The Philippines Navy’s terms her a “Strategic Sealift Vessel”

The Phillipines Navy’s newst (and actually new construction!) vessel docked at Pier 13 of the Manila South Harbor last week, BRP Tarlac (LD-601), built by PT PAL (Persero) in Indonesia. She is based on Indonesia’s Makassar-class LPDs which in turn are an offshoot of the successful South Korean-designed Tanjung Dalpele.

The new 11,500-ton vessel has a complement of 121 officers and enlisted personnel. She can carry 500 troops, two rigid-hull inflatable boats, two LCUs and three helicopters. Tarlac is slow (16 knots) but can remain at sea for a month and travel almost 10,000nm. She is one of the most powerfully armed ships in the fleet, with a 76mm OTO, twin 25mm chain guns, and numerous .50 cals.

The well dock is snug, but can fit two LCUs…

The Philippines is looking to get at least four of these LPDs and earlier this month took possession of the former U.S. Navy’s USNS Melville (T-AGOR-14) which is now the research vessel BRP Gregorio Velasquez (AGR-702), a first for the country.

Previous to that they have acquired three retired 50~ year old Hamilton-class Coast Guard Cutters: the Philippine Navy flagship BRP Gregorio del Pilar (PF-15)— which started life as the USCGC Hamilton (WHEC-715)— BRP Ramon Alcaraz (ex-Dallas) and the as yet to be renamed ex-Boutwell.

BRP Ramon Alcaraz ( PF16 ), formerly the USCGC Dallas, from above. Note the sparse armament (big up)

Two Gregorio del Pilar-class frigates of the Philippine Navy during naval exercises with the US Navy. These are the former cutters Hamilton and Dallas. They look unusual in haze gray with big PI naval ensigns, but they do seem to be holding a zig-zag well. [3000 x 1970]

6 frigates for anti-air warfare, (Perhaps these will be the Hamiltons, though they need to be up-armed if so)
12 corvettes for anti-submarine warfare,
18 offshore patrol vessels,
3 submarines,
3 anti-mine vessels,
18 LCUs,
3 logistics ships,
12 coastal interdiction patrol boats,
30 patrol gunboats,
42 multi-purpose assault craft (that can be equipped with torpedoes and missiles).
8 amphibious maritime patrol aircraft,
18 naval helicopters, (the navy recently acquired 3 AgustaWestland AW109E Powers)
8 multi-purpose helicopters

Coast Guard air stations from North Carolina, New Jersey, Alabama and the District of Columbia will provide a nine aircraft sortie consisting of at least one of every aircraft type flown by the service to continue its celebration of its aviation centennial, and as such many will have historical paint schemes.

The event will occur at noon on the 17th and Flyover viewing points will include: Morgan Boulevard Metro Station; Anacostia Park; 11th Street Bridge; Nationals Park; Fort McNair; Hains Point/East Potomac Park; Jefferson Memorial; Gravelly Point Park; Pentagon; Arlington, Virginia; and Falls Church, Virginia.

The USCG just put out this job video propaganda on their Gunners Mates rate, which actually isn’t that bad.

Coast Guard GMs work with everything from pistols, rifles and machine guns, to 76mm weapons systems. As a GM, they handle all weapons, ammunition, and pyrotechnics. Their A school runs 10 weeks at TRACEN Yorktown followed by equipment specific C schools that can take up to 14 weeks.

Unlike the Navy, the Coasties have no GMM or Torpedomen rates, by default making all USCG rates GMGs.

Their motto?

Nonsolis radios sediouis fulmina mitto (I bring not the rays of the sun, but the thunderbolts from Jupiter)

The nation who at one time had the world’s largest and best-equipped icebreaker fleet has for years been suffering in that department. So much so that the only true heavy breakers we have under U.S. flag, the 399-foot USCGC Polar Star and Polar Sea, are among the oldest ships in the Coast Guard (who is known for having “veteran” platforms) and are uber-cranky.

The 399-foot Polar Star. Top of the line in icebreakers in 1977

The crew of the recently returned to duty cutter Polar Star responded to four general emergencies during their most recent deployment to Antarctica. A “general emergency” is a situation in which the crew and the cutter are in serious danger if the not remedied quickly. The crew experienced three fires and one major lube oil leak, which can quickly ignite into fire.

One of which required an out-of-the-box fix.

Petty Officer 1st Class Kevin Oakes, an electrician’s mate aboard the Polar Star, used a surfboard repair kit to fix one of the cutter’s generators after the system shorted out and began smoking. The crew had lost power to one of their propellers en route to Antarctica leaving them with reduced power Dec. 13. The crew could not get specially designed replacement parts for the 40-year-old generator in time for the crew to execute their mission to Antarctica; however, with a little online research and brainstorming, Oakes used one of his shipmate’s surfboard repair kits to fabricate a new replacement part allowing the Polar Star’s crew to continue their mission.

More here

Island-class Coast Guard Cutter Grand Isle was decommissioned after 24 years of service in 2015, and her or one of her sisters may soon go to live a new life in Central America as the last two classes of USCG patrol boats have in recent decades

The U.S. government will donate two surplus Island-class cutter patrol boats with a total value of $18.9 million to the Costa Rica Coast Guard (Guarda Costas).

U.S. Assistant Secretary William Brownfield of the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs announced the donation following a meeting with President Luis Guillermo Solís at Casa Presidencial last Wednesday.

In modern times the Costa Rican Coast Guard, established as a branch of the Guardia Civil in 1949, had a single sea-going patrol boat on each coast (Caribbean and Pacific) along with some smaller shallow water vessels with outboard motors.

In 1989 they picked up their most advanced ship, the former 95-foot patrol boat USCGC Cape Henlopen (WPB-95328) which served as Astronauta Franklin Chang Diaz (SP 951) until 2001 and was later sunk as a reef.

Diaz was augmented in 1991 by a surplus USCG Point-class cutter, the 82-foot Colonel Alfonso Monje (SP 82-1) (ex-USCGC Point Hope (WPB-82302)) and in 2001 by SNGC Juan Rafael Mora (SP 82-2) (ex-USCGC Point Chico (WPB-82339)).

Monje and Mora Points in Costa Rica service. You can almost close your eyes and smell the Mekong…

So presumably the new-to-them 110-foot cutters will replace the significantly smaller and now nearly 60~ year-old Monje and Mora. These boats are vastly different with the Islands carrying a Mk.38 25mm chain gun and 2-4 M2 .50 cals while the former “Points” were transferred without any mounted weapons and have subsequently been fitted with twin M60s forward.

Further, the 82’s have 8-10 man crews while the 110’s go twice that.

The English-language Costa Rican media outlet Tico Times reports some 50 CRCG members will soon be sent to the U.S. to train on their new ships.

The 110-foot ships will be the largest in the Costa Rican Coast Guard fleet when they arrive in 2017.

Better than them going to Sea Shepherd.

Below is a local Philippine media production by Annalisa Burgos for YahooSG aboard the Philippine Navy’s flagship Barko ng Republika ng Pilipinas (BRP) Gregorio del Pilar (FF15) during the conduct of Cooperation Afloat, Readiness and Training (CARAT) 2016.

As we have mentioned before, the GdP started life as the USCGC Hamilton (WHEC-715) in 1967 and was decommissioned in 2011 after 44 years of very hard service to the Coast Guard and transferred to the PN in largely disarmed condition. Since then she has been busy in standoffs with the PLAN in disputed waters.

The vid shows the PN’s new Augusta 109 on her flight deck as well as some good shots of her interior spaces where all the brightwork is especially bright. Topside, there are a few good shots of her Mk 75 and Mk 38 and very little rust is showing through her dark grey scheme.

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/philippine-navys-stealth-frigate-brp-054358313.html?format=embed

Recently two tactically loaded Zodiac rigid-hulled inflatable boats containing nine Army Green Berets and three communications specialists made a beach landing and stormed Camp Rilea, an Oregon Army National Guard Training Center in Warrenton, Oregon.

How the ribs got to the area from over-the-horizon was via the USCG buoy tender Fir.

Soldiers from the U.S. Army 10th Special Forces Group, out of Army Base Fort Carson, Colo., prepare their Zodiac rigid-hulled inflatable boats for deployment while aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Fir, a 225-foot Sea-going Buoy Tender during transit off the northern coast of Oregon, June 22, 2016. The cutter supplied equipment storage and deployment during a joint-agency operation. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer Class Levi Read.

Sure, it’s a training exercise involving National Guard SF guys, but it shows how such assets could be used if needed in an asymmetric maritime environment such as seizing oil rigs, conducting raids or recon on offshore islands and coastal zones, etc.

It should be noted that the Coast Guard uses the 225-foot Juniper-class seagoing buoy tenders such as Fir in conducting sovereignty and fishery patrols of outlying Pacific territories with allied shipriders and along the Alaskan Arctic coast.

If things go squirrely, say with non-nation actors, pirates or other rogues in those areas that a small group of pipehitters could fix and naval assets are not available, it’s clear that some may see NG SF ODAs or the Coast Guard’s own MSST units carried from buoy tenders as a low-tech option.

Then there is always the Persian Gulf as well…

Crewmembers aboard U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Terrapin patrol the water while on a 37-day deployment in Southeast Alaska, July 10, 2016. The crew completed the first ever deployment of an 87-foot Coastal Patrol Boat to Alaska before returning home to Bellingham, Wash., on July 22, 2016. (U.S. Coast Guard photo courtesy of Coast Guard Cutter Terrapin.)

The 87-foot Marine Protector-class Coast Guard Cutters in the past decade replaced the venerable 1950s and 1960s era Cape and Point-class boats which had seen much use. These boats were designed for 3-day patrols but somewhere along the way this got stretched to 7-day patrols with a cook added to the crew. If you have read my zombie novel (shameless plug) I feature an “87” prominently in that work.

Now, an 87 has gone to the Far North where only 110-foot Island-class boats and above have tread.

From the Coast Guard’s presser:

Coast Guard Cutter Terrapin crew returned home to Bellingham, Friday, after completing a first ever deployment of an 87-foot Coastal Patrol Boat to Alaska.

The crew of the Cutter Terrapin completed a 37-day patrol to Southeast Alaska during which they protected living marine resources, safeguarded lives at sea and enhanced maritime security across the region. During the patrol, the crew assisted in two search-and-rescue cases and completed 46 at-sea boardings including recreational and commercial fishing vessels.

The crew patrolled more than 2,000 miles of Alaska waterways, providing Sector Juneau with more than 450 patrol hours while ensuring a positive Coast Guard presence to remote communities and fishing grounds stretching from the Canadian border in the south to the base of Glacier Bay in the north.

The Terrapin crew primarily patrols the waters of Washington’s coastline, responding to search-and-rescue missions, maritime security, enforcing state and federal fisheries regulations and conducting safety and security exams.

In addition to the Terrapin, there are eight other 87-foot Coastal Patrol Boats stationed throughout the Pacific Northwest, including the Osprey in Port Townsend, the Sea Lion in Bellingham, the Blue Shark in Everett, the Sea Devil and Sea Fox in Bangor/Kitsap (protecting SSBNs), and the Adelie, Swordfish and the Wahoo in Port Angeles.

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 3, 2016: The Grand Ole Bear

With tomorrow being the 226th birthday of the U.S. Coast Guard (by proxy of the Revenue Marine Service), I figured we would get a jump on it by celebrating their most famous vessel today.

Here we see the one-of-a-kind Revenue Cutter/U.S. Navy Gunboat/Coast Guard Cutter Bear. She remained afloat some 89-years and spent about half of that in armed maritime service, making 35 patrols to Alaska, three trips to Antarctica, and serving in the Spanish-American War as well as both World Wars.

Built in 1874 by the firm of Alexander Stephen & Son in their Dundee Shipyard (Hull No. 56) on the east coast of Scotland, she was reinforced to operate in dense sea ice as a sealing vessel operating in the Far North. Crafted of live oak, with planks six inches thick and a deck of teak wood, some spots on her hull were over 30-inches thick and braced by timbers 18-inches square. A three-masted barkentine with yards on her foremast and gaffs and booms on her main and mizzen, she could make a stately 14-knots under canvass and was fitted with a steam plant that could push her at 6-knots.

Delivered to W. Grieve, Sons & Company of Dundee (and St. John), she was operated by that firm from Newfoundland until 1880 when ownership changed to one Mr. R. Steele, Jr, who continued her sealing career, completing 10 annual trips to the waters off Greenland in the search of then-valuable seal pelts.

With the fiasco that was the U.S. Army’s Greeley Expedition needing rescue from their brothers in blue, who had no such vessels capable of service in the ice, Bear was purchased for $100,000 by the U.S. Navy, 28 January 1884, at St John’s and duly commissioned after brief refit as USS Bear, 17 March 1884, with one LT. (later RADM) William Hemsley Emory (USNA 1866) in command.

After her brief naval career that involved assisting in the retrieval of Greeley and remaining associates (which can be read in more detail here) the 10-year old scratch-and-dent sealer turned rescue ship was decommissioned and struck from the Naval Register in April 1885, transferring to the Treasury Department’s Revenue Cutter Service.

Leaving New York 9 Nov after picking up a trio of 6-pounder popguns and a magazine filled with torpedoes (mines) for destroying derelicts found at sea, USRC Bear arrived in San Francisco after a fairly rapid passage of just 87 days.

Soon after arriving, she picked up her most famous master.

Captain Michael A Healy, USRC Bear. Note parrot

From the Coast Guard Historian’s office:

In 1885 the colorful “Hell Roaring”‘ Mike Healy, a dynamo of a man with an unpredictable temper, assumed command. Healy was a good skipper, and he commanded the Bear for more than nine years, longer than any other. He had another distinction as well: he was the first African-American to command a U.S. Government vessel. In time, Healy and his ship became legend in the lusty, brawling Territory of Alaska.

The Bear’s duties on the Alaskan Patrol were many. She carried mail which had accumulated at Seattle during the winter, as well as Government agents and supplies. On her trip south from Alaska, she transported Federal prisoners and other questionable characters whose presence in Alaska ‘was undesirable. The deck of the Bear often served as a court where justice was dispensed swiftly but fairly. The Bear also conducted investigations, undertook crime prevention and law enforcement. She and other cutters like her were often the only law in that turbulent part of the world. The Bear also conducted soundings to improve charts of Alaskan waters, and her surgeon furnished medical attention and surgery to natives, prospectors, missionaries, and whalers. These duties are still part of today’s Bering Sea Patrol.

“Hoisting Deer aboard the Bear, Siberia, Aug 28th 1891.”; no photo number; photographer unknown. USCG Photo

Photograph shows a Native American child and man sitting on the deck of a ship, the revenue cutter Bear during a relief voyage to rescue whalers off the Alaska coast in 1897. The man is showing the child how to smoke a pipe. By photographer Samuel Call. LOC.

In 1897, Bear was involved in the great Overland Rescue of eight whaling vessels and 250 crewmembers who were trapped in the ice and was able to penetrate to within about 85 miles of Nome, still far too short to do the whalers any good. The ship then dispatched an over-land party of’ 1LT D. H. Jarvis, 2LT B. P. Bertholf, and Surgeon S. J. Call. Equipped with dog teams, sleds, and guides, Jarvis and his companions set out for Point Barrow.

Crew of the Revenue Cutter Bear ferrying stranded whalemen,

Again, the Coast Guard office:

Before them lay a 1,600-mile journey through frozen, trackless wilderness. But the “Overland Expedition for the Relief of the Whalers in the Arctic Ocean” as it was ponderously called, became one of the great epics of the north.

During the exhausting journey, Jarvis and Call collected a herd of nearly 450 reindeer. Driving the herd ahead of them in the face of icy winds the party reached Point Barrow about three and one-half months after being put ashore by the Bear. To the despairing whalers, the arrival of the relief party was nothing short of a miracle.

An in-depth Harpers article from 1899 details the mission with maps and illustrations.

The Spanish-American War saw Revenue Cutters mobilized under Naval service but the slow and increasingly creaky Bear simply maintained her annual trip to Alaska and performed patrol on the West Coast on the outside prospect that a Spanish auxiliary cruiser may pop up over the horizon.

This followed a tough couple of years during the Klondike and Yukon gold rushes from 1898-1900 in which she was the only law enforcement asset in the territory, her bluejackets having to enforce order on more than one occasion while in port. She likewise had to rescue many a lost landlubber who had packed aboard condemned craft in Seattle and set off for Alaskan waters or bust.

Off Barrow

USRC Bear Dressed with flags circa 1900. Description: Catalog #: NH 56690

USRC BEAR Caption: At San Diego, California, before World War I. Description: Courtesy of Thomas P. Naughton, 1973. Catalog #: NH 92207 Copyright Owner: Naval History and Heritage Command

Alaskan natives dancing on deck of USRC BEAR circa 1913

When World War I came, Bear conducted neutrality patrols along the Alaskan coast while on 28 January 1915, the Revenue Cutter Service, and the U.S. Life-Saving Service were combined to form the United States Coast Guard.

COAST GUARD BUREAU OF TREASURY DEPARTMENT. REVENUE CUTTER ‘BEAR’, RIGHT, WITH S.S. CORWIN, 1916. Harris & Ewing Collection. LOC LC-H261- 6165 [P&P]

Then, came another decade of more traditional service on the frozen beat.

USCGC BEAR At Point Barrow, Alaska, 21 August 1922. Catalog #: NH 91762
Copyright Owner: Naval History and Heritage Command. Note she still maintained her 1917 “war-paint” which was not painted over with the more standard white scheme until the following year.

The midnight watch on 10 June 1924 showing the crew in the land of the midnight sun, literally. Courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard, 1930. Catalog #: NH 56694

USCGC BEAR in the Arctic Ocean. Description: Courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard, Catalog #: NH 56692

United States Coast Guard cutter BEAR (1884-1948), in ice pads. Description: Received from Coast Guard, 1930. Catalog #: NH 170.

In 1929, after 35 annual deployments to Alaska and service on the periphery of two wars, Bear was removed from the Treasury Department and offered for sale, with a half-century under her keel. Her place had already been taken in the fleet with the commissioning in late 1927 of the purpose-built steel-hulled icebreaking gunboat USCGC Northland (WPG-49).

Saved from the scrappers by the city of Oakland, California, for a token fee, she was renamed Bear of Oakland and used as a museum ship.

In 1930, she was used as the filming location for the sealer “Ghost,” in the Milton Sills as ‘Wolf’ Larsen version of Jack London’s The Sea Wolf.

Then came the famed Arctic explorer, Rear Adm. Richard E. Byrd, USN, who was looking for a (cheap but capable) vessel for his Antarctic Expedition and he purchased the Bear of Oakland from the city for just $1,050 in the Spring of 1932.

The thing is, Bear (renamed SS Jacob Ruppert) still had her 1885-mounted 6-pounders aboard (with breech blocks) which caused Byrd, officially a civilian on a civilian ship, some heartburn in Mexican ports when he stopped to recoal her on the way through the Panama Canal to Boston, but he nevertheless appeared in that New England port in August.

For visibility in the whiteout, she was painted coal black

Leaving for the Antarctic in 1934, the ship was vital to Byrd’s successful expedition, which included the explorer spending four months over-winter on the frozen continent that is discussed in his autobiography Alone.

Note her black scheme

Returning to Boston in 1935, Byrd leased Ruppert/Bear to the Navy for $1 per year, and she was stored at the Boston Naval Yard in poor condition.

Then in 1939, Byrd’s United States Antarctic Service Expedition got underway and the old Bear was refitted with a diesel engine, her original figurehead was replaced with a carved polar bear, new canvas and rigging was brought aboard, and new spars and a foreyard of fresh Oregon pine were fitted.

She was given stores for 18-months, kennels for 78 sled dogs were built on deck, and a U.S. Army M2A2 light tank was heaved aboard to test in the ice. A Barkley-Grow T8P-1 two-engine seaplane was hoisted aft.

This resulted in her second official (not counting her unofficial transfers in 1898 and 1917) Navy commission as USS Bear (AG-29), 11 September 1939.

USS Bear (AG-29), formerly the US Revenue Cutter Bear, operates in Antarctic waters during the 1939-40 season as part of the U.S. Antarctic Service. The aesthetic of the seaplane on a three-master is pure 1930s.

Photographed circa 1939, possibly during Byrd’s 1940 Antarctic Expedition. This ship also served as USS BEAR (AG-29) and as USCGC BEAR. Description: Catalog #: 80-G-1033748

In early 1941, Bear returned to the Antarctic for her third and last trip, this time to evacuate the Americans from the continent with the looming war.

USS BEAR (AG-29) Awaiting to evacuate west base in the Bay of Whales, Antarctica in 1941, she noses against bay ice. Supplies had to be carried from the base camp in the background. Ross Barrier is the thick ice on the left. Description: Catalog #: NH 56697 Copyright Owner: Naval History and Heritage Command

Returning to Boston, her newly rejuvenated sail rig was scrapped. Her spars and yard removed, only the stumps of her masts remained. Equipped with a Grumman J2F-1 seaplane and armed with some AAA mounts (seen under tarps below).

She was a warship again.

In May 1941, the Northeast Greenland Patrol was organized with Bear, her ice-strengthened Coast Guard replacement Northland, and her old sailing companion the former Interior Department ship North Star, with Captain Edward H. “Iceberg” Smith, USCG, in overall command of the force.

USS BEAR (AG-29) Off the Boston Navy Yard, 2 July 1941. Catalog #: 19-N-24311 Copyright Owner: National Archives. Note Grumman J2F-1 aircraft carried.

They soon struck pay dirt and Northland seized a three-man German weather station along with the Norwegian sealer D/S Buskø (159 gt) in September (three months before Pearl Harbor) and took her to MacKenzie Bay, on the Greenland coast, where Bear took up tow and “protective custody” of her prisoners for the trip down to Boston.

Buskø carried with a crew of 20 Norwegian quislings, a supposed German agent, and “one other dog,” who was working as a radio supply ship to keep German weather stations operating in the Far North operational. She was the first capture of a belligerent ship by U.S. Naval forces in World War II and arrived on 14 October to a big international news splash.

A few more trips around Greenland and Iceland were left for her, but by 1944, the writing was on the wall for the old warrior.

Decommissioned, 17 May 1944, Bear was transferred to the Maritime Commission for disposal, 13 February 1948.

Sold by the Maritime Commission for commercial service in 1948, she was renamed Arctic Sealer and was to be used as a sealer home ported at Halifax, Canada– her original purpose, but this largely fell by the wayside and she did not return to her old stomping grounds after all.

After moldering away in Halifax for almost 15 years, she was resold for conversion to a floating museum and restaurant at Philadelphia, PA, but she foundered under tow 90 miles south of Cape Sable, Nova Scotia on 19 March 1963.

Note that her rigging and masts have been partially restored

Her wreck site is unknown, despite the best efforts of a 1979 search conducted by cadets from the Coast Guard Academy.

The old ship remains alive in the work of maritime artists.

The famous old Coast Guard cutter BEAR. From the Collection of President Franklin D. Roosevelt Catalog #: NH 1918 Copyright Owner: Naval History and Heritage Command Original Creator: Charles Robert Patterson, artist

USCGC BEAR, 1884-1948. Description: Copied from U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, April 1945 Catalog #: NH 56695 Copyright Owner: Naval History and Heritage Command Original Creator: Hunter Wood, USCG, artist

Her bell is at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling and is kept in tip-top shape while her binnacle has been retained at the USCGA.

The polar bear figurehead from Bear is in the collection at the Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Virginia. Following his celebrated 1940 expedition, Admiral Byrd presented the figurehead to the facility.

The Coast Guard maintains an extensive 40-page online scrapbook of the old Bear as well as an extensive website.

Since 1980, her name has been perpetuated by the class-leader of the Famous-class 270-foot medium endurance cutters, USCGC Bear (WMEC 901) based at Portsmouth, VA.

Coast Guard Cutter Bear transits past the Statue of Liberty in New York City June 19, 2016. The Bear is a 270-feet medium endurance cutter

As for “Roaring Mike” Healy, the Coast Guard named their newest icebreaker (WAGB-20) for him in 1997, shown below, while reindeer-herding lieutenants Berthoff and Jarvis each had a cutter named after them in modern times.

Specs:

Length: 198′ 4″
Beam: 30′
Draft: 17′ 11″
Displacement: 703 tons
Launched: 1874
Machinery: Compound-expansion steam, 25-5/8″ and 50″ diameter x 30″ stroke, 101 nominal hp (1885)
Diesel engine/sail rig (1935) Diesel only after 1939.
Speed: 14kts max on sail, 6 on steam, 8 on diesel
Complement: 51 (1884) 39 (1939)
Armament: 3 x 6-pound rapid-fire guns (1885) disarmed 1935. Equipped with small arms and light machine guns 1940.

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

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

The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to 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.

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The Philippine Navy (PN) formally received its third Del Pilar-class frigate, the former Hamilton-class U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Boutwell (WHEC-719) late last month. It was a warm transfer with the ship’s decommissioning (and simultaneous striking by MARAD) and the subsequent christening and commissioning ceremonies by the PN conducted at USCG Base Alameda, California 21 July.

Boutwell commissioned on 24 June 1968,  in New Orleans, Louisiana for a cost of $14.5 million. In all, the Coast Guard got 48 years and 27 days out of her, which is a heck of a return on the investment.

The newest member of the PN took the name Barko ng Republika ng Pilipinas (BRP) Andres Bonifacio (FF17).

A DGPS station looks like the graphic in the right hand corner, and is used to help make GPS even better

Driving down Florida 59 from Crestview to Eglin AFB, just before you cross Duke Field and the new base for the 7th Special Forces Group, you pass a nondescript brown sign for “USCG DGPS” which leads to a single lane drive and a small installation made up of one short building and a decent antenna. Another is hiding out in Key West near Trumbo.

Both are set to decomm along with seven others.

The Coast Guard published a notice back in 2015 seeking public comments on the proposed shutdown and decommissioning of 62 the then-existing 84 Nationwide Differential Global Positioning System (NDGPS) sites, and after public feedback is doing away with 28 Department of Transportation inland sites and nine coastal ones including the two mentioned specifically above and:

Brunswick, ME
Cold Bay, AK
Isabela, PR
Lompoc, CA
Pickford, MI
Saginaw Bay, MI
Sturgeon Bay, WI

Officials argue the sites just aren’t needed anymore.

“With the numerous navigation tools available, we determined that this reduction in NDGPS sites does not pose a risk to the mariner,” said Cmdr. Justin Kimura from the Coast Guard Physical Aids to Navigation and Position, Navigation and Timing Division in a statement.  “Mariner safety and situational awareness are our top priorities and these site closures will not affect that.”

Each site is also a Continuously Operating Reference Station (CORS) data source.

One downside is that in addition to their nav-aide purpose, the DGPS reference stations continually measure water vapor in the atmosphere above the antenna, which is useful for weather forecasts, especially in the hurricane-prone Gulf of Mexico. Hopefully those met stations will be moved elsewhere.

MAYPORT, Fla. (Aug. 02, 2016) – The Cyclone-class Patrol Coastal USS Shamal (PC 13) returns to homeport U.S. Naval Station Mayport after a 62 day deployment to the 4th Fleet area of responsibility where they conducted counter illicit trafficking operations. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Michael Hendricks/Released)

This month USS Shamal (PC 13) returned to her Florida base after a 62-day deployment in the waters off Central America and the Caribbean. As such, it is her third patrol in the U.S 4th Fleet’s AOR. This came as part of the ongoing Operation Martillo. Operation Martillo is a joint international low enforcement and military operation involving U.S., European and Western Hemisphere partner nations, targeting illicit trafficking routes in the waters off Central America.

Two other of the Cyclone-class PCs, USS Zephyr (PC 8) and USS Tornado (PC 14) are home-ported in Mayport and deploy regularly to all points south and they likewise have been very busy, with Zephyr for instance just completing her first 4th Fleet deployment, of some 45 days, in June.

They are carrying Coast Guard Law Enforcement detachments and, rather than their Navy RIBs, are using the USCG’s Cutterboat–Over the Horizon (CB-OTH) MK III, a 24-foot RIB based on the Zodiac 733 I/O Interceptor with a 315 HP diesel engine.

However this isn’t really new to these three. These three vessels were loaned to the Coast Guard for a few years, operating from Pascagoula with USCG pennant numbers (WPC 8, 13, 14) and crews.

USCGC Shamal (WPC-13) as she appeared in 2006 when operating from NAVSTA Pascagoula. Dat racing stripe, doe

In fact, at one of the more sucking on a switchblade greasy spoon/ waterfront bars in Gautier, a number of relics left behind when the ships chopped back to the Navy are still kept.

This place serves a mean burger, and you can feed gators off the dock, though MDFWP frowns on such

The rest of the class still in U.S. service are spending a very active career in the Persian Gulf, with some days being more active than others.

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. 14, 2016: An everlasting Citrus with very long roots

US Coast Guard Historians Office

Here we see the Cactus-class medium endurance cutter USCGC Citrus (WMEC-300) lean and mean in her white livery and racing stripe in 1984 off Coos Bay, Oregon. A product of WWII, she would spend a full half-century in U.S. maritime service and is still ticking in Santo Domingo as the flagship of a Caribbean navy.

In 1916 the Revenue Cutter Service and Lifesaving Service were merged to form the Coast Guard, to which the Bureau of Lighthouses was added on 1 July 1939 and as such all U.S. lighthouses, tenders and lightships became USCG installations and ships. The thing is, the lighthouse and buoy tender fleet was a hodgepodge of antiquated single-use vessels to which the Bureau had been looking to replace with a new series of 177-foot lighthouse tenders modeled after the USLHT Juniper, the last vessel designed by the Bureau.

Taking these plans, the Coast Guard made some changes and produced a 180-foot/950-ton single-screw steel-hulled ship that incorporated some new features that the USLHS never needed (an ice-strengthened bow, search and rescue equipment and mission, allowance for armament, et.al). The first of these, USCGC Cactus (WAGL-270) was appropriated for $782,381 on 20 Jan 1941 and laid down at Marine Iron & Shipbuilding Corporation, Duluth, MN on 31 March

In all, some 39 of these hardy ships were built either at Marine or at Zenith Dredge Company very rapidly in three subclasses: the “A” or “Cactus” class, “B” or “Mesquite” class, and “C” or “Iris” class.  All ships of the three subclasses have the same general characteristics, but with slight differences, (e.g. the “A/Cactus” class tenders may be differentiated from the other two classes of 180-foot tenders by their unique “A” frame main boom support forward and their large 30,000 gal fuel tanks that allowed an economical 17,000nm cruising range on their gentle diesels.) The last to come off the ways was USCGC Woodbrush (WAGL-407) which commissioned 22 Sept. 1944.

The hero of our story, USCGC Citrus, was laid down at Marine Iron 29 April 1942 and commissioned 15 weeks later on 15 August 1942 for a total cost of $853,987.

Citrus preparing to leave Duluth Aug 15 1942. Note her haze gray appearance as she was a war baby

After some service on the Great Lakes, she was armed with a single 3″/50 behind her stack, 4 20mm guns, depth charge racks, Mousetrap ASW launchers, and Y-guns and shipped for Alaska Sector, Northwestern Sea Frontier on 15 September 1943, which was only recently liberated from the Japanese. There, she helped support the brand new and revolutionary LORAN system, establishing sites at Sitka, Amchitka, and Attu.

In the heavy seas of the Western Aleutians, she endured storms, primitive Arctic conditions, and the threat of enemy action, coming to the rescue of liberty ships, tugs and landing craft throughout 1944. Citrus spent the remainder of the war conducting ATON, logistics, and vessel escort duties in Southwestern Alaskan waters.

1954. Note her peacetime black hull, buff stack scheme

After the war, she was liberated of much of her AAA and ASW armament, but continued working the Alaska beat, stationed at Ketchikan until 1964 and Kodiak through 1979, in all spending 36 years in Alaskan waters. During this time she escorted Soviet fishing trawlers out of U.S. waters, participated in Naval exercises, towed disabled fishing vessels to port, medevac’d injured mariners, searched for missing planes, fought a fire on the Japanese MV Seifu Maru in Dutch Harbor, and rescued 31 from the grounded ferry Tustumena near Kodiak.

Ketchikan 1959

Seattle 1964, note her 3″/50 aft of her stack in canvas

During this period tenders were designated WLBs (buoy tenders) and saw all fixed armament landed in 1966, leaving them only their small arms lockers.

In Sept-October 1975 she made history when she “helped provide icebreaking escort for 15 tugs and barges in an heroic attempt to get vital supplies to the oil fields at Prudhoe Bay. . .[thereby averting] a delay in the development of the North Slope oil fields which are vital to the national interest of the United States.”  Citrus and her crew were awarded the Coast Guard Unit Commendation with the Operational Distinguishing Device.

Then came a change of pace.

Three 180s, all over 35 years of age, were painted white, landed their buoy tending gear, and used as law-enforcement/SAR platforms during the 1980s to help take the place of older cutters leaving the fleet: Citrus, Evergreen (WLB-295), and Clover (WLB-292). As such, these three picked up the designation of medium endurance cutters (WMEC).

Overhead view as WMEC, note her buoy tending gear is largely gone

Citrus with RIB deployed in calm water image via WLB-300 veterans group.

This led to her transfer to Coos Bay, Oregon for 15 years as a floating lawman.

In perhaps her strangest encounter of her career, the Panamanian-flagged 148-foot MV Pacific Star was stopped by Citrus on 1 January 1985 about 680 mi southwest of San Diego.

From the USCG Historian’s Office:

When the boarding team attempted to board the vessel, the master set the Pacific Star on fire and commenced to scuttle the vessel.  In a final act of deterrence, the master turned his vessel and rammed Citrus on the starboard side. The boarding team did get on board and located a large quantity of Thai marijuana in the vessel’s forward hold.  As the vessel sank, more than 3,800 pound of marijuana was recovered as it floated to the surface and the seven-man crew was arrested.

Pictures or it didn’t happen:

Note the dent in Citrus’s hull just to the left of the “C” in Coast Guard

The rest of her U.S. service was quiet and she was decommissioned 1 September 1994 after 51 years of service, seeing 28 different skippers on her bridge over the years.

1994: Note her A Frame was removed by then

Placed on hold for transfer to Mexico, that deal fell through and she was instead sent to the Dominican Republic 16 September 1995 as Almirante Juan Alejandro Acosta (C-456/P301) after one of the founders of the Dominican Navy, where she was rearmed and made the flagship of the Armada de Republica Dominicana.

FILE – In this June 25, 2007 file photo, a Dominican Navy soldier stands guard over bales of cocaine during a news conference in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Authorities in the Dominican Republic seized 9 tons of cocaine in 2012, the third consecutive record, according to the country’s national drug control agency. In January alone, they seized another 3 tons off the country’s southern coast. (AP Photo/Jorge Cruz, File)

She was rearmed with a British 4″/45 caliber DP gun (off a decommissioned WWII Flower-class corvette), two single Oerlikon 20 mm cannons (from a decommissioned WWII era American patrol frigate), and four 7.62 mm M60 machine guns. She is used for coastal patrol, navigational aid maintenance, midshipman cruises, humanitarian assistance, naval training exercises, troop transport, and at sea refueling.

As for her sisterships, many have proven to be very long in the tooth:

*Balsam (WLB-62) was decommissioned 1975 and has been used as an Alaskan crab boat ever since

*Cactus (WLB-270) was seized in Kings County Washington as a derelict vessel in 2013 for dismantling.

*Cowslip (WLB-277), Firebush (WLB-393) and Sassafras (WLB-401) were transferred to Nigerian Navy 2002-2003 as NNS Nwamba, NNS Olepu and Obula respectively. All remain in service. Sedge (WLB-402) was also transferred for parts.

*Woodbine (WLB-289) was donated to be a training ship in Cleveland in 1972 and went on to be a fish processing boat in Alaska before being sold for scrap in 2012.

*Gentian (WLB-290) was transferred to Colombia as ARC San Andrés (PO-45) and is still active.

*Laurel (WLB-291) was sold at GSA auction in 1999, ultimate fate unknown.

*Clover (WLB-292) and Evergreen (WLB-295) were decommissioned 1990 and sunk by the Navy as a targets.

*Sorrel (WLB-296) was decommissioned in 1996 and is used as SS Reliance operated by Sea Scout Ship #13 of Stockton, California, showing up in an episode of Dexter.

*Ironwood (WLB-297) saw quite a lot of WWII service and was transferred to the Dept. of Interior as a training vessel in 2000, later disposed of.

*Conifer (WLB-301) and Papaw (WLB-308) were decommissioned 2000 and 1999 respectively and was used for a number of years as F/V Hope and F/V Mersea, part of the disaster relief fleet of Friend Ships, but have since been removed from that organization.

*Madrona (WLB-302) transferred to El Salvador who used her as General Manuel José Arce and subsequently sunk her as a reef.

*Tupelo (WAGL/WLB-303) was decommissioned in 1975 and has spent the past 30 years as a Bering Sea fishing boat, FV Courageous.

*Mesquite (WLB-305) ran aground December 4, 1989 on a reef off the Keweenaw Peninsula in Lake Superior while in Coast Guard service and was scuttled for underwater diving preserve.

*Buttonwood (WLB-306) was decommissioned 2001 and transferred to the Dominican Republic’s Navy as Almirante Didiez Burgos, still active.

*Sweetgum (WLB-309) was transferred in 2002 to Panama as SMN Independencia (P401).

*Basswood (WLB-388), Blackhaw (WLB-390) and Mallow (WLB-396) were scrapped in 2000.

*Bittersweet (WLB-389) was decommissioned and transferred to Estonian Border Guard, 5 September 1997 who used her until 2014– she is retained as a museum ship.

*Blackthorn (WLB-391) sank in 1980 in a collision near the Tampa Bay Sunshine Skyway Bridge, resulting in 23 crewmember fatalities. Raised, she was resunk as a reef.

*Bramble (WLB-392) was decommissioned 2003, and has been retained with a mixed degree of success as a museum ship in the Great Lakes.

*Hornbeam (WLB-394) was decommissioned 1999, and lost near Panama as M/V Rum Cay Grace in 2013.

*Iris (WLB-395) and Planetree (WLB-307) were decommissioned after helping with the Exxon Valdez oil spill and sit in rusting quiet in the SBRF, Suisun Bay, CA mothballs fleet, to be disposed of by 2017.

*Mariposa (WLB-397) was decommissioned in 2000 but has been retained by the Navy as a hulk until 2009 and has been spotted in the Seattle area since then.

*Redbud (WLB-398) was transferred to the Philippines as Kalinga (AG-89) in 1972.

*Sagebrush (WLB-399) was scuttled off St. Catherine’s Island, Georgia on 28 April 1988.

*Salvia (WLB-400) was decommissioned 1991 and used as a salvage operations training vessel for U.S. Navy at Little Creek.

*Spar (WLB-403) was decommed 1997 and sunk as a reef in 2004.

*Sundew (WLB-404) was decommissioned 2004, used as a museum for a while, then sold to private interests in 2010.

*Acacia (WLB-406), the last 180 in Coast Guard service, was decommissioned 2006 after 63 years of service and is now a museum in Manistee, Michigan.

*Woodrush (WLB-407) and Sweetbrier (WLB-405) were transferred to Ghana in 2001 where she still serves as GNS Anzone (P30) and GNS Bonsu (P31) respectively, which means “shark” and “whale” in the native lingo.

A veterans’ group for the Citrus survives on Facebook with a series of great images. For more information about the 180s in general, the USCG Historian’s office has a great 73-page report on them here while the LOC has a great series of images from the Planetree, a Mesquite subclass sister.

Specs:

Length:  180′ oa
Beam: 37′ mb
Draft:  12′ max (1945); 14′ 7″ (1966)
Displacement: 935 fl (1945); 1,026 fl (1966); 700 light (1966)
Propulsion:  1 electric motor connected to 2 Westinghouse generators driven by 2 Cooper-Bessemer-type GND-8, 4-cycle diesels; single screw
Top speed: 13.0 kts sustained (1945); 11.9 kts sustained (1966)
Economic speed: 8.3 kts (1945); 8.5 kts (1966)
Complement: Design-
6 Officers, 74 men (1945);
4 officers, 2 warrants, 47 men (1966)
Unknown in DR service
Electronics:
Radar: Bk (1943); SLa-1 (1945), SPS-64(V) 1985
Sonar: WEA-2 (1945)
Armament:
(1945)
1-3″/50 (single), 4-20mm/80 (single), 2 depth charge tracks, 2 Mousetraps, 4 Y-guns
(1966)
Smallarms
(1996, Domincan Republic)
1x 4 inch BL Mk.IX single gun
2x 20mm/80 singles
4x M60 7.62x51mm GPMG

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After an evolutionary process that has been dragging on since for 15 years, the U.S. Coast Guard has awarded a $110 million (which could turn into an estimated $10.5 billion) contract to build a new generation of frigate-sized offshore patrol cutters. It will be the largest shipbuilding program the branch has ever embarked on with as many as 25 hulls built.

The hunt began as part of the Integrated Deepwater System Program back in 2001 which led to early talks with five companies, then it was whittled down to three with Mississippi naval builders VT Halter Marine and Ingalls Shipbuilding excluded in 2014 (as was the design’s stern launching ramp).

The three remaining were: Eastern Shipbuilding Group in Panama City, Florida; Bollinger Shipyards in Louisiana and Bath Iron Works in Maine. Bath is a heavy hitter, building the $4 billion Zumwalt and her follow-ons as well as DDG51 class destroyers. Bollinger is a Coast Guard darling, creating their 110-foot Island, 87-foot Marine Protector, and 154-foot Sentinel classes of patrol boats and patrol cutters.

But both Bollinger and BIW were left smoking this week as the award for the first nine OPCs went to Eastern Shipbuilding Group, Inc. of Panama City, FL (who teamed with Canada’s STX Marine, VARD Marine–part of Italy’s frigate making Fincantieri concern– Northrop Grumman, Quantic Engineering, and MAN on the design).

What have ESG built before? As for military ships, they are in a Design Study and Analysis for the Landing Craft, Utility (LCU) 1700 by the United States Navy, but that’s about it. They are commercial ship experienced, however, with some 150 vessels up to 433-feet built in recent years ranging from tugs to dredgers to trawlers and school ships.

The design is the VARD 7 100m but tweaked.

Eastern Shipbuilding Group’s notional design is 360 feet long, with a beam of 54 feet and a draft of 17 feet. The OPCs will have a range of 10,200 nautical miles (at 14 knots) on a set of MTU diesels and endurance for 60-day patrol cycles. The OPC will conduct missions including law enforcement, drug and migrant interdiction search and rescue, and other homeland security and defense operations. Each OPC will feature a flight deck and hangar capable of carrying a MH60 sized bird and advanced command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment. The ship will embark 3 OTH boats and be capable of 22knots when wide open.

The VARD 7 090 design was recently selected by the Irish Naval Service to replace their older LE Roisin and LE Niamh ships. The Royal New Zealand Navy uses a VARD 85m design as their Protector-class offshore patrol vessel and the Mauritian Coast Guard has used a similar vessel for the past 20 years, so the OPC has some legit OPV lineage.

LE Samuel Beckett P61, a VARD 90m design.

HMNZS Wellington a VARD 85m design

Shrinking numbers 40…28…25..?

The OPC will replace the branch’s Medium Endurance Cutters (WMECs). Back in the 1988 the Coast Guard had 40 WMECs to include two classes purpose built as cutters: 13 newish 270-foot Bear-class and 16 1960s-era 210-foot Reliance-class; as well as a number of WWII vintage ships converted to the task to include the 230-foot Storis, 3 213-foot Diver-class rescue and salvage ships (Yocona, Acushnet, Escape), 4 205-foot Cherokee/Navajo-class auxiliary tugs (Ute, Lipan, Chilula, Cherokee, Tamaroa) and 3 “white hulled” 180 foot buoy tenders (see this week’s Warship Wednesday).

In the past 28 years, these 40 hulls were trimmed to 28 as the WWII vessels and a couple of the 210s were retired with only one ship added and kept, the 28-year-old surplus Edenton-class salvage and rescue ship USS Edenton (ATS-1) transferred as USCGC Alex Haley (WMEC-39) to replace the Storis in Alaska.

USCGC Vigilant (WMEC-6217) returning from an 8-week patrol. The USCG has 14 of these now 50-year old 210-footers left that OPC will replace, likely first. USCG photo.

USCGC Northland (WMEC-904) returning from patrol last week. These 270-footers were a compromise design in the 1980s that replaced the old 327-foot WWII Treasury class cutters and others. They are the last in the U.S. fleet to mount the Mk75 76mm gun and are the newest WMECs in the Guard. USCG photo

Now, the atrophy will continue as a maximum of 25 (expect that to be trimmed to 20 over the years) OPCs will replace the 28 WMECs. On the bright side, the OPC is larger, and the artist conception image from Eastern shows a 57mm Mk110 forward, a 25mm Mk38 aft, and six M2 mounts as well as a AN/SLQ-32(v) EW suite– which is far more armament that the current cutters they are replacing save for the 270s.

“The Offshore Patrol Cutter acquisition is the Coast Guard’s highest investment priority, and we are proud to announce this important milestone,” said Commandant of the Coast Guard Adm. Paul Zukunft in a statement. “The Offshore Patrol Cutter will replace our aging medium endurance cutters and provide the majority of offshore presence by the Coast Guard’s cutter fleet. Whether combating transnational organized criminal networks off Central America or patrolling in the increasingly accessible Arctic, the Offshore Patrol Cutter will ensure our Nation’s maritime security and economic interests are preserved for decades to come.”

Bath is expected to protest. 

The first OPC is expected to be delivered in fiscal year 2021 at which point the oldest WMEC in the fleet, USCGC Reliance (WMEC-615), will be 57.

That’s a Dash 8, not in USCG livery

As reported by the English language Telesur, a U.S. Coast Guard Bombardier Dash 8 was detected in Venezuelan airspace on Sept. 16, during the Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement’s on Venezuela’s Margarita Island.

“An aircraft crossed our flight region without informing our control center,” said Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino in a press conference in Caracas Tuesday, adding that the craft appeared to be carrying out a surveillance flight while the NAM conference was underway.

The penetration was one of 32 recorded in the past year, some reported as close as 130 miles from the mainland.

The thing is, while the USCG has about 70 fixed wing aircraft including HC-130s Herky birds, HC-144A Ocean Sentries, C37A (G-5) VIP aircraft, and is adding some hand me down C-27Js, they just don’t have any Bombardiers.

Who does?

The Dutch Caribbean Coast Guard, which patrols Statia, Aruba, Sint Maarten and Curaçao (the latter of these just 40 miles off Venezuela’s coast) does operate two unarmed Bombardier Dash 8 Maritime Patrol Aircraft (designated MPA-D8) for SAR and fisheries patrol.

U.S., Dutch, hey, we’re all alike when it comes to Venezuela.

Today we have narco subs (self-propelled semi-submersibles, or  SPSSs) to deal with but they are an idea that is almost a century old.

The Volstead Act in 1919 came at a time of technological innovation and, with a lot of Great War era soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines out of work, some quickly fell into the quick and easy field of bootlegging. While there were plenty of overland smugglers, rum row operations where speedboats (often powered by surplus Liberty aircraft engines) zipped up and down the coast, and some aerial smuggling, there also seems to be at least some evidence of submarine ops.

Some were apparently large scale as related in Smugglers, Bootleggers and Scofflaws: Prohibition and New York City by Ellen NicKenzie Lawson, which contains a 1924 aerial photo, purporting to show rum-smuggling submarines in the Hudson River near Croton Point.

The photo appears in the chapter “Rum Row”—the name of the smuggling area of the Atlantic coast from Nantucket to New York City and New Jersey. Lawson writes:

“News of a submarine being used on Rum Row appears to have some substance to it. One smuggler testified in court that he saw a submarine emerge on the Row with a German captain and a French crew. Newspapers in 1924 reported that submarines were smuggling liquor to New Jersey and Cape Cod. An aerial photo, taken by a commercial Manhattan map-making firm that same year, suggested submarines were thirty miles up the Hudson River near Croton Point. (German submarines were kept out of the river during World War I by a steel net strung low across the bottom of the Narrows.) The photo purported to document two submarines below the surface of the Hudson River, each 250 feet long [as big as a German Type U-93 class boat or a UE-II minelaying sub] and 600 feet apart. The aerial firm sent the photograph to the U.S. Navy, which had no submarines in the area, and the startling image was given to Coast Guard Intelligence and filed away.”

A firearms blog also contends that, “During prohibition a syndicate of bootleggers operating out of Puget Sound somehow managed to acquire a World War I German U-Boat.  They used the submarine to smuggle booze from Canada to Seattle.”

This is backed up by newspaper reports of the time (see The Evening Independent – Feb 16, 1922)

As Roy Olmstead, the “King of the Puget Sound Bootleggers,” was very well connected and financed, it may have been theoretically possible.

So there is that.

The only thing is that at this time the U.S. Navy (as well as those of France, Britain and Italy) were really stingy with selling surplus subs to the public with the exception of established ship breakers and other subs that may seem like there were floating around on the open market just weren’t.

Former Warship Wednesday alumni, the obsolete Lake-built submarine USS USS O-12 (SS-73) was stricken after being laid up during Prohibition and was soon leased for $1 per year (with a maximum of five years in options) to Lake’s company for use as a private research submarine– as far as I can tell the first time this occurred. But, as part of the lease agreement, she was disarmed and had to be either returned to the Navy or scuttled in at least 1,200 feet of water at the conclusion of her scientific use.

Further, in 1919 the Allied powers agreed that Germany’s immense U-boat fleet should be surrendered without the possibility of return and, while some boats were kept for research, the majority were dismantled and recycled or gesunken in deep water in the 20s. Of course, there is always the possibility that a scrapper may have resold a scratch and dent U-boat for the right price, but good luck keeping that quiet as subs of the era had to spend most of their time on the surface and most certainly would have been noticed by some busy body.

Then there is the crew, and a former bluejacket or unterseeboot driver who worked on such a project–providing he didn’t wind up in Davy Jones locker with said rum sub– would be sure to pass on the wild tale to their family post-Prohibition leading to the inevitable “my great uncle told me about his whisky U-boat” anecdotal recollection on a Ken Burns’ documentary.

Build your own

A 1926 newspaper article tells a similar tale of a towed submersible caught coming across the U.S./Canadian border via Lake Champlain.

“[S]ubmarine without motors, has been seized at Lake Champlain with 4800 bottles of ale. The seizure was made by the Royal Canadian Boundary Waters and Customs officials. It is pointed out that bootleggers have been using every known method of conveyance to run contraband liquor from Canada to the United States, including automobiles, motorboats, aeroplanes, and submarines. The latter have been known an mystery boats, having a length of 28ft., with a device for submerging and rising to the surface, but without any propelling mechanism, they being towed by the hawser 175ft. long. Air and vision are obtained by periscopes. The authorities say these vessels are extremely expensive, but they have successfully conveyed so much liquor that they have quickly paid for themselves.”

A history of the anti-smuggling patrol from U.S. Customs on the Lake, collected by the Vermont Historical Society, relates a similar tale, with a better take on a smaller unmanned semi-submersible:

While in the main channel of the lake a bit west of the Rutland Railroad fill, we saw an object which, from a  distance, looked like a  floating log. Whenever we found logs or other floating hazards to navigation, we dragged them ashore. As we approached the presumed log, to our surprise we saw instead a sort of barge anchored in such a way that the top of it lay awash. About 10 feet long, 6 feet wide and 4 feet deep, it had a hatch on the top which, when removed, disclosed a cargo of sacks of beer which weighted the barge sufficiently to keep it awash. Presumably towed by a small boat in stages over several nights,  we assumed that the smugglers would tow it as far as they dared during the night hours and would then anchor it in the hope that no one would discover it during the day. We towed the barge with its contents back to St. Albans Bay and again destroyed the alcoholic contents. The 1932 clippings from the St. Albans Messenger refer to a “submarine” bought at auction. Jack Kendrick later told me that this was the same barge which we had found floating in 1926.

Another Lake Champlain tale:

To disguise themselves on the water, some bootleggers tied a long rope to one end of the bags of alcohol and towed it behind them in a hollow log under water like a submarine. The disadvantage here, however, was that the log would immediately float to the surface and become visible if the boat were to be stopped by an officer. The method that worked best was to tie the bags of alcohol to one end of a rope and tie a box of rock salt to the other: if chased, the bootleggers could push the setup overboard, the bags and box would sink to the bottom, and later, as the rock salt dissolved, the box would float to the surface and act as a buoy-like marker for bootleggers to recover their lost cargo.

Then, there is the small scale home-built river running submersible on public display at the Grand Gulf Military Park near Port Gibson, Mississippi.

Apparently the one-man submarine was powered by a Model T Ford Engine and used during the early Prohibition period to bootleg whiskey and rum from Davis Island to Vicksburg.

A turn of phrase

Another popular action of the period (and even today), moon-shining, saw the advent of “submarine stills” large black pot stills with a capacity of  up to 800-gallons of mash.

Submarine stills…like Japanese midget subs waiting for the 7th Fleet

This led to the inevitable possibility of bootleggers passing off bottles of hootch that, when asked where they came from, would be told “From a submarine”….which may have made the legend of surplus U-boats full of whisky more popular than the reality.

Either way, it is a great story.

YN3 Arnold Palmer was a judo and physical fitness instructor at Cape May for six months before being transferred to Coast Guard Station Cleveland as a photographer taking pictures for ID cards for all the personnel in the 9th Coast Guard District.

While you may know about Mr. Palmer’s time on the green, you may not know he enlisted in the Coast Guard in 1950 as a Yeoman and continued to serve until 1953. Though a Yeoman, Palmer, already a well known amateur golfer, participated in many matches as the Coast Guard allowed him to continue to play.  He returned to Wake Forest and in 1954 he won the U.S. Amateur Championship before going on to pick up a few more over the years.

Below is the Oral History interview conducted by Richard Stephenson, Ph.D, the National Historian for the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary.

(U.S. Coast Guard Photo by Coast Guard Lt. Jason McCarthey/Released).

Coast Guard Cutter Rollin A. Fritch (WPC-1119) pauses at the pier in Key West, Florida, before heading to its homeport in Cape May, New Jersey, September 1, 2016.

The cutter was named after enlisted Coast Guard Silver Star recipient Rollin A. Fritch, who lost his life fighting back against a Japanese kamikaze pilot during World War II on the transport ship USS Callaway.

The USCG is building 58 of these 154-foot Fast Response Cutters which can make 28 knots and remain at sea for a week at a time. Crewed by 4 officers and 20 enlisted, they have a stabilized Mk 38 25mm chain gun forward and four M2 .50 cal singles but their main force projection is via a stern launched cutter boat that can be away with a five Coastie boarding team in seconds, ready to write up 4100s or grapple with narcos.

They run $65 million each and are set to replace the smaller 1980s-era 110-foot Island-class patrol boats (WPBs).

Coast Guard Vice Adm. Sandra Stosz, Deputy Commandant Mission Support, presents a picture of a Island-class cutter to Major General Zurab Gamezardashvili, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia, at the Coast Guard Yard, Baltimore, Md., Sept. 30, 2016. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Mark Barney.

Major General Zurab Gamezardashvili, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia, and U.S. Coast Guard Vice Adm. Sandra Stosz signed certificates for the transfer of two former U.S. Coast Guard cutters to the Georgian Coast Guard at the Coast Guard Yard, Baltimore, Md., Sept. 30, 2016.

The vessels transferred ex-Jefferson Island (WPB-1340) and ex-Staten Island (WPB- 1345) are the first Island-class patrol cutters “transferred to an international partner.”

The Georgian flag was flown for the first time aboard the cutters immediately after transfer, which will be named Ochamchire and Dioskuria respectively.

Jefferson Island and Staten Island were both “C” model 110s, built by Bollinger in 1991, and assigned to South Portland, ME and Atlantic Beach, NC, respectively.

Replaced by more modern Sentinel-class fast-response cutters, the Coast Guard is rapidly letting their relatively new (for them) 110s go, pulling them from service and shipping them for a final ride to the CG Yard for disposal.  Its not a bad replacement scheme, trading 49 110-foot patrol boats for 58 more capable 154-footers.

Background on the 110s

Persian Gulf (April 27, 2005) – Coast Guardsmen aboard U.S Coast Guard Cutter Monomoy (WPB 1326) wave good-bye to the guided missile cruiser USS Antietam (CG 74) after the first underway fuel replenishment (UNREP) between a U.S. Navy cruiser and a U.S. Coast Guard Cutter. U.S. Navy photo by Journalist Seaman Joseph Ebalo (RELEASED)

Part of a project initiated in 1982 as a DoD Augmentation Appropriation to phase out the pre-Vietnam era 95-foot Cape-class patrol cutters, the Islands were originally designed to carry a Mk 16 20mm manually operated cannon on the foredeck and two M60 7.62mm machine guns on the 01 deck.

First of the class, the “A” variant USCGC Farallon (WPB-1301) was delivered in 1986, followed by 16 sisters. “B” variant leader USCGC Baranof (WPB-1318) was delivered in 1988 followed by 19 sisters before the “C” series started with USCGC Grand Isle (WPB-1338) in 1991 with 11 sisters delivered by 1992.

In all, some 49 cutters to replace the 36 ancient Capes.

In the meantime, the ships have been steadily upgraded with new commo and nav gear, regular engine swaps, and a Mk.38 25mm gun tapping in for the obsolete Mk 16 and M2 .50 cals taking the place of the M60s. Every three years they get a 15-week or so spate in dry dock.

Eight (mostly A series boats) that were stretched to 123-foot vessels in a fiasco that left them riddled with hull cracks have been pulled from service and laid up for disposal (likely via reefing) at the CG Yard since 2006. They are USCGC Matagorda (WPB-1303), USCGC Manitou (WPB-1302), USCGC Monhegan (WPB-1305), USCGC Nunivak (WPB-1306), USCGC Vashon (WPB-1308), USCGC Attu (WPB-1317), USCGC Metompkin (WPB-1325), and USCGC Padre (WPB-1328).

Then there were 41, though the Coast Guard only lists 27 in service, and some of those have been overseas for more than a decade. Seven are cooling their heels in Alaska where they sometimes have to take on ghost ships. Two are in Guam. One in Hawaii.

Since 2002 the Coast Guard has forward deployed six of their 110s to Manama, Bahrain to serve in the Persian Gulf littoral. After all these vessels can stay at sea for a week at a time, have a cutter boat, a decent surface search radar, can make 29-knots, and float in just 7 feet of seawater– which the Big Blue has a hard time pulling off. This force formalized in 2004 as Patrol Forces Southwest Asia (PATFORSWA) and is very active, typically having 3-4 patrol boats underway in the Gulf at any given time looking for pirates, smugglers, terrorists out to pull off another USS Cole-style attack, and, well, the Iranians.

Of the other disposals, Costa Rica is supposed to pick up two of the class next year. 

Some Island-class cutters are apparently up for sale through private brokers as well.

A recently refitted 1991 vintage C-model vessel (which could be 1338, 1339, 1341, 1342, or 1343) is up for sale– price on request– here with “All gun mounts remain intact and fully operational, can be sold fully armed to qualified buyers that do not have sanctions of UN, USA or other regulatory Government or agencies. Owner has full authority and can provision the ship according to buyer interest.”

USCGC Block Island (WPB-1344) and the USCGC Pea Island (WPB-1347), two late model C-variants, now renamed the MY Jules Verne and the MY Farley Mowat, were purchased in Baltimore last year and are used by Sea Shepard, flying a black flag.

You can bet the 40 or so 110s that make it out in to the wild still have a few decades of use left in them.