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

Warship Wednesday Nov. 16: Estonia’s national hero, AKA the Soviet’s immortal submarine

Here we see the Kalev-class allveelaev (coastal submarine minelayer) EML Lembit (1) of the Estonian Navy as she appears today on dry land in Tallinn. Curiously enough, the British-built sub was one of the most successful of the Soviet Navy.

Lembit (also Lambite, Lembito or Lembitus) is the elder of Sakala County and national hero who led the struggle of the Estonians against the German feudal lords in the 12th century and the name was seen as a no-brainer for a new Estonian Navy. Their first operational gunboat in 1918 when the country broke from the newly Bolshevik Russia was given the moniker. The country’s first naval combat, on 20 January 1919, was when they sent the gunboat Lembit (which had been the Russian Beiber, c. 1906, 990-tons) to suppress a pro-Bolshevik revolt on Saaremaa island. Lembit was scrapped in 1927, but her name would live on.

The mighty Estonian gunboat Lembit (1918-1927)

Two other Estonian surface ships, the Russian 1,260-ton Novik-class destroyers Spartak and Avtroil, had been captured by British cruisers Caradoc and Calypso and destroyers Vendetta, Vortigern and Wakeful 26 December 1918 and handed over to the Estonians in 1919 who later put them into service as Lennuk and Vambola (Wambola), respectively.

In 1933, the Estonians sold these two ships to *Peru as BAP Almirante Villar and Almirante Guise who were gearing up for  a conflict with Colombia that never emerged. (*Note: the Peruvians kept them in service, despite their Brown-Boveri steam turbines, Vulkan boilers, and Pulitov armament, until as late as 1952 and their hulks are now in scuttled condition off San Lorenzo)

With the money from the sale of the two pre-owned Russian destroyers (for $820,000), and national subscription of scrap metals and donations, the Estonian government contracted with Vickers and Armstrong Ltd. at Barrow-in-Furness for two small coastal submarines (Vickers hulls 705 and 706).

As the Estonian Navy only had a single surface warfare ship, the Sulev— which was the once scuttled former German torpedo boat A32— they were largely putting their naval faith in the two subs augmented by a half dozen small coastal mine warfare ships, a Meredessantpataljon marine battalion and some scattered Tsarist-era coastal defense installations.

Class leader Kalev and Lembit were ordered in May 1935, then commissioned in March and April 1937 respectively.

Small ships at just 195-feet overall, they were optimized for the shallow conditions of the Baltic– capable of floating on the surface in just 12 feet of water and submerging in 40. Their maximum submergence depth was 240 feet, though their topside and surfacing area was reinforced with 12mm of steel for operations in ice.

Their periscopes were made by Carl Zeiss, and their 40mm gun by contract to the Czech firm of Skoda.

While they did carry a quartet of 21-inch tubes and, if fully loaded and four reloads carried forward, would have eight steel fish to drop on a foe, her main armament was considered to be the 20 mines she could carry.

The Estonians purchased a total of 312 SSM (EMA) Vickers T Mk III anchored sea mines, each with a 330 pound charge and the ship’s 39-inch wide mine tubes were configured for them. These mines used electric fuzes and one, marked I / J-04, was lost in training in 1939, then later found by fishermen from Cape Letipea in 1989. Defused, it is on display at Tallin alongside Lembit. Besides one in a Russian museum, it is the only preserved Vickers T-III.

The mines were carried two each in 10 vertical tubes (5 per side).

Oddly enough, the torpedo tubes fitted with brass sleeves to change their diameter to accept smaller WWI-era 450mm torpedoes the Estonians had inherited from the Russians.

Lembit’s four tubes were sleeved to accept older 450mm torpedoes, though the Soviets removed the inserts to fire regular 533mm ones during the war. The torpedo room kept four reloads (note the cradle for one to the lower left) and 16 sailors– half the crew– bunked among the fish.

Their 40mm gun was specially sealed inside a pneumatic tube and could be ready to fire within 90 seconds of surfacing.

Close up of her neat-o 40mm Skoda-mdae Bofors which could withdraw inside the pressure hull. Word on the street is that the Soviet’s first generation SLBM tubes owed a lot to this hatch design.

The Estonians were rightfully proud of the two vessels when they arrived home in 1937.

Lembit on Baltic trials in 1937. Some 100 Estonian officers and men trained in Great Britain alongside Royal Navy sailors on HMs submarines in 1935-37 to jump start their undersea warfare program.

Lembit and her sister in Tallin, the pride of the Estonian Navy

Another profile while in brief Estonian service, 1937-40

Lembit was the only Estonian submarine to ever fire her torpedoes, launching two at a training hulk in 1938.

In early 1940, the Germans expressed interest in acquiring the submarines from neutral Estonia, which was rebuffed.

With no allies possible due to the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of the year before and the Estonian internment of the Polish submarine ORP Orzeł, which escaped from Tallinn to the UK while the Soviets and Germans were battling Poland (with two guards from Lembit, Roland Kirikmaa and Boris Milstein aboard), Moscow demanded military bases on Estonian soil, threatening war if Estonia did not comply.

The Estonians signed a mutual defense agreement with the Soviets on 28 September 1939, which soon turned into an outright occupation and consumption by the Soviets on 6 August 1940. Her bosun, Herbert Kadajase, removed the ship’s emblem from her conning tower the night before and spirited it away, hiding it at his home.

Thus, the Estonian Navy was amalgamated into the Red Banner Fleet with the torpedo boat Sulev being handed to the Soviet Border Guard and the two British-made submarines cleared for combat.

This view of Lembit and her sister illustrate their “saddle” mine tubes amidships. The bulge on each side housed five mine tubes, each capable of holding two large ship-killing Vickers sea mines. “Allveelaev” is Estonian for submarine

Folded into the 1st Submarine Brigade of the Baltic Fleet, forward based in Liepaja, the ships were given almost fully Soviet Russian crews with a few Estonian veterans (torpedomen Aart Edward and Sikemyae Alfred, electricians Sumera and Toivo Berngardovich, sailor Kirkimaa Roland Martnovich, and boatswain Leopold Pere Denisovich) who volunteered to remain in service, primarily to translate tech manuals, gauges and markings which were written in Estonian.

When the balloon went up on the Eastern Front, Kalev completed two brief combat patrols and set a string of 10 mines then went missing while carrying out a special operation in late 1941. According to some sources, her mines blew up two ships. She is presumed sunk by a German mine near the island of Prangli sometime around 1 November 1941.

The Soviets kept Lembit‘s name, though of course in Russian (Лембит), and she proved very active indeed.

Surviving Luftwaffe air attacks at Liepaja, she made for Kronstadt where he brass torpedo tube sleeves were removed and she was armed with Soviet model 21-inch torpedoes.

1942 entry in Conways Fighting Ship for the USSR, showing Kalev and Lembit.

Lembit was sent out on her first mission in August 1941 with 1LT Alexis Matiyasevich in command (himself the son of Red Army hero Gen. Mikhail S. Matiyasevich who commanded the 7th Army during the Russian Civil War, holding Petrograd against Yudenich’s White Guards in 1919 and later, as head of the 5th Army, smashed Kolchack in Siberia and ran Ungern-Sternberg to the ground in Mongolia).

During the war, Lembit completed seven patrols and remained at sea some 109 days (pretty good for a sea that freezes over about four months a year).

Each patrol led to 20 mines being laid, totaling some 140 throughout the war. These mines claimed 24 vessels (though most did not sink and many that did were very small). She also undertook eight torpedo attacks, releasing 13 torpedoes.

Her largest victim, the German-flagged merchant Finnland (5281 GRT), sank near 59°36’N, 21°12’E on 14 September 1944 by two torpedoes. It was during the fight to sink the Finnland, which was part of a German convoy, that Lembit was hit in return by more than 50 depth charges from escorting sub-chasers, causing a 13-minute long fire and her to bottom, with six casualties.

Some of Lembit‘s log entries are at the ever-reliable Uboat.net.

On 12 December 1944, Lembit– according to Soviet records– rammed and sank the German submarine U-479, though this is disputed. Heavily damaged in the collision, she spent most of the rest of the war in Helsinki.

In Helsinki, Winter 1944-45

Keeping her in service was problematic and her worn out batteries were reportedly replaced by banks of several new ones taken from American Lend-Lease M3 Lee tanks that the Soviets were not impressed with when compared to their T-34s.

The Soviets, with their stock of prewar Estonian/English sea mines largely left behind in Tallin, tried to use local varieties of their Type EF/EF-G (ЭП ЭП-Г) anchor contact mine but they wouldn’t work properly with the Lembit‘s tubes. This was corrected by a small shipment of British Vickers T Mk IV mines that arrived via Murmansk through Lend Lease in 1943 just for use with Lembit. The T-IV, though slightly larger than the mines Vickers sold the Estonians pre-war, fit Lembit like a charm.

Her crew was highly decorated, with 10 members awarded the Order of Lenin, 14 the Order of the Red Banner, and another 14 the Order of the Red Star.

Awarding of the crew Lembit medals For the Defense of Leningrad June 6, 1943

Finally, by decree of the Supreme Soviet, on 6 March 1945 Lembit herself was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and named an “Immortal Submarine.”

Lembit after the war.

When the war ended, Lembit was decommissioned in 1946, used as a training ship until 1955 then loaned to a shipyard for a time for study–with her specialized gun hatch extensively researched for use with Soviet ballistic missile hatches. During this time period, much of her brasswork, her Zeiss periscope, and other miscellaneous items walked off.

While in postwar Soviet service, Lembit lost her name and in turn was designated U-1, S-85, 24-STZ, and UTS-29 on the ever-shifting list of Russki pennant numbers through the 1970s.

She was sent back to Tallin in the late 1970s, her name restored, and turned into a museum to the submariners of the Soviet Navy in 1985.

Her service was immortalized by the Soviets, who rewrote history to make her Estonian origin more palatable. In Moscow’s version, the hard working people of Estonia saw the error of their independent bourgeois ways and eagerly joined the Red Banner to strike at the fascists.

When Estonia decided not to be part of the new post-Cold War Russia, a group of patriots boarded Lembit (still officially “owned” by the Red Navy) on 22 April 1992 and raised the Estonian flag on her for the first time since 1940. Reportedly the Russians were getting ready to tow her back to St. Petersberg, which was not going to be allowed a second time.

In 1996, the newly independent Estonian postal service issued a commemorative stamp in connection with the 60th anniversary of Lembit‘s launch.

Lembit has since been fully renovated and, as Estonian Ship #1, is the nominal flag of the fleet, though she is onshore since 2011 as part of the Estonian State Maritime Museum. Located in Tallin, the site is a seaplane hangar built for the Tsar’s Navy and used in secession by the German (1918 occupation) Estonian, Soviet and German (1941-44 occupation) navies.

The crest swiped by Bosun Kadajase in 1940? His family kept it as a cherished heirloom of old independent Estonia and presented it to the museum

Click to very much big up

In 2011, some 200 technical drawings from Vickers were found in the UK of the class and have been split between archives there and in Estonia.

Her Russian skipper, Matiyasevich, retired from the Navy in 1955 as a full Captain and served as an instructor for several years at various academies, becoming known as an expert in polar operations. He died in St. Petersburg in 1995, just after Lembit was reclaimed by the Estonians, and was buried at St. Seraphim cemetery, named a Hero of the Russian Federation at the time.

His memoir, “In the depths of the Baltic Sea: 21 underwater victories” was published in 2007.

Specs:

Displacement standard/normal: 665 / 853 tons
Length: 59.5m/195-feet
Beam: 7.24m/24.7-feet
Draft: 3.50m/12-feet
Diving depth operational, m 75
No of shafts 2
Machinery: 2 Vickers diesels / 2 electric motors
Power, h. p.: 1200 / 790
Max speed, kts, surfaced/submerged: 13.5 / 8.5
Fuel, tons: diesel oil 31
Endurance, nm(kts) 4000(8) / 80(4), 20 days.
Complement: 38 in Estonian service, 32 in Soviet
Armament:
(As completed)
1 x 1 – 40/43 Skoda built folding and retracting Bofors.
4 – 533mm TT, sleeved to 450mm (bow, 8 torpedo load),
20 British Vickers T-III sea mines
1x .303 Lewis gun
(Soviet service)
4 – 533 TT (bow, 8 torpedo),
20 British Vickers T-IV sea mines

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

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Navy Seaman Raymond Chavez is now 104 years old but he remembers one of the first sightings of a Japanese midget submarine hours before the attack and racing back to his ship once the fight was on.

Chavez was one of just 13 men on the crew of the 85-foot long converted wooden-hulled purse seiner USS Condor, pressed into service as a Coast Guard-manned coastal minesweeper (AMc-14).

USS Condor (AMc-14) Photographed in 1941, probably off San Diego, California. Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives – http://www.history.navy.mil Photo #: 19-N-24615

While conducting routine sweeps outside the harbor, the crew spotted what is is thought to have been the first enemy contact at 0350– more than four hours before the air attack began– when they saw what they felt to be an enemy submarine.

“He said, Mr.McCoy, we got company,” recalled Chavez, who was at the minesweeper’s helm, remembering the lookout saying to the officer of the deck.

The contact was handed over to the crew of the destroyer USS Ward, who would later fire the first American shot of the Pacific War on the submarine around 0630, while Chavez’s ship was ordered to return to Pearl.

He had only just returned home and gotten asleep when his wife awoke him to the news of the air attack.

“You could see the black smoke from one end to the other,” said Chavez. “The ships were on fire, and burning their oil.”

Rushing back to his ship, he spent the next 10 days underway, first fighting the Japanese, then helping with the recovery.

“I started crying,” said Chavez. “I’m not ashamed to admit it…all the Sailors who were trying to save themselves, and all the dead bodies, and the oil.

As reported by the San Diego Tribune, Chavez is working out regularly and has flown back to Pearl Harbor for the 75th anniversary of the attack on Wednesday.

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

Warship Wednesday (on a Thursday!): The dazzling President of the Royal Navy

IWM SP 1650

Here we see a “warship-Q” of the World War I Royal Navy, the Flower/Anchusa-class sloop HMS Saxifrage masquerading as a seemingly innocent British merchantman in dazzle camouflage, circa 1918. Should one of the Kaiser’s U-boats come close enough to get a good look, two matching sets of QF 4.7 inch and 12-pounder guns would plaster the poor bugger, sucker punch style.

With Kaiser Willy’s unterseeboot armada strangling the British Isles in the Great War, the RN needed a set of convoy escorts that were cheap to make and could relieve regular warships for duty with the fleet.

This led to a class of some 120 supped-up freighters which, when given a triple hull to allow them to soak up mines and torpedoes and equipped with a battery of 4 or 4.7-inch main guns and 3 or 12 pounder secondaries augmented with depth charges, could bust a submarine when needed. Just 1,200-tons and 267-feet overall, they could blend in with the rest of the “merchies” in which they were charged with protecting. Classified as sloops of war, they could make 17 knots with both boilers glowing, making them fast enough to keep up.

Built to merchant specs, they could be made in a variety of commercial yards very quickly, and were all named after various flowers, which brought them the class nickname of “cabbage boats.” Ordered under the Emergency War Programme for the Royal Navy, class leader HMS Acacia ordered in January 1915 and delivered just five months later.

The hero of our story, HMS Saxifrage, was named after a pretty little perennial plant also known as a rockfoil or London Pride.

Laid down by Lobnitz & Co Limited, Renfrew, Scotland, who specialized in dredges, trawlers and tugs and endures as a marine engineering company, she was completed 29 January 1918 as a Q-ship– a job that the last 40 of her class were designed to perform.

The concept, the Q-ship (their codename referred to the vessels’ homeport, Queenstown, in Ireland) was to have a lone merchantman plod along until a German U-boat approached, and, due to the small size of the prize, sent over a demo team to blow her bottom out or assembled her deck gun crew to poke holes in her waterline. At that point, the “merchantman” which was actually a warship equipped with a few deck guns hidden behind fake bulkheads and filled with “unsinkable” cargo such as pine boards to help keep her afloat if holed, would smoke said U-boat.

In all the Brits used 366 Q-ships, of which 61 were lost in action while they only took down 14 U-boats, a rather unsuccessful showing. One storied slayer, Mary B Mitchell, claimed 2-3 U-boats sunk and her crew was even granted the DSO, but post-war analysis quashed her record back down to zero.

As for Saxifrage, commissioned with just nine months and change left in the war, did not see a lot of hot action, escorting convoys around British waters. While she reported nine U-boat contacts, she was never able to bag one.

Soon after the Great War ended, the Flower-class vessels were liquidated, with 18 being lost during the conflict (as well as Gentian and Myrtle lost in the Baltic to mines in 1919). The Royal Navy underwent a great constriction inside of a year. At the date of the Armistice, the fleet enumerated 415,162 officers and men. By the following November, 162,000, a figure less than when the war began in 1914, though the Empire had grown significantly after picking up a number of German and Ottoman colonies.

Saxifrage was one of the few ships of her class retained.

THE ROYAL NAVY IN BRITAIN, 1919-1939 (Q 20478) Cadets of HMS PRESIDENT cheering the boats as they pass down the Thames in the naval pageant, 4th August 1919. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205261231

Her engines removed, she was tapped to become the training establishment HMS President (replacing the former HMS Buzzard, a Nymphe-class composite screw sloop, shown above) when her sistership Marjoram, originally intended for that task, was wrecked in January 1921 off Flintstone Head while en route to fit out at Hawlbowline.

Moored on the River Thames, Saxifrage by 1922 became used as a drill ship by Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve.

Alterations to her physical fabric included fitting square windows on the lower decks and adding a top deck for parade, drilling, and small arms gunnery practice. After her change of use to a training vessel, she boasted four decks, with internal spaces including the Captain’s Quarters, Drill Hall and adjacent Gunroom, Quarter Deck and Ward Room.

HMS President moored on the Thames at high tide in 1929. Photograph Planet News Archive.

By the time WWII came, just a handful of Flower-class sloops remained afloat.

HMS Laburnum, like her a RNVR drill ship, was lost to the Japanese at Singapore then later raised and scrapped.

HMS Cornflower, a drill ship at Hong Kong, suffered a similar fate.

HMS Chrysanthemum, used as a target-towing vessel in Home Waters, was transferred to the RNVR 1938 and stationed on the Embankment in London next to President where she would remain until scrapped in 1995.

HMS Foxglove served on China station and returned to Britain, later becoming a guard ship at Londonderry in Northern Ireland before being scrapped in 1946.

Ex-HMS Buttercup, ironically serving in the Italian Navy as Teseo, was sunk at Trapani 11 April 1943.

Two of the class, ex- HMS Jonquil and ex- HMS Gladiolus, remained in service in the Portuguese Navy classified as the cruisers (!) Carvalho Araújo and Republic, respectively, until as late as 1961.

Saxifrage/President continued her role as a stationary training ship. One of President‘s main roles during the war was to train men of the Maritime Royal Artillery, soldiers sent to sea and serve with naval ratings as gunners on board defensively equipped merchant ships (DEMS).

Learning the ropes. Two of the members of the Maritime Royal Artillery study the information board describing how to form bends and hitches. IWM A 16786. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205149661

Britain’s sea soldiers in training. Men of the Maritime Royal Artillery are now being given elementary training in seamanship at HMS PRESIDENT, the DEMS base on the Thames. Here a number of men are being initiated into the mysteries of “Bends and Hitches” (knots) by Leading Seaman W J Bateman, Enfield, Middlesex. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205149660

“Boat pulling” part of their elementary training. Many of the Maritime Royal Artillery have been torpedoed and have had to take to open boats. Training in the whaler makes them useful members of a boat’s crew. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205149662

Moored in the Thames, President was also popular in hosting events and visitors.

THE DUCHESS OF KENT VISITS HMS PRESIDENT. 15 MARCH 1943, WEARING THE UNIFORM OF COMMANDANT OF THE WRNS, THE DUCHESS OF KENT PAID AN INFORMAL VISIT TO HMS PRESIDENT. (A 15047) On extreme left is Captain R D Binney, CBE, RN, The Duchess of Kent, Admiral Sir Martin R Dunbar Nasmith, and Commander H C C Clarke, DSO, RN. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205148173

ADMIRAL’S FAREWELL DINNER TO ADMIRAL STARK AT GREENWICH. 13 AUGUST 1945, ROYAL NAVAL COLLEGE, GREENWICH, DURING THE FAREWELL DINNER TO ADMIRAL H R STARK, USN, BY THE BOARD OF ADMIRALTY. (A 30003) Saluting HMS PRESIDENT en route to Greenwich, left to right: Mr A V Alexander; Admiral Stark; and Rear Admiral C B Barry, DSO, Naval Secretary. Other members of the party including Mr G H Hall can also be seen. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205161196

After the war, President was the last of her class in British service and reverted to her role as HQ of the RNVR London Division, which she held until 1987, remaining the whole time at her traditional mooring next to Blackfriars Bridge.

The name HMS President is retained as a “stone frigate” or shore establishment of the Royal Naval Reserve, based on the northern bank of the River Thames near Tower Bridge in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

In 1987, the old girl was donated to the HMS President (London) Limited non-profit who has extensively refitted her for use in hosting private parties, weddings, receptions, etc. while somewhat restoring her appearance.

In 2014, as part of the First World War commemorations, her hull was covered once more in a distinctive ‘dazzle’ design, courtesy of artist Tobias Rehberger.

Today President is on the National Register of Historic Vessels, is the last Q-ship, last of her class and last RN ship to have fought as an anti-submarine vessel in the Great War.

She is nothing if not historic.

However, due to the upcoming construction of the Thames Tideway Tunnel to tackle sewage discharges into the River Thames, President had to leave Blackfriars Bridge this February.

© Rob Powell. 11/02/2016. HMS President has arrived in Chatham after leaving the Victoria Embankment last week. The historic vessel in a Dazzleship livery left her moorings on the Thames on the 5th February because of work taking place on the Thames Tideway sewage tunnel. Her journey down the river was initially held because of bad conditions as she moored at Erith until setting off again today. The vessel was tasked with finding U Baots in WW1 and has been moored on the Thames since 1922 where she has fulfilled a number of roles including protecting St Paul’s during WWII and more recently as an events space. Credit : Rob Powell

Her funnel and deckhouse was removed for the tow downriver and she is in limbo, with the current management team trying to raise money to secure a new mooring along the Thames but without much luck.

From the group’s website:

The HMS President, one of the UK’s last remaining WWI ships, has been unsuccessful in its bid to secure Libor funding in today’s Autumn Statement from the Chancellor.

The funding bid that had seen support in national newspapers and a parliamentary motion, with more than 20 signatories, has failed to secure vital restoration funding – this could now see the country’s last remaining submarine hunter of the Atlantic campaign scrapped.

Paul Williams, Director of the HMS President Preservation Trust, said; “The lack of recognition for this worthy cause if hugely disappointing. The HMS President Preservation Trust, and our friends in Parliament and elsewhere, has been working extremely hard to secure the future of this wonderful war heritage site.

“Her hull is only a few millimetres thick now in some places. Therefore, if restoration funding is not found soon she will be consigned to the scrap heap – as her sister ship the HMS Chrysanthemum was in 1995. As we mark the centenary commemorations of WWI it seems an absolute travesty that we will potentially be saying goodbye to one of only three remaining warships from that era. What a loss to our heritage that will be.”

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph MPs and Peers, including the Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Boyce, and Chairman of the Defence Select Committee, Dr Julian Lewis MP, had called for the ship to be rescued. The parliamentarians had urged the Chancellor to look favourably on the bid, or risk losing her forever, stating “This would be an irreplaceable loss to our war heritage, and a sorry way to mark the country’s First World War centenary commemorations.”

Hopefully she will be saved, as she is literally one of a kind.

Other that, she is preserved in maritime art.

Specs:

Dazzle Painted Ship Model Sloop Saxifrage/Tamarisk 203 & 204 (MOD 2250) Small dazzle ship model. It is hand-painted blue and black on a white background. The number 203 is inscribed on a piece of paper and attached to the mast on the model. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30019301

1,290 long tons (1,311 t)
Length:
250 ft. (76.2 m) p/p
262 ft. 3 in (79.93 m) o/a
Beam:     35 ft. (10.7 m)
Draught:
11 ft. 6 in (3.51 m) mean
12 ft. 6 in (3.81 m) – 13 ft. 8 in (4.17 m) deep
Propulsion:     4-cylinder triple expansion engine, 2 boilers, 2,500 hp (1,864 kW), 1 screw
Speed:     16 knots (29.6 km/h; 18.4 mph)
Range:     Coal: 260 tons
Complement: 93
Armament:
Designed to mount :
2 × 12-pounder gun
1 × 7.5 inch howitzer or 1 × 200 lb. stick-bomb howitzer
4 × Depth charge throwers
As built:
2 × 4 in (102 mm) guns
1 or 2 × 12-pounder guns
Depth charge throwers

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

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

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

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

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

I’m a member, so should you be!

PNS/M Hamza (S139) – built in Pakistan, commissioned 14 August 2006. She is a a modernized and long–range air-independent powered Agosta–90B class submarine designed and developed through a joint venture between the French DCNS and Pakistan’s KSEW Ltd

In the latest case of keeping up with the Indians– who launched their first nuclear-capable, submarine-launched missile in 2008, Pakistan did the same last week by launching a home-grown SLCM roughly comparable to the early variants of the Tomahawk.

Reuters 

The Pakistani military said the Babur-3 missile was “capable of delivering various types of payloads and will provide Pakistan with a Credible Second Strike Capability, augmenting deterrence”.

An army spokesman later confirmed the language meant the missile was equipped to carry nuclear warheads.

The Babur-3 is a sea-based variant of the ground-launched Babur-2 missile, which was tested in December. The military said the missile had features such as “underwater controlled propulsion and advanced guidance and navigation”

The Submarine Command of the Pakistani Navy have five French Agosta-class diesel submarines, including three built locally to an AIP design. Further, they have eight 2,300-ton Hangor-class boats they are building in conjunction with China.

It is believed one of the AIP Agostas, PNS/M Khalid (S137), fired the Babur-3, which is thought to have a 200~ mile range.

This mysterious little midget was photographed in the CIA Museum in McLean, Virginia in 2011.

From the official description:

CIA designed and manufactured this two-man semi-submersible in the 1950s. It carried no weapons, was cramped, had limited endurance, and required a “mother ship” for transport and recovery. However, the vessel could approach areas ships could not.

Then there is the rest of the story.

Codenamed the SKIFF, the craft could be towed to a location and cached at a depth of up to 30 feet below the surface if needed.

Designed in the tail-end of WWII as part of the OSS’s Project NAPKO, these craft were to be used to deposit specially trained Korean Americans and Korean prisoners of war for infiltration into Japanese-occupied Korea, and ultimately into Japan itself. Their mission was to collect intelligence and conduct sabotage in advance of Operation Olympic, the planned US invasion of the Japanese home islands in November 1945.

Half the 2-3 man teams would be landed via nylon boat from fleet submarines coming danger close while the other half would infiltrate via our trusty little submarines towed within 30-40 miles of shore. The little semi-submersibles could be cached just offshore on the seabed and used by (surviving) agents to exfiltrate back to sea.

As noted in a great 11-page article from Studies in Intelligence, the agents would go local:

“Typical of NAPKO missions, the teams were to carry minimal equipment and supplies: 100,000 yen, a radio, appropriate clothing for passing as locals, and a Japanese-manufactured shovel for burying the team’s equipment after landing.”

The boats, built by John Trumpy and Sons of Camden, New Jersey, were termed “Gizmos” and never used, though the Navy did keep them around for awhile, one even lasting long enough to be put on display at the USS Massachusetts in Fall River, incorrectly labeled as a Japanese suicide submarine for years.

Gizmo boat at Battleship Cove

In 1953, the CIA thought the concept valid enough to commission two more from Trumpy, codename SKIFFs.

“SKIFF also appears to have come close to operational use, but at least two missions for which it was deployed were canceled.”

Some 19-feet long, the craft drew 2’8″ when buoyant and could ride almost four feet low when semi-submerged, leaving just a foot or so of the low-profile hull above surface. Powered by a 25hp “Atomic Four” gasoline engine with 30-gal tank, the craft could putter along at 5-knots when buoyant or 4.1-kts semisubmerged with a combat radius of 110 nm. The craft weighed 3,650-pound sans crew. Without removing the slabs of ballast, the maximum cargo carried including crew was 608-pounds (exclusive of the weight of two submachine guns). If the ballast was scuttled this could be boosted about another 100 pounds.

The 49-page declassified manual is here. Enjoy!

Apparently, there were several (at least three) very nice scale models made of U.S. S-class submarines and German Type VII U-boats produced for the forgettable Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel U-571 flick made in 2000.

Lot of plot holes in that movie…

We have one at the Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum in Biloxi that is about 40 feet long and has since been made up to mimic U-166, which is sunk about 50 miles south of there as the crow flies. It used to be RC and capable of floating. I call it Model #1.

The Biloxi-based model. An image I took in 2008. It was recently refirbed by local volunteer Seebees and submarine vets

A very near to scale floating set is still in Grand Harbor, Malta (Google Earth N 35 52’46.00/ E 14 29’49.92). I call it Model #2.

Formerly used as the USS S-33 in the film U-571, she has since been used at least twice since then as U.S. and Brit boats

At least two TV movies, one in 2001 about the USS Sailfish, and another “Ghostboat” a 2006 British horror film about a lost HM submarine popping back up sans crew have been made using U-571‘s models and sets.

Well, a guy in Granite Falls, just outside of Seattle is trying to give away (!) a 40-foot model from U-571 that actually submerges (!) for free (!). I call it, Model #3.

From the listing:

This is a 1/5th scale Type VIIc German WWII U-boat model Submarine. It is a movie effects miniature from the movie U-571. It was made as a functioning model with working ballast tanks so it could really dive and surface. It is approx 40 feet long and weighs several tons.

The outer skin is fiberglass and inside it has a metal frame and tanks for compressed air and ballast. What you see in the pictures is everything I have for it. there is no conning tower or deck plates etc.

It is mounted on a metal frame that has wheels but has sat for so long it has sank into the dirt a bit. It’s going to take a fair effort to get it rolling and move it so make sure you are prepared for that.

With a little dressing up it could be a great business promo or just cool yard art. I would hate to see it go to scrap.

I am offering it for free but I do expect that it be picked up immediately and professionally.

Sadly no conning tower

The interesting part of this rig is that is submerges– note the ballast tanks

Now that’s not something you see every day

I emailed the Naval Undersea Museum in Washington to make them aware this is out there, so maybe it will get put on public display sometime soon. It’s a shame to let it go to waste.

Here we see the famous photo of the first U.S./British coordinated surfacing at the North Pole, 18 May 1987, with three nuclear-powered hunter killer fleet submarines chilling in the Arctic.

Photo via WUWT

The ships are, left to right: the Swiftsure-class HMS Superb (S-109), and the Sturgeon-class submarines USS Billfish (SSN-676), USS Sea Devil (SSN-664).

-Superb paid off 26 September 2008 after service in the Falklands (kinda) and Afghanistan.
-Billfish was decommissioned on 1 July 1999 and recycled by 2000.
-Sea Devil was decommissioned on 16 October 1991 and recycled by 1999.

While the Sturgeons have been turned to razor blades, some of their parts are on display such as the 22 fairwater planes located at Magnuson Park at Sand Point in Seattle and 11 emplaced (along with 11 Soviet fins) at Miami’s Pelican Harbor Park, North Bay Villages:

Notably, the Miami installation includes fins from both of the Sturgeon’s that surfaced for our tea party!

Seattle fin pod: Seahorse SSN-669,  Simon Bolivar SSBN-641, Puffer SSN-652, Gato SSN-615, John Adams SSBN-620, Plunger SSN-595, Whale SSN-638, Bergall SSN-667, Flying Fish SSN-673, Tullibee SSN-594, Pargo SSN-650, and Gurnard SSN-662.

Miami fin pod: Sea Devil SSN-664, Pogy SSN-647, Sand Lance SSN-660, Pintado SSN-672, Trepang SSN-674, Billfish SSN-676, Archerfish SSN-678, Tunny SSN-682, Von Steuben SSBN-632, Sculpin SSN-590, Cavalla SSN-684.

There is also the intact sail of the Sturgeon herself (SSN-637) at the U.S. Naval Undersea Museum at Keyport, Washington.

The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation last week posted images of the Pacific fleet submarine rescue unit at work.

As noted by my friend HI Sutton over at Covert Shores, “They show a Project 18270 BESTER rescue submersible (DSRV – Deep Sea Rescue Vehicle) deploying from the rescue ship Igor Belousov. Also shown is a British-built Saab SeaEye Tiger ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle). The same ship and BESTER DSRV AC-40 was tested in the Baltic in 2015.”

The Russians have two Besters, Northern Fleet based AC-38 and AC-40, and the 40-foot/39-ton rescue subs have a limited endurance and can pick up 16-18 submariners on each trip. They are not built for combat, and are capable of poking around at just 3 knots– but they can ascend/descend at about 60 feet per second once they get going.

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

Warship Wednesday, May 24, 2017: The leopard of rum row turned magic-eyed U-boat buster

Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1972. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. NH 76377

Here we see the Clemson-class “four-piper” flush-decker destroyer USS Hunt (DD-194) at anchor in New York Harbor when new, circa 1920. One of a tremendous class of vessels some 156-strong, she had a long and varied career.

An expansion of the Wickes-class destroyers with a third more fuel capacity to enable them to escort a convoy across the Atlantic without refueling, the Clemsons were needed to combat the pressing German submarine threat of the Great War. At 1,200-tons and with a top speed of 35 knots, they were brisk. Another thing they were was built too late for the war.

The hero of our story, USS Hunt, was laid down at Newport News 10 weeks before Armistice Day, named in honor of William Henry Hunt, Secretary of the Navy under President Garfield. Peace delayed her completion until 30 September 1920 when the above image was taken.

After shakedown, Hunt participated in training and readiness exercises with the Atlantic Fleet and conducted torpedo trials on the range out of Newport, R.I. before moving to Charleston.

With the looming idea of naval limitations treaties, the USN rapidly scrapped 40 of their new Clemsons (those built with British style Yarrow boilers) and put whole squadrons of these low mileage vessels in ordinary. One, USS Moody (DD-277) was even sold to MGM for making the film “Hell Below” where she was used as German destroyer and blown up during filming!

Our Hunt decommissioned at Philadelphia Navy Yard 11 August 1922, with only 23 months of gentle Naval service under her belt.

While the Hunt was sitting in Philly, a funny thing happened. The country got sober. Well, kind of.

As deftly retold in a paper by the USCG Historians Office, the service, then part of the Treasury Department, was hard-pressed to chase down fast bootlegging boats shagging out to “Rum Row” where British and Canadian merchants rested in safe water on the 3-mile limit loaded with cases of good whiskey and rum for sale.

This led the agency to borrow 31 relatively new destroyers from the Navy, an act that would have been akin to the USN transferring most of the FFG7 frigates to the Coast Guard during the “cocaine cowboy” days of the 1980s.

USCGD Ammen (CG-8) in pursuit of a rumrunner

U.S. Coast Guard destroyers at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, 1926, note the “CG” hull numbers

From the USCG Historian:

In the end, the rehabilitation of the vessels became a saga in itself because of the exceedingly poor condition of many of these war-weary ships. In many instances, it took nearly a year to bring the vessels up to seaworthiness. Additionally, these were by far the largest and most sophisticated vessels ever operated by the service and trained personnel were nearly nonexistent. As a result, Congress authorized hundreds of new enlistees. It was these inexperienced men that made up the destroyer crews and contributed to the service’s greatest growth prior to World War II.

A total of 31 destroyers served with the Coast Guard’s Destroyer Force. These included three different classes, the 742-ton “flivver-class,” “1,000-ton class”, and the 1,190-ton “Clemson-class” flush-deckers. Capable of over 25 knots, the destroyers had an advantage in chasing large rumrunners. They were, however, easily outmaneuvered by smaller vessels. The destroyers’ mission, therefore, was to picket the larger supply ships (“mother ships”) and prevent them from off-loading their cargo onto smaller, speedier contact boats that ran the liquor into shore.

Hunt was one of the last tin cans loaned to the service.

She only served three years with the Coasties, transferring 5 Feb 1931 and placed in commission at Philadelphia Navy Yard, then deploying to Stapleton, NY where she became the flag for the Special Patrol Force there.

Coast Guard Historian’s office

While chasing down rum boats along the New York coastline, she apparently had a very serious mascot:

On 6 Jan 1933, she was transferred to Division II, Coast Guard Destroyer Force, and, along with other Treasury Department-loaned tin cans, supported the Navy on the Cuban Expedition based out of Key West for several months as the country watched how the troubles down there were going on.

Hunt arrived back at Stapleton 9 November 1933 and, with the Volstead Act repealed, was decommissioned from USCG service 28 May 1934 and returned to the Navy, who promptly sent her back to red lead row.

There she sat once more until the country needed her.

On 26 January 1940, she once again was taken out of mothballs and brought to life by a fresh crew as the Navy needed ships for the new neutrality patrol in the initial stages of WWII. Shipping for the Caribbean, she escorted the USS Searaven (SS-196), a Sargo-class submarine, from the Canal Zone to Florida then performed training tasks in the Chesapeake.

Once again, her service with the Navy was brief.

Hunt got underway from Newport 3 October 1940, and reached Halifax, Nova Scotia two days later, where she took on 103 British sailors and, three days after that, she decommissioned from the U.S. Navy, was struck from the Naval List, and taken up by the Royal Navy as the Town-class destroyer HMS Broadway (H80) as part of the infamous “Destroyers for Bases Agreement” between the two countries.

(For the six-page original 1940 press release, see this page at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum Collections)

As noted by Lt Cdr Geoffrey B Mason’s service histories, “Broadway” had not previously been used for any RN ship but did represent both a city in the UK and one in the U.S.

Changes to her by the Brits included removal of mainmast and shortening of the foremast, trimming the after funnels and replacing the 3in and 4in guns mounted aft with a 12pdr British HA gun in X position. The aft torpedo tubes were also jettisoned and the U.S style depth charges were replaced with British ones.

THE BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC 1939-1945 (A 8291) British Forces: HMS BROADWAY, a destroyer built in 1918. BROADWAY was one of the fifty American destroyers loaned to Britain in September 1940. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205125169

She also picked up an “Evil Eye” or “Magic Eye” on her bow, painted by her crew to ward off bad spirits.

The huge ‘Magic Eye’ on the bows of the BROADWAY as she leaves on another trip. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205152830

Joining 11th Escort Group, she had an eventful career in the Atlantic, joining in no less than 29 convoys between and 10 December 1940 and 21 June 1943– a span of just 18 months!

During this time, she directly helped shorten the war on 9 May 1941 when assisting the destroyer HMS Bulldog and corvette HMS Aubretia, she captured German submarine U-110 between Iceland and Greenland. The Type IXB U-boat provided several secret cipher documents to the British as part of Operation Primrose and was one of the biggest intel coups of the war, helping to break the German Enigma codes.

She also helped chalk up a second German torpedo slinger when on 12 May 1943 she joined frigate HMS Lagan and aircraft from escort carrier HMS Biter in destroying U-89 off the Azores.

SUB LIEUT ROY A GENTLES, RCNVR, OFFICER ON LOAN TO THE ROYAL NAVY, WHO WAS FIRST LIEUTENANT ON BOARD HMS BROADWAY IN THE SUCCESSFUL ANTI-U-BOAT ACTION IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC.  (A 17288) Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205150178

Hunt/Broadway, showing her age, was relegated to training duties by 1944 in Scotland, where she was a target ship for non-destructive bombing and practice strafing runs by new pilots. For this much of her armament to include her radar, anti-submarine mortar, torpedo tubes, and HF D/F outfit was removed.

The destroyer HMS Broadway off the East coast of Scotland April 1944 after becoming an Air Target Ship (Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205120270

She did get one last hurrah in at the end of the war, sailing for Norwegian waters where she performed occupation duties that included taking charge of several surrendered German U-boats in Narvik and Tromso as part of Operation Deadlight.

Hunt/Broadway, who served more in the Royal Navy than she ever did in the naval service of her homeland, was paid off 9 August 1945 and placed in an unmaintained reserve status. She was eventually sold to BISCO on 18th February 1947 for demolition by Metal Industries and towed to the breaker’s yard in Charlestown near Rosyth in 1948.

As for her sisters, seven Clemson‘s were lost at the disaster at Honda Point in 1923, 18 (including six used by the British) were lost in WWII including one, USS Stewart (DD-224), which was famously raised by the Japanese and used in their Navy.

From what I can tell the last one in U.S. Navy service was USS Semmes (DD-189/AG-24), like Hunt a former Coast Guard destroyer, stricken in November 1946 after spending the war testing experimental equipment at the Sonar School in New London.

The last of the 156 Clemsons still afloat, USS Welborn C. Wood (DD-195), also a former Coast Guard destroyer, became HMS Chesterfield on 9 September 1940. She was allocated for scrapping on 3 December 1948. None of the class were retained and few relics of them exist today.

However, the codebooks and Enigma machine that Hunt/Broadway helped capture from U-110 are on display at Bletchley Park.

And the event is recorded in maritime art.

The Capture of U-110 by the Royal Navy, 9 May 1941 (2002) by K W Radcliffe via the Merseyside Maritime Museum

Specs:

Displacement:
1,215 tons (normal)
1,308 tons (full load)
Length:     314 ft. 4.5 in
Beam:     30 ft. 11.5 in
Draft:     9 ft. 4 in
Propulsion:
4 × boilers, 300 psi (2,100 kPa) saturated steam
2 geared steam turbines
27,600 hp (20,600 kW)
2 shafts
Speed:     35.5 knots (65.7 km/h)
Range:  4,900 nmi (9,100 km) @ 15 kn (28 km/h)
Crew: (USN as commissioned)
8 officers
8 chief petty officers
106 enlisted
Armament:
(1919)
5-4″/50 guns
12 × 21 inch torpedo tubes (4 × 3) (533 mm)

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

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

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

With more than 50 years of scholarship, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

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I’m a member, so should you be!

“The Constant Reminder,” Painting, Acrylic on Illustration Board; by Robert Adam Malin; 1998; Framed Dimensions 22H X 32W, NHC Accession #: 98-110-E

The subject depicts a modern attack submarine leaving Pearl Harbor with the topside watch noting Battleship Row in the distance with the USS Arizona Memorial gleaming in the sunlight.

Remember to thank and to think of a veteran today.

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

Warship Wednesday, May 31, 2017: The Swordfish of the Baltic

Image via Saab Defense, who own Kockums.

Here we see the ubåt HSvMS Svärdfisken (Sf) of the Royal Swedish Navy (svenska flottan) as she appeared in 1914 on builder’s trials from Kockums before delivery to the fleet.

The cool kid stuck sitting in the Baltic between the knuckle-cracking bruisers that were the Kaiser’s Germany and the Tsar’s Russia, Sweden faced the problem of being able to keep her sea lines of communication open while appearing to be too tough a nut to crack should either one of the class bullies decide to come sniffing around. This meant innovative coastal battleships and submarines.

While Sweden counted among her illustrious sons no less a person than early U-boat pioneer Thorsten Nordenfelt who sold cranky early submarines to Turkey and Greece, the country went shopping elsewhere for some more mature designs.

The first Swede ubåt, the stubby single-hulled HSvMS Hajen (Shark) was built at Bergsunds Mek. Verstad in Stockholm in 1904 under the eye of former USN engineering officer and MIT graduate Carl Eric Richson (himself a Swede) and, at 111-tons and 77-feet oal, would be considered a midget sub today. She carried a single 450mm bow tube and could make 9.5-knots wide open.

Next were a series of three locally built “bathtub” boats of the same size as Hajen built in 1909, followed by a narrow and sexy Italian sub, HSvMS Hvalen (Whale) of some 140-feet, built at Fiat-Laurenti of San Giorno in 1912. While Hvalen was nice, had a double-hull, and could touch 14-knots, the spaghetti boat also had leaky gasoline engines that were prone to catch fire at the most inopportune times.

This brings us to the decision in 1913 by the Swedes to contract with Kockums Mek. Verkstads AB of Malmo to build the first modern all-Swedish combat submarines, the Svärdfisken (“Swordfish,” Kockums hull No. 115, Swedish Navy pennant “Sf”) and Tumlaren (No. 116, pennant “Tu”) while the near-sister Delfinen (“Dolphin,” pennant “Df”) was laid down at Bergsunds Mek. Verkstad.

Svärdfisken at her builder’s dock, early 1914. She was delivered 25 August, just three weeks after the outbreak of the Great War. (Photo: Saab)

A modification of the Fiat-Laurenti design of Hvalen, these 300-ton boats had a long, narrow pressure hull and went 148-feet overall. Gone were the gasoline engines, replaced by a pair of Swede Jonas Hesselman’s forward-thinking 500 hp diesels which charged batteries for two Luth & Rosén electric motors on twin shafts. On the surface, they could make 14.2-knots, submerged 9.5. The difference between Delfinen and the two Kockums-built craft was that she carried a different set of diesels that generated 450 hp each (good for 13.2kts) and a slightly modified single hull design.

The vessels’ 21-man crew operated a pair of 450mm torpedo bow tubes with four “fish” carried as well as a low-angle M98 37mm deck gun kept very greasy to help abate salt-water corrosion.

The class was designed from the ground up to use wireless sets, which at the time were so new as to almost be considered a novelty.

Note the double periscopes

All ships of the class could dive to 110-feet, which was sufficient for use in the shallow waters of the Baltic– and they could float in 11 feet of seawater and operate at a periscope depth of 25 feet. The crews trained to spend upwards of 24 hours at a time submerged, most of it stationary.

Note her deployed high mast which incorporated a wireless antenna. As with the image above, her deck gun has not been fitted yet.

When the Great War kicked off and Germany and Russia began to duke it out on the regular whenever the Baltic ice allowed it, all three of the new Swede swordfish were operational and spent much of their time at sea enforcing Swedish neutrality at the force of a torpedo tube and deck gun– stepping up the latter to a 57mm Bofors piece after Armistice Day. This early cold war often turned hot, with a Swedish submarine on at least one occasion taking fire from an armed German trawler.

The two Kockums-built boats were reportedly popular with their crews and had an enviable safety record, a feat that was often elusive with pre-WWI designs.

The three sisters alongside tender in 1917, the elderly 1870s 175-foot iron-hulled steam gunboat HSvMS Skäggald (Bearded Eagle)

Then came the salad days of the Swedish Navy’s submarine force.

By 1929, the King’s ubat fleet counted the 3 Svardfisken, 2 Laxen-class, 2 Abborren-class, 3 Hajen-class, 3 Bavern-class, HSvMS Valen, and 3 Draken-class vessels giving the force a total of 17 modern hulls. When you take into account the Germans were forbidden by the Versailles Treaty to operate/maintain U-boats, and the Soviets’ Red Banner fleet was still crippled by the Great War/Revolution/Civil War and remained that way until the early 1930s, Sweden had more operational submarines in the Baltic than anyone else.

And it would only get stronger, as in 1933 a program to build a dozen new 200~ foot subs, each with a six-pack of 21-inch tubes, were ordered. This, of course, led to the withdrawal of some older designs.

While the cranky Delfinen was scrapped in 1930, Svärdfisken and Tumlaren had their names struck (and recycled for new submarines) and were placed in reserve in 1936 to continue to serve as pierside trainers.

Still in reserve when the next war came but working with hulls considered too unsafe to submerge and take into combat, both Kockums-built boats were used as floating AAA batteries along the Swedish coast during World War II. For this, they landed their old low-angle 57mm deck gun and fitted a few 40mm Bofors and light weapons.

All the Svärdfisken-class were scrapped by 1946, with the set-aside Bofors 57mm deck gun (Ubåtskanon) of Svärdfisken retained and placed on public display at the Swedish Marinmuseum.

Via Swedish Marinmuseum

As mentioned above, the Svärdfisken and Tumlaren had their names given to new Sjölejonet-class ubats commissioned in 1940. These vessels remained in the fleet through WWII and the Cold War until 1959 and 1964 respectively.

Since the production of Svärdfisken, Kockums has produced no less than 73 submarines, with the latest being the Gotland-class and pending A26s, which, while sharing many traits of the old Swordfish (small, shallow divers) are still some of the most innovative and deadly in the world.

Via Saab

A26 via Saab

Specs:

Via Swedish Marinmuseum

Displacement: 247 tons surfaced, 300 smgd
Length:148 ft.
Beam:    13.78 ft.
Draft:    10 ft.
Engineering: Diesel engines, 2 x 500 hp, electric motor 2 pcs
Speed:    14.2 knots, surfaced. 9.5 submerged.
Endurance: 1,000nm at 10kts surfaced, 40nm at 5kts submerged.
Diving depth 35 m
Crew     21 men
Armament     2 x 45 cm torpedo tubes, 1x37mm M98 (replaced by M1919 57mm by 1920).
(1939)
2x 40mm Bofors singles, machine guns

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

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

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

With more than 50 years of scholarship, Warship International, the written tome of the INRO has published hundreds of articles, most of which are unique in their sweep and subject.

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

I’m a member, so should you be!

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

Warship Wednesday, June 7, 2017: The first stripe and the savior of the Queen

Here we see an oncoming Coast Guard Cutter through an attack periscope of a “U-boat.” She is the Owasco-class gunboat/high endurance cutter Androscoggin (WPG/WHEC-68) and was the first to carry the now-customary racing stripe of the service. More on this submarine action below.

The word Androscoggin is an Indian term meaning “fishing place for alewives” or “spear fishing” and is used for a river formed on the Maine-New Hampshire border as well as a county and lake in the same area. The name was first used in U.S. maritime service by the U.S. Revenue Cutter Androscoggin, a 210-foot vessel built for the service in Delaware in 1908.

USRC Androscoggin (1907-1922) at the dock at Boston Navy Yard, MA, May 14, 1920. The wooden planking of the hull can clearly be seen. NHC S-553-K

One of the first warships (she was armed with a quartet of four pounders as well as demolition charges and mines to sink deflects found at sea) designed to break ice, she was used in many high-profile rescues at sea under amazingly harsh conditions as well as participating in the early International Ice Patrol after the loss of RMS Titanic. In 1914, she interned the North German Lloyd Line steamship SS Kronprinzessin Cecilie— with $10m worth of German gold aboard– as the Great War came to Europe and saved her from likely capture by British ships on the Atlantic– a fun point when we consider the follow-on Cutter Androscoggin.

Speaking of which, let’s get to the 255-foot Owasco or “Indian tribe” -class.

Designed during World War II to replace a few elderly cutters dating back to the 1900s as well as 10 Lake-class vessels transferred to Britain in 1940 under the Destroyers for Bases deal, the 13 Owascos were short (225 feet) and beamy (43 feet) making them as wide as a FFG7 class frigate of today but about 200 feet shorter. With a displacement of over 2,000-tons at full load, they were wider and as heavy as a Fletcher-class destroyer of the day but classified as gunboats (PGs) by the Navy.

They were the most heavily armed Coast Guard ships of WWII, with twin 5″/38 mounts fore and aft, a pair of quad 40mm Bofors, 4x20mm/80 singles, twin depth charge racks over the stern, 6 Y-gun depth charge projectors, and a Mark 10 Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar device. Besides the larger Wind-class icebreakers operated by both the Navy and the Coast Guard, and the 327-foot Treasury-class cutters, the Owascos were the only WWII-era ships built for the service that had a fire control radar (a Mk26). The initial design even included an amidships floatplane and catapult, but this was deleted.

Class leader USCGC Owasco, 18 July 1945 off San Pedro CA; Photo No. SP-9944; US Navy photo. What a chunky monkey.

With their overly complex turbo-electric plant and low-speed (17 knots wide open), these boats were not really meant for high seas/heavy weather but for close-in littoral (16-foot draft) work and plodding convoy operations.

Androscoggin’s sister, the 255-ft. U.S. Coast Guard Cutter ESCANABA, based in New Bedford, Massachusetts, takes a salty shower bath in rough North Atlantic weather on ocean station ‘Delta’, 650 miles southeast of Newfoundland and east of Nova Scotia

The first 11 of the class were built by the Western Pipe & Steel Company at San Pedro, California, while the last two—Mendota and Pontchartrain—were completed at the hands of the by the Coast Guard Yard at Curtis Bay, Maryland. None made a significant impact on WWII, with class leader Owasco commissioning on 18 May 1945.

CGC Androscoggin, the last of the class built at San Pedro and the last of the design to be completed, commissioned on 26 September 1946, a full year after the war ended. Her first station was in Boston where she spent until 1950 on weather stations in the Atlantic, sans most of her wartime armament.

Original caption states: “The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter ANDROSCOGGIN (WPG-68), shown here leaving port bound for Argentia, Newfoundland, the ANDROSCOGGIN has served primarily as an Ocean Weather Stations vessel in the North Atlantic. Circa 1950; no photo number; photographer unknown. Note the appearance of her contrasted against the Oswasco’s WWII armament and camo.

Transferred to Miami in 1959, Androscoggin would spend the next 23 years off and on there conducting law enforcement and search and rescue operations, as well as occasional stints on ocean weather station tours– the latter spent performing 28 days obtaining meteorological and oceanography data and information. As such, she had her sole twin 5″ mount replaced with a more practical single tube.

Androscoggin also helped support the Navy’s Fleet Sonar School in Key West, serving as the USCG’s school ship there on occasion. During this time, she spent a lot of hours in war games with the various WWII Balao-class subs stationed in the Keys, and as such her sonar and electronics were updated from 1940s-era sets to the current fleet standard.

Original caption states: “The 255-foot U.S. Coast Guard Cutter ANDROSCOGGIN, stationed at Miami, Fla., as a training and search and rescue ship, is now carrying specially trained U.S. Weather Bureau observers to gather upper-air weather information during her patrols in the Gulf of Mexico. The ANDROSCOGGIN makes many training cruises a year and performs search and rescue work in the South Atlantic and Gulf. In connection with law enforcement, she patrols the Campeche Banks, and are of fishing grounds off the town of Campeche in the Gulf used by hundreds of fishing vessels of the United States and Mexico.”; 13 August 1958; Photo No. 5821; photographer unknown.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, she chopped to help the Navy, picking up the Navy Expeditionary Medal.

In 1965, Androscoggin was the first in the service to pick up the USCG’s new “racing stripe” design.

“The Andy tied up at Base Miami Beach. The picture was taken right after the hash mark was painted on the bow for the first time in 1965.” Provided to Coast Guard Historians Office courtesy of former-Androscoggin crewman John Burmester.

A Technicolor close up of her stripe in 1966 with a bone in her mouth. Note the design has changed over the years in respect to the shield and its placement. Also, note the .50 cal and Hedgehog just under the bridge windows.

In 1966, she was detached to the Bahamas where she helped support the filming of the Paramount film “Assault on a Queen” in which Frank Sinatra and company salvage a lost German U-boat and use her to stop and rob the RMS Queen Mary.

As noted by the Coast Guard’s Historian’s Office: “In the final segments of the film, Androscoggin, through the miracle of special effects, saves the day by ramming and sinking a renegade submarine, thereby thwarting Sinatra’s dastardly plan to rob RMS Queen Mary on the high seas.”

Many of the ocean scenes in the filming of “Assault on a Queen” took place in the huge man-made pool that was the “Sersen Tank” at Fox’s Ranch in Malibu Canyon. Built in the 1960s, dozens of films from “Cleopatra” to “Tora! Tora! Tora!” had their water scenes shot there. The Sinatra crew’s static U-boat set was built there and the footage of Androscoggin‘s ice-strengthened bow rushing from the horizon as the German skipper fires his P-38 in the last act of defiance was superimposed.

Her movie days behind her, she was sent to war.

In 1967, Androscoggin was dispatched to the Navy’s control again, heading to Vietnam for a nine-month stint in Operation Market Time, the interdiction effort off the coast of that country to stop reinforcements from the North from making their way south via water. Androscoggin was assigned to Coast Guard Squadron Three, Vietnam, from 4 December 1967 to 4 August 1968, ditching most of her remaining ASW gear for a pair of 81mm mortars (used for firing illumination rounds) and a half-dozen M2 .50 cals for keeping small boats at bay.

(At least the hammer on the 1911 is down) “A captured Viet Cong from the morning’s raid by the junk force and 82-footer is guarded while his companion is undergoing surgery aboard the Andy in a futile attempt to save his life for further interrogation.” US Coast Guard Cutter ANDROSCOGGIN Deployment in Viet-Nam; Nov. 1967–Sept. 1968 [Cruise Book], page 86.

The explosion of VC trawler, 1 March 1968, destroyed by Androscoggin. US Coast Guard Cutter ANDROSCOGGIN Deployment in Viet-Nam; Nov. 1967–Sept. 1968 [Cruise Book], page 65.

“. . .Other days we were tossed by a combination of sea, the wind, and long Pacific swell!” US Coast Guard Cutter ANDROSCOGGIN Deployment in Viet-Nam; Nov. 1967–Sept. 1968 [Vietnam Cruise Book], p. 5.

US Coast Guard Cutter ANDROSCOGGIN in heavy seas while deployed in Vietnam

During her 304-day mission from Miami to Miami, she steamed 64,676 miles and fired 4,147 5-inch shells from her main gun over the course of 44 naval gunfire support missions– some with as little as three feet of brackish water under her keel. Her crew also investigated over 2,000 surface contacts, conducted 17 medical missions ashore and delivered four babies.

In her 27-years afloat, she played host to several crew members who went on to great things. Roland Hemond was an NCO on “Andy” in the 1950s and played on her softball team before going to become one of baseball’s most successful executives, spending 23 years as a general manager with the Chicago White Sox and Baltimore Orioles before becoming the chief executive officer of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The well-liked and respected 23rd Commandant of the Coast Guard, Adm. Thad Allen (USCGA 1971) was a newly minted 22-year-old ensign on Androscoggin when it came to his duty to file the customary New Year’s Eve Log going into 1972 as the ship sat tied up at Miami Beach, and I think it is one of the better than I have read:

Such as I, on numbered ships,
on many nights, for countless years,
Have toyed their minds in search of words
To describe a mooring to some pier;
Or the loneliness out underway,
Remembering gentle words and tears,
And find some clever way to state
The movements of a thousand years.
So I, like them, with pen in hand
Here on these pages now commit
The status of our weather ship
And the varied functions there, to wit.
Our mooring lines run two by two
Secured are we this year so new
Berth, Foxtrot, to which our hawsers reach
Is to our port in Miami Beach.
Commander, Coast Guard District Seven
Sits above us in the heavens.
He gives us orders and transfers souls
And exerts his operational control.
Since airplanes in the foremast look pretty unsightly
All of our lights are burning brightly.
To wet our throats and light our way
Throughout these Charlie-status days
Upon the dock we must rely
For telephone and shore ties
So we may protect those here inside
We have sit Yoke modified
And to insure this ship stays sound
The messenger is making hourly rounds.
Pollution abatement is the Coast Guard’s pride
But we are pumping our sewage over the side
And last, there are those more lucky than we
In duty section one, two and three
For to keep the wolf away from the door
The duty belongs to section four.
While at home with family and fireside bright
The commanding officer is ashore tonight.
…with duties done and entries made,
I can only sit and ponder
The pathways through the coming year
And courses we must wander.
Ours is such and duty calls,
But the day must come for us to see
The people of the Earth walk hand in hand
And all nations are one and free.
Until that time we all will pray
That we may find each other
Then stop the wars that mean our doom
And walk the Earth as brothers…
Few creatures are stirring to see the year slip,
Brow quite wrinkled and dark eyes set deep
Love, peace, and joy are there to be found

With the Coast Guard’s post-Vietnam draw-down and a dozen new Hamilton-class 378-foot cutters joining the fleet, the 13 Owascos were retired en bloc between 1973-75, with Androscoggin decommissioned on 27 February 1973, and sold for scrap on 7 October 1974. Few reminders of the class remain.

Androscoggin‘s memory is maintained by a dedicated group of former crewmen and her log books, going all the way back to 1947, are in the National Archives.

There is this piece of maritime art, “Weather decks secure” by CDR Don Van Liew, of Androscoggin at sea.

You can always watch Assault on a Queen, from which stock footage of Androscoggin has been recycled into a number of 1960s and 70s TV shows.

And of course, the racing stripe lives on…and is now the standard identification for coast guard vessels around the world under dozens of flags.

Even the Russians Coast Guard uses it!

Specs:

USCGC Androscoggin (WPG-68; WHEC-68); no caption/number; photographer/date unknown. Provided courtesy of former Androscoggin crewman William C. Bishop to Coast Guard Historians Office. He noted: “I believe this picture was taken after we left the shipyard in 66 or 67 steaming through the Chesapeake Bay after the midship superstructure was added before our deployment to Viet Nam in 67.”

Displacement: 1,978 fl (1966); 1,342 light (1966)
Length: 254’oa; 245’bp
Navigation Draft: 17’3” max (1966) Beam: 43’1” max
Main Engines: 1 Westinghouse electric motor driven by a turbine. SHP: 4,000 total (1945)
Performance, Maximum Sustained: 17.0 kts, 6,157-mi radius (1966)
Performance, Economic: 10.0 kts., 10,376-mi radius (1966)
Fuel Capacity: 141,755 gal (Oil, 95%)
Complement: 10 officers, 3 warrants, 130 men (1966)
Electronics:
(1946)
Radar: SR, SU
Sonar: QJA
(1966)
Detection Radar: SPS-23, SPS-29, Mk 26, Mk 27
Sonar: SQS-1
Armament:
(Designed)
2 x twin 5 inch/38 cal. dual purpose gun mounts, one fore and one aft, 2 x quad 40mm AA gun mounts, 2 x depth charge tracks; 6 x “K” gun depth charge projectors, 1 x hedgehog A/S projector.
(1958)
1 x 5”/38 Mk 12m Mod 6 w/ Mk 52 Mod 3 director and 26-4 fire control radar;
1 x Mk 10 Mod 1 A/S projector;
2 x Mk 32 ASW TT
(1966)
1 x 5”/38 Mk 12m Mod 6 w/ Mk 52 Mod 3 director and 26-4 fire control radar;
2 x 81mm mortars for illum
6 x M2 .50 caliber guns

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Complete with lots of dramatic royalty free muzak, the above video from Lockheed-Martin is actually pretty interesting if you take the time to digest it.

It shows “Vector Hawk,” a small, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), on command from the little yellow submarine looking thing– “Marlin MK2” autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV)– while a third vehicle, the “Submaran,” an unmanned surface vehicle (USV) developed by Ocean Aero (the sailboat looking thing), provided surface reconnaissance and surveillance.

As noted by LM:

The four-pound Vector Hawk can fly for 70-plus minutes, at line-of-sight ranges up to 15 kilometers. Operators can recover and re-launch the Vector Hawk in a matter of minutes (including changing the system’s battery). Vector Hawk is built on an open architecture to enable rapid technology insertion and payload integration.

Marlin MK2 is a battery powered, fully autonomous underwater vehicle that is 10 feet long with a 250 pound payload capacity, 18-24 hour endurance, depth rating of 1000 feet and weighs approximately 2,000 pounds. Its open architecture design and modularity allow new mission packages to be quickly integrated into Marlin to meet emerging customer needs.

The Navy just released this really great 11-minute doc about life aboard the Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarine USS Wyoming (SSBN 742) as she takes part in a regularly-scheduled patrol in the Atlantic Ocean. Entitled “On Our Depth One-Six-Zero Feet” it is sure to become a classic in future generations and is notably devoid of rah-rah-rah, simply giving the viewer a “fly on the wall” experience.

Commissioned in 1996, the motto of the Kings Bay-based Trident slinger is Cedant Arma Toga, “Force must yield to law”

While 765 German U-boats were lost by all causes in WWII, one of the leading was due to Allied air attacks, especially after late 1942. Here are a few of the losses that made the photo gallery.

80-G-323977 Operation Torch, November 1942. An aerial attack on a French submarine off the coast of French Morocco. I’m not sure which one of the Vichy subs this is as two were lost during the battle with the Diane-class submarine La Sybille lost at sea on 8 November and the L’Espoire-class submarine Le Tonnant was scuttled off Cadiz 15 November as result of battle damage.

80-G-208592: German U-boat, U-849, attacked and sunk by a U.S. PBY-1 Liberator (navalised B-24) aircraft from VP-107 in the South Atlantic, West of Congo estuary. The pilot shown here is Lieutenant Junior Grade Vance Dawkins, USNR. Incident #5054. U-849, a long-range Type IXD2 U-boat was splashed 25 November 1943, lost with all hands. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

80-G-222832 U-271, a German a Type VIIC, being sunk off Ireland by a Liberator aircraft of VB-103 on 28 January 1944 in the Northwest Atlantic. Incident #5430. While a member of both the Rügen and Hinein Wolfpacks, and a participant in three patrols, U-271 did not achieve any kills.

80-G-222857: Two PBY’s, from VP-63, piloted by Lieutenant Junior Grade T.R. Wooley and Lieutenant R. J. Baker aided by two Royal Navy destroyers HMS Anthony (R-40) and HMS Wishant (I-67) sank German U-boat, U-761, in the Strait of Gibraltar on 24 February 1944. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.

Below is a great 1967 film featuring Grumman S-2E Trackers of Sea Control Squadron Twenty Four (VS-24) Scouts and VS-27 Pelicans and Sikorsky SH-3A Sea King helos of HS-3 Tridents from Carrier Antisubmarine Warfare Group Fifty Six (CVSG-56) aboard USS Randolph (CVS-15).

Also featured in the film are S-2Es of VS-28 Gamblers and VS-31 Topcats and SH-3As of HS-11 Sub Seekers from CVSG-52 aboard USS Wasp (CVS-18). Other footage of S-2Es of VS-22 Checkmates and VS-32 Maulers and SH-3As of HS-5 Nightdippers from CVSG-54 aboard USS Essex (CVS-9) is also used in the film. Grumman C-1A Trader carrier onboard delivery (COD) aircraft and Grumman E-1B Tracer airborne early warning radar aircraft of various VAW-33 Nighthawks detachments also appear in the film. The destroyer USS Newman K Perry (DD-883) is the only identifiable escort in the film but several DDs are shown from a distance.

Hattip, Avgeekery

“Submarines at Olongapo Naval Station, Philippines”

U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 51830

Description: Crewmen posing with a 4/50 deck gun on board a S-Type submarine, March 1929, with another 4/50 in the foreground. These submarines are probably USS S-30 (SS-135) and USS S-31 (SS-136). Behind them are (from front to rear): USS S-35 (SS-140); USS S-33 (SS-138); USS S-32 (SS-137); and USS S-34 (SS-139). Photographed from USS Beaver (AS-5). In the background is USS Pittsburgh (ACR/CA-4), in the Dewey drydock.

The S-class submarines, derided as “pig boats” or “sugar boats” were designed in World War I, but none were finished in time for the conflict.

Some 51 examples of these 1,200-ton diesel-electrics were built in a number of sub-variants by 1925 and they made up the backbone of the U.S. submarine fleet before the larger “fleet” type boats of the 1930s came online. While four were lost in training accidents, six were scrapped and another six transferred to the British in World War II, a lot of these elderly craft saw service in the war and seven were lost during the conflict

Of the above, S-30 and S-31 made nine war patrols, S-33 made eight, while S-32, S-34 and S-35 made seven, mostly in the frozen Aleutians operating out of Dutch Harbor harassing Japanese shipping. All accounted for at least one “kill” with S-32 even chalking up 19,000 tons on her tally sheet.

Relegated to training tasks by 1944, they were retired soon after the war, with all but S-35 (sunk as a target) going to the breakers.

S-33 did go on to live fictionally in the film U-571, however.

As for the nearly 30-year old armored cruiser USS Pittsburgh (CA-4), shown in the back of the above photo, shortly after the image was taken she was decommissioned under the terms of the London Naval Treaty, and sold for scrap.

And Beaver? Well she is the subject of another post…

Here we see the painting “SubRon50: The Jerry Hunters” by Dwight Clark Shepler.

Painted in 1943, it shows three of seven “boats” of the U.S. Submarine Squadron 50 alongside the elderly USS Beaver (AS-5), their tender at their Rosneath, Scotland, base.

NHHC Accession #: 88-199-CK

From the NHHC concerning the above:

“From November 1942 to July 1943 SubRon 50 prowled the approaches to Europe and scored several successes against both Axis shipping and submarines. Their skippers were veterans of Pacific actions and, as the Atlantic is not as fruitful a hunting ground as the Pacific, the boats were returned to combat against the Japanese. These were the only US submarines to operate in European waters during World War II.”

The force comprised seven brand new Gato-class fleet subs: USS Barb (SS-220), USS Blackfish (SS-221), USS Herring (SS-233), USS Shad (SS-235), USS Gunnel (SS-253), USS Gurnard (SS-254) and USS Haddo (SS-255) along with their tender as a self-contained operation with no replacement crew or supplemental personnel. Though it should be noted the last of the pack, Haddo, only arrived in Scotland 30 April 1943, fresh from shakedown, and served with the squadron for just 10 weeks before it was disestablished.

U.S. Navy Series No. 4: Haddo (SS-255), Portrait of a Submarine-1942, by the artist John Taylor Arms (American, 1887-1953). Photo from the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art: Gift of Suzanne Taylor Arms in honor of Caedon Suzanne Summers, courtesy of Stephen F. Fixx via Navsource.

Dispatched on the eve of Operation Torch– the landings in North Africa against the Vichy French, five of the subs helped recon landing beaches and approaches to the coast, providing vital service.

During the campaign, Blackfish attacked a French convoy of three cargo ships escorted by one escort, scaring but not doing significant damage to the sloop Commandant Bory. Meanwhile, Herring sank the Vichy-French merchant Ville du Havre (5083 GRT) east of Casablanca, Morocco on 8 November, a victory that would prove the largest prize for the squadron.

Once the Casablanca affair was done, the subs retired to Scotland from whence they were tasked with war patrols in the Bay of Biscay, then ordered to interdict blockade runners out of neutral Spanish ports, and finally patrolling off Norway, Iceland, and the mid-Atlantic, searching for Donitz’s U-boats.

Besides the initial success during Torch, overall, victories were few:

-Barb conducted five war patrols and “sighted hundreds of contacts, but none were legitimate prey.”

-On 19 February 1943, Blackfish attacked a section of a German vorpostenboote (auxiliary patrol craft) north of Bilbao, Spain, where she torpedoed and sank V 408 / Haltenbank (432 GRT).

-DANFS relates that “On her third patrol Herring attacked and sank a marauding’ Nazi submarine, U-163 21 March 1943,” though other records state the German was sunk by depth charges from HMCS Prescott northwest of Cape Finisterre, Spain.

-Shad sank the German auxiliary minesweeper M 4242 (212 GRT, former French trawler Odett II) and a barge with gunfire in the Bay of Biscay about 55 nautical miles west-north-west of Biarritz, France; damaged the German blockade merchant (ore transport) Nordfels (1214 GRT) in the Bay of Biscay; and torpedoed and damaged the Italian blockade runner Pietro Orseolo (6338 GRT).

Two of the 6 subs of from Sub Squadron 50 tied up at Rosneath, Scotland, circa 7 December 1942. The sub tender Beaver (AS-5) is in the background. USN photo

Finally, on 15 July 1943, the squadron was dispatched back to the U.S., after nine rather uneventful months.

As noted by Edward C. Whitman, RADM C.B. Barry, Royal Navy, said to SubRon50 on the occasion of their departure from the British Isles:

“. . . The targets that have come your way in European waters have been disappointingly few, but your submarines have invariably seized their opportunity and exploited themselves to the utmost. Their actual contribution has been very great and personal, far beyond the number of ships sunk or damaged.”

Shifting to the Pacific, the war heated up for our hardy Battle of the Atlantic vets.

-Barb on her 12th patrol in July 1945, landed a small team from her crew on the shore of Patience Bay on Karafuto. They placed charges under a railroad track and blew up a passing train. No other submarine can boast a train on its battle flag. She ended the war with 17 enemy vessels totaling 96,628 tons, including the Japanese aircraft carrier Un’yō on her tally sheet. For more information on Barb in SubRon50, please go here.

Official US Navy Photo #NH-103570 Caption: USS Barb (SS-220) Members of the submarine’s demolition squad pose with her battle flag at the conclusion of her 12th war patrol. Taken at Pearl Harbor, August 1945. During the night of 22-23 July 1945 these men went ashore at Karafuto, Japan, and planted an explosive charge that subsequently wrecked a train. They are (from left to right): Chief Gunners Mate Paul G. Saunders, USN; Electricians Mate 3rd Class Billy R. Hatfield, USNR; Signalman 2nd Class Francis N. Sevei, USNR; Ships Cook 1st Class Lawrence W. Newland, USN; Torpedomans Mate 3rd Class Edward W. Klingesmith, USNR; Motor Machinists Mate 2nd Class James E. Richard, USN; Motor Machinists Mate 1st Class John Markuson, USN; and Lieutenant William M. Walker, USNR. This raid is represented by the train symbol in the middle bottom of the battle flag.

-Shad completed 11 patrols, scratched off a number of minor Japanese vessels, and lived to be stricken 1 April 1960.

-Blackfish sank two Japanese transports, rescued downed flyers, bombarded the Satsunan Islands, and spent her golden years as a reserve training sub in sunny St. Petersburg, Florida before being sold for scrap in 1959.

-Gunnel was credited with six Japanese ships sunk for 24,624 tons over the course of seven patrols and notably evacuated 11 downed naval aviators at Palawan in late 1944. She retired to New London to serve as a training ship.

-Gurnard accounted for at least 11 Japanese ships including the big 10,000-ton tanker Tatekawa Maru and the Japanese army cargo ships Aden Maru (5823 GRT), Amatsuzan Maru (6886 GRT) and Tajima Maru (6995 GRT). A reserve boat at Tacoma in the 1950s, she went to the breakers in 1961.

-Haddo, under command of Nimitz’s son, received six battle stars for World War II service in addition to a Navy Unit Commendation and sank a number of vessels including the Japanese destroyer Asakaze.

-Herring, sadly, was lost to enemy action 1 June 1944, two kilometers south of Point Tagan on Matsuwa Island in the Kuriles, though she accounted for the Japanese cargo ships Ishigaki and Hokuyo Maru, on the night of May 30-31. On eternal patrol with 84 souls aboard, her grave site was recently reported located by a Russian expedition.

Most of the above subs had their names recycled for Permit– and Sturgeon-class hunter killers in the Cold War.

As for Beaver, the circa 1910 passenger ship with more than two decades under her belt as a sub tender when WWII started, she shifted to SubRon45 at Dutch Harbor, Alaska then later served as a submarine training school at San Diego and was disposed of in 1950. Her skipper in SubRon50, CDR Marion Netherly Little, (USNA 1922), finished the war as Chief of Staff Amphibious Group Twelve and went on to retire as a rear-admiral.

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

Warship Wednesday, Aug 2, 2017: Uncle’s submersible aircraft carrier

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command. Catalog #: NH 99774

Here we see the S-class “pigboat” the early direct-drive diesel-electric submarine USS S-1 (SS-105) with her after deck awash, preparing to take a tiny Martin MS-1 seaplane on board during tests in October 1923. Note the tube-shaped sealed hangar behind the tower. The image was probably taken at Hampton Roads, Virginia.

As you can tell, S-1 was the U.S. entry into the oddball inter-war submarine aircraft carrier race.

The Germans first used the concept of a submarine that could support aircraft when SM U-12 helped support a pair of Friedrichshafen FF.29 reconnaissance seaplanes at Zeebrugge in 1915. Though the FF.29s were not housed on the primitive 188-foot U-boat, they did experiment with carrying on the deck of the surfaced submarine in a takeoff position, then launching an aircraft by partially submerging, allowing the seaplane to float off and fly away to strike its target– thus extending their range.

SM U-12 with a seaplane aboard in trials 1915. Note the lollygag under the deck gun. 

In the only German sub-air attack of the war, an FF.29 took off on 6 January 1916, motored around the Kent coast, and returned to Zeebrugge without accomplishing much.

The Brits later experimented with E-class submarines in the Great War and by the 1920s, the RN was joined by Italy (Ettore Fieramosca), France (the Surcouf as detailed in an earlier Warship Wednesday), and later Germany (the Type IX D 2-“Monsun”) and Japan (the I-15 Series and later the huge I-400 series, another WW past favorite) in crafting undersea aircraft carriers.

So why not the U.S., right?

The S-class submarines, derided as “pig boats” or “sugar boats” were designed in World War I, but none were finished in time for the conflict.

Some 51 examples of these 1,200-ton diesel-electrics were built in several sub-variants by 1925 and they made up the backbone of the U.S. submarine fleet before the larger “fleet” type boats of the 1930s came online. At 219-feet oal, these boats could dive to 200 feet and travel at a blistering 14kts on the surface on their twin NELSECO 8-cylinder 4-stroke direct-drive diesel engines. Armament was a quartet of 21-inch bow tubes with a dozen fish and a retractable 3″/23cal popgun on deck for those special moments. Crew? Just 38 officers and men.

The hero of our tale, SS-1, has an inauspicious name and was a “Holland” type boat laid down at Fore River Shipyard, Quincy, Massachusetts on a subcontract by the Electric Boat Co. Launched on 26 October 1918, she was sponsored by none other than Mrs. Emory S. Land, just two weeks before the Great War ended.

The USS S-1 slides down the ways at the Fore River Ship Builders on October 26, 1918. Via Pigboats.com

USS S-1 (Submarine # 105) Off Provincetown, Massachusetts, on 17 April 1920, while running trials. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 41988

She was commissioned on 5 June 1920 and was attached to Submarine Division (SubDiv) 2 out of sometimes-chilly New London.

(SS-105) Covered with ice while underway in Long Island Sound, January 1922. Note the retractable 3/23 deck gun at right. Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation. Collection of Lieutenant O.E. Wightman. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 80576

On 2 January 1923, she shifted to SubDiv Zero, for “experimental work” involving a dozen all metal Cox-Klemin XS-1 (BuNo A6508-A6520) and six wood-and-fabric Martin MS-1 (BuNo A6521-A6526) seaplanes.

These small (1,000lb, 18 feet long, 18 foot wingspan) experimental biplanes were envisioned to fly off S-class submarines for over-the-horizon scouting and observation missions.

Martin MS-1 scouting seaplane (Bureau # A-6525) being assembled on the after deck of USS S-1 (SS-105), at Hampton Roads, Virginia, 24 October 1923. Note the entrance to the submarine’s small hangar, at left, booms used to erect the plane’s structure, and the seaplane’s metal floats and three-cylinder engine. Donation of Lieutenant Gustave Freret, USN (Retired), 1970. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 71028

(SS-105) Hangar installed at the after end of the submarine’s fairwater, circa October 1923. This hangar was used during tests with the very small Martin MS-1 scouting floatplane. Donation of Lieutenant Gustave Freret, USN (Retired), 1972. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 76124

The seaplanes were to be knocked down, sealed in a hangar attached to the deck behind the conning tower, then after surfacing in a calm area, the little doodlebug could be rolled out and assembled. Like SM-12, they would be launched by ballasting the sub until the deck was awash and allowed to float off and take air.

(SS-105) With a Martin MS-1 seaplane on her deck, circa the mid-1920s. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 41986

(SS-105) Underway, while fitted with an aircraft hangar aft of her fairwater, circa the mid-1920s. Note the 4″/50 that has replaced her original gun. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 41987

Curtiss HS-2L seaplane operating with and S-1 type submarine, 1924. These big flying boats were bought in quantity in WWI and were the backbone of the USN and Coast Guard until the late 1920s, but it was thought that submarines could refuel them– another experiment by SS-1. Catalog #: NH 60769

(SS-105) Martin MS-1 scouting seaplane (Bureau # A-6525) on her after deck, during the mid-1920s. Among the submarines docked in the background is USS K-7 (SS-38), at left. USS L-8 (SS-48) is at right, with USS L-9 (SS-49) just to her left. Original photo caption gives location as New London, Connecticut. However, the view may have been taken at Norfolk or Hampton Roads, Virginia. Donation of Lieutenant Gustave Freret, USN (Retired), 1970. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 70979

(SS-105) With a Martin MS-1 scouting floatplane (Bureau # A-6525) on her after deck, probably at Norfolk, Virginia, on 24 October 1923. Donation of Lieutenant Gustave Freret, USN (Retired), 1970. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 72793

Over the next three years, SS-1 was busy with the project until finally, the “first full cycle of surfacing, assembly, launching, retrieving, disassembly, and submergence took place on 28 July 1926 on the Thames River in New London.”

Deemed unproductive for the outlay in slim peacetime funds, the aircraft experiments were canceled and the tiny seaplanes scrapped.

By July 1927, SS-1, with her hangar removed, was back in regular squadron work. First transferred to SubDiv 4, then SubDiv2, she made regular training cruises in the Caribbean, East Coast, and Canal Zone until 1931 when she was transferred to the Pacific Fleet, operating from Pearl Harbor.

At the same time, many of her classmates were retired and scrapped, replaced by newer and much larger fleet boats. Accordingly, SS-1 was given orders to proceed to Philadelphia where she was decommissioned on 20 October 1937 and mothballed.

With tensions rising at the start of WWII in Europe, the old SS-1 was taken out of storage and brought back to life, though she was in poor shape. Carrying new and would-be bubbleheads, she made two cruises to Bermuda, training submariners, and returned to Philadelphia from the second cruise on the same day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Ironically, as noted by Capt. Julius Grigore in his work on Surcouf, the two submarine carriers may have crossed paths at this time.

Though several S-boats served the Navy well in both the Atlantic and Pacific, six were transferred to the Royal Navy as Lend-Lease. USS S-1 was in this lot and swapped to the Brits at New London on 20 April 1942, to be struck from the Navy List on 24 June 1942.

In her new career, with Lt. Anthony Robert Danielle, DSC, RN, in command, she was known as HMS P-552.

Just out of New London on 1 May she encountered three survivors from the Norwegian steam ship Taborfjell (1,339GT), which had been claimed by the German submarine U-576 under Hans-Dieter Heineken. Saving Radio Operator Olaf Alfsen, Second Officer Erling Arnesen, and Third Engineer Officer Ole Karlsen Svartangen after a two-hour search about 95 nautical miles east of Cape Cod, P-552 diverted to St. Johns and landed the men ashore 7 May.

The sub arrived in Durban South Africa, via Gibraltar and Freetown, in December 1942 where she was used for training for several months.

She was paid off by the RN 11 August 1944 and given back to the USN while still in Durban two months later. She never left the harbor again and was scrapped in September 1946.

None of her sisters endure though Pigboats.com keeps their memory alive.

The Navy revisited the possibility of submarine aircraft carriers again during World War II and the early 1950s but nothing came of it. They did experiment with refueling large seaplanes via submarine as well as using them in helicopter landings for special operations into the 1950s, using the abbreviations AOSS — submarine oiler, and SSP–submarine transport.

USS Guavina (AGSS-362), refueling a P5M-1 Marlin flying boat off Norfolk, Virginia (USA), in 1955. Prior to World War II several submarines were fitted to refuel seaplanes. During the war, Germany and Japan used this technique with some success. After the war this technique was experimented with within the US Navy. It was planned to use submarines to refuel the new jet powered P6M Seamaster flying boats. As part of this program Guavina was converted to carry 160,000 gallons of aviation fuel. To do this blisters were added to her sides and two stern torpedo tubes were removed. When the P6M project was canceled, there was no further need for submarine tankers. This concept was never used operationally in the US Navy.

USS Corporal’s emergency helicopter op

And today, there are several programs to put UAVs on subs, for scouting and observation missions–proving that everything old is new again.

Still, SS-1 was the only U.S. Navy submarine to have the capability to submerge with a manned aircraft aboard and then successfully launch it. For that, she will be immortal.

Specs:

Displacement: Surfaced: 854 t., Submerged: 1062 t.
Length 219′ 3″
Beam 20′ 8″
Draft 15′ 11″(mean)
Speed: surfaced 14.5 kts, submerged 11 kts
Complement 4 Officers, 34 Enlisted
Propulsion: New London Ship & Engine Co (NELSECO) diesel engines, HP 1200, twin propellers
Fuel capacity: 41,921 gal.
Electric: Electro Dynamic Co., electric motors, HP 1500, Battery cells 120, Endurance: 20 hours @ 5 kn submerged
Armament: 4 21″ torpedo tubes, 12 torpedoes, one 3″/23 retractable deck gun–later fixed 4″/50
Aircraft: 1 tiny seaplane

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The Kampfschwimmer units are the rough equivalent of the U.S. Navy SEALS and, as noted in a video from the German military, they really dig that Heckler & Koch.

The above spot is in German, but relax if your Deutsch ist rusty because you could fit all the dialog onto a fortune cookie strip. The gist is: innocent German citizens are in deep sauerkraut somewhere sketchy and the KSM get tasked to pull them out before bad guys with Kalashnikovs can do weird scheisse to them.

After jumping out of a perfectly good airplane, the German frogmen are taken aboard a sneaky little Type 212 diesel-electric submarine — which has a convenient compartment for combat swimmers while their gear gets passed out via 533mm torpedo tube. Then, said KSM platoon pops up silently all spec ops pimp in the shallow water offshore and moves in. That’s when you see the beauty that is tricked-out HK MP7 SMGs along with G38 and G36 rifles and other assorted goodies right from the Willy Wonka of precision steel schmidt that is Oberndorf am Neckar.

After finding the good guys, then checking their names and mother’s names, the group exfils under the cover of snipers armed with what looks like HK417s in 7.62x51mm, dusting some Eurotrash clowns in a tiny pursuit vehicle.

“Request for hot extract” is universal.