director of the Spring Street Museum in downtown Shreveport, thinks he’s found remnants of the hand-propelled craft in the banks of a branch of Cross Bayou about a half-mile west of where the Confederate Navy had a shipyard. At Cross Bayou’s mouth on Red River, it was home to the leaky ironclad CSS Missouri and a fast packet, the Webb, whose presence overshadowed the humbler underwater vessels.

Several months ago, before recent rains raised water levels on Cross Bayou and its feeder streams, Loschen and his brother found decades-old rusted metal and some oddly formed tree roots whose shape suggested they had grown over something curved that had rotted or rusted away. The site was on a bank revealed by low water on Bowman’s chute.

“It’s breathtakingly beautiful out there,” says Loschen, who spends much of his time exploring the more remote, forgotten and forbidding parts of old Shreveport. He points to the 1864 Venable map of the defenses of Shreveport which shows several small buildings near where he found the artifacts.

Rusted iron the drought-exposed lower reaches of Bowmans Inlet. The site is now under at least 10 feet of water. (Photo: Courtesy Marty Loschen)

“There’s your sub base,” he said. “On the Venable map there’s an island out there. My theory is if you’re going to have a clandestine sub base, you’re going to put it out there. Look, there are structures out there, near what I found out beached — it has to be.”

Others disagree…the rest here

“Experimental Sea Slice The experimental Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull ship “Sea Slice” returns to its homeport of Naval Station San Diego, Calif., Nov. 30, 2005. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Zack Baddorf”

If you read this blog odds are you know what the LCS is (the Littoral Combat Ship) and that two versions of that frigate that isn’t and part time minesweeper exist. Well this is a trails ship from 1996 that was used as a testbed of sorts by Lockheed Martin. You see in the early 90s the original LCS concept was for a whole host of small, expendable ships, a street-fighter concept, that could go and get down and dirty in shallow water.

Aerial view of the experimental Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull (SWATH) ship Sea Slice, an experimental ship built by Lockheed-Martin, operating off the coast of Port Hueneme, CA., 3 August 2002, during Fleet Battle Experiment Juliet (FBE-J). Fleet Battle Experiment Juliet is a joint warfighting experiment combining both live field forces and computer simulation at various locations throughout the United States during “Millennium Challenge 2002” (MC-02). Millennium Challenge is the nation’s premier joint integrating event, bringing together both live field exercises and computer simulations throughout the Department of Defense. Note; Sea Slice is carrying modular mission packages, which simulate the US Navy’s proposed Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). The modular mission packages provide a range of warfare capabilities, including Mine Countermeasures (MCM), Antisubmarine Warfare (ASW), Force Protection and Time Critical Targeting. Some of its weapons tested during FBE-J include the joint Lockheed Martin and Oerlikon Contraves 35mm Millennium Gun and the NetFires System and launcher, intended to launch Loitering Attack Munitions (LAM).US Navy photo #’s, 020802-N-2706D- by JO2 Terry Dillon. Via Navsource

The Navy tested a number of small-waterplane-area twin-hull (SWATH) designs that now continue as the Fast Sea Frame concept. One of these was the HSV Sea Slice

How she looks today minus her teeth. This would turn a head at the local small craft harbor

While that company went with a more traditional mono-hull design for its successful entry to the program, you can see a lot of scaled down similarities in the Sea Slice, a 105-foot multihull that is for sale for a meager $180,000.

Stern

When you consider that your typical USCG 87-foot patrol boat runs some $3 million on the sticker price, this one-off ship, even though its 20 years old, seems a comparative steal. Gone however are the “35-mm Millennium Gun; NetFires missile launching system; FLIR Systems Inc. furnished Forward-Looking Infrared sensors; and a complete combat information center with the Lockheed Martin developed COMBATSS command and control core architecture system utilizing Q-70 VALIANT consoles as well as Time Critical Targeting technology for precision strike,” she carried a decade ago. 

Heck, it cost the Navy $15 milly to build.

This thing screams party barge

Specs
LOA: 105 ft 0 in
Beam: 55 ft 0 in
Minimum Draft: 11 ft 6 in
Maximum Draft: 14 ft 0 in
Displacement: 472640 lbs
Dry Weight: 378560 lbs
Total Power: 6960 HP from 2 16V396TB94 MTU Pod drive diesels, 2 Cat 3606 gennies
Cruising Speed: 23 knots
Maximum Speed: 30 knots
Fresh Water Tanks: 2 (400 Gallons)
Fuel Tanks: (11112 Gallons)
Accommodations
Number of single berths: 12
Number of cabins: 5
Number of heads: 1
Seating Capacity: 149

All that’s missing is a margarita machine

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 Feb. 18, 2015 Marshal Massena of Gallipoli

Click to bigup

Here we see the Charles Martel-class pre-dreadnought battleship of the Navy of the French Republic, Marshal André Masséna. Just about one of the coolest late-19th century warwagons, she is a classic of Edwardian naval tumblehome hull architecture.

This 11,000-ton, 369-foot warship today would be classified as a cruiser or even a Zumwalt-class destroyer, but in 1892, she was an ass kicker. An incredibly complicated system of two dozen Lagrafel d’Allest water-tube boilers fed manually by coal pushed three triple expansion engines that could propel her and her near sisters at about 17-ish knots, which was pretty good for the day.

in port

If she had to fight, a pair of 12”/40 caliber (305mm) Modèle 1893 guns, mounted in single turrets fore and aft, could hole an enemy ship with a 770-pound AP shell out to 13,00 yards. These were backed up by another pair of 10-inch guns, 16 smaller mounts and, like most battleships of the era, had submerged torpedo tubes. She was made to be able to slug it out, being fitted with up to 18-inches of steel plate armor.

A great overhead shot. Note the armament plan, with the two 12-inchers fore and aft and two single 10-inchesr port and starboard.

Laid down at Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire in 1892, she was named after André Masséna, Duc de Rivoli, Prince d’Essling, one of Napoleon’s original 18 Marshals. Of course Massena turned his back in little N when the Bourbons came back to power and kept it turned during the 100 Days, but hey nobody is perfect.

The namesake battleship was commissioned in June 1898, after five years on the builder’s ways. Coming out during the Spanish-American War, in which most of the ships in combat were armored cruisers smaller and less heavily armed than Masséna, her design was felt validated.

French pre-dreadnought battleship Masséna, alongside one of her sisters

She spent the next decade in happy peacetime maneuvers, gunnery trials, and practice. However, by 1908 a funny thing happened. You see after the Russo Japanese War of 1904-05, dreadnoughts of her type were hamburger. In fact, four Russian Borodino-class battleships, themselves actually more modern versions of the Masséna and her sisters, lasted just minutes in combat. With the all-big-gun HMS Dreadnought being commissioned in 1906, she was further made obsolete.

Masséna was sitting in French mothballs when World War One erupted and she was eventually dusted off. Even old battleships are useful in a Great War after all. She was to be used to help force the straits to the Bosporus during the Gallipoli Campaign in late 1914 along with her recently recalled sisters.

Note the hull shape

There, Bouvet, one of these sisterships struck a mine and sunk in just two minutes during operations off the Dardanelles on 18 March 1915. That was indicative of campaign. When that whole thing unraveled, Massena, the 17-year-old bruiser was scuttled in shallow water and used as a breakwater to help evac the ANZAC/French forces in 1916. In 1923, the postwar French Naval Bureau sold the hulk, which they still technically owned, to breakers for scrap.

Her three surviving near sisters in French service, Charles Martel, Jauréguiberry, and Carnot, were out of front line service after Gallipoli and scrapped before the next war, the class forgotten.

As for Masséna himself, his sabre is on display at the musée d’Art et d’Histoire de Neuchâte

Specs

Charles Martel class line drawing as commissioned. Image from Shipbucket

Displacement: 11,735 tons (11,550 long tons)
Length: 112.65 m (369 ft. 7 in)
Beam: 20.27 m (66 ft. 6 in)
Draft: 8.84 m (29 ft. 0 in)
Propulsion: Three triple expansion engines
Speed: 17 kn (31 km/h; 20 mph)
Complement: 667
Armament:
2 × 305 mm/40 (12 in) Modèle 1893 guns
2 × 274 mm/45 (10.8 in) Modèle 1893 guns
8 × 138 mm/45 (5.5 in) Modèle 1888 guns
8 × 100 mm (3.9 in) guns
4 × 450 mm torpedo tubes (submerged)
Armor:
Belt: 450 mm (18 in)
Turrets: 400 mm (16 in)
Conning tower: 350 mm (14 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/

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

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.

I’m a member, so should you be!

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 Feb. 25, 2015 A Narcissus in Tampa

Painting by Rob Gelhardt

Here we see the wooden hulled steam-powered gunboat USS Narcissus as she appeared during the Civil War. She was a needed addition to a fleet that was very much overtaxed.

When the U.S. Navy plunged headlong into the Civil War in 1861, the Navy List held the names of 90 vessels, only 42 of which, less than half, were in commissioned service. Even these ships were spread all over the world (9 were in the African Squadron, 3 in the Med, 3 in Brazil, 5 were in Japan or the East Indies, et.al) . Those ships in U.S. waters were hardly ready for modern naval combat on any scale. Compared to the giant Royal Navy who had a staggering 53 steam-powered ships of the line (that mounted between 60 to 131 guns and weighed between 2400 to 4200 tons), the largest ships in the U.S. service were five 1800-ton sail frigates which mounted but 50 guns each. Indeed, the French and Russians outmatched the U.S. Navy as well.

However, with a need to blockade some thousands of miles of coastline from Maryland to Mexico while chasing down Confederate raiders on the high seas, the force soon formed four powerful blockade squadrons as well as the Mississippi River Squadron to help strangle the South in Gen. Scott’s “Anaconda plan.”

By the end of the war in 1865, the Union Navy ballooned to 671 ships on its list and its rolls contained 84,000 sailors and another 13,000 Marines. They did this by a massive shipbuilding program in every yard north of the Mason-Dixon Line as well as taking up ships from trade.

The Narcissus was one of the latter.

Built as the civilian steam tug Mary Cook in East Albany New York to move ships out of port, she was completed in the summer of 1863. That year she was purchased by Navy buyers and, after adding a 20-pounder Parrott rifle to stern deck and a 12-pounder to her bow, the little 81-foot vessel was named, for reasons unknown, the USS Narcissus. This moniker was only used this one time in the Navy (*however a USCG buoy tender, WAGL-238, did repeat it in the 20th Century).

A rather interesting single-cylinder inverted steam engine fed by a coal boiler drove her at 14-knots, which was PT-boat fast for her day.

Commissioned 2 February 1864 at Brooklyn Naval Yard, she left for the Gulf of Mexico where she was to join Rear Admiral David Farragut’s West Gulf Blockading Squadron. The admiral’s father, George Farragut, had died at Pascagoula Mississippi in 1817 and as a young boy; David hung around New Orleans and the Mississippi Sound, which made it something of a bittersweet homecoming for him to be in charge of the squadron tasked to blockade those waters.

Farragut

Speaking of which, the Narcissus, due to her shallow 6-foot draft, was perfect for patrolling inside the waters of the Sound. Shallow draft schooners from Pascagoula and Biloxi ran the blockade with great regularity even while the Union fleet controlled Ship Island, which closed in half of the Sound. One of the most notorious, the 180-foot blockade-runner Fox, had only just been burned by her crew while hard aground off Pascagoula’s front beach (the wreckage of which can still be seen off 11th Street at low winter tide). However, there were others to pick up the Fox‘s slack.

Within weeks, the little Narcissus was victorious. On Aug. 24, 1864 she captured the confederate schooner Oregon in Biloxi Bay while under the command of 56-year old recessed U.S. District Judge and then-Acting Ensign William G. Jones. The Oregon had scrapped before with the steamer USS New London and Farragut had long ached to either catch or sink her. So, mission accomplished.

It was just after this prize that the little gunboat was ordered to Mobile Bay, the location of some very hot action when Farragut “dammed the torpedoes.” And by torpedoes, we mean floating naval mines. It would be Narcissus’s job to become one of the first mine-sweepers in history and, as the joke goes, any ship can be a minesweeper once.

As you may have guessed she caught a mine, (we mean torpedo) right in the teeth while off the Dog River Bar in Mobile Bay in 7 December and sank in the shallow mud there. Jones reported: ”. . . the vessel struck a torpedo, which exploded, lifting her nearly out of water and breaking out a large hole in the starboard side, amidships . . . causing the vessel to sink in about fifteen minutes.”

While Jones and the crew, which suffered no losses, were reassigned around the squadron, the Narcissus was raised for salvage. She was at Pensacola Naval Station when the war ended, undergoing repairs. Made seaworthy, she received her last crew.

She wasnt the last Union steam tug/minesweeper to hit bottom in Mobile Bay. On 12 April, the day Mobile finally surrendered, USS Althea struck a torpedo in the Blake River and sank while dragging primitive sweep gear in an effort to clear the channels of explosive devices. Like Narcissus, she was raised and repaired.

The two battered tugs were ordered to the East Coast for decommissioning and disposal. The two unlucky ships became separated off Tampa, Florida in a storm on the night of Jan. 3/4, 1866.  It was then that Althea grounded on a sandbar and the two ships exchanged signals in the howling wind and rain but when the dawn came, the Althea, after working herself free, only found bodies and floating wreckage of her companion.

It is believed that Narcissus, under Acting Ensign Isaac S. Bradbury and with a 28-man crew, hit a shifting bar 1.5 miles northwest of Egmont Key at the mouth of Tampa Bay and her boiler exploded, destroying the vessel. No living crew members were ever recovered.

Although her war was short, the hardy tug survived a rebel torpedo, supported the capture of Fort Morgan, helped close off the Mississippi Sound, and in the end gave her charges over to the sea in what could be taken as some of the last casualties of the Civil War.

Her wreck has always been known to some extent, lying in pieces along the sandy bottom off Tampa in just 15 feet of water. Texas A&M extensively mapped the site in 1999, however, most relics of the vessel are long since gone, ether carried away by divers over the years or by Union troops who salvaged her cannon and anything else useable back in the 1860s.

An easy and popular dive due to the shallow water, she became the state’s 12th underwater archaeological preserve last month in partnership with the U.S. Navy who still owns the wreck and the Florida Aquarium.

Florida’s Underwater Archeological Preserves and the Florida Aquarium maintain excellent relics to include sheathing, lanterns, and other items that were recovered. Her rare steam engine, anchor, and screw rest remarkably intact along the ocean floor.

On Jan. 15, 2015, the inshore construction tender USCGC Vise (WLIC-75305), dropped a reef ball monument on the site of USS Narcissus

As for former U.S. District Judge and former U.S. Navy Acting Ensign William Giles Jones? He liked Mobile Bay so much that he remained there after the war and took up private practice as a lawyer, dying at age 80. Althea, the Narcissus‘s traveling companion, was sold in December 1866 in New York and remained in service as a commercial tug until the turn of the century.

Specs

Displacement: 101 long tons (103 t)
Length:            81 ft. 6 in (24.84 m)
Beam: 18 ft. 9 in (5.72 m)
Draft: 6 ft. (1.8 m)
Depth of hold: 8 ft. (2.4 m)
Propulsion:      Steam engine
Speed:             14 kn (16 mph; 26 km/h)
Complement: 19 officers and enlisted
Armament:      1 × 20-pounder Parrott rifle, 1 × heavy 12-pounder

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/

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

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.

I’m a member, so should you be!

During WWII, the Coast Guard bloomed from under 20,000 to more than a quarter million at its height in June 1944. At that time, the service contained 9,874 commissioned officers, 3,291 warrant officers and 164,560 enlisted personnel, augmented by another 125,000 Temporary Members of the Coast Guard Reserve who were conducting beach and harbor patrols back in the U.S. which in turn were augmented further by nearly 70,000 volunteers of the Coast Guard Auxiliary.

Coast Guard crew dressed to keep warm while on patrol aboard aboard a USCG schooner in 1943 while on coastal patrol in the U.S.

Dog Beach Patrol’, (possibly on Parramore Beach, Virginia, US. October 1943). (Source – United States Coast Guard – Photo No.726. Colorized by Royston Leonard from the UK)

With so many men and (over 13,000 women) under arms and in uniform, what was the service doing in 1944?

Well, a little known fact is that a tremendous number of small naval surface combatants on the Naval List were manned entirely by USCG/USCGR crews to include a number of patrol craft and submarine chasers (PC/SC) and at least 75 303-foot/1,300-ton Tacoma-class patrol frigates (PF) while a legion of the Coast Guard’s own cutters also served the same duty in ASW and amphibious warfare support.

Coast Guard cutter USS Spencer on convoy duty in the North Atlantic, March 1943

Speaking of the ‘phibs, when FDR gave away 10 250-foot Lake-class cutters to the Brits as Lend Lease in 1940, this left over 3,000 Coasties without a ship– and the Navy promptly took them to man 53 cargo ships and attack transports (APs & APAs)– armed freighters stuffed with bunks for troops.

As the war expanded, the Navy, acknowledging the Coasties’ knowledge of working in the shallows and surfline, soon tasked them with other assignments closer to enemy beaches. As such many of the landing craft taking troops ashore from Guadalcanal to Normandy and Iwo Jima, were manned by Coastguardsmen.

Marines crouched in a Coast Guard-manned LCVP on the way in on the first wave to hit the beach at Iwo Jima, 19 Feb 1945

US Coast Guard LCVP landing craft carried invasion troops toward Luzon in Lingayen Gulf, 9 Jan 1945

United States Coast Guard-manned LST beaching at Cape Gloucester, New Britain, Bismarck Islands, Dec 1943

Famous picture of an LCVP from the USCG-manned USS Samuel Chase disembarking troops of the 29th Infantry Division at Omaha Beach June 6, 1944. Clic to big up

USCG-six US Coast Guard patrol boat near the coasts of Normandy, D-day 1944. Dig the M1 steel pots…

US Coast Guardsmen assisting a wounded Marine into an LCVP after the Marine’s LVT sustained a direct hit while heading to the landing beaches on Iwo Jima, Feb 18, 1945.

LCI landing craft in the wake of a USCG-manned LST en route to Cape Sansapor, New Guinea, mid-1944

U.S. Navy/USCG invasion fleet off Iwo Jima, with LVTs and LCIs maneuvering near the battleship USS Tennessee (BB-43). 1945

By the end of the war, the service manned at least 77 LSTs (Landing Ship, Tank), 28 LCIs (Landing Craft Infantry, Large) and an amazing 288 vessels for the Army Transportation Corps that consisted of AMRS (Army Marine Repair Ship), TY (tankers), LT (large tugs), FS (freight and supply vessels), and F (Freight vessels) that shuttled around and carried the logistics of war that are so often overlooked.

83 foot patrol boat CG-624, later renamed CG-14 as part of Rescue Flotilla One, Normandy

On Normandy Beach during D-Day, a fleet of 60 USCG 83-foot patrol boats, dubbed Rescue Flotilla One, pulled over 400 soldiers from the water on June 6th alone. This “Matchbox Fleet” lost four of their own vessels that day to submerged German mines and coastal artillery. Four LCI(L)’s manned by the USCG were also lost at Normandy.

USCGC Alexander Hamilton (WPG-34) remains 28 miles off the coast of Iceland where she was sunk by German Type VIIC submarine U-132, just seven weeks into the war.

In all some 37 USCG vessels or USCG-manned Naval vessels were lost during the war including the Treasury-class cutter Alexander Hamilton who was torpedoed 29 January 1942 by a U-boat in the North Atlantic.

The highest cost in terms of lives came when the 14,000-ton USS Serpens (AK-97) a USCG-manned Crater-class cargo ship was destroyed by explosion, 29 January 1945 off Laguna Beach in the Solomons.

She was packed full of depth charges and artillery shells.

An eyewitness to the disaster stated:

As we headed our personnel boat shoreward the sound and concussion of the explosion suddenly reached us, and, as we turned, we witnessed the awe-inspiring death drams unfold before us.  As the report of screeching shells filled the air and the flash of tracers continued, the water splashed throughout the harbor as the shells hit.  We headed our boat in the direction of the smoke and as we came into closer view of what had once been a ship, the water was filled only with floating debris, dead fish, torn life jackets, lumber and other unidentifiable objects.  The smell of death, and fire, and gasoline, and oil was evident and nauseating.  This was sudden death, and horror, unwanted and unasked for, but complete.”

In all, Serpens lost 198 members of her crew and 57 members of an Army stevedore unit that were on board the ship in an explosion whose cause has never been determined but remains the largest single disaster ever suffered by the U.S. Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard lost a total of 1,917 persons during the war with 574 losing their life in action, died of wounds received in action, or perishing as a Prisoner of War. Almost 2,000 Coast Guardsmen were decorated, one receiving the Medal of Honor (the only one issued to the Coast Guard), six the Navy Cross, and one the Distinguished Service Cross.

The MOH went to SM1c Douglas A. Munro, USCG, who, appropriately enough, was killed trying to rescue men off the beach as officer-in-charge of a group of landing craft at Point Cruz on September 27, 1942, during the Matanikau action in the Guadalcanal campaign.

Douglas A. Munro Covers the Withdrawal of the 7th Marines at Guadalcanal by Bernard D’Andrea. Click to big up. Note the Lewis guns

Munro’s Citation:

“For extraordinary heroism and conspicuous gallantry in action above and beyond the call of duty as Officer-in-Charge of a group of Higgins boats, engaged in the evacuation of a Battalion of Marines trapped by enemy Japanese forces at Point Cruz, Guadalcanal, on September 27, 1942. After making preliminary plans for the evacuation of nearly 500 beleaguered Marines, Munro, under constant risk of his life, daringly led five of his small craft toward the shore. As he closed the beach, he signaled the others to land, and then in order to draw the enemy’s fire and protect the heavily loaded boats, he valiantly placed his craft with its two small guns as a shield between the beachhead and the Japanese. When the perilous task of evacuation was nearly completed, Munro was killed by enemy fire, but his crew, two of whom were wounded, carried on until the last boat had loaded and cleared the beach. By his outstanding leadership, expert planning, and dauntless devotion to duty, he and his courageous comrades undoubtedly saved the lives of many who otherwise would have perished. He gallantly gave up his life in defense of his country.”

A display containing Petty Officer First Class Douglas Munro’s Medal of Honor and accompanying citation hangs in Munro Hall at the U.S. Coast Guard Training Center in Cape May, N.J., (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Chief Warrant Officer John Edwards)

For more on the USCG in WWII, click and download here and here.

Swimmer Deliver Vehicles (SDVs) are the unsung heroes of littoral covert naval action. Its that “covert” part that keeps them that way. News of them rarely eeks out and when it does its normally bad as most of the “good” stuff is classified.

Well about that.

HII recently put out a presser on their prototype Proteus dual-mode underwater vehicle (DMUV). That’s a submersible able to operate as a conventional manned swimmer delivery vehicle (SDV) and as an unmanned undersea vehicle (UUV), which gives the warfighter a bunch of neato options that the old X-boat and Chariot drivers of WWII would have loved.

The news is that two females, Chloe Mallet, an ocean engineer, and Andrea Raff, a mechanical engineer, have now been certed to drive Proteus.

Mallet and Raff are the only two women on the seven-person dive team that works with Proteus.

When in use in the manned mode, the vehicle is flooded with water and can submerge to depths up to 150 feet, weighs 8,240 pounds, is 25.8 feet long (the Navy’s DSS has an inside dimension of 26 feet) can carry almost 2-tons of cargo and uses a 300kHz Multi-Beam Sonar to keep her steady and away from undersea collisions while traveling at 10 knots.

So if you are around Panama City where all the small boat secret squirrels live, and see a 25.8 foot whale in the water, now you know.
.

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 12, His Majesty’s Frozen U-boat Busting Bulldog

Here we see the modified V-class destroyer HMS Vansittart (D64) of the Royal Navy tied to a buoy in 1943. The hardy ship was a member of a huge group of WWI-era British tin cans that pulled yeoman service in the twilight of their lives.

In 1916, the Admiralty was in dire need of as many destroyers as they could find to fight the ever-growing U-boat menace that threatened to cut the British Isles off and hand victory to the Kaiser. This led to a crash emergency order of up to 107 Admiralty V-class flotilla leaders.

The Brit’s previous design– the 275-foot/1,075-ton S-class– mounted three 4-inch popguns, a pair of 18-inch torpedo tubes and could make 36 knots on two boilers. Well the new V-boats were much larger at 312-feet/1,360-tons, higher to allow for a large wireless suite, needed three boilers, but upped the armament to a quartet of QF 4 in Mk.V mounts and 3 21 inch torpedo tubes a triple tube arrangement.

The first ship, Valentine, was laid down in August and completed just seven months later. By the end of the war, these hardy boats numbered some 67 hulls afloat and the remaining 40 were canceled.

Now enter the subject of our tale: HMS Vansittart (D64).

Laid down at William Beardmore and Company, Dalmuir, on New Year’s Day 1918 (no holidays off during wartime) she was completed after the war and only commissioned 5 November 1919.

Built to a modified W-class design, she shipped 1,550-tons largely due to her heavier suite of 4 x BL 4.7 in (120-mm) Mk.I guns, each capable of firing a 50-pound semi-armor piercing shell to 14,450 meters and a full half-dozen torpedo tubes rather than the original trio.

Vansittart served with the 4th Destroyer Flotilla and the Mediterranean squadrons then was laid up in 1925 due to the overall draw-down of the RN in those lean years. For the next 14 years, she was part of the Maintenance Reserve at Rosyth, staffed by reservists occasionally on summer training, and was reactivated in August 1939 as the drumbeat of a new war called.

By September 12, she was part of the 15th Destroyer Flotilla and serving on convoy duty in the Channel, protecting the BEF crossing into Europe. Next, Vansittart shipped to Norway and took part in the pivotal destroyer clash that was the Battle of Narvik, where she was damaged by German aircraft, then promptly returned to convoy duty and the evacuation of Rotterdam in May.

On 1 Jul 1940, as Britain stood alone in the War, she took out German Type VIIB U-boat U-102 in the North Atlantic south-west of Ireland, in position 48°33’N, 10°26’E, by 11 depth charges then proceeded to pick up 26 survivors from the British merchant Clearton, U-102′s last victim.

U-102 took all 43 hands including Kptlt. Harro von Klot-Heydenfeldt to the bottom.

Vansittart at the time had a very photogenic mascot.

A bulldog named Venus stands at the helm of the HMS Vansittart, a British Destroyer, c.1941

Venus was one god looking pooch

More gratuitous Venus

1941 saw Vansittart assisting in mine laying operations off the French coast and spending a few days in May searching for SMS Bismarck.

She was adopted by the town of Kidderminster during the Warship Week National Savings drive in December 1941. The RN got their money’s worth out of the Great War-era ship, later allowing Hereford to adopt the old girl as well later in the war.

THE MAYOR OF KIDDERMINISTER, ALDERMAN O W DAVIES, VISITS HMS VANSITTART – THE TOWN’S ADOPTED SHIP. 11 JUNE 1942 IWM photo A 10786

In February 1942, she reported to Gibraltar and took part in the epic resupply convoys to besieged Malta including Operation Pedestal where she helped screen HMS Eagle from both air and submarine attacks.

By 1943, she was undergoing a six-month refit at Middleborough from which she emerged with a more potent AAA defense, and traded in half her torpedo tubes for more ASW weapons, but restricted to just 25 knots.

This put her back to escorting merchant convoys in the Atlantic for the rest of the war, including some very hard service in the ice zones.

Chipping away ice on the deck of H.M.S. Vansittart on convoy escort duty in the Arctic

Soon after VE Day, unneeded for the war in the Pacific, she was placed up for disposal along with the rest of the ships of her class still in the Atlantic.

As a whole, these hardy little ships gave their full measure, with many going down fighting.

One, Vehement, was lost to a mine in the North Sea in 1918. Two others, Verulam and Vittoria were lost to the Bolsheviks in the Baltic in 1919, and 9 would go on to meet their end at the hands of Axis forces in WWII.

At least 35 of the class survived the war only to be unceremoniously paid off and sold to the breakers between 1945 and 1948. The last afloat, the Australian-manned HMAS Vendetta (D69), was scuttled off Sydney 2 July 1948.

The hero of our story is not immune to this fate, being sold to BISCO for scrap on 25 February 1946.

She is remembered on a .26 Euro stamp issued to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Malta run.

Specs:

click to big up. Image via Shipbucket

Displacement: 1,140 tons standard, 1,550 tons full
Length: 300 ft. o/a, 312 ft. p/p
Beam: 30 ft.
Draught: 10 ft. 11 in
Propulsion: 3 Yarrow type Water-tube boilers, Brown-Curtis steam turbines, 2 shafts, 27,000 shp
Speed: 34 kn
Reduced to 25 kn 1943
Range: 320-370 tons oil
3,500 nmi at 15 kn
900 nmi at 32 kn
Complement: 111 as designed, 150 by 1943
Type 271 surface warning Radar fitted 1942
Armament: As built 1920:
• 4 x BL 4.7 in (120-mm) Mk.I guns mount P Mk.I
• 2 x QF 2 pdr Mk.II “pom-pom” (40 mm L/39)
• 6 × 21-inch Torpedo Tubes
1943 LRE conversion:
• 3 × BL 4.7 in (120mm) Mk.I L/45 guns
• 1 × QF 12 pounder 12 cwt naval gun
• 2 × QF 2 pdr Mk.II “pom-pom” (40 mm L/39)
• 2 × 20mm Orkelion cannons
• 3 × 21-inch Torpedo Tubes (one triple mount)
• 2 × depth charge racks
• Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar

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