THE HURRICANE THAT FOREVER CHANGED THE US NAVY

FEBRUARY 2022 • Vol. 55/No.2

SHE DIED
SO OTHERS
COULD LIVE
The Magnificent Fight of the
USS Quincy at the Battle of
Where History Sets Sail Savo Island

TRIPLETS OF
THE GREAT
LAKES
Saga of Three
Famous
Passenger
Steamers

LOSS OF
THE TAMPA
Coast Guard Cutter
Sinking was the USCG’s
Worst Loss of Life
during the Great War
OUR 55th YEAR

NAVY VS. THE HURRICANE

Great Samoan Hurricane of 1889 Spelled U.S./CANADA $9.99

the end for the US Navy’s Underpowered

Wooden Warships
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CONTENTS FEBRUARY 2022 • Vol. 55/No.2

FEATURES DEPARTMENTS OUR 55th YEAR

8 TRIPLETS OF THE GREAT LAKES 4 MUSEUM NEWS
The long history of the Great Lakes Transit Company and its battle Latest updates from maritime museums
to survive while also operating three famed passenger steamers
that plied the Lakes for decades / by William F. Levins 5 INTEL FILE
With increasing global tensions, the US Navy is keeping a firm eye
22 SHE DIED SO OTHERS COULD LIVE on America’s enemies
Sleek and modern, the USS Quincy immediately went to work
protecting freedom as the threat of war built in Europe and the Far 20 LOST AT SEA
East. Following Pearl Harbor, the cruiser would become involved in Vessels whose sailing days are over / by Susan Duprey
the vicious fighting that became known as the Battle of Savo Island /
by Robert J. Cressman
34 YOUR NAVY
Newest images from the US Navy’s
44 THE NAVY VS. THE HURRICANE top photojournalists / by Howard Carter
After the draining Civil War, the US Navy fell into a state of
obsolescence. Underpowered wooden ships set forth to protect
American interests in the Samoan Islands against an expansionist
Germany. However, the Great Samoan Hurricane of 1889 would
forever change the ships and men of the US Navy /
by Gene T. Zimmerman
SEA CLASSICS
62 LOSS OF THE TAMPA is now on INSTAGRAM:
Rushed into service to protect vital convoys and fight the newly- @challengepublications
emerging terror of Germany’s U-Boats, the United States Coast
Guard Cutter Tampa would fall victim to an undersea warrior,
resulting in the USCG’s worst loss of life during the Great War /
by Bernard C. Nalty and Truman Strobridge

COVER: USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) deployed in the Mediterranean

Sea on 20 December 2021. (USN/Gabriela Chambers)

THIS PAGE: The Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Tulsa

(LCS-16) approaches the fleet replenishment oiler USNS Yukon (T-AO-202)
for a replenishment-at-sea in the South China Sea on 23 December 2021.
(USN/Devin Langer)

SEACLASSICSNOW.COM 3

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4 SEA CLASSICS/February 2022
EXHIBITING FRAGILE ARTIFACTS
Rare selection of deep sea diving helmets
at the Patriots Point Museum.
An exciting new exhibit has
opened at Patriots Point Naval &
Maritime Museum in Mount Pleasant,
South Carolina. Until recently, the
museum did not have a set home for
rare and fragile items that require
storage in a climate-controlled setting.
Located aboard the USS Yorktown, a
room has been opened off the carrier’s
hangar deck to house these artifacts.
The new exhibit opened to the public
on 17 December 2021. The exhibit
space will be long term with artifacts
cycling in and out. To start, a rare set
of deep sea diving helmets greets the
visitors and then there are a myriad
of other items including a fragment of
the champagne bottle used by Eleanor
Roosevelt when christening the
Yorktown. Among the many donated
items on display is an American flag
flown aboard the USS Laffey during
D-Day operations. One wall features
a selection of WWII patriotic/
propaganda posters that is sure to
attract visitors. These were donated
by Charleston’s Gibbes Museum of
Art. Japanese WWII flight suits are
exhibited and show how one was
lined with rabbit fur, another with
silk and complete with an attached
electrical cord that could be plugged
in to heat the airmen. Also on display
are fragments from kamikaze aircraft
that hit American ships. As a point of
interest, some of the rare items were
discovered aboard the Yorktown and
include a box that houses a 5-in gun
mount boresight while a certificate
commemorating when sailors crossed
the Arctic Circle was discovered while
cleaning the ship’s print shop. The
Fragile Collections Exhibit is included
in the regular price of admission and
is open daily from 10 am to 3 pm. For
more information go to patriotspoint.org.
Lake Champlain Maritime Museum’s new
docks will allow easier access to the
ships.
LAKE CHAMPLAIN MARITIME
MUSEUM GETS NEW DOCKS
Last fall, Lake Champlain
Maritime Museum unveiled new
floating docks at their waterfront built
by Northlands Job Corps. These new
structures increase visitor accessibility
to the museum’s waterfront and on-
water activities. The waterfront serves
as a floating museum and on-water
home for the museum’s fleet of replica
boats, where the public can step
aboard boats such as the replica canal
schooner Lois McClure. For more
information, go to lcmm.org.
HUDSON RIVER MARITIME MUSEUM
BOAT BUILDING COURSE
Located in Kingston, New York,
the Hudson River Maritime Museum
is offering a boat building course for
young people beginning in February
2022. The YouthBoat series is an
afterschool program through which
students ages 10-18 work alongside
shipwrights to follow building plans,
use tools and materials, and put
STEM skills to work as they build a
boat in the school’s wood shop under
the guidance of skilled shipwrights
and crasftspeople. Classes will be
taught by lead instructor and master
boatwright Wayne Ford who is a
master woodworker with extensive
timber framing experience. The
sessions will be held every Tuesday
and Thursday, 15 February-19 May,
from 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm. For more
information, go to hrmm.org.
Young people learning wooden boat skills
at the Hudson River Museum.
 under Combined
Maritime Forces.
“This latest
seizure is a
demonstration
that CTF-150 and
assigned surface
and air assets are
ready to conduct
Coastal patrol ships USS Tempest (PC-2) and USS Typhoon
(PC-5) interdict a stateless dhow carrying illegal drugs while interdiction
transiting international waters in the Arabian Sea. (USN)
operations 365
USN/USCG SEIZE HEROIN SHIPMENT days a year,” stated Capt. Brendon
The waters around Bahrain teem Clark of the Royal New Zealand
with a variety of ill-maintained and Navy, who is commander of CTF-
questionable vessels. Many carry 150. In 2021, CTF-150 seized illegal
illegal cargo. On 27 December drugs worth more than $193 million
2021, two US Navy ships seized (at regional wholesale prices) during
385 kilograms of heroin worth counter-narcotics operations at sea.
approximately $4 million from a This is a higher total value than
stateless fishing vessel transiting the the amount of drugs the task force
Arabian Sea near Manama, Bahrain. interdicted in the previous four years
US Coast Guard personnel combined. This higher figure comes,
embarked aboard USS Tempest of course, from increased patrolling
(PC-2) and USS Typhoon (PC-5) but also from strong drug trafficking
discovered the illegal shipment while aimed at America and other free
conducting a flag verification boarding world nations via China and the
in accordance with customary Arab states.
international law. The confiscated International naval forces
drugs were destroyed at sea by US operating in support of CTF-150
forces. The coastal patrol ships were regularly conduct maritime security
operating as part of an international and counter-terrorism operations
task force called Combined Task at sea outside the Arabian Gulf to
disrupt criminal
and terrorist
organizations
and their related
illicit activities,
including the
movement
of personnel,
Preparing to board the dhow. Even though listed as “stateless,” weapons,
the shipment of these drugs is part of an Iranian government narcotics,
plan to destabilize the United States — the eventual target of the
drugs. (USN) and charcoal.
These efforts help ensure legitimate
commercial shipping transits the
region free from non-state threats.
The US Navy released the stateless
fishing vessel and its nine crew
members, who identified themselves
as Iranian nationals, after seizing
the drugs. At Sea Classics, we must
question the lack of wisdom at
USS Tempest (PC-2) is the second of the
efficient Cyclone-class of coastal patrol releasing low-level criminals and
ships. (USN) their vessel. As in the past, wouldn’t
Force (CTF) 150, which has increased it be more effective to sink the vessel
regional patrols to locate and disrupt and turn the criminals over to an
unlawful maritime activity — international court for prosecution?
something that is greatly increasing. By releasing them, the criminals were
CTF-150 is one of three task forces probably back at work within days.
Ross departs NS Rota for Patrol 12. (USN)
EVEN DOZEN FOR THE ROSS
Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile
destroyer USS Ross (DDG-71)
departed Naval Station Rota, Spain,
on 27 December 2021 to begin her
12th Forward-Deployed Naval Forces-
Europe (FDNF-E) patrol in the US 6th
Fleet area of operations. During Patrol
11, Ross worked alongside NATO
allies and partners throughout 6th
Fleet waters, honing the capabilities
and capacities of these like-minded
nations individually and as a cohesive
team. The ship participated in Fleet
Operational Sea Training with the
Royal Navy, the Naval Striking and
Support Forces NATO-led Exercise
Formidable Shield and the Moroccan-
led Exercise African Lion.
Ross then transited to the Black
Sea to join the US and Ukrainian
co-hosted Exercise Sea Breeze, as well
as the Bulgarian-led Exercise Breeze
— all to show strength to the growing
Russian military presence in the area.
Following Breeze, Ross sailed back to
the Mediterranean Sea, beginning its
journey back to Rota for the end of
the patrol.
Ross returned from Patrol 11 on
26 July 2021. While in port, Ross
conducted numerous qualification
events, including Search and Rescue
and Visit, Board, Search and Seizure
certifications, as well as a Damage
Control Material Assessment. Over
the next several months, Ross is
scheduled to again participate in
various training exercises with allied
and partner nations.
Four US Navy destroyers,
including Ross, are based at Rota and
assigned to Commander, Task Force
65 in support of NATO’s Integrated
Air Missile Defense architecture.
These FDNF-E ships have the
flexibility to operate throughout the
waters of Europe and Africa.
SEACLASSICSNOW.COM 5
 company. It is Following the end of his time in NSA
the only familiar Souda Bay, Weezy transferred to NAS
face during long Sigonella, where he was able to finish
down-range out his time in the Navy and prepare
deployments. It is for his new life of relaxing on the
the wag of a tail couch with one of his former handlers
and a cold nose in North Carolina. Reported by Josh
before, during, Cote.
and after a long
day at work, and MASSIVE ARMS HAUL
sometimes the Illustrating the lawlessness in this
only sanity during third world area, on 20 December
our chaotic days.” 2021 US 5th Fleet ships seized
Weezy was approximately 1400 AK-47 assault rifles
Weezy gets his Navy and Marine Commendation Award. (USN) born in April and 226,600 rounds of ammunition
FOUR-LEGGED HERO RETIRES 2009, and he began his explosives from yet another “stateless” fishing
Military Working Dog (MWD) training at Lackland AFB in March vessel during a flag verification
Weezy, assigned to NAS Sigonella 2011. Upon successful completion boarding in the North Arabian Sea
security department in Italy, retired of his training, Weezy was stationed off Manama, Bahrain. Once again,
during a ceremony at the base on with the USMC at Fort Bragg, where USS Tempest and USS Typhoon were
17 December 2021 after more than he received continued specialized at the forefront of the action during
ten years of distinguished service. search dog training. In July 2011, he a search conducted by embarked
Chief Master-at-Arms Jordyn Japec went to Marine Corps Air Ground USCG personnel. The illicit weapons
noted that the history of MWDs can Combat Center Twentynine Palms to and ammunition were transported to
be traced back to at least 600 BC. conduct pre-deployment training for the USS O’Kane (DDG-77) for final
In those ancient times, dogs were Afghanistan. While deployed, Weezy disposition. It was discovered the
used to break up enemy formations, took part in anti-improvised explosive stateless vessel had originated in Iran
charging into ranks and tearing down device operations, supporting and and transited international waters
as many soldiers as possible. Dogs defending countless service members. along a route historically used to traffic
have been used in every American war Following his deployment, Weezy weapons unlawfully to the Houthis in
from the Civil War to our modern- returned to Fort Bragg in April 2012 Yemen. Certainly part of Iran’s mission
day conflicts. They have served as and continued his service there until to destabilize the political situation
mascots, couriers, sentries, scouts and October 2021. in that country, the direct or indirect
even rat chasers on ships. In November 2021, Weezy crossed supply, sale, or transfer of weapons
Currently, dogs are used to search over to serve in the US Navy, where to the Houthis violates UN Security
for explosives, sniff out narcotics, and he was stationed at Naval Support Council Resolutions and US sanctions.
take down bad guys both at home and Activity Souda Bay until January The vessel’s five crew members
abroad. They are often the first line of 2020. Weezy sustained severe injuries identified themselves as Yemeni
defense between our armed forces and while completing a search training nationals and were returned to
the enemy. exercise in a warehouse at NSA Souda Yemen where they will surely be dealt
During the ceremony, many people Bay, fracturing his tibia and fibula. with harshly. After removing crew
spoke on Weezy’s behalf. He was It took Weezy 19 months, including and cargo, it was determined the
also awarded the Navy and Marine three surgeries and rehabilitation, to vessel was a hazard to navigation and
Corps Commendation Medal for his finally get back to fit-for-duty status. it was sunk.
years of service to America. While
deployed, the relationship between
a handler and dog can become more
important than usual. “Few will ever
know the bond that is felt between a
MWD and their handler,” said Japec.
“It is saying okay, let’s go sweep this
roadway for explosives before we go
tackle an objective. It is searching a
building and having the confidence in
each other’s ability to let everyone back
in. However, beyond that, is the part
that the non-handler world does not
see; it is the genuine joy that handler
and the dog feel from just each other’s Part of the massive haul of AK-47s. (USN)

6 SEA CLASSICS/February 2022

SEACLASSICSNOW.COM 7
 TRIPLETS OF THE
GREAT LAKES
THE GREAT LAKES TRANSIT COMPANY COULDN’T SURVIVE THE DAWN OF A NEW AGE IN SEA
TRANSPORT BUT WHILE IT EXISTED IT SERVED MANY AND SERVED THEM WELL
T he entrance of the United States
into World War Two triggered the
greatest shipbuilding program in the
nation’s history but when hostilities
commenced in 1941, they also sounded
the death knell for what remained of the
once numerous Great Lakes package
freighters and the company that owned
them last.
Shortly after the start of 1942,
the federal government, through the
Even though the three liners were
extremely popular with passengers, time
would catch up with the ships along with
changing life styles.
8 SEA CLASSICS/February 2022
BY WILLIAM F. LEVINS
War Shipping Administration
and the Office of Defense
Transportation, placed all Great
Lakes ships exceeding 1000-tons
burden under the command
of the Maritime Commission.
The powers to do this were
created by Congress in the
Merchant Marine Act, which
gives the President the
authority during a time of
national emergency
A 1914 menu from Ocotara when the steamship was operated by
the Anchor Line.
simply the premature fulfillment of an
inevitable end.
Another government edict, different
in nature but equal in consequence,
forced the Great Lakes Transit
Corporation in 1937 to withdraw from
service its two remaining passenger
liners. While removal of these freighters
and liners from the Lakes was five
years apart, their passing presents
parallel cases in pointing up the
irresistible running of the economic
tide. While government action was
partially responsible for putting the
Great Lakes Transit Corporation out of
business, government action was also
completely responsible for putting the
firm in business. For out of the chaos
and confusion that followed enactment
of the anti-monopoly Panama Canal Octorara in the white and emerald green colors of the Great Lakes
Section of the Congressional Transit Corporation. (Bowling Green State University)
Act to Regulate Commerce,
the Great Lakes Transit
Corporation was born.
The SS Octorara
steaming through the
Great Lakes. (Library
of Congress)

The Tionesta in its launching slip.

SEACLASSICSNOW.COM 9
 SS Tionesta when sailing
with the Anchor Line.

forced to sell were Commission soon stepped in and set up

purchased in 1916 a rail and water freight rate differential
by a Buffalo, New and it was rigidly enforced, thereby
York, organization preserving the desired competition.
headed by W.J. Even so, the fact that Connors renamed
Connors and several GLTC ships after presidents of
named the Great the railroads involved in the separation,
Lakes Transit did much to preserve and perpetuate
Corporation this feeling of collusion!
(GLTC). Of the 36 vessels turned over to
Though it was the fledgling firm, twelve came from
never conclusively the Anchor Line — a subsidiary of
proven, there the Pennsylvania Railroad. Named
were indications after rivers that flowed through
during the GLTC’s Pennsylvania, nine of the ships were
formation that freighters, while the balance were the
the railroads had three passenger liners. The freighters
supplied Connors were the Susquehanna, Codorus,
with the money Mahoning, Schuylkill (renamed
he needed to C.T. Jaffray in 1926), Delaware
obtain rights to (renamed Fred W. Sargeant in 1927),
the 36 package Wissahickon (renamed Daniel Willard
freighters and in 1925), Conemaugh (renamed W.W.
three passenger Atterbury in 1920), and Allegheny
liners included (renamed G.D. Dixon in 1925). The
in the separation three passenger liners turned over to
proceedings. A the new company were the famous
hue and cry then Tionesta, Juniata, and Octorara.
went up from the The Western Transit Line (New
freight shippers York Central Railroad) placed nine
that the railroads, ships with the neophyte lake line and
if financially they were all launched bearing the
Color postcard depicts the graceful lines of the Tionesta in the associated with names of cities: Troy (renamed Charles
gleaming white and emerald green hull of the Great Lakes Transit the new ship Donnelly in 1927), Buffalo (renamed
Corporation. Before trains and, later, cars became prevalent,
summer vacation areas in the more remote areas around the line, would bring P.E. Crowley in 1925), Chicago,
Great Lakes were accessible primarily only by steamer.
pressure to bear Milwaukee, Duluth, Utica, Superior
The law, passed in 1913, eventually on raising the historically lower water (renamed Ralph Budd in 1927),
separated all jointly-owned rail and rates up to the level of the rail rates. Rochester (renamed Alfred H. Smith in
Lake lines that paralleled each other’s Should this phenomenon have come to 1920), and the Boston (renamed J.M.
routes. Mainly, this was done to force pass, the valuable competitive situation Davis in 1925).
the mighty railroad companies into intentionally brought about by the two The Erie RR, the Delaware,
divesting from their shipping lines. carriers’ separation would, naturally, Lackawanna & Western RR, and
Nine railroads were affected by this be destroyed. the Lehigh Valley RR, along with
legislation and the 36 ships they were However, the Interstate Commerce four other roads, contributed the
10 SEA CLASSICS/February 2022
remaining 15 freighters. These ships the Anchor Line
prior to their transfer were in a pool to replace the
and operated under the Mutual obsolete “Lake
Transit Lines, Union Steamboat Line, Triplets” — India,
and the Rutland Transit. Mutual’s China, and Japan.
freighters were the Northern King, The Tionesta,
Northern Queen, Northern Light, launched in 1901,
Northern Wave, North Wind, North the Juniata in 1904,
Lake (renamed J.E. Gorman in and the Octorara in
1926), North Sea (renamed Edward 1910 were identical
Chambers in 1927) and the North Star in size, appearance,
(renamed H.E. Scandrett in 1926). and speed. The
The Tioga (renamed Granville A. five-decked sister
Richardson in 1926), Ramao (renamed ships each grossed
F.D. Underwood in 1926) and the 4330-tons, had
Starucca (renamed Delos W. Cook 361-foot lengths,
in 1927) sailed under the Union 45-foot beams,
Steamboat Line flag. The Rutland and 17-foot
Transit operated the William F. Averill drafts. Of all steel
and the William H. Haskill, while the construction,
Mauch Chunk (renamed W.J. Connors the “Big Three”
after the founding father of the could each carry
GLTC in 1920) and the Wilkesbarre 595 passengers,
(renamed Edward Loomis in 1920) had crews of 195, Brochure promoting Great Lakes service with the Octorara,
showed the Lehigh Valley RR’s and their coal-fired Tionesta, and Juniata.
insignia on their stacks. quadruple expansion engines could registered package freighters ever
Since the 33 amalgamated freighters move them up and down the lakes at 15 to ply the Great Lakes, in 1916 the
were originally built for several different knots. Even by present day standards, GLTC embarked upon a frustrating
owners, they had incongruous tonnages, they were the personification of 26-year career. In the beginning,
dimensions, and carrying capacities. magnificence. the firm enjoyed substantial profits
The smallest was the Chicago with a At first the brown and white color but, shortly after World War One,
gross tonnage of 3195-tons, a 325-foot combinations of the Western Transit the company started a long and
length, 44-foot beam, and a 28-ft draft. Line’s ships were retained for the uncontrollable plunge to oblivion. To
The largest were the Wilkesbarre and entire GLTC fleet, but during the better understand why the end in 1942
Mauch Chunk, each grossing 4449-tons 1920s all the firm’s floating equipment was inevitable, though premature, it is
with 382-foot lengths, 50.5-foot beams was repainted with the green and necessary to understand the history of
and 30-foot depths. With the exception white of the erstwhile Anchor Line Great Lakes package shipping and trace
of the Averill and the Haskill, which had and this combination identified the the growth of the important economic
wooden hulls, all the ships were of steel GLTC’s ships for their remaining trends that later rendered this operation
construction. They averaged 11-15-kts years on the lakes.
and they could carry 5000 to 7000-tons. So, with
The passenger liners integrated the largest fleet
into the fleet in 1916 were built by of American

Passenger loyalty was very high for the “Lake Triplets” and
travelers often had favorite ships. The Octorara is depicted
transiting the Lakes in this color postcard. Junita being launched on 20 December 1904.

SEACLASSICSNOW.COM 11
 pressures of economic expediency as it
proved far cheaper, due to lower bulk
transportation costs, to mill the wheat
and disburse its multifarious byproducts
near the great concentrations of its
subsequent consumers. A ton of wheat
could be moved in a bulk carrier from
Duluth to Buffalo for a fifth the cost of
moving an equal amount of flour the
same distance in a package freighter.
Though the package freighters did carry
bulk grain in their holds, it was done so
at less than compensatory rates as the
necessary stability it gave the usually
top-heavy ship was far more important
than any profit consideration.
Buffalo’s gradual replacement of
The Susquehanna plowing through Lake ice when the ship was owned by the Anchor
Line, which was a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Anchor’s vessels were Minneapolis as the nation’s milling
named after rivers that flowed through the state. capital was profoundly reflected in the
GLTC’s annual decreasing eastbound
tonnage during the late 1920s, and
this downward trend continued on
through the 1930s and right up until the
company’s freighters left the fresh water
scene. The entire flour tonnage handled
by the GLTC in 1938 approximated
within just a few tons the flour shipped
down the lakes in 1914 by just one mill!
While the Panama Canal’s official
opening in 1914 was certainly a
manifestation of 20th Century progress,
it dealt a stunning blow to the GLTC’s

Str. Northern Queen

Freighters from diverse companies when operated by Mutual
competed to haul cargo on the Great Transit Lines.
Lakes.
ineffectual and unprofitable.
Since their inception before
1900, successful package freight lines
depended upon remunerative tonnage
flowing both east and westbound
during the navigation season that
started in the middle of April and ended
during the first half of December. Flour,
shipped first in barrels and later in
sacks, from the numerous and prolific
Midwestern mills to the large eastern
population centers made up a major
part of the eastbound freight and was actual weight, it made up in profits as future prosperity. Before that date,
routed over the lakes for Duluth/ it carried a much higher shipping rate an eastern manufacturer with, for
Superior to Buffalo. On their return trip than did flour. example, a consignment of pianos for
westbound, the freighters plucked from However, the years prior to WWI a west coast buyer would route this
the docks on Lake Erie the processed saw the flour milling interests begin shipment by rail to Buffalo where it
foods and manufactured goods with to relocate their mills in the east was loaded aboard a GLTC freighter
ultimate destinations as far off as and when the GLTC commenced bound for Duluth. At the head of the
California. Though the freight moving operations in 1916, it did so in an era lakes some four days later, the pianos
eastbound accounted for a big share when flour movement from west to east were transferred back to the railroads
of the carriers’ total annual tonnage, was on a noticeable decline. The flour who transported them the remaining
what the westbound cargo lacked in mills’ relocation was dictated by the distance to the coast. Due to lower
12 SEA CLASSICS/February 2022
water rates the 1000-mile portion
of this transcontinental movement
afforded shippers’ sizable savings in
freight charges and contributed heavily
to the package freighters’ earnings.
The reverse also held true. Far western
shippers profitably utilized the GLTC’s
equipment to move their goods to
the east. With the Panama Canal’s
completion, however, manufacturers
could then ship their products all water
between the nation’s two extremities far
cheaper than that offered by rail/water/
rail transit.
In ascertaining just how influential
the Panama Canal’s construction was in
reducing GLTC’s usefulness, consider
the fact that an eastern shipper after The opening of the Panama Canal would be a major blow to the profitability of the
1920 could send his freight by salt water GLTC’s cargo fleet.
vessel from Boston through the Panama
Canal and up to Seattle, then inland
by rail all the way back to Billings,
Montana, at a cheaper rate than he
would pay for sending the same cargo
to Billings via rail/water/rail routing
within the United States! It was a rare
occasion after 1920 if cargo shipped
from one coast to the other could be
found aboard a GLTC ship.
Another factor that reduced the
firm’s westbound tonnage during the
1920s and 1930s was the establishment
of subsidiary plants in the Midwest by
eastern manufacturers and processors.
The constantly rising rail and water
rates during this period made it
necessary for many producers to set
up their operations closer to the large
Another blow to GLTC cargo profitability would be the late-comer Minnesota-Atlantic
Midwest points of consumer demand. Transit Company and its “Poker Fleet” with Str. Ace pictured.
These moves further reduced the need
of the GLTC’s westbound service and as
a result, Great Lakes package shipping
received another mortal wound.
The GLTC was denied even more
revenue when the lower labor costs
and easier accessibility to raw materials
lured the profuse textile mills from the
northeast to the south during the 1920s.
The low-cost advantages offered by
water transportation were completely
wiped out when the textile industry
removed much of itself from the
influence of Great Lakes shipping. Here
the railroads, who by this time were
in fierce competition with the GLTC,
gained the income that was forever lost
by the ship line.
Launched as the SS Mauch Chunk, the ship would become the W.J. Conners with
While the GLTC’s freighters fought GLTC. During WWII it was taken over by the War Department Transportation Corps and
the increasingly heavy seas of falling modified as a Marine Repair Ship.

SEACLASSICSNOW.COM 13
 the liners were
given to passenger
comfort exclusively.
This move took
cognizance of the
fact the company’s
extremely large
freighter fleet
contained more
ships than available
business could
utilize. Besides
removing the cargo
compartments,
each ship in
1925 underwent
a complete
modernization
program. Their
forward gangways,
used for loading and
unloading freight,
were permanently
sealed up and their
superstructures
This 1933 map from the Great Lakes
Transit Corporation depicts the stops
were subsequently
for the Lake Triplets. remodeled. Except
from the middle for their hulls that were done in emerald
of June until green, the “Big Three” were completely
Labor Day, repainted a gleaming, glistening white.
the three big So, entirely changed in color and
steamers sailed appearance from the days they sailed
on a nine- for the Anchor Line and embodying
day schedule all the accouterments of first-class
between Duluth ocean travel, the three vessels for many
and Buffalo years profitably moved thousands of
offering service passengers up and down the lakes in
every three days safety and luxury. If anything outshone
from the seven the popularity enjoyed by this second
Great Lakes’ generation “Lake Triplets” it was the
ports they majesty with which these beautiful
touched, the liners graced the fresh waters of the
other five being Inland Seas.
Cleveland, To shore up the falling eastbound
Detroit, revenue during the early 1920s, the
Mackinac GLTC’s freighters began hauling dairy
Island, Sault products in ever-increasing quantities
St. Marie and and this cargo netted a very good
The popularity of the steamships was immense during the 1930s Houghton, return for the company. This windfall
and this brochure illustrates happy passengers. Michigan. The was short lived, however, for in 1924
tonnage during the 1920s, the firm’s cruise was so popular that it was a wise the company was faced with its first
three passenger liners, Tionesta, Juniata, traveler, indeed, who booked space formidable water competitor in the
and Octorara sailed the smooth waters several weeks prior to his intended date Minnesota-Atlantic Transit Company.
of financial success. Travel on the Great of departure. This latecomer was more popularly
Lakes all those decades ago was not Under the Anchor Line, cargo as known on the lakes as the Mat Line
given over to pleasure cruising alone. well as passengers was handled by the and it operated the fabled “Poker Fleet”
Rather, passenger ships provided low- three ships, but when they were turned whose ships were named Ace, King,
cost transportation that was relatively over to the GLTC all freight handling Queen, Jack, Ten and Nine among
fast and extremely pleasant. Each year facilities were promptly removed and others. Though the Mat Line’s vessels
14 SEA CLASSICS/February 2022
had smaller carrying-capacities than
did the GLTC’s, every ton of freight the Smoke billowing from its three
stacks, Greater Detroit heads out
Poker Fleet transported was one less for deep water.
ton for the GLTC to move. In addition,
this was in a time when tonnage was
becoming progressively more difficult
to locate.
While the two lines fought for the
right to handle whatever cargo was
available, a brand-new tormentor
emerged during the latter part of the FIERY DEATH OF A RIVAL
never sailed again. passenger and car ferrying. Renamed
1920s to further plague the GLTC’s InSTRANGE
the fall of 1934, END TO a seaTHE LARGEST
disaster of STEAMSHIPthe Milwaukee OF THE Clipper GREAT she made LAKES a daily
operation and it immediately moved in the first magnitude sealed the future round trip on Lake Michigan between
on the lucrative dairy freight business. A
1923
s noted in our main article, there was fierce competition for passengers among the companies that operated
fate ofsteamships.
the Juniata
and made her
Designed
andbyOctorara
famed naval who architect Frank E.Milwaukee
Kirby, the Greater and Muskegon,
Detroit was launchedMichigan
in September
At that time the trucking industry was had remained onmaiden voyage on 29 August 1924. Built
the Buffalo-Duluth to dwarf
until 1970 the “Lake
(see Triplets,”
sidebar). Greater Detroit was 536
feet long, nearly 100 feet across, with room for more than 2000 passenger and 100 cars. She was truly a marvel on
fast becoming of age and it offered run.
the A raging
Lakes and nofireexpenseaboard thebuilding
was spared steamer her — the cost coming The Octorara
to over $50 millionwas commandeered
in 2021 dollars.
the butter and egg shippers a service Castleofoff
MorroFlagship the the coast
Detroit of New
& Cleveland Jersey Company,
Navigation by the the government
size and magnificent in 1942, relieved
furnishings of Greater
they could not afford to ignore. in Detroit
Septemberwas a draw of for
that year claimed
passengers that wanted theto travel inofstyle
herto familiar
destinationssuperstructure
on the Great Lakes and — and that
The freighters’ speedy land-bound journey
lives was part
of 124 of the steamship
passengers andromance
as a resultfor many
oftravelers. A passenger
floated could be assured
to tidewater at New of very comfortable
Orleans
cabins with deluxe features, impressive menus, and a variety of musical entertainment. As the company proclaimed,
competitors could pick up butter this nautical holocaust the US Bureau via the Chicago drainage canal and the
“Twilight on the Lake possesses a magic all of its own.” However, the city that was home to this epic ship also gave
and eggs from the Minnesota and of birth
Marine Inspection and Navigation
to the very thing that would cause its demise — the automobile. Mississippi As theRiver whereprogressed,
20th Century she wasmore madecars
Wisconsin shippers and deliver them greatly increased
and trucks rolled fromthe firefactories
Detroit prevention andin ourinto
and, as noted anfewer
article, Army troop
and fewer transport.
passengers would From the
buy tickets
directly to eastern buyers cheaper and on therequirements
safety steamships. on all salt and fresh west coast, the Octorara made many
faster than could either the GLTC or water Greater
vessels. Detroit’s massive size would also become a detriment long trips sinceto thedistant
vessel could
pointsnot travel
in thethrough the
South
narrow canals into Lake Superior or Lake Ontario, therefore limiting its useability. It was also expensive to operate
the Mat Line with their cumbersome, Steel
and bulkheads
with passenger ticketfrom keel tothe D&C NavigationPacific
sales dropping, Companyduring found itself WWII — braving dangers
in trouble.
time consuming and more expensive boatdeck,D&C Navigation ceased steamship business in May 1951, but the Greater Detroit and thefor
automatic fire warning and never originally intended her. In
company’s other
rail-water-rail routing. The truckers’ sprinkler
steamshipssystems,
had ceasedand self-launching,
operating during late 1950. After being 1952,dockedafter several
for five yearsDetroit
years, Greater of inactivity
and the otheron
schedule that called for third-morning ships were sold tolifeboats
self-propelled steel and iron companies.
were the main Some consideration
the westwas given coast to returning
she was thesold
ships toforservice
scrap butand
it
was determined they were too costly to operate. The wonderful furnishings, interior paneling, paintings, china, and
delivery in New York was 24-hours requirements and mandatory by the dismantled.
everything else was put up for auction in the manner a great estate would be sold off.
faster than the best time offered by the Bureau’s Now, decree
what to doin withthe
thelatter
ships? part of The 1930s offered no salvation to the
swiftest package freighter. Since the 1936. The Neither
new owners looked at the Greater Detroit and the other shipsharassed
the Juniata or Octorara GLTCs freight
with a cold eye. operation
They wanted either
the metal —
market day arrival price most generally pure and
could meet simple. All the other
to these demands material with
— the woodwork,
their theand carved
any decorations,
hardship the not
plaster work — would
inflicted on simply
the
determined what the shipper was to hinder refining
existing the metal. The easiest way of getting rid of line
equipment. all thebyunwanted
water,decorations
rail andand fittings
truck would be to
competition
burn the ships in a manner that would make the most regal of Vikings turn green with envy.
be paid for his products, the extra So,After
with passenger
several days of revenue
work fillingatthe ships
day saved by the truckers enabled the anwith
abyssimal low and
gasoline placed the prospects
in appropriate locations, the
shipper to more closely peg at the time foranchor
future for improvement
Greater Detroit wasin cutserious
and it plunged to
of shipment what his ultimate profit the bottom
doubt, the costof theof Detroit
meeting River. Then,
thesetugs new pushed
and pulled the steamship and other vessels up the
would be. This advantage was highly requirements was held prohibitive by
river and into Lake St. Clair. After a great deal of
important to producers selling in a thepublicity
two ships’ owners. were
(there apparently On zero30 March
environmental
constantly fluctuating market and was 1937, less than
concerns), the time90 camedayson from the time1956
12 December
also another factor that helped to nudge theand flares were season
passenger set off onwould all the ships.
onceSoon, againthe
the freighters off the Lakes. onceH.S.
start, grandNoble,
vessels then were flaming
presidentfuneralofpyresline,as
spectators on the shoreline cheered with amazed
The beginning of the 1930s marked announced
delight as flames in Buffalo that the
shot hundreds Juniata
of feet into the
the beginning of the end for GLTC’s and Octorara,
cold and dark night. like the Tionesta, would
Greater Detroit completely ablaze.
passenger ship service. Pleasure cruising be withdrawn
Soon the Greater from service. Detroit and the other
during the Depression years was a steamships
For nearly were five
burning from one
years, theend to theships
three other —
lighting the night sky with the lurid glow of great ships
luxury only few could afford and as the idled at their Buffalo moorings
in their death throes. Hours later, dawn rose on the
together.
automobile became more dependable While the “Bighulks.
still smoldering Three” never
Everything butagain
the metal had
it replaced the passenger ships as not sailed
burnedfor theWhen
away. GLTC, it was their usefulness
safe, tugs approached the
only a faster means of transportation didhulks
notand end beganand towing
destinythem todictated
their final scrapping
but also a vehicle in which a vacation location.
futures that were ignominous for one,
History is forever changing. What was once
could be pursued much easier and less laborious
worthless for is nowanother,
of historic andimportance.
gallant During
expensively. To offset the plummeting forNovember
the third. 2016, Thealmost 60 years eldest
Tionesta, to the day of of the
passenger revenue, the Tionesta was theGreater
three,Detroit’s incineration,
was partially the three-ton at
dismantled anchor
rerouted to Chicago in 1932 and it used was pried
Buffalo and loose fromtowed
later its restingtoplace in the muck of
Hamilton,
the riverbed. Cleaned and refurbished, the anchor
the Windy City as its western terminus. Ontario,
is now onwhere display at shethewas scrapped.
Detroit/Wayne County Port
But in 1934, after two particularly InAuthority
1941, the Michigan-Wisconsin
to serve as a reminder of a wonderful time in
unprofitable seasons, the Tionesta was Transportation
a not-distant past. Co. purchased the Recovering Greater Detroit’s anchor.
completely withdrawn from service and Juniata and completely outfitted her for
SEACLASSICSNOW.COM 15

Besides passengers, the ships carried a variety of cargo and copper ingots are seen
being loaded aboard SS Juniata.
were imposed by the Great Depression.
In 1932, all Great Lakes shipping, both
bulk and package, was nearly stopped
in its wake. After the nation began to
recover from its economic heart attack
and the tempo of America’s commerce
began to rise, the GLTC experienced
a slight resurgence in both east and
westbound tonnage. But as the firm
entered the last half of the decade, fast
rising labor costs compounded the
many problems brought about by the
16 SEA CLASSICS/February 2022
influential economic changes of the
preceding 30 years.
Because the GLTC’s growth was
denied by the progress made in the
industries that had, at one time or
another, either nurtured the company
or competed with it, it is both
interesting and important to note that
the very lack of progress within the
GLT’s own operation contributed in no
small way to its eventual demise.
The last freighter ever to sail
for the GLTC in 1942 was loaded
and unloaded with exactly the same
ungainly methods as were employed
in loading and unloading the same
freighter 26 years previously: By hand!
This shortcoming, however, should
not be viewed as a lack of company
ingenuity as the very nature and variety
of the cargo the ships’ transported
made freight handling incompatible
with automation. A ship leaving Duluth
eastbound with bulk wheat and copper
ingots in the hold, butter in the hold
refrigerated space, sacked flour and
copper on the main deck, shingles on
the spar deck and eggs in the spar deck
refrigerated house; all, save the wheat,
had to be loaded by longshoremen
pushing two-wheel trucks or by other
antiquated procedures. And this cargo
could not be unloaded on the lower
lakes in any other manner. Because
labor costs rose commensurately faster
than did the freight rates, the company’s
profit in moving a ton of cargo was
slowly and irrevocably reduced.
With volume extremely low and
heading downward, the GLTC and the
Mat Line were merged in 1938 and this
 SAGA OF THE MILWAUKEE CLIPPER
AMAZING SURVIVOR OF THE GLORY DAYS OF GREAT LAKES STEAMSHIP TRAVEL

A s noted in the main text, the anti-monopoly aspects of the Panama Canal
Act caused railroads to divest their steamship assets. The SS Juniata went
to the newly-formed Great Lakes Transport Corporation and the popular vessel
would sail forth for the next 20 seasons, including the 1933 season when the
ship carried passengers to and from the Chicago’s World Fair. With the increasing
effects of the Great Depression, the ship was laid up for the 1936 while the
owners pondered the new rules regarding wooden passenger ships following the
Morro Castle disaster.
Sailed to Buffalo where she was moored as her uncertain future was pondered,
Juniata was sold in 1940 to the Wisconsin & Michigan Steamship Company, which
was a subsidiary of the Sand Products Corporation of Detroit. A decision was made SS Juniata in her original configuration.
to completely rebuild the ship at considerable expense and use it as a passenger but during that process
ship on Lake Michigan. the financial backing
Sailed to the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company, the vessel’s boilers were collapsed and Milwaukee
converted to burn fuel oil rather than coal. All the old cabins and wooden Clipper was unfortunately
superstructure was removed and replaced with steel. This was done to meet the seized by the US Marshal.
new fire regulations but the owners also decided to make the vessel a showplace This led to a series of
for the popular Art Deco movement that was sweeping through all aspects of protracted court cases,
transportation. The sleek new interior had air conditioned staterooms, a polished at the end of which the
wood dance floor with music provided by live bands, a bar, soda fountain, vessel went back to Gillon The Clipper on her regular run.
cafeteria, lounges, and sports deck. Also, the hull was modified to carry up to 120 in 1980. She was then
automobiles. towed back to Chicago for
As much of the world was involved in a devastating war, the rebuilt vessel was planned use as a museum
christened Milwaukee Clipper on 2 June 1941 and made her maiden voyage the ship on Navy Pier.
next midnight when she sailed from Milwaukee to Muskegon. Newspapers reported, Despite being in
“She arrived Tuesday within five minutes of the crossing schedule of five hours 15 rather perilous circum-
minutes, an hour less than previous schedules.” She soon gained the name “Queen stances, the Clipper was
of the Great Lakes” as she plied the route from Muskegon to Milwaukee while also listed on the National
making excursion trips to various other ports on the Lakes. During the summer (the Register of Historic
season was between May and September), she averaged 900 passengers per trips Places in December 1983
while the capacity for 120 autos was almost always reached (there was an extra and this was followed
charge to carry an auto). The Clipper had a Pullman section, which seated 112 day by a National Historic
Advertising brochure for the Aquarama.
passengers that converted into sleeping berths for 56 passengers at night. Landmark designation in
When it came to facts and figures, on week days Milwaukee Clipper used three May 1989 and the designation stated, “Many of the design elements introduced in
of her four boilers on the voyage, which averaged seven hours. On weekends, all Milwaukee Clipper are still being included in modern ocean-going passenger ships.
four boilers were used as she made two roundtrips that average six-hours each way. The quadruple-expansion steam engines installed in 1905, though, are exceed-
The amount of fuel oil varied on each trip but was usually around 5500 gallons. The ingly rare, particularly in such fine condition.” In 1990, she was sold to a group in
crew was usually around 109 and 55 of which were stewards that took care of the Hammond, Indiana, for use as the showpiece in a new marina. Replaced by a casino
passengers. There was also a minor surcharge to travel in the forward Club Lounge. ship, the Clipper once again found herself under tow — this time to South Chicago
The attack on Pearl Harbor saw the Milwaukee Clipper drafted into military where she was laid up on the Calumet River. At the end of 1997, she was sold again.
use and she began moving defense materials between Muskegon and Milwaukee She was towed to her old home port of Muskegon, Michigan, for use as a floating
from the many plants that had converted to war production. The ship carried on museum. The $45,000 cost of the tow was donated by Empress Casinos.
for 29 seasons until 1970 when the company planned to replace the Milwaukee Now docked at the old Grand Trunk Ferry Dock, the Clipper is the subject of
Clipper with the larger and newer Aquarama (this was a WWII troop ship that ongoing restoration by volunteers from the SS Milwaukee Clipper Preservation Inc. The
the company spent $8 million to convert to a liner). However, the Milwaukee ship is open during the summer season and visitors can tour the restored pilothouse,
harbor had to be dredged to allow the larger vessel to operate and dealing with some staterooms, crew quarters, the dance floor, and much more. Fortunately, a large
politicians went on and on until the dredging plan was dropped. However, 1970 collection of the original Art Deco furniture remains aboard and these items have proven
was also a banner year for Milwaukee Clipper but the company decided to drop popular with visitors. The furniture was designed by Warren McArthur and is unique
her regular run after that year. The ship needed repairs and the USCG was about in that each piece is hand-made and no two are exactly alike. Today, his furniture is
to enforce tight new regulations. extremely collectible so the Clipper is lucky to have so much on display. Memorabilia
The 1970s were a difficult period for the ship. She sat idle until 1977 when is also on display from the Juniata and Milwaukee Clipper sailing days and incudes
she was purchased by a group of Chicago investors headed by James Gillon and sailed a wide variety of items. Milwaukee Clipper is open during the summer season. She
to Navy Pier where the vessel was going to be used on a Chicago to Milwaukee run. is six stories tall, longer than a football field, and is the oldest passenger steamer
Milwaukee Clipper needed a thorough inspection and was towed to Bay Shipbuilding on the Great Lakes (she is
also six years older than
the Titanic). Incredibly,
this grand vessel survives
for all to enjoy and
support. The organization
announced a fund-raising
drive during December
2021 to raise $100,000
to help cover repair and
restoration costs. For more
On 28 March 1990, the courts ordered the Clipper to be information, go to www.
auctioned. Fortunately, none of the bids came from scrappers. Milwaukeeclipper.com. The Clipper’s magnificent Art Deco bar.

SEACLASSICSNOW.COM 17

SS Juniata at her Detroit dock.
new combine was operated under the
former’s name for its remaining four
years on the Lakes. Each succeeding
year thereafter saw less and less
package freighters in service and in
1941, the GLTC’s last complete season,
only five of the natty green and white
vessels could be found actively plying
the Lakes’ trade. Had WWII not
intervened when it did, the remaining
five ships would have been forced to
the beach for good.
But the end came swift and
mercifully. When the War Shipping
Administration announced in May,
1942 that it was taking the remaining
GLTC’s freighters with the intention
of sending them to salt water, the firm
ceased operation immediately. Of the
company’s original 33 freighters, only
eight remained in 1942. Over the years
many had been sold to domestic and
foreign interests, several had been
scrapped, while one, the Chicago, sank in
Lake Superior without loss of life in 1929
In 1943, the Duluth, W.J. Connors,
J.M. Davis, and the J.E. Gorman were
towed to New Orleans where they
were refitted for ocean duty with the
Army Transportation Corps. After six
months on the Seattle-Alaska run, they
were converted to floating ship repair
shops and spent the balance of the war
in the South Pacific. The GLTC’s four
remaining ships were either scrapped or
sold to foreign buyers.
18 SEA CLASSICS/February 2022
Following the end of WWII, several
attempts were made to revive the GLTC
but wary potential investors balked
when they realized that the constantly
moving forces of changing times that
had relentlessly eroded the viability
of the firm’s service during its 26-year
career were still hard at work. Economic
feasibility for package freight operations
appeared then to be even more remote.
Final attempts at revival were
scuttled when Congress showed little
or no interest in granting subsidies to
ship owners despite the enthusiasm of
potential shippers. At that point, an era
had definitely ended once and for all.
Today, however, there is an
abundance of package freighters on
the Lakes but they are of a far different
breed, size and modus operandi than
those analogous to the endeavors of
the GLTC.
The opening of the St. Lawrence
Seaway in the late 1950s enabled deep-
draft, ocean-going vessels to enter
the Great Lakes and now, over six
decades later, hundreds of these foreign
freighters churn the fresh waters of the
Inland Seas. Duluth, Minnesota, the
western terminus of the Great Lakes, is
1346-miles from tidewater at Montreal,
yet it is by all standards a “seaport.”
This ever-increasing marine activity,
however, can in no way be construed
a possible catalyst for a renaissance of
Great Lakes’ package freight service.
The freighters on the lakes
today are international carriers
and they are forbidden by law
to haul freight (or passengers)
between US ports.
Of course, the giant bulk
cargo carriers that have operated
on the Great Lakes for over a
century are still active today
hauling iron ore from the mines
of Northern Minnesota, grain
from the fields of the upper
Midwest, and limestone from
the quarries of Michigan to the
processors adjacent to the US
ports on the lower Lakes.
Passenger ship cruising is
also extinct and it appears it
will remain that way. The last
ship to maintain scheduled
passenger service on the Lakes
was the South American of
the Georgian Bay Line which
offered seven-day round trips between
Duluth and Buffalo with stops at
Cleveland, Detroit, Mackinac Island,
and Munising, Michigan. The South
American was also forced to retire
in 1967 by ever tightening federal
safety regulations that the ship could
not financially abide although it was
turning a small profit at the time. It
was a rerun of the plight suffered by
the GLTC’s Juniata and Octorara 30
years earlier.
There has been speculation that the
present enthusiasm for cruise ships by
the vacationing public might spill over
into the Great Lakes and re-establish
passenger service there. Not likely.
Somehow Duluth, Detroit, Cleveland,
and Buffalo don’t conjure up in one’s
imagination the exotic beckoning of
Jamaica, Grand Caymans, the Bahamas,
or Virgin Islands.
History coldly but fairly portrays
the life and times of the Great Lakes
Transit Corporation as an organization
forever plagued with insoluble
problems, frustrating its frantic pursuit
of financial success that was to always
remain elusive. These problems could
not be overcome with money, business
acumen, or hard work. Its impressive
fleet provided both service and
pleasure for millions but could provide
profit for few. Now, all that’s left of a
once ambitious and hopeful company
is the nostalgia.
SEACLASSICSNOW.COM 19
SHIPS WHOSE SAILING DAYS Like large tankers, sometimes small
pleasure boats are simply abandoned
ARE DEFINITELY OVER by their owners. At Howarth Park in
Everett, Washington, a variety of small
BY SUSAN DUPREY boats have been washing up against the
shore and creating a variety of hazards.
The city of Everett is trying to determine
ownership while developing a plan for
removal. Apparently over three dozen
such vessels have been abandoned
including these two, which were
becoming increasingly more
damaged with each tide.

The government of Greece is often in crisis and flux. This can lead to numerous nautical problems at the country’s many ports.
For example, there are dozens of half-sunk and abandoned ships in and near the Gulf of Elefsina, which is an industrial area of
shipyards and factories near the major port of Piraeus. Some ships have become environmental disasters so the government
occasionally tows one or two out to deeper waters where they are allowed to sink with little regard to what they may be holding.
Such an example was this abandoned and unidentified cargo ship that had been tied up by its crew and left. It was towed to the
open sea and abandoned to its fate.
20 SEA CLASSICS/February 2022
There is a dark side to the international
shipping industry. Many marginally
seaworthy vessels are operated by owners
in Third and Fourth World countries and
when something goes wrong, these ships
and their crews are simply abandoned
by unscrupulous owners. Such was the
case when a massive ammonium nitrate
explosion leveled part of the port of Beirut
on 4 August 2020. Over 200 were killed but
some ships like the oil/chemical tanker
Captain Nagdaliyev were abandoned when
owner Palmali Shipping Company decided
to cut its losses. Prior to the explosion,
the tanker had been in the port for over ten
months and the ship was seized. The crew
had been without food, fuel, or wages.
Apparently, the vessel is now back at sea
— maintained in marginal condition and
often carrying very dangerous cargo.

Residents on a certain stretch of

southern Irish coast have labeled
the M/V Alta as a “ghost ship.” The
250-foot vessel was abandoned in
2018 by its crew of ten following
a power outage. The crew was
rescued but the ship was left on its
own — traveling around 1000 miles
during a voyage comprising 16
months before crashing against the
shore in County Cork during early
2020.

SEACLASSICSNOW.COM 21
SHE DIED
SO OTHERS
COULD LIVE
THE SAGA OF THE USS QUINCY AND THE FINAL FIGHT AT THE BATTLE OF SAVO ISLAND
BY ROBERT J. CRESSMAN
22 SEA CLASSICS/February 2022
 hree ships steamed, silently in
T column; steel sentinels on watch
in the darkness that enveloped them.
Heavy clouds wreathed Savo Island
and formed a deceptive bank to the
south of it. A light, mist-laden breeze
blew in from the southeast, gently
brushing the faces of the men who
stood watch topside.
The second ship in that shadowy
column steaming to the northward
at 0145 on 9 August 1942, the heavy
cruiser Quincy (CA-39), was in
“Condition II,” with one forward turret
fully manned and half of the normal
crew standing watch in Turret III aft.
Throughout the darkened ship, the men
off-watch, bone-tired from the almost
ceaseless action that had accompanied
the landings on Guadalcanal and Tulagi
since 7 August, slept, if they could, close
to their battle stations.
Captain Samuel Nobre Moore —
nicknamed “Sammy” by his Naval
Academy classmates — slept, fully-
dressed in his rumpled khakis in his
emergency cabin just off Quincy’s pilot
house. He had been in command of
the sleek, powerful cruiser since 7 May
1942 — a little over three months to
the day before.
Moore deserved a rest; the captain
of a ship shoulders a big responsibility
for the men under his command. He
had been on his bridge for long hours
already, over the span of several days.
As he lay slumbering, stretched out in

USS Quincy (CA-39) photographed from USS Wasp (CV-7) at Noumea, New Caledonia,
on 3 August 1942 — the eve of the Guadalcanal invasion. She would die six days later
during the Battle of Savo Island. Note Quincy’s signal flags and Measure 12, Modified,
camouflage.
SEACLASSICSNOW.COM 23

Christening of Quincy by Mrs. Henry S. Morgan, daughter of Charles Francis Adams,
former Secretary of the Navy.
Herbert
Hoover’s
former secretary
of the Navy,
Charles Francis
Adams.
Misfortune
seemed to dog
the ship from
the outset. In
August 1935,
a fire caused
an estimated
$100,000
damage to
wiring and
Quincy sliding down the ways on 19 June 1935. electrical
his bunk, he certainly did not realize equipment, and that December
that he — and many of those men shipyard and Navy officials discovered
he commanded — had less than 30 a loose steel nut in the reduction gears
minutes to live. of the ship’s propulsion machinery.
The ship herself had precious little In that instance, the general manager
time left. Authorized by Congress on of the Fore River Shipyard told the
13 February 1929, Quincy had been the press, “It will take a few days to replace
next-to-last of the seven New Orleans- the damaged parts.” He did not rule
class heavy cruisers to be laid down. Her out sabotage; the Washington Post of
keel was laid at Quincy, Massachusetts, 10 December 1935 proclaimed: “Plot
by the Fore River Yard of the Bethlehem charged in wrecking of $12,000,000
Steel Corporation on 15 November Quincy propeller shaft.” Sabotage or no,
1933. The second ship to bear that the work of fitting-out the 10,000-ton
name in the Navy (the first having been cruiser went on, under the direction of
a former German cargo vessel taken the ship’s prospective executive officer,
over by the Navy during World War Cmdr. Charlton E. Battle.
I) Quincy slid down the ways on 19 Quincy commissioned on 9 June
June 1935, christened by Mrs. Harriet 1936 at the Boston Navy Yard; her first
S. Morgan, the daughter of President commanding officer was 51-year-old
24 SEA CLASSICS/February 2022
Capt. William F. Amsden, US Naval
Academy Class of 1907. Amsden held
a Navy Cross, earning it for taking the
destroyer Barry from Manila, on the
Asiatic Station, to Gibraltar, in World
War I — a voyage of some 11,000-miles
at the height of the southwest
monsoon season — and arriving in the
Mediterranean with his ship ready for
immediate operations against enemy
submarines.
The new heavy cruiser proceeded
south after her commissioning, calling
at New York City en route, to the Naval
Operating Base (NOB) at Norfolk. She
arrived at NOB Norfolk on 17 July, and
got underway for her shakedown cruise
on the 20th, bound for Gravesend,
England. While Quincy proceeded
alone across the Atlantic, turbulent
events were occurring in Spain. On
18 July 1936, the Spanish Civil War
had commenced. That conflict, which
would last until 1939, would become
known less for the brilliance of its
military campaigns than for its hideous
brutality that shocked the civilized
world. Inevitably, civil strife caught
neutrals in unfavorable situations —
now the recent outbreak of war in Spain
endangered other nations’ citizens,
including Americans. Quincy’s orders
were changed almost in mid-Atlantic
as a result of the Spanish situation, and
the ship altered course for Gibraltar
instead of Gravesend. At 1156 on 26
July, after the captain’s inspection of
the ship’s magazines, an ammunition-
handling detail broke out 80 rounds
of 5-in/25-caliber projectiles and
placed ten rounds in the ready-service
stowage at each gun. At 1325, Quincy
stood in to Gibraltar harbor and
moored, alongside Shell Oil Barge No.
7 to fuel. Soon, Capt. Amsden began
the round of official calls that protocol
and etiquette demanded.
Quincy got underway at 1520 the
next day for Motril, a small port on
the south coast of Spain. Arriving
2.5-hours later, the cruiser stood in
to the harbor, watched closely by the
Spanish Republican destroyer Almirante
Ferrandiz. The destroyer circled the
cruiser several times until the German
“pocket battleship” Admiral Scheer hove
into sight; Almirante Ferrandiz then
briefly gave the teutonic newcomer
the once-over before she returned to
circling the American man-of-war.
Quincy embarked her first refugees
from the Spanish conflict — a
professional soccer player, and an
American car-driver and his Spanish
wife and departed Motril at 2216 the
same day, bound for Alicante. Her stay
at that port proved brief, too, because
she soon pushed on for Majorca, in
the Balearics, where she saw her first
glimpse of war. Anchoring at Palma,
Majorca, at 0819 on 30 July, the ship
found the British battle cruiser Repulse
and Italian destroyer Maestrale already
there, “showing the flag” to protect Quincy at the Boston Navy Yard immediately after her commissioning.
their respective nation’s citizens at
that port. At high noon, two Spanish
Republican seaplanes stood in from the
southeast, circled the city of Palma, and
dropped ten bombs. Quincy witnessed
the raid from a safe distance, and
embarked ten refugees, Two Spanish
planes returned at 1710 for a second
raid. At 2200, Quincy departed the
scene, bound for Valencia.
When the heavy cruiser arrived
at that port at 0645 on the 31st, she
saw another international assemblage
of warships — the French destroyer
Kersaint, the Italian light cruiser
Raimondo Montecuccoli, and destroyer

The purposeful lines of the New Orleans-

class cruiser USS Quincy are well
represented in this late 1930s photograph.
embarked 44 more refugees at 0960 on
1 August before she departed the port of
Valencia at 1324 the same day.
After disembarking the refugees
at Marseilles, France, Quincy called
at Barcelona and Malaga before she
arrived back at Gibraltar at 1157 on 6
August, mooring alongside the South
Mole. It was while at Gibraltar that
Quincy again had a ring-side seat at the
Spanish Civil War.
At 0841 on 7 August, the Spanish
battleship Jaime I — with the
Republican Navy based at Tangier,
Rushed to the coast of Spain during the Spanish Civil War, Quincy carefully observed Spanish Morocco, across the Straits of
warships from a number of nations including Germany’s Admiral Scheer. Note the
Spanish Civil War neutrality markings of red, white, and black stripes painted on her Gibraltar — stood in and commenced
forward gun turret. firing at the Nationalist-held Tarifa
Scirocci, Admiral Scheer, the British Two hours later the boats returned, and forts and the fortifications between
heavy cruiser HMS Devonshire, and the the parade of nationalities began — 92 Carnera and Tarifa, below Gibraltar
Spanish destroyer Alcano Galiano. At refugees came aboard that day, mostly at the southernmost tip of Spain. The
1410, two of Quincy’s motor launches Americans but with three Austrians, a battlewagon also unlimbered her main
put out for shore in charge of Capt. J.C. Finn, a Hungarian, a Frenchman, and a battery on the Nationalist- held town
McQueen, USMC, to bring out refugees. Swiss along as well. The ship ultimately of Algeciras, just across the bay from
SEACLASSICSNOW.COM 25
Gibraltar itself. Jaime I Quincy heading for the open seas.
again pounded Algeciras at
1036, but drew a visit from a
Spanish Nationalist air force
tri-motored bomber, visible
at a distance from Quincy’s
bridge, that proceeded to
bomb the battleship. Not to
be denied, Jaime I returned
again at 1508, this time in
company with the cruisers
Miguel de Cervantes and
Libertad; that shore bombardment
lasted until 1645, when the three ships
stood off to the eastward.
Quincy spent the remainder of
August and almost all of September in
the western Mediterranean, operating
between Gibraltar and Villefranche,
France — the latter a seaport situated
just east of Nice, on the French Riviera.
Quincy embarked a total of 490
refugees during that time (the youngest
being a six-month old baby girl) and
transported them to Villefranche and
Marseilles, visiting the former port five
times and the latter three. Spanish ports At 0915, Quincy
visited by the cruiser included Alicante,
Valencia, and Palma (five visits apiece);
Barcelona (four visits); Malaga (three
visits), and Malaga (one visit). Palma
proved to be the “hottest” spot of the
cruise; inevitably the heavy cruiser
would witness a Spanish Republican air she never came in for the attention
raid upon the city.
The cruiser at New York during the 1939
Naval Review.
26 SEA CLASSICS/February 2022
On 4 Septem-
ber, for example,
Quincy manned
her anti-aircraft
control stations at
0804; she manned
her anti-aircraft
battery at 0806
while entering
port and remained
at “action sta-
tions” until 0830,
shortly before
she anchored. Detail view of Quincy’s forecastle decorated for Christmas 1938.
USS Northampton (CA-26) is in the immediate background.
again manned her anti-aircraft guns had dropped bombs within 100-yards of
and tracked seven Spanish “insurgent” the ship on 30 August.
airplanes over Majorca: The proximity Quincy’s Iberian interlude ended
of local air operations provided the ship about two months after it began; at
with excellent opportunities for track- 0547 on 27 September shortly after her
ing practice! Fortunately for Quincy, last visit to Villefranche, she sighted
the light cruiser Raleigh (CL-7) and
given the German “pocket battleship” destroyer Hatfield (DD-231) and
Deutschland (bombed by a Republican was soon released from duty in the
plane at Ibiza) and Kane (DD-235), who Mediterranean. With the establishment
opened fire on a tri-motored plane that of Squadron 40-T (‘“Forty-Tare’”),
Quincy’s crew mans the rail at Culebra, Puerto Rico, in 1939 prior to Cruiser Division 7’s
South American cruise.

This view was taken from Quincy as the cruiser along with flagship USS San Francisco
(CA-38) enter Rio de Janeiro on 22 April 1939.
Quincy returned to the United States,
her emergency task assumed by other
ships. Homeward bound at last, the
cruiser ultimately arrived at the Boston
Navy Yard on 5 October for post-
shakedown repairs and alterations.
Quincy ran her post-refit trials in
mid-March, 1937, and underwent the
post-trial alterations and repairs that
kept the ship in dockyard hands until 12
April, when she departed Boston, bound
for the Pacific. Transiting the Panama
Canal between 23 and 27 April, the
heavy cruiser arrived at Pearl Harbor
on 10 May. She remained in the Pacific,
attached to Cruiser Division 7, through
1938, basing on San Pedro and Long
Beach, California, with her home yard
at Mare Island, Vallejo, California.
Redeploying to the Atlantic on 4
January 1939, Quincy participated
in Fleet Problem XX between 13 and
26 February. That particular exercise
took place in the Caribbean, and its
twin motives were (1) to test the ability
of the Fleet to control the Caribbean
sealanes while maintaining a naval
presence in the Pacific sufficient to
protect American interests; and (2) to
exercise the Fleet in long-range search
and escort missions, and establishing
and defending advanced base sites.
Ironically, Fleet Problem XX mirrored
the situation that would arise within
eight months’ time when Hitler’s legions
invaded Poland.
However, that was in the future,
shortly after the conclusion of Fleet
Problem XX, Cruiser Division 7
undertook a good-will cruise to
South American ports-in keeping
with the Roosevelt Administration’s
situation worsened daily in eastern
Europe. Finally, on Friday, 1 September
1939, German troops invaded Poland,
triggering World War II.
The outbreak of hostilities found
Quincy at New York City, and in
view of the situation in Europe, the
cruiser sailed for Hampton Roads the
next day, in company with sister ship
Vincennes (CA-44). They arrived at their
destination the next day.
President Roosevelt meanwhile,
issued neutrality proclamations on 5
September forbidding the shipment
of arms and munitions to belligerents
in accordance with the Neutrality
Act of 1937, and the provisions of
“Good Neighbor” policy — under International Law. He also took action
the command of R/Adm. Husband E. that directly affected Quincy and the
Kimmel, one of the Navy’s finest young Navy: he ordered the formation of a
flag officers. Neutrality Patrol to report and track
Kimmel’s cruisers — Tuscaloosa any belligerent air, surface, or naval
(CA-37), San Francisco (CA-38) (the underwater naval forces approaching
flagship for the division) and Quincy the Atlantic Coast of the United States
— visited La Guaira (now Caracas), or the West Indies. The following day, 6
Venezuela; Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil;
Montevideo,
Uruguay; Buenos
Aires, Argentina;
transited the
storm-tossed
Straits of Magellan;
and visited
Valparaiso, Chile
and Callao, Peru,
before the ships
transited the
Panama Canal,
east-bound and
arrived back
at Norfolk in
June. Peace was The growing Nazi threat in South America saw Quincy and other
warships “tour” the many nations in the area. This May 1939 photo
fleeting, though, shows Quincy and Tuscaloosa (CA-37) sailing through a peaceful
and the political Straits of Magellan.
Quincy underway on 1 May 1940 as seen from an aircraft of VJ-1. Note the identification
markings on the tops of her turrets as well as the longitudinal stripes on the forward
turrets and a circle on the aft one.
SEACLASSICSNOW.COM 27
Under the command of R/Adm. Husband E. Kimmel, Cruiser Division 7 was photographed at Callao, Peru, on 26 May 1939. Ships
from left to right are Peruvian cruisers Coronel Bolognesi and Almirante Grau; behind Bolognesi are destroyers Almirante Villar and
Almirante Guise and USS Tuscaloosa, San Francisco, and Quincy.
Shifting
to NOB
Norfolk upon
completion
of the yard
period, Quincy
trained in the
Southern Drill
Grounds and
in Hampton
Roads in the
spring. She
ultimately
departed
Hampton
Roads on 4
Vought SB2U scout bomber operating from USS Ranger (CV-4) flies May, and
an anti-submarine patrol as the convoy was en route to Capetown, arrived at her
South Africa, on 27 November 1941. It appears the convoy is making
a formation turn from column to line abreast. Two-stack transports destination,
in the first row are USS West Point (AP-23) left; USS Mount Vernon Guantanamo
(AP-22), and USS Wakefield (AP-21). Heavy cruisers, on the right side
of the first row and middle of the second, are USS Vincennes (CA- Bay, Cuba,
44) and USS Quincy. Single-stack transports in the second row are four days
USS Leonard Wood (AP-25) and USS Joseph T. Dickman (AP-26).
The projection of American power was to make the Nazis realize the later. Quincy
strength of the US Navy.
remained at
September, the Navy began the patrol, Guantanamo Bay for the remainder of
placing it under R/Adm. A.W. Johnson, the month.
Commander, Atlantic Squadron. Disturbed policitical conditions
Quincy received orders accordingly, in South America, however, soon
and put out to sea on 7 September disrupted the regular routine of training conditions there.”
1939, for her first Neutrality Patrol. and Neutrality Patrols for Quincy.
For the remainder of 1939, Quincy and On 15 May 1940, Edwin C. Wilson,
her sister ships conducted Neutrality the State Department’s Minister to
Patrols off the eastern seaboard and Uruguay, reported from Montevideo
ranged as far south as Guantanamo that he had noticed an increase in
Bay. Interspersed between the patrols Nazi propaganda in that country —
was the inevitable training — in brought on by the
Hampton Roads, Guantanamo Bay, smashing Nazi
or in the area known as the “Southern successes against
Drill Grounds” off the Virginia the Low Countries.
Capes — and the times in port, President
refitting and taking on necessary fuel Roosevelt and
and provisions. In early December, Under Secretary
Quincy served as a practice vessel of State Sumner
(target) for submarines operating out Welles soon shared
of New London, Connecticut, before Wilson’s concern.
she put into the Norfolk Navy Yard, Wilson report-
Portsmouth, Virginia, on 9 December. ed on 30 May that Cigarette companies issued popular “collector’s cards” during the
1930s and this one from John Player’s Cigarettes depicted Quincy.
28 SEA CLASSICS/February 2022
the situation was deteriorating in Mon-
tevideo. “The government is well-mean-
ing but weak, undecided and confused;
things are drifting; people are climbing
on the Nazi band wagon; an armed
movement is a possibility… unless the
United States intervenes effectively and
without delay… it must be expected that
these countries — certainly Uruguay —
will fall under Nazi-controlled regimes.”
The next day Wilson suggested, in a
telegram to Cordell Hull, the Secretary
of State, that a “large United States naval
force, 40 or 50 vessels, should make, a
visit as soon as possible to the east coast
of South America.”
Wilson’s alarmist cries soon bore
fruit — although not to the extent he
desired. Almost simultaneously with
the worsening situation in Uruguay,
Quincy had received orders to head for
Rio de Janeiro, on 30 May 1940. The
Chief of Naval Operations (CNO),
Adm. Harold R. Stark, had directed R/
Adm. Johnson to send Quincy from
her regular neutrality patrol cruising
area to Rio, because her presence “will
probably be required due to disturbed
Secretary of State Hull sent a
telegram to Minister Wilson at 1600
on 31 May: “By order of the President,
the heavy cruiser Quincy now off
Guantanamo has been instructed to
proceed immediately to Rio de Janeiro
and from there directly to Montevideo
for ‘friendly visits of courtesy.’ I think it
would be well for you to consider,” he
continued, “any special arrangements
which could be made to give
significance to the call of the Quincy.”
Simultaneously, the State
Department pressed for more ships
to be sent to South American waters.
Admiral Stark vetoed that suggestion,
likening American intervention in
Latin American affairs to an outsider
interfering in a family quarrel. The
CND suggested to the President, in
a memorandum dated 2 June 1940,
Quincy heading upriver to the New York Navy Yard in early 1942. She has yet to receive her
that the Navy should dispatch only radar but has received the specified 1.1-in anti-aircraft guns as shown by gun tubs atop her
one additional 8-inch gunned cruiser pilot house and on her fantail.
to South American waters: Wichita
(CA-45), the flagship of R/Adm.
A.C. Pickens, Commander, Cruiser
Division 7.
Quincy, meanwhile, had departed
Guantanamo on 1 June. She arrived
at Rio de Janeiro on the 12th, and
proceeded on for Montevideo on
the 17th. The heavy cruiser reached
Montevideo on 20 June to receive a
tumultuous reception. Captain Williams
C. Wickham, commanding officer of
Quincy, found himself Montevideo’s
hero for a day as thousands of cheering
men and women lined the waterfront to
cheer the ship’s arrival.
Quincy’s visit — “to furnish a
reminder of the strength and the range
of action of the armed forces of the
United States” — went off well. As Quincy in the New York Navy Yard receiving her last overhaul. This view is looking aft from
Wickham subsequently reported: “Our the bow. Numbers and arrows denote modifications. Note USS Juneau (CL-52) in the left
background and USS Marblehead (CL-12) to the right.
minister thinks the visit very helpful
and thinks future visits at two or three serve training
week intervals would be equally so.” cruises between
The cruiser’s captain also observed that 1 October and
while the situation at that time seemed 20 December,
“under control” it seemed desirable “to visiting New
arrange the future visit of some ship to York City
indicate continued interest.” three times
Wichita, with R/Adm. Pickens and operating
embarked, ultimately joined Quincy in Hampton
at Montevideo; both ships departed Roads and off
on 3 July and visited, in succession, the Southern
the Brazilian ports of Rio Grande de Drill Grounds
Sul, Santos, Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, and in company
Pernambuco, before they returned to with Wichita
Montevideo on 23 August. The two and Tuscaloosa.
cruisers then visited Buenos Aires, Three days be-
Argentina, and Rio de Janeiro again in fore Christmas
early September before returning to of 1940, Quincy
NOB Norfolk on 22 September, entered the Nor- Another view of Quincy during her last overhaul on 29 May 1942. This
photo looks forward from the fantail on centerline. Note the covered
Quincy completed three Naval Re- folk Navy Yard .50-caliber anti-aircraft guns.

SEACLASSICSNOW.COM 29
for repairs and alterations.
Following her refit at Norfolk,
the heavy cruiser participated in
Atlantic Fleet exercises off Culebra
Island, Puerto Rico, forerunners of
future operations in the Pacific during
WWII, between 3 February and 1
April 1941.
The subsequent extension of the
“Neutrality Zone” — eastward to 260
West longitude and southward to 200
South latitude — on 24 and 26 April
1941, respectively, meant an extension
of the Atlantic Fleet’s Neutrality Patrol
responsibilities. Between that time and
late August 1941, Quincy operated,
successively, with Task Group 2, built
around the carrier Wasp (CV-7) and
Task Group 28, built around Yorktown
Looking forward over the boat deck from the secondary conn. The white circle (center)
(CV-5); she conducted three patrols, marks the location of the 5-in/25 loading practice machine. Other items include the
logging 14,492 miles steamed, and (as boats and boat cradle in the foreground. Four Curtiss SOC Seagulls are present atop the
catapults and crated food is piled by the stack.
part of Task Force 16) took part in the
occupation of Iceland in early July. The
heavy cruiser subsequently patrolled
the Denmark Straits in September; on
the 26th of that month, the Atlantic
Fleet received orders to protect all
ships engaged in commerce in United
States’ defensive waters. Their orders
authorized them to report or destroy
any German, or Italian, naval forces
encountered.
Quincy, however, did not encounter
any enemies at sea that autumn. She
did, however, convoy six large troop
transports — including Wakefield (AP-
22), the former United States Lines’ SS
Manhattan — to Halifax, where they
were slated to load the 5th Canadian
Armored Division and sail for the
Clyde on 14 October. The escort group
included Quincy, Savannah (CL-43), Looking aft on the port side from alongside 8-in gun turret #1. Numbers in white circles
mark recently installed items including 1) splinter protection on the pilothouse, 2) 20mm
Yorktown and the battleship New guns just forward of the pilot house (mainly hidden by the second 8-in turret) and 3) 1.1-in
Mexico (BB-40), and eight destroyers. gun mountings on the upper bridge wings. Other notable items include paravanes on the
superstructure side just forward of second 8-in turret and the rangefinder “tub” atop the
Given the designation Task Force 14, pilot house.
the group was the transports remained at Halifax,
placed under Nova Scotia, the escort force returned
the command to Casco Bay, Maine. Ultimately, the
of R/Adm. H. plans were revised to include the sailing
Kent Hewitt. of a convoy on 9 November for Suez, via
The un- Trinidad, British West Indies, and Cap-
readiness of the etown, South Africa. The escort for that
Canadians to group included Quincy, Vincennes, and
send the 5th Ar- the aircraft carrier Ranger (CV-4)-with
mored resulted the accompanying screen of destroy-
in a cancellation ers and the oiler Cimarron (AO-22).
of that trans-At- The convoy received the designation
Quincy in New York Harbor after her last overhaul. In the left lantic run, how- WS-12 (the WS standing for “Winston’s
background is HMS Biter. Note Quincy’s Measure 12, Modified,
camouflage scheme. ever, and while Specials”).
30 SEA CLASSICS/February 2022
 On 27 November, Ranger and States into war in
her plane-guarding destroyers were both oceans. The
detached; command of the escort United States,
force devolved upon Capt. Charlton heretofore in an
E. Battle, of Quincy, the same man undeclared war in
who had overseen the ship’s fitting the Atlantic since
out before commissioning, and who that spring, was
had been first executive officer. After now inextricably
Ranger’s departure, the planes from involved.
Quincy and Vincennes provided the The declaration
“eyes” for the group, ranging above of war on 8
the convoy, looking for submarines or December meant
surface ships. little change from
The weather worsened en route routine —for the
a heavy southeasterly gale hit on the Atlantic Fleet’s
6th — and made the passage rough for sailors; Quincy,
all hands. On board Vincennes on 7 Vincennes, and the
December, a Curtiss SOC Seagull broke destroyers with
loose from her moorings on the well- them, escorted
deck amidships and was literally beaten the big troopships
to pieces by the crashing seas; the ships to Capetown,
rolled and pitched heavily. where the Royal
That same 7 December, half a Navy assumed the Captain Samuel N. Moore photographed during 1941 while
world away, Japanese planes attacked protective guard. he was assigned to the Navy Department in Washington, DC.
While commanding USS Quincy, he would die at his post on 9
Pearl Harbor and plunged the United After an all-too-brief August 1942.

STATISTICS USS
QUINCY (CA-39)
Displacement: 9375-tons (standard)
11,527-tons (normal)

Length: 588-ft. (overall)

Quincy fighting off a Japanese air attack off Guadalcanal during July 1942. Beam: 61-ft. 10-in.

Draft: 19-ft. 5-in. (mean)

Speed: 22.7-kts. (designed)

Complement: 50 officers, 757 enlisted men

Armament (1936): Nine 8-in/55-cal. (three

triple turrets), Eight 5-in/25-cal. dual-
purpose (single mounts), Eight .50-cal. AA
machine guns, Two 3-pdr. saluting guns

Armament (1942): Same as above except:

50-cal. AAMG and two 3-pdrs deleted, 16
1.1-in 75 (four quadruple mounts), eight
20-mm Oerlikons

Catapult: two, with stowage hangar

for five planes

Class: New Orleans

During the fighting on 8 August, George F. Elliott was hit hard and could not be saved.

SEACLASSICSNOW.COM 31

Gunichi Mikawa lead the heavy cruiser force that won a spectacular escort of two
victory during the Battle of Savo Island.
liberty at the South African port, Quincy Quincy turned over Strathaird and
and her consorts headed back to the
United States.
There was little excitement on the
way back — outside of false submarine
sightings (whales). Quincy investigated
a strange ship on 20 December, finding
her to be a Greek freighter en route to
Capetown with planes and tanks on a
Lend-Lease consignment; the heavy
cruiser ultimately reached Trinidad
four days after Christmas before
32 SEA CLASSICS/February 2022
May, Capt. Samuel
N. Moore, relieved
Capt. Battle.
Quincy
departed New
York in company
with Buchanan
(DD-484) on 30
May; she paused
briefly at Norfolk,
subsequently
transited the
Panama Canal,
and arrived at San
Diego on 19 June,
There, R/Adm.
Norman R. Scott
broke his flag in the
heavy cruiser; she
served as flagship
USS President Adams (AP-38) for the cruisers of
photographed from USS Wasp (CV-7) at Task Force 18.
Noumea, New Caledonia, on 4 August
1942. The ship is crowded with US Marines By this point,
bound for the invasion of Guadalcanal. Japanese expansion
Note President Adams’ liferafts, landing
craft, and climbing netting. Quincy is riding into the south
close in the background. and southwest
proceeding on. Pacific had posed a problem for Allied
More escort duty planners. The Battle of Coral Sea in
awaited the ship May and the Battle of Midway in June
in mid-January, as had temporarily checked Japanese
she convoyed the activities in the southwest and central
first United States Pacific, respectively; with the temporary
Army troops to hiatus in Japanese movements, the
the British Isles, Allied plan for taking Tulagi — first
escorting the broached in April 1942 — began to
Army transports take on more than just the aspect of a
Munargo and pipe-dream. Quincy sortied from San
Chateau Thierry Diego on 1 July, bound for the South
and the British Pacific and while the ships of one of the
transport HMS mightiest task forces ever assembled
Strathaird. Met at headed into the reaches of the Pacific,
the “Mid Ocean an event of singular importance
Meeting Point” occurred in the Solomons, the objective
(MOMP) by of Allied planning: the Japanese-
a small British occupied Guadalcanal Island on 4 July
and commenced construction of an
‘“flushdeckers,” airfield. When completed, that airstrip
would be capable of basing land-
Chateau Thierry to them before based aircraft to threaten the tenuous
proceeding on in company with the rest Australia-United States supply lanes.
of the escort, Task Force 15 including The invasion force to wrest the
Texas (BB-85) and Destroyer Division Solomons from the Japanese gathered
16 — and Munargo to Iceland. in Australia and New Zealand
Quincy subsequently patrolled the waters and prepared for Operation
Denmark Straits again, on the Arctic Watchtower. The original target date
Circle between Iceland and Greenland, of 1 August had to be postponed to the
before she put in to the New York Navy 7th because of the late arrival of some of
Yard, Brooklyn, on 25 March 1942, for the Marine-bearing transports from the
a much-needed overhaul. There, on 7 United States, and the dress rehearsal at
Koro, in the Fiji Islands, did not go off air warning,
as well as hoped. By that time, however, however, picked
it was too late to call off Watchtower — up the enemy
the show had to go on. on the way in,
During the passage toward and enabled the
Guadalcanal, Quincy screened R/Adm. transports and
Richmond Turner’s Amphibious Force their screen to get
transports, and early on 7 August, underway. The
deployed to cover initial landings near evasive tactics, in
Lunga Point As part of Task Group the main, worked
62.3, Fire Support Group Love, Quincy well: American
opened fire at 0613 — the first gun losses were light
fired in the battle for Guadalcanal. — two ships, Jarvis
Quincy bombarded her assigned area (DD-393) and Aerial flares illuminate the Allied southern force as seen from
west of Lunga Point, and destroyed George F. Elliott aboard the Japanese cruiser Chokai.
an oil dump, starting a fire there. She (AP-13) were
lifted her barrage shortly before 0900, torpedoed. The
moved in closer to the beach, and latter could not be
provided close fire support with her saved, and burned
guns for the Marines moving west of on into the night of
the landing beach. 8 August, a bright
At 1312, enemy aircraft made their beacon in the
first counterattack, and Quincy helped damp night
repel the attackers with her anti-aircraft Once the
battery. The next day, 8 August, the enemy planes had
Japanese came back again but efficient departed, the ships

Japanese cruiser Yubari shines its

searchlights towards the warships of the
Allied northern force.
resumed their pre-attack disposition:
Transports unloading off Lunga Point
and Tulagi, the screening ships at
their various stations. Later that night,
Quincy, Vincennes, and Astoria (CA-34).
— under the command of the senior
officer in the group, Capt. Frederick
L. Riefkohl in Vincennes together with
US destroyers Blue and Patterson evacuate the crew from the burning Canberra. Helm (DD-388) and Wilson (DD-408)
(the latter having replaced Jarvis)
patrolled near area “X-Ray” before
setting out to the northward. Vincennes
led, with Quincy and Astoria trailing.
While the sailors of the American
ships were not expecting a battle, late
on 8 August; Japanese sailors in a group
of men-of-war under the command
of V/Adm. Gunichi Mikawa were. On
the night of 8 August, each Japanese
ship — the heavy cruisers Chokai, Aoba,
Kako, Kinugasa, Furutaka; light cruisers
Yubari and Tenryu; and the destroyer
Yunagi jettisoned all topside flammables
as they steamed toward Savo Island.
They slipped tensely past the picket
destroyers patrolling north of Savo —
Blue (DD-387) and Ralph Talbot (DD-
390) — and into “Ironbottom Bay.” The
Map showing the disposition of Allied and enemy forces at Savo Island. In the battle, the
Allied force would lose 1077 men while the Japanese lost between 58 and 129 sailors. (continued on page 38)

SEACLASSICSNOW.COM 33
 Nimitz-class carrier USS Harry S. Truman
(CVN-75), the Ticonderoga-class guided-
missile cruiser USS San Jacinto (CG-56),
and the Royal Norwegian Navy frigate
HNoMS Fridtjof Nansen (F-310) participate
in a passing exercise in the Mediterranean
Sea with the Tunisian offshore patrol vessel
Hannon (P-612) and La Combatante III-
class fast patrol boat Tunis (502) on 20
December. (USN/Gabriela Chambers)

LATEST IMAGES FROM THE NAVY’S TOP PHOTOJOURNALISTS

BY HOWARD CARTER

Fleet Survey Team conducts a system

validation on its Maritime Robotic Otter
Unmanned Survey Vehicles (USVs) in
Pensacola, Florida, during November. The
Naval Meteorology and Oceanography
Command directs and oversees more than
2500 globally-assigned military and civilian
personnel who collect, process and exploit
environmental information to assist Fleet
and Joint Commanders in all warfare areas
to make better decisions faster than the
adversary. (USN/Matthew Lembo)
34 SEA CLASSICS/February 2022
 Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS
Benfold (DDG-65) sails alongside the Towanda-class
replenishment oiler JS Towada (AOE-422) in the
Philippine Sea on 23 December as they prepare to
conduct a replenishment at sea. (USN/Arthur Rosen)

A sight familiar to many Sailors — the tower of Building 1 at the Naval Station Great
Lakes (NSGL). The base is the Navy’s largest training installation and the home of the
Navy’s only Boot Camp. Located on over 1600 acres overlooking Lake Michigan, the
installation includes 1153 buildings with 39 on the National Register of Historic Places.
NSGL supports over 50 tenant commands and elements as well as over 20,000 Sailors,
Soldiers, Marines, and DoD civilians. (USN/Joseph Montemarano)

United States Navy Maritime

Expeditionary Security Squadron
(MSRON) 10, Bravo Company,
deployed in support of Camp
Lemonnier, Djibouti, provided
security in the Gulf of Tadjoura
on 26 December 2021 to the San
Antonio-class amphibious transport
dock ship USS Portland (LPD-27)
during a sustainment and logistics
visit to Camp Lemonnier. The camp
serves as an expeditionary base for
US military forces providing support
to ships, aircraft, and personnel that
operate in this unstable region of
the world. (USN/Jonathan Word)
SEACLASSICSNOW.COM 35
Two KC-130J Super Hercules assigned to Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron (VMGR) 152 fly above the Sea of Japan on 23
December 2021. The Marines of VMGR-152 conducted a simultaneous large-scale launch of multiple aircraft and practiced training
scenarios that included simulated aerial delivery and tactical landings. (USMC/Tyler Harmon)

Sailors attached
to Helicopter Sea
Combat Squadron
(HSC) 23, assigned
to the Independence-
variant littoral
combat ship USS
Jackson (LCS-6) and
Naval Engineering
Technology (NET)
technicians perform
ground turns on
an unmanned
MQ-8C Fire Scout
and the flight deck
of Jackson in Pra
Harbor, Guam, on
22 December. (USN/
Andrew Langholf)

Seawolf-class fast-attack submarine USS Connecticut (SSN-

22) returns to its homeport in Bremerton, Washington, on 21
December following a scheduled deployment in the 7th Fleet
area of operations. (USN/Sophia Brooks)

36 SEA CLASSICS/February 2022

 A flock of Arleigh
Burke-class guided-
missile destroyers
at Naval Station
Rota, Spain, on 27
December. From
front to back: USS
Roosevelt (DDG-80),
USS Porter (DDG-78),
Arleigh Burke (DDG-
51), and USS Ross
(DDG-71). Roosevelt
is forward-deployed to
Rota on its third patrol
in the US 6th Fleet
area of operations.
(USN/Andrea Rumple)

Freedom-
variant littoral
combat ship
USS Milwaukee
(LCS-5) steams
through the
Atlantic Ocean
on 16 December.
The ship is
deployed to the
4th Fleet Area
of Operations.
(USN/Aaron Lau)

SEACLASSICSNOW.COM 37
SHE DIED SO OTHERS COULD LIVE
(continued from page 33)

Quincy photographed from a Japanese

cruiser during the Battle of Savo Island
on the night of 9 August 1942. The cruiser
is burning and illuminated by Japanese
search lights.

Drawing illustrates the shell and

torpedo hits to Quincy.

steamed along, forward: characteristics of only Japanese

unalerted, at ten-
knots. At 0145
though, lookouts
in Helm, Wilson,
Vincennes and
Quincy observed
aircraft flares
— dropped by a
cruiser-launched
spotting plane
from one of
the Japanese
Lieutenant Commander Harry B. Heneberger was the gunnery cruisers. Quincy,
officer aboard Quincy. He survived the battle and is seen using a
chart to illustrate the engagement during a review of the action in Vincennes and
September 1942. Wilson lookouts
Japanese ships soon engaged Chicago all noticed gunfire, too. Suddenly, at
(CA-29) and the Australian heavy 01471/2, Patterson (DD-396), patrolling
cruiser HMAS Canberra. In the furious nearby, reported: “Warning! Warning!
melee that followed, the Japanese Three enemy ships inside Savo Island.”
decimated the Allied force, knocking Captain Riefkohl, in Vincennes,
Chicago out of the fight with a torpedo who had meanwhile been alerted and
hit forward and smothering Canberra called to his bridge, put his ship on the
in such a rapid fusilade of heavy gunfire alert. Instinctively, he gave the order
that she was not able to get off even one for his ship only — an unfortunate
8-inch round in her own defense. omission because he was also the
Inexplicably, no warning of the group commander. At 0148, lookouts
attack went out over the TBS, Vincennes, in Quincy, their binoculars glued to
Quincy, and Astoria steamed on, their eyes, noticed the silhouettes of
unaware of events to the south. They three cruisers — each had three turrets
38 SEA CLASSICS/February 2022
ships! Riefkohl, meanwhile, decided to
increase speed to 15-knots and await
developments.
A few moments later, Aoba
illuminated Quincy in the beams of
her searchlights; Kako’s lights caught
Vincennes’ splotchy camouflage; only a
few seconds before Chokai — V/Adm.
Mikawa’s flagship — illuminated Astoria.
Captain Moore, meanwhile, reached
Quincy’s bridge at 0148. The sudden
glare of the Japanese searchlights caught
him by surprise; not knowing whether
or not he was under fire by “friendly”
ships, he ordered the night fighting
lights turned on, to identify his Allied
character in the confused situation. His
inherent submarine-consciousness,
acquired from duty in destroyers in the
Atlantic, probably prompted Moore to
consider that his ship was being taken
under fire by friendly units in pursuit
of a submarine — he recalled recent
dispatches pointing to possible enemy
sub activity in his area. Meanwhile,
Riefkohl, in Vincennes, became aware
of the enemy character of the vessels
illuminating his ships. He alerted
Quincy and Astoria, over the TBS, to
steam at standard speed, 15 knots and
added: “Fire on the searchlights.”
Delay and confusion, meanwhile
reigned aboard Quincy — Condition
Red the closure of watertight doors
prevented many officers and men from
reaching their battle stations while
shifting conditions of readiness from 11
to 1. “Current doctrine” then in force
in Quincy — a ship with experience
in submarine-infested waters in the
Atlantic — called for the manning
of “torpedo defense” positions: All
broadside guns (5-in/25) manned
during Condition II.
Meanwhile, Aoba opened fire, at

Quincy’s heroic sacrifice enabled Marines to storm ashore on Guadalcanal.

into the ship, putting two heavy concentration of shells; and she
guns out of action in the had not even begun firing in return!
5-inch battery and killing It was difficult, almost impossible in
most of the gun crews. some cases, for Quincy to even see the
Ready service ammunition enemy, however, because the smoke
exploded; flying fragments from the burning Vincennes, ahead,
cut the cartridge cases of the obscured her vision.
star shells in the fuze pots At about 0156, Spot I made out
causing them to burn “like a searchlight to the southwestward
Roman candles.” and reported the essentials: Target
If the battle had ended angle range, and speed. The target was
there, Quincy would have Furutaka, now entering action with the
emerged damaged, but still Vincennes group. Japanese ships, having
afloat. But the battle did not split into two groups shortly after
After the disastrous battle, Adm. Richmond Turner end at that moment, and engaging the Chicago and Canberra
would order the withdrawal of the unprotected Allied the deluge of death from the group, now had the American ships
transport and cargo ships. This would leave the US
Marines on Guadalcanal stranded and unsupplied for Japanese guns continued to
nearly three months. rain down upon the Allied
0151 1/2 with Quincy as her target. Her ships. Aoba — with the range on her
first salvo landed 500-yards short and victim firmly fixed — sent her sixth salvo
200-yards to the left; the second salvo, hurtling down upon the unfortunate
fired at 0152, landed 200-yards over. Quincy. At 0155, those shells hit the
At 0152 1/2, the Japanese cruiser sent well deck and set afire the Curtiss SOC
her third salvo out against Quincy and — her fuel tanks undrained or stowed
finally, obtained the range, scoring a hit there. Exploding gasoline sprayed the
on the main deck, aft, disabling number well deck, boat deck, and the plane on
three 1.1-in mount and starting a fire on the port catapult, starting several fires;
the fantail. soon, the flames enveloped the plane
Quincy soon shuddered under the on the starboard catapult and set it, too,
impact of Aoba’s fourth salvo — that ablaze; Aoba, seeing that her target was
hit wounded several men on the heavy practically self-illuminated, turned off
cruiser’s bridge. Straddled, Quincy her searchlight.
steamed ahead, her gunners at the Captain Moore, needless to say, was
5-in/25s on the port battery placing agitated by the situation confronting
star shell in the fuze pots in preparation him. Eight minutes had elapsed since
to fire an illuminating round when general quarters had been sounded;
suddenly, Aoba’s fifth salvo crashed his ship was being hit consistently by a
SEACLASSICSNOW.COM 39

The day after the deadly action, crewmen aboard USS Chicago cut away damaged plating to enable the ship to
get underway. She had been torpedoed at her extreme bow during the night action of 9 August 1942.
almost caught between them.
At about 0158, Quincy’s eight-inch
guns spoke, for the first time in the
battle, at Furutaka; before Moore had
a chance to direct his ship to take on
the Japanese eastern group, a shell
from Furutaka struck the face-plate
of Turret III, dislodging a chunk of
armor and jamming the turret in train. to try and bring the forward guns
She found herself in a position of not
40 SEA CLASSICS/February 2022
group. The
cruiser’s two
assailants —
Furutaka and
Aoba, shafted
their fire
momentarily
to Vincennes
and Astoria,
respectively — but
Quincy could not
make out any of
the enemy ships
since they had
extinguished their
searchlights. The
fierce fires on all
three American
warships had
made them all
virtually self-
illuminating.
Quincy’s
starboard 5-inch
battery, however,
swung around
to bear on a
target in the faint
glare of battle.
The gunners
being able to bring any guns to bear on rammed the projectiles home; the
either of the Japanese ships while being broadside guns crashed and sent the
struck time and time again by Japanese illuminating shells hurtling toward
fire from two directions. the unseen enemy. They exploded
The withering enemy fire high in the sky, above the low-hanging
clearly put Quincy in an unenviable overcast, but burned themselves out
predicament. At about 0200, Quincy before they illuminated anything.
was in the midst of a turn to starboard The sweating gunners, working
for their lives, loaded a second and
to bear against the enemy’s eastern third rounds of starshell-each time
firing them and obtaining no success.
At 0202, however, Lt. R.J. Ovrum, the
air defense officer in Quincy, spotted
three pairs of searchlights stabbing
into the darkness — those from Aoba,
Kako, and Furotaka.
Captain Moore undoubtedly saw
the same lights, Unfortunately, the
Japanese had not lost track of his
ship; Aoba turned on her searchlight
for good measure and illuminated
the ship forward. Aoba’s guns swung
around and tracked on Quincy, and
a salvo from the Japanese cruiser
hit forward on Quincy’s gun deck,
starboard side, The shrapnel from the
exploding shells decimated the crews,
killing many.
The director, range finder, and
 Carrying forward with the proud name, USS Quincy (CA-71) breaks out an array of signal flags as she departs Boston Navy Yard on
14 April 1944.
communications with the starboard secondary conning station — already reflect on his ship’s single success in
battery were all knocked out of almost untenable because of the scoring a significant hit on the enemy
commission in an instant, and smoke and fumes from the fires on the flagship because at about 0206, a shell
simultaneously, another shell plowed well-deck and from the planes on the from Aoba tore through the special
into Quincy’s number one fireroom catapults, took a direct hit, too. treatment steel plating in the pilot
on the port side, forcing the watch At 0205, Quincy’s six forward house. The exploding 8-inch shell
to secure amidst the almost total guns crashed out a final salvo. Ensign killed every man but the captain,
devastation in that space. J.F. Shannon, Jr., the forward 1.1-in but the injuries he sustained were
As if the fire from one side were not battery control
enough, Quincy came in for attention officer, watched
from the venerable cruiser Tenryu, who the shells, visible
had launched a torpedo spread some by their tracers in
time before in the melee. Meanwhile, the night. They
Capt. Moore had become aware that landed close to
his ship was in a devastating cross- the enemy ship
fire. He perhaps felt a cold lump in under fire and
his stomach as he realized that the observed smoke
Vincennes group was no longer under through the
control. Naval tradition, however, searchlight beam
was built by men who acted decisively — he felt sure that
under adversity — and there was no Quincy’s guns had
time like the present moment a little gotten a hit!
after 0200 on 9 August 1942. Moore He was right.
was determined to sell his ship for as Shortly after 0205,
stiff a price as he could exact from the two shells plowed
enemy. Knowing that neither Astoria into Chokai’s
or Vincennes were acting as a unit, the chart room. In
Quincy’s captain ordered: “We are an instant, 30
going through the middle.” Japanese sailors
Within a minute, Quincy’s died, and the fires
Turrets I and II sent a six-shell salvo started by the blast
hurtling toward Aoba; but suddenly, set afire the charts
the American cruiser shuddered stored there.
as if hit in the solar plexus — the Another of the
two torpedoes fired from Tenryu shells hit near the
ripped into the ship’s port side. The aviation crane, aft.
blast killed every man in firerooms Sam Moore
three and four. Soon Battle II — the had little time to
SEACLASSICSNOW.COM 41

During 1992, the US Navy’s Super Scorpio (ROV) ventured to the floor of Ironbottom
Sound to photograph the wreckage of USS Quincy.
The wreckage of Quincy remains as a grim memorial to the valiant fighting on that long-
ago night.
to prove fatal. The junior officer of
the deck, Lt. (jg.) J.H. Mee, USNR,
picked himself up from outside the
pilot house and entered; in the eerie
half-light he saw a grim scene. Moore,
barely alive, gasped “Transfer control
to Batt II.” After getting those words
through his lips, the captain sank to
the deck. Mee, thinking that Moore
was dead and not knowing that Batt II
did not exist, set off to find a workable
telephone while a sailor replaced the
dead quartermaster at the wheel.
Enemy shells then struck the
forward turrets. Turret II took an
8-inch, armor-piercing shell that
gutted the turret and left it burning
like a torch; another shell started
a fire in the upper powder room of
Turret I. The damage multiplied as
the minutes ticked away; the forestay,
severed by fragments, caught around
42 SEA CLASSICS/February 2022
the director radar antenna, jamming
the forward director in train;
fragments from the hit on the bridge
had severed steering leads resulting
in the loss of steering control.
Damage control parties worked
mightily to put out the fires; Cmdr.
Harry Heneberger, the gunnery officer
— who would ultimately become the
senior surviving officer — sent his
assistant fire control officer, L/Cmdr.
J.D. Andrew, down to the bridge to
report the condition of the ship’s
guns to the captain and obtain further
orders. The scene that greeted Andrew
was a grim one — it looked like
everyone was dead except a helmsman.
The quartermaster was spinning
the wheel to port, but the helm was
not answering. He told the assistant
officer that the captain had instructed
him to beach the ship on Savo Island
four-miles distant on the port quarter.
The ship, however, was moving
almost absently in a gradual turn
to starboard. At that instant, Capt.
Moore sat up, moaned, and then fell
back, dead
The ship was almost dead. Power
eventually failed completely at 0215,
almost simultaneously with the enemy
ceasing fire. The ship was steaming,
out of control, with all main and
secondary guns out of action, and all
firerooms out of commission. While
both engine rooms, however, were
intact, the ship was listing rapidly
to port from the two torpedo hits.
Fires blazed almost throughout the
length of the ship, and all hands alive
prepared to abandon while there was
still time to do so. Life rafts that were
still serviceable, floater nets and other
floatable objects were tossed over
the side while the senior surviving
officers directed the movement off
the ship. Between 0235 and 0240, the
final order to “Abandon Ship” came.
Quincy rolled over to port, and into
“Ironbottom Bay,” the first of the
American ships to sink in the Battle of
Savo Island.
Quincy’s name would be carried
into battle by a second cruiser —
Quincy (CA-71) — that would take
the war not only to the Japanese,
but also to the Germans as well.
Quincy (CA-39) had served her
country well during her six years
in the Fleet; she was a victim of the
furious night battle of Savo Island
that saw two of her sisters sunk as
well — Astoria and Vincennes — but
she had played a vital role in the
outcome of the battle. She and her
sisters had distracted and engaged
Mikawa’s ships. Quincy’s key hit on
Chokai’s chartroom caused V/Adm.
Mikawa — already cautious in his
approach to the transport area — to
withdraw because he was concerned
about the poorly-charted waters he
was in. Mikawa resolved to head for
home, having crippled the Vincennes
and Chicago groups. He did not,
however, get near enough to destroy
the valuable but vulnerable American
transports still unloading their vital
supplies for the Marines ashore.
Quincy had died so that others might
carry the fight to the enemy.
 US NAVY AUXILIARY VESSELS is a fact-packed
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SEACLASSICSNOW.COM 43
 THE NAVY VS. THE
HURRICANE THE GREAT SAMOAN HURRICANE OF 1889 PROVED TO BE A TURNING POINT
FOR THE UNITED STATES AS WELL AS THE NAVY
O n 30 November 1889, the
Annual Report of the Secretary
of the Navy was presented by B.F.
Tracy to the President and Congress
of the United States. In his very
opening remarks, Tracy noted that
the United States would still fail to
be a naval power when its current
construction program was complete.
He duly noted that the four leading
naval powers were England, France,
Russia, and a feisty Germany. In
distress, he said that the nation “as
far as its capacity for defense is
concerned, will be at the
mercy of states
having
44 SEA CLASSICS/February 2022
BY GENE T. ZIMMERMAN
less than one-tenth of its population,
one-thirtieth of its wealth, and one-
hundredth of its area.”
on that date, two vessels — the
Trenton and Vandalia — were totally
wrecked, and the Nipsic was run on
He might well have added “and shore to save her from total
always at the mercy of the weather destruction — nothing
while we send out sailors to sea that skill or experience
in underpowered sailboats.” He could suggest was left
probably thought it, but a man in undone to avert the
his position had to be tactful when catastrophe, but the
speaking to congressmen. Instead, vessels, with old-
he told them, “The severest fashioned engines and
disaster which has befallen the defective steam-power,
Navy in recent years took were wholly unable to
place at Apia, Samoa, on withstand the fury of
16 March 1889. the hurricane.
“During a
hurricane
 “The loss of the Trenton and
Vandalia, two of the best of the old
wooden fleet, is a serious blow to the
Navy in its present condition. The
escape of the British ship Calliope, by
steaming out to sea and safety during
the hurricane, illustrates the value of
high-powered engines in war vessels.”
What had brought about this
disaster known then as ‘The Samoan
Hurricane?” Obviously, the weather
was the moving force in the actual
destruction of the vessels in the harbor,
but a number of opposed political,
commercial, and technological
interests were the reasons that There would be no fighting between American and German ships after the hurricane.
SMS Adler was photographed and beached on her side. Note the holing caused by
this particular US Navy squadron the rocks.
happened to be facing off with a had developed the cast steel gun, From a collection of petty kingdoms
German squadron in Apia Harbor. and Prussia had taken advantage had come a powerful state and the
A man named Alfred Krupp of it at the Battle of Essen and with Germans found the wine of success
his artillery had won the Franco- to be heady. No longer would they be
Prussian War of 1871. Then, a laughed at, rather they would become
proud German state was formed the leaders in industry and political
under Wilhelm I, King of Prussia. power. German agents, with
success, moved into Europe,
the Americas, Africa, and into
the Pacific. And it was
in the Pacific that they
ran headlong into another
young industrial power
— the United States of
America.

Looking southwest in Apia Harbor with USS Nipsic beached in

the foreground. Beyond her stern is USS Trenton and the sunken
Vandalia is in the center.

SEACLASSICSNOW.COM 45
 USS Trenton under construction at the New York Navy Yard
during January 1876. Note the bulbous ram.
Though the was coming to an end; railways
United States had linked the coasts and the adventurers
been emotionally and businessmen looked for new
and fiscally horizons. The old dreams of Canada,
drained by the Cuba, and Mexico had faded but
great Civil War, there were new places. The Sandwich
that imperialistic, Islands, China, and the Samoan
expansive Islands were all possibilities.
American mood It was accepted that the American
was once more Navy would protect American
beginning to rise. trading vessels and American
The American property in foreign lands. This
peoples had been proved a bit difficult without either
expansionistic colonies or coaling stations. Thus,
from the day the the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands
first settler had became of interest not only to
stepped foot on commercial concerns, but also the
the New World. Navy. The Samoan Islands were as
And always it was interesting, even more so, for they
the same. They were midway between any commerce
would rapidly passing between the Americas and
gain ground the Far East. It was no surprise
and then quiet a that such a strategic place brought
spell while they agents from England, Germany,
consolidated and America to dicker and attempt
their new lands. to gain influence. Considering the
The “Wild West” stiff-necked attitude between two
Bugler on the spar deck of Trenton with officers and crew
while the ship was with the European Squadron.

46 SEA CLASSICS/February 2022

of the contestants,
it was a surprise
that fighting didn’t
occur. Perhaps it
would have had
there not been a
hurricane in the
month of March
1889.
The small
German Navy was
fairly modern by
the standards of
1889 while the
American Navy was
a standing joke.
Germans used the
best armor and
rifled guns they
could get their
hands on while This crumbling photograph shows Trenton (left) with USS Alliance during 1878 in the harbor at Smyrna,
American warships Turkey, in a show of American seapower.
were still of wood, and a commander
considered himself doing well if
he had two rifled guns on his ship!
The Germans had followed modern
practice while the Americans seemed
to hark back to the Civil War.
Why hadn’t America followed the
latest English or French shipbuilding
methods? Why was the equipment so
out of date? These questions would
take a book to answer. Yet the basic
two reasons were Congress and the
Navy’s line officers. It seems that
it was against American tradition
to have an effective standing Navy.
A few vessels for policing and
showing the flag were all that were
needed. Congressional leaders
stated emphatically that they had
no intention of starting any wars, Painting of Trenton at Villefranche, France, during 1879 when the ship was the head
and who would want to fight with of the European Squadron. A French warship is to the right.
America? And the old-line officers the older vessel’s material was used Kansas-class, Nipsic was actually
were doing their best to ensure in her construction, but that has not a new Enterprise-class vessel laid
that the engineering officers were been determined. One of six 1900- down in the Washington Navy Yard.
kept below decks and out of sight, ton vessels, she differed in actual Because of fitful appropriations, she
which meant that there would construction enough to change her was not completed until 1879. She
be no intelligent support by any displacement to 2033 tons. Her displaced 1375 tons. Her dimensions
ranking officer. This internal warfare dimensions were 216 feet (between were 185 feet by 35 feet by 14 feet.
seriously weakened the American perpendiculars) with a 39-foot With 800 horsepower, she could
Navy and insured that it would be beam and a 16.5-foot mean draft. attain ten knots under steam alone.
damned with feeble wooden warships Rated at 1200 horsepower, she was She was equipped with five muzzle-
in an age of iron. capable of twelve knots under steam loading guns and one 60-pounder
The steam corvette or screw alone. She was armed with six 9-in breech-loading rifle.
steamer Vandalia was technically muzzle-loading smooth-bores, one The Trenton was the last
a “rebuilt” Civil War vessel, but in 8-in muzzle loading rifle, and one authorized major wooden warship
truth she was a brand-new steamer 60-pounder breech-loading rifle. for the US Navy. She was built at
launched in 1874. Perhaps some of Officially a rebuilt vessel of the the New York Navy Yard by the
SEACLASSICSNOW.COM 47
 horsepower for a top speed
of 14 knots. Indeed, the
American Navy had gone
far downhill when it is
remembered that in 1868
Chief Engineer Isherwood’s
steam cruiser Wampanoag
had attained 18 knots
under steam alone!
The Samoan Islands
consist of four major islands
plus a number of smaller
islands. The four majors
are Savali, Upolu, Tutuila,
and Manua. The harbor of
Apia was the capital port for
these islands and located
on Upolu. The primitive
Contemporary drawing showing the placement of weapons on USS Trenton islands were the result of
able Naval volcanic action in ages past and are
Constructor, covered with dense jungle and forest.
S.H. Pook. There was little communication
Built to current inland and almost all travel was along
European the coast. The following is R/Adm.
practice, she Kimberly’s description of Apia as seen
included from the sea: “On the low coast as you
a heavy approach, the long pendant leaves
compound of the coco palms are swaying in the
casting for breeze, their stems overhanging the
a ram that beach along which the only road in
extend eight Apia stretches from Matautu Point on
feet from the the east to Mulinuu on the west. One
bow. She was side of the road is lined with houses,
launched in stores, churches, and compounds, all
1876. This facing the bay,” At this time there were
full-rigged about 40,000 natives on the island
steam frigate along with 200 foreigners.
displaced The anchorage was something of
3900 tons. Her a crude V shape, and the Vaisingano
dimensions River emptied into it. The coral
were 253 feet bottom of this 1500-yard-long
by 48 feet anchorage was covered with a thick
by 19.5 feet. coat of sand and silt. A coral reef
She was the surrounding the harbor calmed the
Map illustrating the positions of the ships immediately prior to
the hurricane. best armed inner waters.
American Trouble in the Samoan Islands
vessel afloat had been brewing for years — the
right up to her two foreign factions being the
destruction. Americans and the Germans. As
She carried far as Kimberly was concerned,
ten muzzle- the prime incentive for these
loading bickerings… “was commercial gain
rifles and and political preponderance.” The
four breech- Germans had carted away the real
loading rifles. king, Laupepa, and had backed a
Her engine native, Tamasese, for the position.
was capable The other involved foreigners that
of 3100 backed another native, Mataafa,
Barometer reading aboard HMS Calliope.

48 SEA CLASSICS/February 2022

for king. Thus, civil war
spread on the capital
island.
As reports of this
civil war spread back
to Washington, the
State Department
became alarmed. Such
disturbances could
upset and even destroy
American interests in the
islands. Possibly worse,
Tamasese might win and
that would equate to an
American diplomatic
defeat. Thus, the Navy
Department instructed
R/Adm. L.A. Kimberly to
handle the problem. He
left the west coast aboard
the steel gunboat Dolphin
for Panama where he
would raise his flag over
the steam frigate Trenton. Map showing the locations of the wrecked ships.
No doubt he wished “The necessity
that the Dolphin and the new cruisers of establishing
Atlanta and Boston would be his vessels foreign coaling
rather than his outmoded wooden stations, and
steamers. But that was impossible. The increasing
Dolphin was on a world cruise and commercial
the other two steel cruisers were tied importance of
up in the Atlantic guarding American these islands,
interests. However, for the Pacific, render it desirable
he had the best American warships to place the
available and he had to content himself station as soon
with that fact. as possible on a
The Nipsic had arrived in Samoan permanent basis.”
waters in November 1888 and had The Vandalia
remained there, keeping an eye was still fitting
on affairs. However, the German out at Mare
squadron far outclassed her and in the Island when
ugly situation that was developing, it Kimberly left
would have been well to have other for the Trenton.
American warships at that location. Under Capt. C.M.
Also, there was the famous harbor of Schoonmaker
Pago Pago on Tutuila Island at which she sailed on 20
the new American coaling station was January 1889
to be located. In February 1889, the and arrived in
Navy Department had purchased 1912 Honolulu on 2
tons of coal, and arranged for it to be February. Leaving
shipped there. Rear Admiral Kimberly this port on the
would decide the actual 121 acres of 7th, she arrived
land. A special act of 2 March 1889 at Apia on 22
authorized him to purchase the land. February.
Though the United States The Trenton
deplored the extreme actions of the had left Payta,
Germans, it had the same opinion Peru, on 2
of the islands. As Benjamin Tracy December 1888 Commander Cornelius M. Schoonmaker would be swept away
was to report to the President, and arrived off to his death during the storm.

SEACLASSICSNOW.COM 49
Panama on 7 December. There, Capt.
Farquhar welcomed his Commander-
in-Chief aboard. On 13 January 1889,
the Trenton sailed for the Pacific.
After a stop at Tahiti, she arrived
in the Samoans on 10 March and
dropped anchor in Apia Harbor the
following day.
When the Trenton arrived,
she found the American warships
Vandalia and Nipsic already in place.
The British cruiser HMS Calliope
was moored near the Vandalia. In
a group were the three German
warships — the gunboats Adler and
Eber and the corvette Olga. The
Nipsic was moored close into shore
while the Trenton was literally out in
the channel. The harbor was small Like many sea captains of the time, R/Adm. Lewis Kimberly was also something of
and Kimberly’s flagship was last in. an artist. This is his drawing of a waterfront scene at Apia Harbor prior to the storm.
Six smaller merchantmen were also like playing a game of cards with my foreign intervention; and last attempt
in the harbor, the largest, a barque of opponent knowing what trumps I to get a peaceful settlement.
500 tons. had.” And though assured otherwise, Kimberly spent his first few days
Rear Admiral Kimberly arrived he found that neither the German at Apia trying to accomplish his first
in Apia under a handicap all too nor American consuls had received objective. The sky and sea were at
familiar to veterans of America’s instructions to cooperate with peace for a few days, and the ships
recent wars — everyone knew more him! “I thus found if I wished to gently rolled in the harbor. The rainy
about his secret diplomatic mission accomplish my mission, I would have season, which had already destroyed
than he did! As he was to record, “My to do it alone.” several small merchant craft was
instructions… had become public His mission was in three parts: about spent and the sailors could
through the press, although received First, he had to discern the real count on taking it easy for a while.
by me in cypher… It was something situation; secondly, prevent any On 14 March, the barometer began

The sunken USS Vandalia seen from

the deck of the wrecked Trenton. Note
the lines fired into the rigging in an
attempt to save the crew.

50 SEA CLASSICS/February 2022

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 Grim remains of the German Eber in the continued to mount. Seas were
foreground with the Trenton to the rear. breaking over the bow of the Trenton
and the spray cascaded over the
lower spars back to the quarterdeck.
Kimberly had every man at this
post with two on the wheel. Even
as darkness prematurely ended
Friday at about 5 pm, sailors saw the
German ship Eber go up on the reef.
When they would look there again in
the murky light of Saturday morning,
they would see nothing. The German
vessel would lose all but five of its
crew of 78, and the biggest chunk of
it to survive would be from the stern.
The storm was obviously
something more than a regular
rainstorm, and by midnight the men
knew they were facing a hurricane.

to fluctuate, and then drop. Its actions

over the next 24 hours indicated to
the natives that a heavy rainstorm,
common for this time, was on its way.
Friday morning seemed threatening to
Kimberly, and he made ready for the
storm. All top hamper was removed
except for storm try-sails and steam
was removed.
He had no way of knowing that
a hurricane was bearing down on
Apia, and that it would be one of
the largest to ever hit the region, or
that it would blow out of the north.
Hurricanes were “out of season” so
to speak. But the old sailor’s instinct
for trouble told him he was going
to be in for a rough ride. Even with
four anchors out, he felt it prudent to
An interesting view of the wreckage on Apia beach during salvage operations.
raise steam. He might have faced it Amazingly, many of the buildings survived the storm. The US Consulate is one of
at sea, but it was not practical due to the structures at the right.
the situation. As he later related, “It
Kimberly’s depiction of the Trenton
would save coal to remain at anchor during the height of the storm with her
as nearly all there was to be had at anchors dragging.
the time was in the ships’ bunkers,
as it was a very necessary article to
have in case affairs should take such
a turn as to require active measures
in the future.” Unknowingly, his
force was about to become the
victim of past meager congressional
inadequacy that had saddled him
with underpowered wooden vessels.
By noon on 15 March, the
barometer was down to 29.60; by
Saturday it would read 29.19. The
storm moved in Friday afternoon.
The force of the seas and wind
52 SEA CLASSICS/February 2022
 Survivors pay their respects at the grave of Cornelius Schoonmaker, caption of the USS Vandalia.
By then, the decks were covered blow straight into the harbor with Friday afternoon, the bluejackets
with water as the sea continuously absolutely no interference! aboard the Trenton had done well.
splashed over the bow. The scuppers Through the night, sailors sweated But the forces they were fighting were
couldn’t handle it! The battened and cursed to hold their ships into the greater and seemingly inexhaustible.
down hatches could keep out most storm. The night was like ink laced Nearing 7 am, the first disaster befell
plunging water, but they were not with foam, and to their dismay, dawn them. Either the storm or some debris
meant to be submerged. And as the revealed that the storm had pushed violently struck the rudder and rudder
water level on the spar deck rose, so them all deeper into the harbor and post, wrenching them off. The force
too the leaks increased in number closer to the reefs, which had already carried up the cables hurling the
and size. Rear Admiral Kimberly said annihilated the Eber. If the anchor helmsmen away and shattering the
that, “The air was filled with foam dragging continued, they would all, wheel. The sailors had broken legs
and spray, both salt and fresh, for in one by one, pile up on the reef. and other injuries, but they were only
the squalls it was raining in torrents, Since the storm had started on among the first to suffer from the
in the gusts you could not
look to windward… it was
hard to catch one’s breath
in them at times.”
The same scene was
being enacted on every
other vessel though to
some lesser degree than
aboard the Trenton for
they had more protection.
But the storm continued
to gain force, and then
like a nightmare men
realized that the direction
from which the storm was
coming was changing.
It had come from east
northeast, then swung
to northeast, and now
appeared to edging to
north. This would mean
that the storm would HMS Calliope was present to aid the Americans in a possible action against the Germans.

SEACLASSICSNOW.COM 53
 storm. The ship was also wounded —
water poured through the rudder shaft
hole. The Trenton’s crew stuffed the
hole as best they could.
Even as this trouble was being
corrected, the storm struck again.
The sea bashed its way through the
starboard knights head, leaving a six
by four foot hole. Water rushed in
and back along the deck and down
the hatches. This would sink them
in a hurry if they did not block it
up. Crewmen struggled with the sea
as it swirled around their straining
bodies. Slowly, by blood and guts,
they built a strong blockade. But still
water came in and they built another
behind it, finally stopping the flow of
water down the lower hatches.
Water was coming in everywhere
— in driblets and draughts. The upper
hatches were leaking slowly, and as
the storm’s fury mounted, water was
even coming down the ventilators.
Men went on deck to cover them with
canvas, but the sea wrenched them
away time and again. A number of
men were hurled the length of the
deck while getting the covers on.
Aboard the Nipsic, Cmdr. D.W.
Mullan was coming to a difficult
decision. He had steam up, and
his anchors were still intact but he
was now very close to the shore. He
was responsible for the lives of his
men and for the vessel, and if chose
wrong, he might well lose both.
Feeling it impossible to get out of
Dramatic rendition of the escape of HMS Calliope on the cover of the IIllustrated the harbor, he decided that he would
London News while American sailors cheer. slip his anchors in a lull and run his
vessel, bow first, up
on the shore. It was a
calculated risk, but it
looked good enough to
save both the vessel and
his men. At about 7:30
am, on 16 March 1889,
the Nipsic slid up on the
beach. Mullan’s decision
would prove to be a
good one, but for a time
there were problems.
His crew got off safely
except for one of the
first boats of seven men.
The littered beach at
Apia after the hurricane,
which was really a
tropical cyclone but the
term had not yet come
into common usage.
54 SEA CLASSICS/February 2022
It had become fouled and the men Salvage operations underway aboard
had dropped into the raging sea to USS Trenton.
be swept away. With every wave, the
Nipsic shuddered and groaned, but
the rest of her men were safe.
The German Adler was next to go.
According to America accounts, she
began bumping the reef at about 8
am on Saturday. Her captain decided
to try his luck getting over the reef.
Slipping his chains as a large wave
rushed upon his vessel, he felt the
ship go up — but not over! The Adler
landed on the reef. And the next wave
keeled her over. But she was not in
deep water, and so her men would
just have to wait the storm out. Only
20 of her men were lost.
The USS Vandalia was the next

vessel to be in her last cable hadn’t parted. With

desperate straits. that, she went hard up onto the reef.
Her cables had Captain Schoonmaker finally told
parted one by the engine room to ease off on the
one, and finally steam for they were fast on the reef.
her last anchor Seams were parting and waves were
had slipped. She smashing over the deck even as the
nearly struck hulk swung her bow up onto the reef.
the Calliope. The Vandalia was being destroyed
Fortunately, the even as her sailors helplessly looked
Englishmen let on. Soon, they were all in the rigging.
off their steam Captain Schoonmaker had been
and the missed. injured in the confusion and he
The Vandalia drifted away from the hulk. Lieutenant
Shear legs and purchase for recovering the guns, carriages, and continued to Carlin attempted to save the captain,
other heavy items removed from the wrecks. This arrangement fight back, but but found that in the turbulent waters
was used both in landing materials and later embarking them on
the USS Monongahela for transport home. In the left distance is the storm was he had all he could do to save himself.
the German Adler on her side in shallow water. pushing her Unknown to the many sailors who
against the either fell overboard or tried to swim
Calliope and the the 65 yards to shore, there was a
reef. As Executive treacherous current being created
Officer Lt. J.W. by the storm and the force of the
Carlin wrote, waters from the swollen Vaisingano
“from 6 am till River, and natives estimated that the
9 am, we were undertow’s force was six knots even
a dozen times at the shore’s edge. The Secretary of
in danger and the Navy later commended Carlin
fouling the for his attempt and, also, he praised a
Calliope, the number of natives and Japanese who
nicest calculation formed a human chain out into the
being required to waters to rescue the struggling sailors.
keep clear of her The captain’s body drifted over
and the eastern five miles down the coast before it
reef.” could be recovered. He was placed
Drawing the SMS Adler by R/Adm. Kimberly as she appeared
She might in a temporary grave on a German
before the storm. have held out if plantation. He was one of 43 men to
SEACLASSICSNOW.COM 55
 Salvaged guns and carriages from
Trenton and Vandelia.
be lost from the Vandalia.
Captain Kane aboard HMS
Calliope had come to a difficult
decision on Saturday morning.
Unlike the other vessels in the
harbor, his was considered fairly
powerful. He had five anchors out,
but by 9 am he was down to one. The
lurches of the Vandalia and Olga
threatened to entangle his vessel. As
he was only a hundred yards from
the reef, he would have to move
soon or else accept the fate that had
already overcome three vessels. At
USS Nipsic after being completely rebuilt from her Civil War configuration. first, he leaned to trying the same
trick as Cmdr. Mullan of the Nipsic.
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Olga and Vandalia, but the Calliope
56 SEA CLASSICS/February 2022
wrenched herself
away. In his own
words, “It was
the most ticklish
position I was ever
in.” Adroitly, he
maneuvered his
vessel between
the Olga and
Vandalia, and
then, in the middle
of the channel, lay
Trenton.
The Trenton
was in trouble.
Water continued
to get below deck
faster than the
pumps could
pass it back out
to the sea. Water
continued to rise
in the engine
room. With only
trysails for steering Propeller of Nipsic after being removed.
and low steam pressure, the Trenton
could not escape the harbor, or even
get out of the Calliope’s way.
As far as Capt. Kane was
concerned, it would take more luck
than skill to get the Calliope by the
Trenton. Even though his ship had
full steam up, good for 15 knots, he
was only making .5 knots an hour in
the grip of the storm.
Aboard the Trenton men were
astounded to see the Calliope making
a valiant attempt to escape. Though
there was nowhere for the crippled
Trenton to go but under, her men
appreciated the plucky Englishmen’s
gamble. And as the two vessels
closed with spars nearly touching,
the Englishmen were astonished to Sailors with the jury-rigged rudder for the Nipsic.

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SEACLASSICSNOW.COM 57

The rudder installed on the Nipsic.
sights to a seaman or anyone else
ever saw… it was a victory of mind
over matter.” And so the Calliope
escaped into the raging sea beyond
Apia Harbor. And there she remained
until the storm had abated.
After this sight, R/Adm. Kimberly
turned to Capt. Farquhar and said,
“If we must go down, let us do so
with our flag flying.” With that, the
special storm ensign was hoisted aloft
until further damage swept her onto
the decks of the Olga.
Meanwhile, in the Trenton’s engine
room, the engineer sadly watched the
water edge closer and closer to his
fires. By 10 am, that fateful Saturday
58 SEA CLASSICS/February 2022
morning, the fires were out. Now all
that stood between the vessel and the
reefs was the lone starboard sheet
anchor. Men worked in relays to
keep the pumps going to stretch out
their time. At mid-day, the last chain
snapped and the Trenton swirled
onto the reef next to the Vandalia. To
make matters worse, the hapless vessel
had struck the Olga twice, losing her
quarter galleries and some of her
lifeboats. To Kimberly, it seemed
as if “everything was ending… after
pounding on the hard coral bottom
she gradually brought-up and gave her
life forever alongside her submerged
sister, the Vandalia, whose masts,
bowsprit and forecastle were the only
visible parts left above the water.”
Though it seemed like it was the
end, the men aboard the Trenton
shot lines to the Vandelia’s rigging
so that the latter vessel’s men might
come aboard the Trenton. This proved
successful unlike an earlier attempt to
reach the Nipsic from the Vandalia.
Now only the Olga remained
afloat in the wreckage strewn harbor.
She had taken serious buffeting by
the storm and a number of collisions
had taken their toll. Her bowsprit
was gone as was most of her rigging.
The Trenton had smashed a hole in
her hull. She had held on, but she
was taking on too much water. Even
as the storm was finally blowing itself
out on Sunday morning, 17 March,
she was neatly put up on the beach.
After 28 hours of continuous
raging, the storm past. Individually
and in small groups the exhausted
seamen and villagers looked out
across the once beautiful harbor.
And what a sight greeted them.
Evidence of the storm’s carnage was
everywhere. The beaches were strewn
with bottles, planks, ship’s gear, and
bodies. Except for the Calliope, which
had escaped, there was not a ship
afloat in the harbor.
The American and German sailors
moved ashore to set up temporary
camps under tents, and then make
ready what salvage attempts were
possible. It must have seemed ironic to
all the officers that the two squadrons
had been there ready to fight, but both
had been mauled by a storm. Kimberly,
seeing that the Germans had no
means of interfering, could go ahead
with his political efforts. However, his
first responsibility was to his men and
the ships.
The Calliope returned to Apia
only long enough to give the
Americans her diving gear. While
using this gear, they learned why
the anchors had dragged so easily.
The currents had swept the coral
bottom clean of sediment! A number
of anchors were located — all
intertwined with each others’ cables.
Rear Admiral Kimberly
immediately appointed a board of
inspection. As customary, the leading
man from each vessel was chosen.
 Another of R/Adm. Kimberly’s drawings depicts the Nipsic as she was being fitted for the long voyage to Honolulu.
Its members were Capt. Farquhar or San Francisco, as these ports are backed Mataafa. For his efforts on
(Trenton), Cmdr. Mullan (Nipsic), distant and too windward. We are, behalf of the Samoans, he was given
and Lt. Carlin (Vandalia). They were however, of the opinion that when a banquet prior to his leaving Apia.
to determine the reason for loss of good weather sets in she might be And, to no one’s surprise, the Germans
the vessels and what, if any, salvage towed or convoyed to some leeward failed to attend.
attempts were possible, in particular, port such as Auckland, to be docked The German warship Olga had
the Nipsic, which was the only really and repaired.” been easily refloated, and left the
salvageable vessel. After the initial inspections had islands for repairs. The Eber was a
It was this board’s opinion that been made, R/Adm. Kimberly returned complete loss. The Adler was also a
neither the Trenton nor the Vandalia to his original purpose. He issued two wreck, and she was left on the reef
could be salvaged due to the proclamations across the island, and after certain items had been removed.
primitive conditions of the islands. put it in the local newspaper. They Supposedly, one of her boilers can still
The salvage of equipment from these were basically pleas for unity among be seen on that reef. The Americans
vessels was possible, but would have the Samoans and for amnesty for those salved what they could from the
to be done soon if they were not to be involved in the civil war. Though some broken hulls of the Trenton and
lost to future storms. thought nothing would come of it, Vandalia before leaving the harbor in
The Nipsic was refloated, but arms were laid down and the islanders July 1889.
her insides gave the officers much
discouragement for her bottom had
lost much of its plating and her
engine room was crippled. The lost
stack and rigging could be replaced.
Lost instruments could be replaced,
but without an effective powerplant
and no rudder, things could get
quite sticky on a return voyage. The
propeller was badly damaged as well.
The board returned the decision:
“We are of the opinion that it would
be unsafe to send the Nipsic in her
present condition to either Honolulu
SEACLASSICSNOW.COM 59
 The Nipsic she was given a complete rebuilding,
had been patched including a lengthened hull. She
up and a jury- was put back into commission that
rigged rudder very fall and remained in Hawaiian
installed. She left waters to protect American interests
for Auckland, until called back to the United
New Zealand, States. She was decommissioned on
on 9 May but 2 October 1890 and sent to Puget
unfavorable Sound in 1892 where she was housed
weather forced over as a receiving and prison ship.
her to return to In the same year, R/Adm. Kimberly
Apia. She moved retired. On 13 February 1913, Nipsic
to the harbor of was sold.
Pago Pago on The HMS Calliope and SMS Olga
16 May. On 31 both survived into the 20th Century
May, in company to become tenders and receiving
with the wooden hulks before they were scrapped.
gunboat Alert, she The Berlin Conference resolved
left for Fanning the differences between the leading
Island. She finally powers by trading off other islands
arrived in the to the Germans and dividing the
Sandwich Islands Samoans between the English and
and put into the Americans.
Honolulu on 2 The disaster at Apia Harbor was
August 1889. It a turning point for both American
has been a 3000- international politics and for the US
mile voyage to the Navy. Never again would a major crisis
windward. be faced with wooden vessels manned
Nipsic undergoing repairs in Honolulu with the mangled
The damage by iron sailors — a gleaming white
propeller in place. was so severe that steel fleet was on the horizon.

The Nipsic ended her days as a barracks ship in Puget Sound.

60 SEA CLASSICS/February 2022

SEACLASSICSNOW.COM 61
LOSS OF
THE TAMPA
WHEN THIS USCG CUTTER WAS SUNK BY A U-BOAT,
IT CLAIMED THE LARGEST COAST GUARD LOSS
OF LIFE DURING THE GREAT WAR
BY BERNARD C. NALTY
AND TRUMAN STROBRIDGE

USCG cutter Miami

prior to being
renamed Tampa.

T he Great War was raging in

February 1916 when the four-
year-old US Coast Guard Cutter
Miami received a new name. She
became the USCGC Tampa and
began a tragically brief association
with that Florida city. For two years
the crew of the Tampa participated in
the local winter carnival and annual
South Florida Fair. Then, on 6 April
1917, the United States declared
war on Germany and her allies and
62 SEA CLASSICS/February 2022
Tampa abandoned peacetime routine
to fight enemy submarines in the
Atlantic.
When Tampa steamed off to
war, 24 of the 111 Coast Guard
officers and men on board called the
city their home. Back in February
1912, Miss Bernes Richardson had
christened her Miami and the 1181-
ton revenue cutter had slid down
the ways at Newport News, Virginia.
Built at a cost of $250,000, the ship
was 190-feet long with a beam of
32.5 feet. Power came from a triple-
expansion steam powerplant that
produced 1300-hp, giving a top speed
of 13 knots. As she was undergoing
sea trials off Hampton Roads, the
British liner Titanic hit an iceberg
and sank with the loss of 1513 lives.
The USA joined an international
ice patrol organized to prevent a
repetition of the tragedy and in 1915
Miami took part. The following

year, as the Tampa, she returned to
the North Atlantic to guard against
drifting ice.
With the coming of war, the ice
patrol was quickly forgotten and the
Tampa came under the control of
the US Navy. While still at anchor
in Tampa harbor, the cutter struck
her first blow — providing men for
the boarding party that seized the
steamer Borneo, tied up nearby.
That ship flew the flag of Austria-
Captain Charles Satterlee commanded the Tampa through its
Hungary, an ally of Germany. On
10 April 1917, the day following this
capture, the Tampa steamed to Key
West, her home port until 30 July
when she departed to Boston to be
fitted out for combat. In September,
after the installation of four 3-in/50-
cal weapons, she sailed for her new
wartime base of Gibraltar.
Under the command of Capt.
Charles Satterlee, USCG, the Tampa
made her first combat foray on 4
Great War service.
November, serving as an escort for
a convoy of boats from Gibraltar to
Pembroke Dock in Wales. This was the
first of 18 convoys, totaling some 350
ships, that the cutter helped shepherd
through the perilous waters between
Gibraltar and the British Isles.
That first patrol was uneventful,
but on the return voyage, while
escorting southbound merchantmen,
a German U-Boat fired upon
the steamer Suzanne Marie. The
SEACLASSICSNOW.COM 63
 USS Tampa anchored
at its wartime base in
Gibraltar.
taken on board
sailors from the
merchantman
Bilbster, which had
been abandoned
after a collision
with the Mauban,
then watched for
U-Boats as the two
derelicts were taken
under tow.
In the early
months of 1918,
the Tampa came
Some of the Tampa crew at rest. Benjamin Nash Daniels, center with hat, was among the 131 killed when under fire for the
Tampa was torpedoed. first time — but
Tampa responded at full speed, had submerged before the cutter not from a German U-Boat. One of
arriving in time to fire five rounds arrived. Coast Guard gun crews fired the merchantmen apparently caught
as the conning tower disappeared 21 rounds at the location where sight of the cutter on the horizon and
beneath the waves. Five days later, the sub was last seen but the 3-in mistook her low silhouette and single
another ship sighted a U-Boat and guns apparently caused no damage. stack for the outline of a U-Boat and
summoned help, but again the raider Between the two attacks, Tampa had fired three rounds at her. Luckily the
64 SEA CLASSICS/February 2022
 Charles Satterlee took the photo of Tampa on the day he took command of the cutter.
steamer’s crew was as bad at gunnery outbound from Gibraltar on 19 U-Boat war. As the Tampa transited
as at ship’s recognition, and the September 1918 and remained with the Bristol Channel that evening,
USCG cutter emerged unscathed. the merchant ships until the evening she was spotted by UB-91. This
The next danger faced by the men of the 26th when Capt. Satterlee was a Type UB III submarine
of the Tampa was Spanish influenza. carried out instructions to leave the that had been commissioned into
The eventual world-wide epidemic formation and steam to Milford theKaiserliche Marine on 11 April
was gathering force when it assailed Haven in Wales. The cutter failed 1918. The German, who had sunk
the Coast Guardsmen. Although to arrive on schedule, however, and the collier Hebburn a day earlier, was
several officers and men fell ill, the American destroyers joined British on the surface and submerged, never
records fail to list any casualties patrol boats in conducting a fruitless being sighted by the Tampa. The
and the ship missed none of its search. The Tampa appeared to have U-Boat began to track the cutter and
assignments. simply vanished. maneuvered into firing position. At
The men of the Tampa found However, what had happened 2015, she fired one torpedo out of the
numerous opportunities to exercise was another sad statistic of the stern tube from a range of about 1800
the lifesaving skills they
had mastered during
peacetime. On 10 July
1918, for example,
the cutter dispatched
three lifeboats to pick
up survivors from the
merchantman Penichi,
which had exploded
while anchored at
Gibraltar. The following
month, Electrician 1st
Class Fred Taylor of
the Tampa dived into
Gibraltar Harbor to
save the life of an officer
from another ship that
had fallen overboard.
The Tampa escorted
her 19th convoy
(Convoy HG-107)
Tampa crewmen preparing
to fire one of the ship’s 3-in
weapons.

SEACLASSICSNOW.COM 65
 COMPLETE YOUR
COLLECTION!
USCG Memorial to the Tampa was dedicated at Arlington National Cemetery on 23 May
1928. The northern face is inscribed with Tampa’s dead.
feet. The weapon tracked true and
the U-Boat commander saw a large
explosion portside amidships. A huge
column of luminous water shot into
the evening sky.
The Tampa went down with
all hands — 111 USCG men, four
USN personnel, and 16 passengers
consisting of eleven Royal Navy
personnel and five civilians. Rescue
efforts proceeded for three days but
only turned up some small pieces of
wreckage that were later identified
as coming from the Tampa and
one unidentified body. Three other
bodies were later recovered — two
from a beach near Lamphey, Wales,
and the other at sea by a British
patrol boat.
The British commander at
Milford Haven paid tribute to Capt.
Satterlee’s “intense enthusiasm and
high ideals of duty.” The British
Admiralty declared, “Appreciation
of the good work done by the USS
Tampa may be some consolation
to those bereft, and their Lordships
would be glad if this could be
conveyed to those concerned.”
CALL 818-700-6868 The UB-91 continued her war
66 SEA CLASSICS/February 2022
patrol, sinking the British cargo
ship Baldersby on 28 September and
the Japanese passenger ship Hirano
Maru on 4 October with a loss of
292 of the 320 people on board.
With the end of the war, UB-91
was surrendered to Britain on 21
November 1918 at Harwich. She
toured various South Wales ports
before being towed to Pembroke
Dock where she was broken up in
1921. King George V presented her
deck gun to the town of Chepstow
where it forms part of the Chepstow
War Memorial.
The sinking of the Tampa caused
a greater USCG combat loss in
proportion to its strength than any
of the other US armed forces in
the Great War. When five Eagle-
class patrol craft of the Navy were
transferred to the USCG in late
1919, they were renamed in honor
of the Tampa officers. Two US Navy
destroyers have been named to honor
Capt. Charles Satterlee. On Veterans
Day, 11 November 1999, the 111
Tampa crewmen and four Navy men
were posthumously presented with
the Purple Heart.
 Korean and Vietnam
Aerial Bravery!
JETS, GUNSHIPS, AND HELICOPTERS CHANGED THE BATTLEFIELDS IN KOREAN AND VIETNAM.
RELIVE THE ACTION IN THE SKIES OVER KOREA AND SOUTHEAST ASIA WITH THESE AVIATION ADVENTURES!
PHANTOM IN THE BEAUTIFUL SABRE: A CHARLIE CHASERS:
RIVER: THE FLIGHT OF USAF PILOT’S MEMOIR HISTORY OF USAF
LINFIELD TWO ZERO OF GUNNERY SCHOOL AC-119 “SHADOW”
ONE AND FLYING THE GUNSHIPS IN THE
GARY FOSTER STORIED F-86F VIETNAM WAR
On May 14, 1967, a US Navy F-4B EDWARD K. MILLS II LARRY ELTON FLETCHER
Phantom II, flown by Ev Southwick In 1957, Edward Mills was Charlie Chasers tells the
and Jack Rollins, launched from awarded pilot’s wings in the amazing story of the AC-119
the USS Kitty Hawk. Their F-4 was U.S. Air Force. Because he fin- “Shadow” gunships and the
disabled while flying a mission ished first in his pilot training crews of the 71st Special
against the Thanh Hoa Bridge in North Vietnam. Both airmen class, he had his pick of assignments. To his delight, Operations Squadron and the 17th Special Operations
ejected and were taken prisoner. on the list of openings was one that he, and many Squadron who wreaked havoc on the enemy during
Phantom in the River is the fascinating account other brand new, single-engine jet pilots, coveted the Vietnam War. The fixed-wing aircraft provided
of the plane’s flight and of the two pilots` heroic above all others: the opportunity to fly the storied close-fire support to U.S. and friendly troops with the
survival. Also included is the story of the author’s trip North American F-86F Sabre, the great, air-to-air ability to fire up to 6,000 rounds per minute delivered
to Vietnam in 2004. Along with the two Navy airmen, victory bird of the Korean War. This is his story, from with deadly accuracy. Ground troops came to rely on
the group reunite with the wreckage of the pilots` his days in ROTC at Princeton, through a year of pilot the AC-119 as dependable aerial defenders of fire sup-
Phantom. What results is an emotional visit to the training in Texas, to eventually flying the beautiful port bases, air bases, Special Forces camps, villages,
bridge and site of their capture 37 years earlier. F-86 Sabre—and all that transpired in between. hamlets, and remote outposts.
Pages: 230 - $16.95 Pages: 152 - $12.95 Pages: 328 - $19.95(pb) $24.95 (hc)
FLIGHT LINE: THE ADVENTURES OF A LOOKING FOR FLYBOYS: ONE G.I.’S
VIETNAM VETERAN AC-130 CREW CHIEF JOURNEY – VIETNAM 1970-1971
THOMAS R. COMBS TOM MESSENGER
The year is 1969. Neil Armstrong walks on the moon. Upstate With the escalation of the Vietnam War in the late 1960s,
New York hosts an outdoor concert called Woodstock. The the American military discovered it needed a new kind of
Vietnam war rages on. Tom Combs, a young man from Seattle, helicopter to cope with the rugged combat conditions in
faces certain draft induction. He decides upon the United States Southeast Asia. This resulted in the development of the
Air Force as the best choice of service. After tech schooling, Bell UH-1 Iroquois and the Boeing-Vertol CH-47 Chinook.
Combs is assigned as an assistant crew chief on a C-130 at Now they just needed crews to man them. In a sense they
Dyess AFB, Texas, a stint in the Middle East, and eventually, were Looking for Flyboys.
he’s assigned to the most prestigious squadron of aircraft in S.E. Asia: The 16th Special Tom Messenger’s memoir follows his experiences as a Chinook flight engi-
Operations Squadron of AC-130s. Call sign: SPECTRE. FLIGHTLINE offers a unique neer on missions over Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. It not only relates the tales
“behind-the-scenes” look at how maintenance crews keep their airplanes flying – and of those missions during the course of the war but also his interactions with fellow
fighting – all from the point of view of a seasoned Vietnam veteran Air Force Crew Chief. soldiers and the civilian population.
Pages: 236 - $16.95 (pb) $29.95 (hc) Pages: 218 - $16.95

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