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Warship Wednesday (on a Friday): The Tennessee peace cruiser

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Sorry about the late posting this week, in the effort to get to SHOT Show in Vegas this weekend and with the winter weather making horse care more pressing, its been busy this week!

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 Friday): The Tennessee peace cruiser

Image by Robert M. Cieri via Navsource

Image by Robert M. Cieri via Navsource

Here we see the Denver-class protected cruiser USS Chattanooga (C-16/PG-30/CL-18), port bow view, while in New York harbor, 1905. You can tell by her fine lines and ornamental brightworks, she was meant more to impress colonial locals and less to sink enemy ships.

Though she never fired a shot in anger, the hardy little Chattanooga was around for a quarter century and saw immense changes to the fleet she was a part of, changes that eventually left her out of step, though her relics are now a part of the more asymmetric war on terror.

In 1899, Pax Americana found herself suddenly a colonial power after picking up the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, and a host of other scattered territories as part of spoils in the Spanish-American War. Further, President McKinley signed the Newlands Resolution which annexed Hawaii in 1898 while the Tripartite Convention of 1899 split up the Samoan islands between the U.S., Germany and Britain– though neither the native Hawaiians nor the Samoans were really happy about either.

With all of these far-flung possessions added to the 45-state Union, the Navy needed some warships to go wave the flag there without depleting the main battle fleet as outlined by the good Adm. Alfred Thayer Mahan. These ships need not slug it out in naval combat with a determined foe, they only needed long legs; a few guns to impress the locals while being capable of sending potential pirates, rabble-rousers and armed merchant cruisers to the bottom; and a high mast to show a flag.

This led to the six-pack of Denver-class vessels, peace cruisers if you will.

USS Des Moines (C-15, CL-17, PG 29), a good postcard reference to the Denver class. Note the schooner rig and fine lines.

USS Des Moines (C-15, CL-17, PG 29), a good postcard reference to the Denver class. Note the schooner rig and fine lines.

The Denvers didn’t have much armor (about the thickness of a good butter knife in most places), nor did they have large guns (10 5″/50 Mark 5 single mounts, able to penetrate just 1.4-inches of armor at 9,000 yards though their 50-pound shells were capable of a 19,000 yard range overall which made them perfect for shelling uprisings on shore or warning off undesirable foreign ships creeping around colonial ports), nor were they particularly fast (they were designed but not fitted with an auxiliary Schooner sail rig).

One of 'Nooga's 5" deck guns, probably port side forward. From the collection of H.G. Froehlich, CPO, USN provided by Herman B. Froelich, via Navsource

One of ‘Nooga’s 5″ deck guns, probably port side forward. From the collection of H.G. Froehlich, CPO, USN provided by Herman B. Froelich, via Navsource

However, they were 308-feet of American soil that could self-deploy and remain on station with little support when needed while still being able to float in 15 feet of seawater.

In short, they were the littoral combat ships of 1899.

The six ships, in what seems to be shipyard welfare from Uncle Sam, were built in six different yards near-simultaneously, all commissioning within about 18 months of each other.

The hero of our story, USS Chattanooga, was laid down at Crescent Shipyard, Elizabethport, New Jersey, a new shipyard whose historical claim to fame was in building the USS Holland (SS-1), the nation’s first official modern submarine and a number of the follow-on A-class pigboats. She was named for the city in Tennessee and was the second Chattanooga on the Navy List, the first being a Civil War steam sloop that was holed and sunk at her dock by floating ice in 1871.

Commissioned 11 October 1904 during the tensions of the Russo-Japanese War, Chattanooga headed for Europe where she joined the squadron there and helped escort the body of Scottish-American Capt. John Paul Jones, late of the Continental Navy, from an unmarked grave in a Parisian cemetery to a magnificent bronze and marble sarcophagus at the Naval Academy Chapel in Annapolis.

Starboard side view, anchored, 12 OCT 1906. Photo 0-G-1035139 from The National Archives.

Starboard side view, anchored, 12 OCT 1906. Photo 0-G-1035139 from The National Archives.

Port side view at anchor in Genoa, Italy in the early 1900's. Giorgio Parodi via Navsource

Port side view at anchor in Genoa, Italy in the early 1900’s. Giorgio Parodi via Navsource

For the next seven years she cruised the Pacific (via the Suez), the Med, the Caribbean and helped train Naval Militia before entering into layup in 1912.

An early 63-foot A-class submarine, likely USS Grampus (SS-4) or Pike (SS-6) on the Willapa River, at Raymond, Washington, circa 1912. The stern of the USS Chattanooga can be seen in front of the sub. Photo provided by Steve Hubbard of the Pacific County Historical Society, Washington State via Pigboats http://pigboats.com/subs/a-boats.html

An early 63-foot A-class submarine, likely USS Grampus (SS-4) or Pike (SS-6) on the Willapa River, at Raymond, Washington, circa 1912. The stern of the USS Chattanooga can be seen in front of the sub. Photo provided by Steve Hubbard of the Pacific County Historical Society, Washington State via Pigboats

When 1914 came about, a new crew manned the rails and brought her back to life for the tensions in Mexico, sailing off the Pacific coast of that country, protecting American interests, chiefly from the port of La Paz through early 1917.

Starboard side view while in San Diego, 1915. Caption on the back of the photo reads: "This photo was taken after were secured from coaling ship and were cleaning her up." Via Navsource

Starboard side view while in San Diego, 1915. Caption on the back of the photo reads: “This photo was taken after were secured from coaling ship and were cleaning her up.” Via Navsource

Nooga's shipboard naval landing party drills with M1909 Benet Mercie light machine guns. During the Mexican crisis, her landing team and those of the other Pacific fleet ships sent to babysit ports in Mexico drilled non-stop, though did not wind up making a landing. Photo via Navsource from the collection of H.G. Froehlich, CPO, USN.

Nooga’s shipboard naval landing party drills with M1909 Benet Mercie light machine guns. During the Mexican crisis, her landing team and those of the other Pacific fleet ships sent to babysit ports in Mexico drilled non-stop, though did not wind up going expeditionary.  A ship Chattanooga’s size could muster 80-100 men for action ashore, a common tactic in those days. Photo via Navsource from the collection of H.G. Froehlich, CPO, USN.

In April 1917 with the U.S. entry into the ongoing Great War with Germany, Chattanooga chopped to the Atlantic Fleet and cruised the Caribbean for enemy shipping for a while before joining in convoy duties across the big pond. While vital, her brief wartime service was unexciting.

Following the end of the conflict, she remained a fixture in European ports with a concentration on the Black Sea, where the former Russian Empire was tearing itself apart in a civil war, and around Greece and Turkey, who were warming up a conflict of their own.

USS CHATTANOOGA (C-16) in a European port circa 1919. Courtesy of Paul H. Silverstone, 1983 Catalog #: NH 94980, via Naval History and Heritage Command. She was reclassified as a gunboat, PG-30, 17 July 1920. Her place in the fleet was taken by much more powerful modern cruisers.

USS CHATTANOOGA (C-16) in a European port circa 1919. Courtesy of Paul H. Silverstone, 1983. Catalog #: NH 94980, via Naval History and Heritage Command. She was reclassified as a gunboat, PG-30, 17 July 1920. Her place in the fleet was taken by much more powerful modern cruisers. Note her darker and more smudgy haze gray scheme and simplified rigging. Also note the huge ensign on her mast. That’s what she did.

Chattanooga most importantly helped supervise the liquidation of the former Austro-Hungarian Navy (kaiserliche und königliche Kriegsmarine) in the Adriatic.

She provided support to the Naval Reservist prize crew on the 15,000-ton Radetzky-class pre-dreadnought battleship USS (ex-SMS) Zrinyi at Spalato (Split) in Dalmatia. On the morning of 7 November 1920, Zrínyi was decommissioned and Chattanooga took her in tow across the sea to Italy where, under the terms of the treaties of Versailles and St. Germain, Zrínyi was turned over to the Italian government at Venice.

Bluejackets on the American/Austro-Hungarian Radetzky-class pre-dreadnought battleship USS (ex-SMS) Zrinyi, View of the ship's bow, looking forward from the bridge. This photograph was taken at Spalato, Yugoslavia, while the ship was in US Navy custody pending conclusion of peace treaties. The ship was commissioned in the US Navy from 22 November 1919 to 7 November 1920, when it was handed over to Italy. The ship never got underway while in US hands except for the delivery voyage under tow by Chattanooga in November 1920. Photo Catalog #: NH 43536, Naval History and Heritage Command

Bluejackets on the American/Austro-Hungarian Radetzky-class pre-dreadnought battleship USS (ex-SMS) Zrinyi, View of the ship’s bow, looking forward from the bridge. This photograph was taken at Spalato, Yugoslavia, while the ship was in US Navy custody pending conclusion of peace treaties. The ship was commissioned in the US Navy from 22 November 1919 to 7 November 1920, when it was handed over to Italy. The ship never got underway while in US hands except for the delivery voyage under tow by Chattanooga in November 1920. Photo Catalog #: NH 43536, Naval History and Heritage Command

Ordered back to the U.S., Chattanooga was decommissioned at Boston on 19 July 1921 and, though reclassified as a light cruiser, CL-18, the next month, never saw active duty again.

She was stricken in 1929 and sold for her value in scrap the following year. As for her five sisters, one, USS Tacoma was lost January 16, 1924 after she ran aground, while the other four vessels were all laid up like Chattanooga and subsequently scrapped.

While a frigate and later a cruiser were both laid down during WWII with intention of continuing her name, they were not commissioned as such and the Naval List has not seen another Chattanooga since 1929.

However, relics of her do exist and have found new importance.

Plaques commemorating the World War One service of the protected cruiser USS Chattanooga (C-16, PG-30, CL-18) on display in the Douglas MacArthur Memorial, in downtown Norfolk, Virginia. One of the ship's commanders was http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/amacar3.htm Arthur McArthur III, brother of the famed general via Flckr https://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_t_in_dc/6730482845 Ironically, Mac Arthur also served on the Holland, built in the same shipyard as Chattanooga and the Grampus, shown near the cruiser above.

Plaques commemorating the World War One service of the protected cruiser USS Chattanooga (C-16, PG-30, CL-18) on display in the Douglas MacArthur Memorial, in downtown Norfolk, Virginia. One of the ship’s commanders was Arthur McArthur III, brother of the famed general. Image via Flckr.  Ironically, Art Mac Arthur also served on the submarine Holland, built in the same shipyard as Chattanooga and the Grampus, shown near the cruiser in the 1912 image above.

Her bell, image by the Shelbyville Times-Gazette http://www.t-g.com/story/2233377.html . The bell was made in Chattanooga by the Fischer Evans works. The bell will be displayed at the Navy Ball in Chattanooga this year

Her bell, image by the Shelbyville Times-Gazette. The bell was made in Chattanooga by the Fischer Evans works. The bell will be displayed at the Navy Ball in Chattanooga this year

Her 200-pound bronze magnesium ship’s bell has been first at the Lions Club hall then the recently shuttered American Legion Post 23 in Shelbyville, Tennessee for more than 85-years. Recently, following the terror attack on the Naval Reserve Center in Chattanooga that claimed the lives of five naval personnel, a reservist from the base, CS1 Gowan Johnson, was able to track the bell down and reclaim it for the center.

From Stars and Stripes

While the Navy’s reserve center quarters here are being modified, the USS Chattanooga’s bell has found a temporary home inside the National Medal of Honor Museum in Northgate Mall, where it is displayed along with vintage photos of the ship and crew.

“It’s open to the public to view, and touch, if they like,” explains Charles Googe, a museum volunteer.

Meanwhile, Johnson is hard at work preparing the bell for a more permanent home at the Reserve Center. A cast-iron yoke is being fabricated for the bell, he said, and the shrine will be anchored to a black granite base with a plaque honoring the dead. The emblems of the U.S. Navy and Marines also will be part of the exhibit, he said.

“We are thinking that we could toll the bell five times on July 16 when the names are read for the [shootings anniversary] ceremony,” Johnson said.

In the meantime, Petty Officer Johnson has begun to muse about another possibility, now that the Navy is commissioning a new class of ships bearing the names of American cities.

“How about another ship called the USS Chattanooga?” Johnson said.

Perhaps people in high places will get wind of his idea and answer the bell.

Specs:

Denver.png~originalDisplacement:
3,200 long tons (3,251 t) (standard)
3,514 long tons (3,570 t) (full load)
Length:
308 ft. 9 in (94.11 m) oa
292 ft. (89 m)pp
Beam: 44 ft. (13 m)
Draft: 15 ft. 9 in (4.80 m) (mean)
Installed power:
6 × Babcock & Wilcox boilers
21,000 ihp (16,000 kW)
Propulsion:
2 × vertical triple expansion reciprocating engines, 4700 shp
2 × screws
Sail plan: Schooner
Speed:
16.5 knots (30.6 km/h; 19.0 mph)
16.75 knots (31.02 km/h; 19.28 mph) (Speed on Trial)
Range: 2200 nmi at 10 kts
Complement: 31 officers 261 enlisted men
Armament:
10 × 5 in (127 mm)/50 caliber Breech-loading rifles
8 × 6-pounder (57 mm (2.2 in)) rapid fire guns
2 × 1-pounder (37 mm (1.5 in)) guns
Armor:
Deck: 2 1⁄2 in (64 mm) (slope)
3⁄16 in (4.8 mm) (flat)
Shields: 1 3⁄4 in (44 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.

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

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

I’m a member, so should you be!

Finally, to see where the Chattanooga ranks among U.S. cruiser development, the U.S. Naval Historical Command put out the below infographic.

Print

Click here for the full size and go here for more historical information on USN cruisers.



One of the Kaiser’s boats no longer unaccounted for

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When SMS U-31 of the Kaiserliche Marine‘s IV Flotilla sailed from Wilhelmshaven on 13 January 1915, and disappeared shortly thereafter, it was assumed, she had struck a mine and sunk with all hands, somewhere in the North Sea.

Well, it turned out they were right.

Now, 101 years after her disappearance, her final resting place is known. In 2012 an engineering team plotting the site of a new offshore wind farm about 55 nautical miles off the coast of East Anglia found a wreck on the ocean floor.

Digital scan of the sunken U boat, which has been found off the East Anglian coast. See Masons copy MNWRECK: The wreckage of a First World War German submarine has been found by divers 90km off the East Anglian coast. Video footage shows the sunken U-boat, which went missing 1915, on the sea bed under about 100 feet of water. The submarine, which had more than 31 crew onboard, is believed to have hit a mine about 55 miles off Caister on Sea in Norfolk. The 58 metre long wreck was found by a survey team from energy companies Scottish Power Renewables and Vattenfall, who are currently drawing up plans for the new East Anglia ONE wind farm.

Digital scan of the sunken U boat, which has been found off the East Anglian coast.  The wreckage of a First World War German submarine has been found by divers 90km off the East Anglian coast. Video footage shows the sunken U-boat, which went missing 1915, on the sea bed under about 100 feet of water.  The 58 metre long wreck was found by a survey team from energy companies Scottish Power Renewables and Vattenfall, who are currently drawing up plans for the new East Anglia ONE wind farm.

Initial investigation thought it to be a lost Dutch sub from the WWII-era, so the Dutch Lamlash wreck-diving team was called in last year and they have identified the vessel as U-31.

U_boat_U31_Cor_Kuy_3555098b

She was on her first patrol and, under the command of 28-year-old Oblt.z.S. Siegfried Wachendorff, she carried 33 souls.

More here


Warship Wednesday: Feb. 3, 2016, HMs Unlucky Killer No. 13

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

Warship Wednesday: Feb. 3, 2016, HMs Unlucky Killer No. 13

Click to very much bigup

Click to very much bigup

Here we see the Royal Navy’s K-class steam-powered (not a misprint) submarine HMS K22, bottom, compared to a smaller and more typical example of HMs submarine fleet during World War I, the HMS E37. As you can tell, the two boats are very different and, by comparing specs of the 800-ton/2,000shp E27 with the 2630-ton/10,000shp K22, you can see just how different.

A brainchild that sprang from the pipe-dream by Jellicoe and Beatty of creating submarines fast enough to operate with the Grand Fleet, these massive 339-foot submarines were designed on the cusp of World War I and a full 21 were to be built. Whereas other subs around the world were gasoline-electric or diesel-electric, the K-class would be steam-electric with a pair of Yarrow oil-fired boilers (! on a submarine!) for use with turbines on the surface, giving them an impressive 24-knot speed.

K7, showing a good profile of these interesting subs. And yes, those are stacks on her amidships

HMS K7, showing a good profile of these interesting subs. And yes, those are stacks on her amidships

When you keep in mind that the standard British battleship of the time, the brand new Queen Elizabeth-class “fast” battleships had a max speed of 24-knots, you understand the correlation.

The K-class would use their speed to their advantage and, with a heavy armament of eight torpedo tubes and three 3-4-inch deck guns, press their attacks with ease. For all this surface action, they had a proper bridge (with windows!) and even stacks for the boilers.

HMS K2, note the gun deck with her large 4 inchers interspersed between her stacks. Click to big up

HMS K2, note the gun deck with her large 4 inchers interspersed between her stacks. Click to big up

In short, they were really large destroyers that happened to be able to submerge. When using one boiler they could creep along at 10 knots for 12,500 nautical miles– enabling them to cross the Atlantic and back and still have oil left.

When submerged, they could poke around on electric motors. With all this in mind, what could go wrong?

Well, about that…

The K-class soon developed a bad habit of having accidents while underway. This was largely because for such gargantuan ships, they had small and ineffective surface controls, which, when coupled with a very low crush depth and buoyancy issues meant the ships would often hog and be poor to respond under control, along with having issues with dive angles like you can’t believe.

In short, they were all the bad things of a 300 foot long carnival fun house, afloat.

Further, since the boilers had to be halted to dive (who wants burnt oil exhaust inside a sealed steel tube?) if these submersibles could dive in under five minutes it was due to a well-trained crew. Then, due to all the vents and stacks that had to seal, there were inevitable leaks and failures, which on occasion sent seawater cascading into the vessel once she slipped below the waves.

Of the 21 ordered, only 17 were eventually completed and these ships soon earned a reputation as the Kalamity-class due to the fact that ships sank at their moorings, suffered uncontrolled descents to the bottom of the sea, ran aground, and disappeared without a trace. This led to improvements such as a large bulbous bow (note the difference in the bow form from early images of these subs to later), though it didn’t really help things all that much.

K4 ran aground on Walney Island in January 1917 and remained stranded there for some time. There are several images in circulation of this curious sight

K4 ran aground on Walney Island in January 1917 and remained stranded there for some time. There are several images in circulation of this curious sight

With all of this, we should double back around to the K22 mentioned above in the very first image. You see, she was completed as HMS K13 at Fairfield Shipbuilders, Glasgow, Scotland.

Launched 11 November 1916, K13 was sailing through Gareloch on 29 January 1917 during her sea trials when Kalimity raised its head.

On board that day were 80 souls– 53 crew, 14 employees of a Govan ship builder, five Admiralty officials, a pilot and the captain and engineer of sister submarine K14. While attempting to bring the decks awash, icy Scottish seawater poured into the engine room of the submarine, killing those stokers, enginemen and water tenders working the compartment. A subsequent investigation found that four ventilator tubes for the boilers had not closed properly.

Fifty men were left alive on the stricken ship, which by that time was powerless at the bottom of the loch. The two seniormost present, K13‘s skipper Lieutenant Commander Godfrey Herbert and his K14 counterpart, Commander Francis Goodhart, tasked themselves to make a suicidal break for the surface on a bubble of air released from the otherwise sealed off conning tower to get help– though only Herbert made it alive.

Once topside and picked up by another waiting submarine, Herbert helped pull off a what is noted by many as the first true Submarine Rescue which involved dropping air lines to the submarine while the 48 remaining men trapped inside endured a freezing, dark hell for 57 hours until they were able to be brought to the surface as the buoyant end of the submarine, pumped full of air pressure, broached the surface and a hole was cut to remove the survivors while the ship was held by a hawser.

k13 rescue operation

From the Submarine Museum’s dry record of the event:

The crew of E50 witnessing K13’s rapid dive closed in on the area discovering traces of oil and escaping air breaking the surface. The first rescue vessel arrived around midnight. Divers were sent down to inspect the submarine and just after daybreak on the 30th morse signals were exchanged between the divers and the trapped crew. At 1700 an airline was successfully connected, empty air bottles recharged and ballast tanks blown. With the aid of a hawser slung under her bows K13 was brought to within 8 feet of the surface. By midday of the 31st K13’s bow had been raised ten feet above the water. By 2100 the pressure hull had been breached using oxy-acetylene cutting equipment the survivors being transferred to safety

However, K13 slipped below the surface once more, taking her dead back to the bottom with her. Raised two months later, she was repaired, the bodies of 29 lost in her engine room removed as was the fallen skipper of K14 (while one body other was recovered from the loch, the remaining men were never found), and she was recommissioned as K22.

British submarine HMS K22 (ex HMS K13) under way at speed during trial in the Firth of Forth after repair and refit.

British submarine HMS K22 (ex HMS K13) under way at speed during trial in the Firth of Forth after repair and refit Note the change to her bow.

Seeing some war service with the 13th Submarine Flotilla (again with that number!) K13/22 was involved in a collision at night with sistership K14 in a chain reaction event that left two other sisters, K6 and K17, sunk. In all 105 of HMs submariners were killed in one night in 1918 aboard K-boats without a single German shot fired.

By this time, the “K” had changed from Kalamity to Killer and volunteers assigned to these boats called themselves the “Suicide Club.”

Alongside captured coastal U-boat S.M.S. UB 28 in 1918, note the huge size difference.

Alongside captured coastal U-boat S.M.S. UB 28 in 1918, note the huge size difference.

Soon after the war, the RN divested themselves of the K-class though they were still relatively new, scrapping most of them in the early 1920s.

K13 as K23 late in her brief second life, 1923

K13 as K23 late in her brief second life, 1923

K13/K22 survived until she was sold for scrap in December 1926 in Sunderland.

A memorial to her 32 war dead is at Faslane Cemetery while one to her six civilians killed among her crew is at Glasgow.

A third, erected in 1961, is in Carlingford, New South Wales, Australia, and was paid for by the widow of Charles Freestone, a leading telegraphist on K13 who survived the accident and emigrated down under.

160126-K13-Memorial2

The Submarines Association Australia (SAA) visits and pays their respect to the marker in Oz every January 29 while Sailors from HM Naval Base Clyde and the RN Veteran Submarine Association pay theirs at the markers in Scotland.

160126-K13-Memorial1

“Although technology has revolutionized submarine safety over the past century, the special bravery, ethos and comradeship of Submariners and the Submarine Service endures,” said Command Warrant Officer of the UK Submarine Service Stefano Mannucci on the 99th Anniversary service last week.

K13/22 is also remembered in maritime art.

hms_k22

HMS K13 under construction

HMS K13 under construction

As for her skipper on that cold January day a century ago, Capt. Godfrey Herbert, DSO with Bar, having served in the Royal Navy through both World Wars, died on dry land in Rhodesia at the ripe old age of 77.

Specs:

Displacement: 1,980 tons surfaced, 2,566 tons dived
Length: 339 ft. (103 m)
Beam: 26 ft. 6 in (8.08 m)
Draught: 20 ft. 11 in (6.38 m)
Propulsion:
Twin 10,500 shp (7,800 kW) oil-fired Yarrow boilers each powering a Brown-Curtis or Parsons geared steam turbines, Twin 3 blade 7 ft 6 in (2.29 m) screws
Four 1,440 hp (1,070 kW) electric motors.
One 800 hp (600 kW) Vickers diesel generator for charging batteries on the surface.
Speed:
24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph) surfaced
8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph) submerged
Range:
Surface: 800 nautical miles (1,500 km; 920 mi) at maximum speed
12,500 nmi (23,200 km; 14,400 mi) at 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Submerged: 8 nmi (15 km; 9.2 mi) at 8 kn (15 km/h; 9.2 mph)
Complement: 59 (6 officers and 53 ratings)
Armament:
4 × 18-inch (460 mm) torpedo tubes (beam), four 18-inch (450-mm) bow tubes, plus 8 spare torpedoes
2 × BL 4-inch (101.6 mm) Mk XI guns
1 × 3 in (76 mm) gun
Twin 18-inch deck tubes originally fitted but later removed.

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 its place. If you LOVE warships you should belong.


Ah, those hard serving Lithuanians

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Staff captain of the Life-Guards Lithuanian Regiment Bogutskiy, WWI, Russian Army (with the Order of St. Vladimir 4 degrees with swords) mosin photo bomb

Here we see a young guards officer of the Tsar’s Russian Imperial Army, Staff captain of the Life-Guards Lithuanian Regiment Bogutskiy in June 1915 during some of the darkest days of the First World War. The good captain wears the Order of St. Vladimir, to the 4th degrees with swords.

Note he has an officer’s sword on his left and a holstered revolver, likely a Nagant 1895 on his right, both set up to cross-draw. The photobombing guardsman with the Mosin 91 and eschew cap is the moneymaker in this one. Olga Shirnina from Russia colorized this image and the original is here.

By the time Bogutskiy’s picture was taken, the Lithuanian regiment, which started the war as part of the 23rd Army Corps of General AV Samsonov’s doomed II Army had escaped German encirclement the Battle of Tannenberg East Prussian operation and gone on to fight the Kaiser’s troops halfway across Poland. This officer with the sad eyes and well trimmed mustache, incidentally, was killed on the front in 1916.

The Regiment had much history in its short life.

Originally, a part of the Moscow Life Guards Regiment (formed in 1811) they fought Napoleon at Borodino and all through Europe, marching through France at the end of the little Emperor’s Empire. When the Tsar picked up the Kingdom of Poland in the peace that followed, the Lithuanians were split from the Regiment and sent to Warsaw and a new Life Guards unit, being officially given its standard on 12 October 1817.

1830s uniform

1830s uniform

They helped put down Polish uprisings in 1830 and 1863, marched into Hungary in 1849 to do the same there for the Austrian Kaiser on the Tsar’s behalf, fought in the Crimean War and against the Turks in 1877 and Japanese in 1905. Drawn from ethnic Lithuanians, they had distinctive yellow trim to their uniforms in all of its variations (though only a thread on the shoulder boards of the 1909 field uniform shows at the top of the post). Their regimental crest, below, is however seen distinctively on Bogutskiy’s blouse.

RUSSIAN-IMPERIAL-BADGE-OF-THE-LITHUANIAN-LIFE-GUARDS

Below is an interesting German newsreel archive of Emperor Nicholas II and his son Alexei watching the military parade of the Life Guards regiment of Lithuania at the annual maneuvers at Kransoe Selo just south of St. Petersburg in the summer of 1914. Of interest is the parade of the unit that begins about the 3.18 mark after Major General Konstantin Schildbach, then unit commander, takes a toast to the Emperor health. You will notice the color’s company come through wearing all of the Regiment’s various uniforms issued from 1811 through 1914.

Schildach was in interesting fellow. An ethnic Baltic German from a wealthy ennobled family with some 200 years of service to the Tsar, he graduated from the Alexander Military School and joined the Army in 1888, serving far and wide in the Empire. He commanded the Lithuanians during WWI until June 1915 when he changed his last name to Lithuania due to anti-German sentiment in the country. That’s ballsy. Could you see an officer with an Arabic-sounding name today in the U.S. Army change his to “Ranger” or some sort. That’s being married to the Army there.

The toasting Schildach seen in the video

The toasting Schildach seen in the video

Anyway, Schildach left the unit to command the 1st Brigade of the 3rd Guards Infantry Division then six months later was made chief of staff of the 39th Corps and by the end of 1916 was commander of the 102nd Infantry Division of 16,000 recently trained men. When the March Revolution came that swept away the old order, he was cashiered by the new government but quickly called back in May to command the rapidly disintegrating 79th Infantry Division as a Lt. Gen. When the war ended and the Civil War began he found himself first working in the Ukrainian puppet army of Skoropadsky with the Germans then in the White Army.

However when the Whites left in permanent exile in 1920, Schildach stayed in Russia and talked his way to a job as a military instructor in Moscow with the Reds but was later thrown in the gulag for three years and, even though allowed to return to Moscow, was arrested again in 1938, shot, and dumped in a bag in Donskoy cemetery. The Putin government declared him officially rehabilitated in 1996, which is nice.

Anyway, back to the war service of the Lithuanian Regiment.

Soon after the good Captain Bogutskiy’s photo bomb above, the unit kept up its fighting retreat during the great defeats by the Russian Army in the summer of 1915 but remained intact. Rebuilt over the winter, they participated in the Brusilov Offensive that came very close to knocking Austria out of the war. Interesting that a unit that helped keep the Austrian Kaiser on the throne in 1849 would come so close to sweeping him off just 60 years later.

Speaking of thrones….

On March 12, 1917, the day the Lithuanian Life Guards Reserve Regiment in St. Petersburg (Petrograd) mutinied, Capt. Bogdan K. Kolchigin was elected commander by the committee of soldiers at the front and remained in command until the Moscow Regional Commissariat for Military Affairs, in their Order No. 139, disbanded the former regiments of the Imperial Guard on March 4, 1918 (though the order did not cover the Reserve Regiment in St. Petersburgh which lingered until the Commissariat of Military Affairs of the Petrograd Labor Commune ordered it disbanded on June 6, 1918).

Interestingly, Kolchigin threw his hat in with the Reds and, taking his ex-Guards with him in an orderly withdrawal to Voronezh when the front collapsed after Russia withdrew from WWI, they became the Lithuanian Soviet Regiment and were one of Trotsky’s most professional units in the Civil War.

Kolchigin went on to keep his head and rose to become a Lt. Gen in the Red Army proper, ending his career as commander of the 7th Guards Rifle Corps, 10th Guards Army in 1945 after having lost his foot to a German mine and picking up three Order of the Red Banners and an Order of Lenin from Papa Joe Stalin in the Second World War to go along with his Knights of the Order of St. George awarded by Tsar Nicky in the First.

Kolchigin, in Red Army regalia.

Kolchigin, in Red Army regalia. Look at all of those Red Banners.

He became a military historian of some note and, when he died in in 1976, was given a hero’s funeral, taking the Lithuanian Regiment of Life Guards with him in his heart to the rally point in the great drill field in the sky. It’s likely Kolchigin had an interesting conversation with Bogutskiy and Schildach when he got there.

And was maybe even photobombed by a guardsman with a crooked hat.


Combat Gallery Sunday : The Martial Art of Vernon Howe Bailey

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Much as once a week I like to take time off to cover warships (Wednesdays), on Sundays (when I feel like working), I like to cover military art and the painters, illustrators, sculptors, and the like that produced them.

Combat Gallery Sunday : The Martial Art of Vernon Howe Bailey

Born in Camden, New Jersey in the peaceful time that was 1874 in the United States, young Vernon Howe Bailey was a skilled artist already in his youth, earning a place at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Art in Philadelphia at the tender young age of 15. This led to further study in London and Paris and by 1892, at age 18, he was a regular illustrator on the staff of the Philadelphia Times back in the day when virtually every image was drawn rather than photographed.

Fitchburg elevator fire of 1898

Fitchburg elevator fire of 1898

While at the Times, he submitted works to weekly and monthly periodicals such as Scribner’s, Harper’s, Leslies Weekly and Colliers— all big names at the time. In 1902, he left Philly and took a job at the Boston Herald.

Before the Great War, he toured Europe extensively and created enduring architectural studies that preserved the lamplight era just before the lamps themselves were blown out.

Brasenose College, Oxford by Vernon Howe

Brasenose College, Oxford by Vernon Howe

Red Lion Passage

Red Lion Passage

Corpus Christi College, Oxford

Corpus Christi College, Oxford

Antwerp

Antwerp

When WWI came, he did war work for the Navy and some of these images grew acclaim for their attention to detail. in fact, he was the first artist authorized by the U. S. Government to make drawings of America’s war effort in the Great War.

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NH 86449 USS Kaiser Wilhelm II

NH 86449 USS Kaiser Wilhelm II

NH 86451 USS NEW YORK (BB-34) and USS ARIZONA (BB-39) fitting out note torpedo boat loading fish

NH 86451 USS NEW YORK (BB-34) and USS ARIZONA (BB-39) fitting out note torpedo boat loading fish

NH 86454 USS NEW MEXICO (BB-40) Building

NH 86454 USS NEW MEXICO (BB-40) Building

USS Barracuda in dry dock

USS Barracuda in dry dock

Postwar, it was more architecture and travel, though the number of pieces he did per month began to dwindle as his rates had gone up in accordance with his renown. He was even commissioned to produce watercolors for the Vatican.

When the Second World War came, it was back to work with the Navy. Throughout the war he toured extensively stateside and created some of the best military art of the era from any pen or brush.

An entire set of 22 watercolors sprang from a three-week long stay in March 1942 at NAS Jacksonville where he recorded the seaplane operations there with a more painterly approach than he did in 1918.

Landing planes at NAS Jacksonville.

Landing planes at NAS Jacksonville.

PBY Patrol planes at the beach.

PBY Patrol planes at the beach.

Patrol plane on the air station apron.

Patrol plane on the air station apron.

Crane hoisting a sea plane from the St. Johns River.

Crane hoisting a sea plane from the St. Johns River.

Apron with patrol squadron planes.

Apron with patrol squadron planes.

Hauling a sea plane up the ramp.

Hauling a Kingfisher sea plane up the ramp.

Patrol Plane 33.

Patrol Plane 33.

Seagoing Rescue Tugs,” by Vernon Howe Bailey, Watercolor, 1942, 88-165-LN. This painting went south http://www.navalhistory.org/2010/04/12/misappropriated-navy-art but, as noted by the NHC, was recovered: "This painting recently returned to us from a DC area auction house. The consignor had found it at a Goodwill store, I’m told. Its last location before it went missing was with the Bureau of Ships before 1969. One of our local NCIS agents very kindly visited the auction house two hours before the start of our first big snowstorm in February to let them know the Navy had a claim on the painting."

Seagoing Rescue Tugs,” by Vernon Howe Bailey, Watercolor, 1942, 88-165-LN. This painting went south but, as noted by the NHC, was recovered: “This painting recently returned to us from a DC area auction house. The consignor had found it at a Goodwill store, I’m told. Its last location before it went missing was with the Bureau of Ships before 1969. One of our local NCIS agents very kindly visited the auction house two hours before the start of our first big snowstorm in February to let them know the Navy had a claim on the painting.”

Postwar, he returned to New York and continued where he left off, never fully retiring.

In addition to numerous medals, ribbons and awards, Bailey was a full and celebrated member of the Society of Illustrators and of the Architectural League of New York.

He passed in 1953 in New York City, at the ripe old age of 79.

Besides works maintained by the NAS Jacksonville and the Naval Historical Command, he is also exhibited in the Smithsonian’s extensive collection who maintain some 600 of his illustrations and papers, North Carolina State University the French War Museum in Paris and the Corcoran Gallery in Washington. A number of his architectural drawings from the Victorian era can be found online at The Victorian Web.

Thank you for your work, sir.


Is 37mm or 47mm the proper deck gun for Tea?

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37mm or 47mm deck gun 1917 tea party

New York, 1917. “Actors’ Fund Fair.” 5×7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection, via Shorpy.

The Navy deck guns on loan look to be either Hotchkiss 1-pdr (37mm) or 3-pdr (47mm) breechloaders, which by 1917 were thoroughly obsolete. I’m about 99 percent sure its they are the smaller guns due to the shoulder braces.


Warship Wednesday: Feb. 17, 2016, The Frozen Northern Lights(hip)

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

Warship Wednesday: Feb. 17, 2016, The Frozen Northern Lights(hip)

Shot of the lightship renamed for the Flensburg station post 1924, pre-1939. Note the two lights shown on fore and aft masts

Shot of the lightship renamed for the Flensburg station post 1924, pre-1939. Note the two lights shown on fore and aft masts

Here we see the one of a kind lightship (feuerschiff) Flensburg as she appeared while on station about 1924 as an auxiliary for the Weimar Republic’s Seezeichenbehörde service. Before the days of large offshore buoys, LORAN, Omega, and GPS, lightships were needed to warn ships at sea about dangerous shoals too far at sea for traditional lighthouses.

A three-masted schooner rig with a relatively shallow draft, this particular feuerschiff was ordered in 1909 for the Kaiserliche Marine (though paid for via 184,000 Goldmarks by the Royal Government of Schleswig) from Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft (the same yard that went on to build the huge Deutschland and Bremen merchant submarines during WWI) and named Feuerschiff Kalkgrund (with that designation written in white letters on both sides of the vessel’s red hull).

The 118-foot vessel was assigned to the Kalkgrund shoal (go figure) at position 53 °49’45” north latitude, 9 ° 53’30”O-Lg off the Flensburg Firth until further notice in July 1910, replacing the lightship that held that duty since 1874.

The old Kalgrund lightship...

The old Kalgrund lightship…not much to look at…

The new Feuerschiff Kalkgrund

The new and improved 1910 model Feuerschiff Kalkgrund

With alternating 15-man crews that shuttled out every six weeks, the vessel shone her lights, rang her bell, and, at night and during fog, fired off a shot from a black powder signal cannon every five minutes (talk about monotony). Besides this, they saluted passing foreign warships (as they were technically a naval vessel), observed the weather, and just tried to keep from being run over by passing steamers in the dark. When the Baltic iced over in winter, the crews would spend a very cold season aboard the locked-in schooner.

Changing station on 1910, out with the old lightship and in with the new

Changing station in 1910, every six weeks or so a harbor tug would bring out a rotating crew and provisions.

World War I came and went and Kalkgrund remained put but kept a lookout for Allied naval ships. After the war, when the Kaiser’s High Seas Fleet was interned and the Reichsmarine took over, the lightship was transferred to the Seezeichenbehörde and, in 1924, moved slightly to 54°50´18´´N, 9°53´55´´O, where she picked up the new name Flensburg and some decent radio gear.

There she remained, shone her lights, rang her bell, and, at night and during fog, fired off a shot from a black powder signal cannon every five minutes (talk about monotony). Besides this, they saluted passing foreign warships (as they were technically still kind of a Naval vessel), observed the weather, and just tried to keep from being run over by passing steamers in the dark. (Sound familiar?)

When war came again in 1939, she chopped to the Kriegsmarine proper who removed her center-most mast and replaced it with a deckhouse, added a 20mm AAA gun and a few machine guns, and waited out the war. Remarkably, she wasn’t holed by a Soviet submarine or a British bomber and survived long enough to land her guns in 1945 and just get back to the business of shining her light, ringing her bell…

As she appeared in 1960 with a rowboat from the Wanderfahrt club very far out to visit her. Note her mid mast has been jettisoned and a pilot house has been built in its place

As she appeared in 1960 with a boat from the Wanderfahrt rowing club very far out to visit her. Note her mid mast has been jettisoned and a pilot house has been built in its place

Anyway, in October 1963 a large automated leuchtturm (“light tower”) was built in the Flensburg Firth and our trusty lightship was put to pasture after over 50 years of continuous service in four different agencies and two world wars.

1961, she would be retired in just two years

1961, she would be retired in just two years

Laid up by the government, she languished until 1991 when the Möltener Segelkameradschaft Yacht Club bought her for a paltry 16,000DM for use as a floating clubhouse.

This led to a subsequent sale to Ted van Broeckhuysen of the Netherlands who refitted and restored the old lightship to a sailing schooner with room for 20 passengers in double cabins, new nav gear, two zodiacs for going ashore, an auxiliary engine for the first time, and a lengthened and rebuilt bow.

After rerigging in Holland

After rerigging in Holland

After putting her to use in cruises of the Canaries and Azores, she found a new lease on life after 2002 as a one-of-a-kind ice hotel cruising in the Norwegian Svalbard archipelago under the name S/V Noorderlicht— Dutch for “northern lights” (call sign PGJG) out of Enkhuizen.

As Noorderlicht

As Noorderlicht

Spitsb12

In the 2014 season, which was uncommonly warm, there was no ice in the fjords

She sails with a crew of Captain, 1st Mate, 2nd Mate, Chef, and Expedition Leader. We say expedition leader because the red-hulled ship with white letters (somethings never change) likes to park in Spitsbergen and freeze in over the winter there, proving service as literal ice station, offering tours of the glaciers and polar bear-ridden attractions.

2DE84A1F00000578-3281303-image-a-69_1446133207041

Located 60km northeast of Longyearbyen, this ship was accessible only by snowmobile or dog sled from mid-February to mid-May, dependent on ice condition.

Since 2002, an estimated total of between 6,600 and 7,200 guests stayed on board while she wintered over in Svalbard, averaging about 600 guests each season. In the Spring each year, the Norwegian Coast Guard Cutter K/V Svalbard broke the Noorderlicht out.

noorderlicht-ship-4[6]

Every day there will be excursions on land, weather and ice permitting. The landings will take three to six hours per day over untracked area. According to circumstances (the weather, the ice-situation or the passengers´ wishes) the program can sometimes be adjusted. Ample time will be devoted to wildlife, vegetation, geography and history.

 

Can you tell where she gets her current name from?

Can you tell where she gets her current name from?

“We thought then that we had to have a ship that has a greater relation to the Fram and came on the trail of the Noorderlicht,” said Steinar Rorgemoen, administrative director Basecamp Spotsbergen. “This is the only freeze-in hotel ship on Earth and kind of a symbol of what one can achieve if one dares to think outside the box.”

However, the days as a floating ice station are over. Noorderlicht‘s owners, Oceanwide Expeditions, advised this last freeze-in will be her final one in Svalbard. However, the ship, now in her 116th year, is far from retiring from the land of the Northern Lights altogether and has more than a baker’s dozen cruises scheduled for this year alone.

Sv Noorderlicht will now spend her winter time sailing the beautiful fjords of North Norway, starting 30 October, 2016,” says a statement on their website.

For more information on the ship, including an amazing photo gallery, please go to their website

Specs:

053_001

As feuerschiff Kalkgrund/Flensburg
Displacement: 251 tons
Length overall 118 feet
Beam 6,50 meters (21.33 feet)
Draught 9 feet
Propulsion: Sail only. Three master 1910-1939, two master 1940-63.Gasoline generator for powering signal and lights only
Speed: 6 knots though rarely moved.
Crew: 15 (likely double during wartime service)
Armament: Signal cannon. (1914-18) small arms (1939-45) 20mm AAA guns, light weapons

SONY DSC

As Gaffelschoner “Noorderlicht” post 1994
Displacement: 300 tonnes
Gross tonnage 140 GT
Net register tonnage 60 NT
Length overall (LOA) 46,20 meters, (151 feet)
Load waterline (LWL) 30,58 meters
Beam 6,50 meters
Draught 3,20 meters
Ice class: Strengthened bow
Propulsion: Caterpillar 343D 360 hp diesel
Sail area 550 m2
Speed: 7 knots maximum
Passengers: 20 in 10 cabins
Staff & crew: 5

Current armament: Mauser carbines for polar bear defense as the number of those great predators dwarfs the number of inhabitants and attacks are a real possibility.

ha24

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I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I didn’t hear you…can you speak into the microphone

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Stanley Llewellyn Wood's painting of Lieutenant Young, 2nd Battalion, The Duke of Cambridge’s Own (Middlesex Regiment), winning his Military Cross during the Battle of the Somme
Image From Historical Firearms : Stanley Llewellyn Wood’s painting of Lieutenant Young, 2nd Battalion, The Duke of Cambridge’s Own Middlesex Regiment [now part of the Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment (Queen’s and Royal Hampshires)], winning his Military Cross during the Battle of the Somme. Young and his platoon stormed a section of German trench, during which Young directed his mens grenades and shot several Germans with his revolver. He was wounded several times that day. He was later promoted to Captain but died after the war in February 1919.

The big .455 Webley was a prestigious man-stopper and, though supplemented and officially replaced by the .38/200 Enfield and Webley revolvers and the Browning-Inglis Hi Power in the 1930s and 40s respectively, they still soldiered on in the Old Empire for generations. An elegant weapon for a more civilized age so to speak.

Like trench warfare on the Western Front.

J.R.R. Tolkien’s personal Webley MK VI, chambered in .455 Tolkein served opposie from German corporal Adolf Hitler in the same lines at one point in WWI

J.R.R. Tolkien’s personal Webley MK VI, chambered in .455 Tolkien served opposite from German corporal Adolf Hitler in the same lines at one point in WWI.

It was all a part of gentleman’s loadout for service on the Continent with the BEF in the Great War.

World War I British officer’s tunic and Sam Browne belt with attachments And a Pattern 1897 Infantry Officer’s Sword, the hilt decorated with the GRV cypher for George V.

World War I British officer’s tunic and Sam Browne belt with attachments And a Pattern 1897 Infantry Officer’s Sword, the hilt decorated with the GRV cypher for George V.



8,500 stone figures to haunt Jutland

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160211-jutland-memorial-denmark-1

By the time the wreaths are ready to drop on the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Jutland/Skagerrak (May 31-June 1 1916), Danish diver and historian Gert Norman Andersen, in connection with the Sea War Museum, and working with Danish sculptor Paul Cederdorff, will be hard at work on 26 11.5-foot high stone obelisks, one for every ship lost in that great naval battle (25 were lost, the 26th will be for casualties from other vessels).

Positioned along the coast near the Danish fishing village of Thyborøn– the closest spot on land to the battle, each ship obelisk will be surrounded by their own collection of 4-foot high lost sailors, one for each who went down with their ship.

Roll-Of-Honour

For more information, visit the Memorial page


Max Brooks on the Harlem Hell Fighters

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The 369th INF Regiment (15th New York National Guard Infantry Regiment) was formed in 1913 and was known after their WWI service as the Harlem Hellfighters, the Black Rattlers and the Men of Bronze due to the demographic make up of their rank and file.

Fighting with French weapons, helmets and web gear, they wore U.S. uniforms into battle as they were assigned to French Army command because many white American soldiers refused to perform combat duty with black soldiers.

harlem hellfighters max brooks harlem hellfighters max brooks 2Max Brooks, the WWZ guy, has written a graphic novel about the Hellfighters, and it sounds rather interesting in the NPR’s All things considered interview below.

 

http://www.npr.org/player/embed/294913379/297866888


Of a mids cruise and a rare sword

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The Coast Guard Historical Foundation posted this excellent find from Periscope Film from the cusp of WWII.

“Made in 1939 just before WWII, this short film shows the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, and a Cadet Cruise. The cruise begins in Cartagena, Colombia. There’s a visit to a Colombian warship and old town Cartagena. The cruise then progresses through the Panama Canal at the 3:18 mark, including the port of Balboa. Crossing the Equator, a special ceremony is conducted at the 4:10 mark. This is a shellback initiation. Next is a visit to Guayaquil, Ecuador at the 4:50 mark, and then a ride on a railroad in Peru (6:30), followed by Valparaiso, Chile and the Chilean Naval Academy. At Santiago (7:45), the Coastguardsmen are guests at a military review. The film ends with gunnery practice at sea.”

This led to a debate on their social page over which ship is shown in the film, in which I weighed in (from my sketchy fake Facebook account like the troll I am).

Bibb31_Color_1

Bibb in later years, a much earlier less racing stripe version is seen extensively in the video above

In several shots its clear its a 327, and I have a pretty confirmed kill that its the USCGC Bibb (WPG-31) a 327-foot Treasury-class commissioned in 1936. At one point it shows an invitation with the ship’s name on it. Then at the 8.25 mark it shows the ship’s log with “Henry Coyle, Comdr, USCG” at the top as CO, which is the clencher.

Born in Portland, Maine in 1889, his father was John Brown Coyle (page 20) who was appointed to the Revenue Cutter Service in May 1888 as a 2Asteng (and retired in 1923 as a Chief Engineer).

The future Bibb commander Henry was appointed as a cadet to the Revenue Cutter School of Instruction (now the Coast Guard Academy) then at Curtis Bay, MD (now the Coast Guard Yard) on Oct. 14, 1907, resigned and was reappointed in 1910 then graduated from the academy– which by then had moved to the old Army base of Fort Trumbull in New London, Connecticut– and was promoted to ensign in June 1913 followed by Lieutenant (j.g.) in June 1918 stationed at Woods Hole, Mass., where he doubtless took part in the Attack on Orleans (more on this in an upcoming Warship Weds).

Post-WWI, Coyle made full lieutenant in January 1923 and LCDR in April 1924 (times moved fast in the days of Prohibition when the USCG was adding ships every week to fight the rum runners).

Captain Henry Coyle and Reporter W. E. Debnam, 1937 - Norfolk, Virginia Via Hampton Roads historical project http://cdm15987.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/search/searchterm/USCGC%20Mendota/mode/exact

CDR Henry Coyle and Reporter W. E. Debnam, 1937 – Norfolk, Virginia Via Hampton Roads historical project

Captain Henry Coyle Describes Rescue of Survivors of the Shipwreck of the Tzenny Chandris, 1937 - Norfolk, Virginia. Via Hampton Roads historical project http://cdm15987.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/search/searchterm/USCGC%20Mendota/mode/exact

CDR Henry Coyle Describes Rescue of Survivors of the Shipwreck of the Tzenny Chandris, 1937 – Norfolk, Virginia. Via Hampton Roads historical project.

Commander Henry Coyle next commanded the Coast Guard cutter Mendota in 1937 which was involved in rescuing 21 survivors from the 5,815-ton Greek freighter Tzenny Chandris (ex-Eastern Packet) who were in the water for nearly a day and a half suffering from shark attacks.

Coyle, with 25 years at sea under him, then became skipper of the Bibb in 1938 for the above cadet cruise and the entry of the U.S. into WWII.

Coyle went on to command the Coast Guard-manned Navy transport USS General William Mitchell (AP-114) during WWII, was authorized to receive a decoration from Greece, retired as a full captain in 1952, and died the same year.

Interestingly, his slightly-modified M1852 Naval officer’s sword issued to the Revenue Cutter Service (from Sico Bros in Baltimore– remember the cadet academy was then in nearby Curtis Bay ) recently came up for auction.

M1852 Naval officer's sword issued to the Revenue Cutter Service M1852 Naval officer's sword issued to the Revenue Cutter Service2 M1852 Naval officer's sword issued to the Revenue Cutter Service 4 M1852 Naval officer's sword issued to the Revenue Cutter Service 3

From Cowans:

With 30″ blade retailed by the Sisco Bros./Baltimore having etched panels of nautical motifs and the name (without rank), Henry Coyle etched in a panel on the reverse. Shagreen and twisted brass wire wrapped handle. Brass pommel with chased oak leaves, brass knuckle bow with branches and earlier pre-1915 service designation, USRCS. Leather scabbard with brass bands and rope designed carrying rings. Throat inscribed with large fouled anchor. Brothers Charles T. and John E. Sisco operated “a regalia and military equipment” store in Baltimore until 1925. This uncommon sword dates to before 1915 when the numerically small United States Revenue Cutter Service was officially merged with the Life Saving Service to form the United States Coast Guard.

As for the Bibb, she was decommissioned 30 September 1985 after 48 years of service and sunk as an artificial reef off the Florida Keys on 28 November 1987.

However, the Revenue Cutter School of Instruction that Coyle graduated from at Fort Trumbull in New London has since 1915 been the USCGA, where the cadets left from in the 1938 tour video at the top of this post, and is still very much in daily use.


Warship Wednesday: Feb. 24, 2016, Calling the Conestoga, Calling the Conestoga…

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

Warship Wednesday: Feb. 24, 2016, Calling the Conestoga, Calling the Conestoga…

Courtesy of W.P. Burbage, 1970. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 71299

Courtesy of W.P. Burbage, 1970. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 71299

Here we see the civilian designed and built, ocean-going steel-hulled tugboat, USS Conestoga (AT-54) at San Diego, California, circa early 1921. Note her popgun forward. While everyone likes a happy ending to our Warship Wednesday tales, sometimes it just doesn’t work that way…and the above picture may be the last one ever taken of her.

SS Conestoga was designed as one of a pair of large seagoing tugs built to the same design by the Maryland Steel Co. Sparrows Point, MD for the Philadelphia and Reading Transportation Line of Philadelphia in 1904-1905. She and her sister, SS Monocacy, were meant to pull huge coal barges up and down the East Coast. These hardy tugs were 170 feet in length and displaced some 420 tons when fully loaded.

(American Tug, 1904) Photographed before being acquired by the U.S. Navy. This tug was USS Conestoga (SP-1128, later AT-54) from 1917 until 1921. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 89793

(American Tug, 1904) Photographed before being acquired by the U.S. Navy. This tug was USS Conestoga (SP-1128, later AT-54) from 1917 until 1921. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 89793

Conestoga (American Tug, 1904) in port, prior to World War I. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 89794

Conestoga (American Tug, 1904) in port, prior to World War I. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 89794

Commercial service suited the pair, but when the Great War came a-calling to the United States in 1917, both Conestoga and Monocacy were purchased by the Navy, on 14 September and 27 July of that year respectively, and sent to the Philadelphia Naval Yard where they were given a haze gray paint scheme, fitted with a 3″/50 gun mount and some smaller guns as well.

Both were placed in commission on 10 November with Conestoga being classified as a patrol craft, USS Conestoga (SP-1128), while her sister was renamed USS Genesee (SP-1116).

As noted by DANFS, both ships soon found themselves busy as they transported supplies and guns, escorted convoys to Bermuda and the Azores, served as standby for deep sea rescue work, and operated with the American Patrol Detachment in the vicinity of the Azores and Ireland (respectively).

USS Genesee (SP-1116) under way at Queenstown, Ireland, in 1918. Wartime fittings included the gun platform and 3"/50 gun forward and the crow’s nest on the foremast. US Naval History and Heritage Command. Photo # NH 53873, Photographed by Zimmer. Via Navsource.

USS Genesee (SP-1116) under way at Queenstown, Ireland, in 1918. Wartime fittings included the gun platform and 3″/50 gun forward and the crow’s nest on the foremast. US Naval History and Heritage Command. Photo # NH 53873, Photographed by Zimmer. Via Navsource.

Conestoga remained in the Azores for a year after the guns fell silent, towing charges as needed among the war weary shipping crossing the Atlantic, only returning to New York on 26 September 1919.

While most ships taken up from trade by the Navy were quickly disposed of in the days following the Armistice, the sea service kept Conestoga as a fleet tug, redesignating her AT-54 in 1920. Genesee was likewise reclassified as AT-55 and, sent to the Pacific, arrived at Cavite, Luzon, 7 September 1920 for permanent duty on the Asiatic Station.

Conestoga, on the other hand, was to become the station ship at Tutuila, American Samoa, the literal “gun boat” in gunboat diplomacy. As such, she was refitted first at Norfolk then at Mare Island in California after she transitioned oceans.

 

USS Conestoga (AT-54)'s six-man "Gunnery Department" posing with her sole 3"/50 gun, 1921. The Sailor at left marked "me,” may be Seaman 1st Class W.P. Burbage. US Navy photo # NH 71510, Courtesy of W.P. Burbage, 1970, from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center. Via Navsource.

USS Conestoga (AT-54)’s six-man “Gunnery Department” posing with her sole 3″/50 gun, 1921. The Sailor at left marked “me,” may be Seaman 1st Class W.P. Burbage. US Navy photo # NH 71510, Courtesy of W.P. Burbage, 1970, from the collections of the US Naval Historical Center. Via Navsource. Burbage, luckily, was not aboard Conestoga when she left California.

USS Conestoga (AT-54) At San Diego, California, February 1921, preparing to ship to Samoa. Courtesy of H.E. (Ed) Coffer, 1988. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 102094

USS Conestoga (AT-54) at Mare Island, California, February 1921, preparing to ship to Samoa. Courtesy of H.E. (Ed) Coffer, 1988. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 102094

With a sole officer– Lt. Ernest L. Jones– in command, and a crew consisting of three chiefs and 49 men, our proud little tug sailed from Mare Island on 25 March 1921…

And was never seen again.

While the steamship Senator found what is believed to be an empty and waterlogged lifeboat from the Conestoga some 650 miles from Mexico, no other wreckage ever turned up.

Across the Pacific, mariners placed a weather eye on the horizon and burned oil and coal through the night looking for the unaccounted for ship for weeks.

Our Navy, the Standard Publication of the U.S. Navy, Volume 15

Our Navy, the Standard Publication of the U.S. Navy, Volume 15, June 1921

One particular piece of naval lore came from USS R-14 (SS-91), a cranky diesel submarine who left out of Pearl on 2 May with several surface vessels to search for the missing tug.

From the Submarine Force Museum:

“By 12 May,” writes LCDR Robert Douglas, “she was dead in the water…and had been that way since late afternoon of the previous day, when the diesel engines had stopped. At about the same time, the radio transmitter had failed (not an uncommon occurrence then), so the boat was also without communications to shore.” The culprit was soon found: large amounts of seawater mixed in with the fuel. Try as they might, “they could neither prevent the contamination nor purify enough oil to run the engines for more than a few minutes.” Plus, there was only enough charge in the batteries to power one of the boat’s two motors for about 100 miles, not enough to get them home.

So, the R14 used sails, and limped along until 0530 on 15 May, when Hilo came into view.

(SS-91) Under full sail in May 1921. While searching for the missing USS Conestoga (AT-54) southeast of Hawaii, the R-14 lost her power plant. As repairs were unsuccessful, her crew rigged a jury sail, made of canvas battery deck covers, to the periscope, and sailed her to Hilo. She arrived there on 15 May 1921, after five days under sail. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 52858

(SS-91) Under full sail in May 1921. While searching for the missing USS Conestoga (AT-54) southeast of Hawaii, the R-14 lost her power plant. As repairs were unsuccessful, her crew rigged a jury sail, made of canvas battery deck covers, to the periscope, and sailed her to Hilo. She arrived there on 15 May 1921, after five days under sail. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 52858

Seen in the photo above are the jury-rigged sails used to bring R-14 back to port. The mainsail rigged from the radio mast is the top sail in the photograph, and the mizzen [third sail] made of eight blankets is also visible. LCDR Douglas is at top left, without a hat.

After the extensive search by all available assets, Conestoga was declared lost with all her crew, 30 June 1921 and stricken from the Naval List, consigned to the deep as part of Poseidon’s ever-growing armada.

094705405

From what I can tell, there is no marker or monument to her.

As for her sister, Genesee spent the summer of 1921 with the Asiatic fleet at Chefoo, China, and returned to Cavite 19 September. Subsequently she operated as a tug, a ferry, and a target tow in the Philippines until she was scuttled at Corregidor 5 May 1942 to avoid capture, earning one battle star for her World War II service the absolute hardest way possible.

Specs:

SS Conestoga drawing published in the August 1904 issue of the journal Marine Engineering via Navsource Courtesy Shipscribe.com

SS Conestoga drawing published in the August 1904 issue of the journal Marine Engineering via Navsource/ Courtesy Shipscribe.com. Note the auxiliary sailing rig

Displacement: 420 long tons (430 t)
Length: 170 ft. (52 m)
Beam: 29 ft. (8.8 m)
Draft: 15 ft. (4.6 m)
Speed: 13 kn (15 mph; 24 km/h)
Complement: 56
Armament: 2 × 3 in (76 mm) guns, 2 machine guns (1917-19) later reduced to a single 3/50.
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!


Old aunt Elfriede

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a7v1skf0

While the Germans during WWII became some of the best tank makers in the world (ever heard of the Tiger, Panther and King Tiger?), the Kaiser’s armor game in the Great War really kinda sucked. The only tank they ever fielded in quantity, and then only in the last six months or so of the conflict and in pitiful numbers, was the Sturmpanzerwagen A7V.

This 33-ton elephant had upto 30mm of armor, carried a captured Russian 57mm Maxim-Nordenfelt gun field gun and a full half-dozen MG08 Spandaus with a pallet of ammo for each. They needed a 18 man crew and thier twin Daimler-Benz 4-cylinders could lurch them along at about 4 mph for a few hours.

Just 20 were made and a few of those were famously captured by the Brits and their allies in April 1918 after the Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux.

Australian soldiers of the 26th Battalion AIF inspecting their war trophy; 1 of the 20 German A7V tanks ever made. August 1918

Australian soldiers of the 26th Battalion AIF inspecting their war trophy, Mephisto; 1 of the 20 German A7V tanks ever made. August 1918. Note the 57mm hood ornament.

French and British officers by the German A7V tank “Elfriede”, captured near Villers

French and British officers by the German A7V tank “Elfriede”, captured near Villers

Elfriedle

Elfriedle

Elfredle!

Elfredle! (From behind)

Interior of the captured German tank A7V 542 "Elfriede" showing the position of one of the 7.92-mm MG.08 machine guns. It was captured by 'A' Coy 1st Battalion Royal Tank Corps, at the Battle of Villers-Bretonneux, 24th April 1918 (Photo source - © IWM Q 29585) Colorised by Doug

Interior of the captured German tank A7V 542 “Elfriede” showing the position of one of the 7.92-mm MG.08 machine guns. Note the “Jung” chalk mark on the bulkhead. It was captured by ‘A’ Coy 1st Battalion Royal Tank Corps, at the Battle of Villers-Bretonneux, 24th April 1918 (Photo source – © IWM Q 29585) Colorised by Doug

A7V interior plan elfriedle, with the gunner above marked

A7V interior plan Elfriedle, with the gunner above marked

Why am I so keyed up about Elfriedle? Well, that’s the name of my great aunt, born in Wernigerode in the 1930s, and she was every bit as tough as a tank.

Tragically, Elfriede, like most of the A7Vs met the scrappers sometime after 1919. One even made it to Aberdeen Proving Grounds, but was scrapped in the 1940s. For shame.

The only one still intact is Mephisto (shown above with the ANZAC troops) which is currently and rightfully at the Australian War Museum in Canberra, though the 57mm cannon from Schnuck is at the IWM.

Mephisto_A7V_in_AWM_front_view
The replica Wotan, made in the 1980s largely from Mephisto‘s plans, is on display at Deutsches Panzermuseum in Munster, Germany.

A7Va

 


On HMs Great War swords

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Matt Easton of Schola Gladiatoria is pretty much the go-to guy on a lot of martial swords, sabre and blades and he has done a few videos in the past couple weeks on WWI era British edged weapons that are insightful for those not intimately aware of them. This includes comparing the British 1908 and 1912 Pattern Cavalry Swords which were entirely different from the 1899 pattern swords of the Boer War era, then contrasting them with the Indian Cavalry sabre of the period (with thoughts on the Swedish and American Patton thrusting swords of the time as well) and the politics behind them.

Take 10 and enjoy.


99 years ago today

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'The Last Inspection" depicting Tsar Nicholas II inspecting the cossacks of the convoy at Pskov March 15, 1917 after he abdicated. The men of the unit in many cases had been with the sovereign for decades and at that moment, was the last loyal force in the country.

‘The Last Inspection” depicting Tsar Nicholas II inspecting the Cossacks of the Konvoy at Pskov, March 15, 1917 after he abdicated. The men of the unit in many cases had been with the sovereign for decades and at that moment, was the last loyal force in the country. (click to big up)

Within a year of the abdication of the Tsar, Russia would withdraw from World War I only to be plunged into a horrific Civil War and resulting diaspora and famine that would kill an estimated 12 million.

The painting above is by Pavel Ryzhenko.

 

 



Conestoga, found

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Modern painting of the USS Conestoga (AT 54) on its final voyage pounding through large waves during a gale off Southeast Farallon Island in March 1921. Credit: Artist Danijel Frka © Russ Matthews Col.

Modern painting of the USS Conestoga (AT 54) on its final voyage pounding through large waves during a gale off Southeast Farallon Island in March 1921. Credit: Artist Danijel Frka © Russ Matthews Col.

Past Warship Wednesday alumni, the 1904-era civilian designed and built, ocean-going steel-hulled tugboat, USS Conestoga (AT-54), veteran of the Great War and mystery of the high seas since her disappearance en route to Pearl Harbor from San Francisco in March 1921, has been found.

In 2009, a NOAA survey near the Farallon Islands off San Francisco turned up a previously uncharted shipwreck in 189-foot-deep water that was investigated in 2014. By last October, with the help of an archaeologist from the Navy and, the identity was confirmed. The Navy and NOAA went public with the announcement on Wednesday after spending the last six months tracking down survivors of the lost crewmen and notifying them first.

Investigators came to the conclusion that the vessel likely sank in a storm three miles off Southeast Farallon Island just a day after she left port. The orientation of the ship suggests she was trying to make it to the shelter of the islands but was swamped in the gale.

“After nearly a century of ambiguity and a profound sense of loss, the Conestoga‘s disappearance no longer is a mystery,” said Manson Brown, deputy NOAA administrator. “We hope that this discovery brings the families of its lost crew some measure of closure and we look forward to working with the Navy to protect this historic shipwreck and honor the crew who paid the ultimate price for their service to the country.”

For more information, visit NOAA.

Smithsonian.com also has an excellent article on the discovery and effort to contact the survivors. (Hattip, Awp101, on that one.)

Rest in Peace, Fair Winds and Following Seas.


Mmmm, trench mag…

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Chasseur à pied Grabenmagazin für Gew 98. 20 round trench mag mauser

Decorated Bavarian infantrymen pose with two French prisoners of war. The fellow in the centre wears the insignia of the Chasseur à pied (French light infantry) on his helmet, the other one isn’t so clear (possibly an artilleryman)

Of note is the 20-round Grabenmagazin fitted to the Gew 98 on the right. These magazines were generally issued to troops in defensive positions as they were cumbersome and generally unpopular with the men in the field. It is unusual to see one out of a trench position.

(Photo and caption source – Drakegoodman Collection, Colorised by Frédéric Duriez )


Warship Wednesday March 30, 2016: Of Mines and Khartoum

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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 March 30, 2016: Of Mines and Khartoum

IWM Q 38999

IWM Q 38999

Here we see the Royal Navy Devonshire-class armored cruiser HMS Hampshire during her brief life. Although a warship in the RN during the toughest period of the Great War at sea, Hampshire is remembered more for whom she carried rather than where she fought.

The Devonshires were a six-pack of mixed armament (4×7.5-inch; 6×6-inch) cruisers that were popular around the 1900s. These 11,000-ton ships were designed to act independent of the main battle fleet and could cruise worldwide and protect sea-lanes from enemy surface raiders, or in turn become a surface raider themselves.

The concept was invalidated in the Russo-Japanese War, when Russian armored cruisers failed to make much impact on the extensive Japanese maru fleet, while they were sent to the bottom wholesale in warship v. warship ops. In turn, the armored cruiser concept was replaced by the more traditional all-big-gun fast heavy cruiser, and their flawed cousin the battlecruiser, both of which reigned for sometime through WWII.

Still, the Devonshires, though obsolete almost as soon as they were commissioned, gave yeoman service while they were around.

The subject of our tale, Hampshire, was laid down at Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd in Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, 1 September 1902. She was the fourth such warship to carry that name on the fleet list, dating back to a 46-gun ship built in 1653 for Cromwell’s Commonwealth.

Ironically, Hampshire was completed 15 July 1905, just six weeks after the Battle of Tsushima that largely invalidated her existence. Her cost, £833,817.

Page 102 001

After cutting her teeth with the 1st Cruiser Squadron of the Channel Fleet for a few years as a shiny new warship for HM, Hampshire had her hull scraped and boilers reworked before being transferred to Hong Kong to sit the China Station in 1912.

1912

1912, note the awnings for service in the tropics.

There, she waved the flag while keeping an eye on the German armored cruisers of Adm. Maximilian von Spee’s East Asia Squadron, preparing for Der Tag.

IWM Q 38999

IWM Q 38999

When the balloon went up, Hampshire sortied for the German colony of Yap to destroy the wireless station there, on the way sinking the German collier SS Elspeth just seven days after the England joined the war. The lack of coal for Spee’s ships would be an albatross that ultimately ended his squadron. (Note: Hampshire’s sister, HMS Carnarvon, was present at the Battle of the Falkands and got licks in on both Spee’s SMS Gneisenau and Scharnhorst).

While in the Pacific, Hampshire just barely missed an opportunity to sink the much smaller cruiser SMS Emden (4200-tons; 10x105mm guns), however she did carry that stricken raider’s skipper, Kvtkpn. Karl von Müller, to POW camp in England while escorting an ANZAC troop convoy through the Indian Ocean and Red Sea to Egypt.

At Malta

At Malta

Arriving back in home waters in January 1915, Hampshire landed Müller, who was sent on to captivity at the University of Nottingham, then joined the Grand Fleet.

Fighting at Jutland with the 2nd Cruiser Squadron, her 7.5-inchers tried but failed to hit any German ships during that epic surface battle. Likewise, Hampshire herself came away unscathed.

Hms_Hampshire1_krp_net

In July, she was chosen to carry Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener KG, KP, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, PC, “Baron Kitchener of Khartoum” to Imperial Russia via the White Sea. Kitchener and his staff were to help revitalize the Tsar’s war machine; after all, he was literally the face of the mighty BEF, which had swollen from a small volunteer force of just six infantry divisions to a modern army capable of holding the Kaiser in place on the Western Front.

Kitchener poster LORD KITCHENER SAYS

Lord Kitchener on board HMS Iron Duke at Scapa Flow, about one hour before he sailed on Hampshire

Lord Kitchener aboard HMS Iron Duke at Scapa Flow, about one hour before he sailed on Hampshire. This is believed to be the last image of the legendary soldier.

Leaving Scapa Flow for Archangelsk, Hampshire and her two destroyer escorts ran afoul of a minefield laid by U-75 in May.

There, on 5 June off the mainland of Orkney between Brough of Birsay and Marwick Head, Hampshire struck a single mine and was holed, sinking rapidly in just 15 minutes by the bow, taking 737 members of her crew and passengers to the bottom with her. Only 12 crewmen survived and made it to shore.

Able Seaman (Signalman) William George Waterman Tyneside Z/4464. Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, one of the 737 men lost on HMS Hampshire. IWM image

Able Seaman (Signalman) William George Waterman Tyneside Z/4464. Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, one of the 737 men lost on HMS Hampshire. IWM image

One other purported survivor, Boer spy Frederick “Fritz” Joubert Duquesne, known to history as “The man who killed Kitchener” claimed to have guided a German U-boat to sink the HMS Hampshire via torpedo from shore, though nothing supports that claim.

Duquesne

Duquesne

Attaching himself to Kitchener’s staff, he claimed to have escaped Hampshire alone to be picked up by a waiting U-boat. But anyway…

The news of Kitchener’s loss, coming after the carnage of the Somme, was a blow to the Allied war effort.

_71879567_low_res_10527504_mary_evans

The Wreck of the Hampshire by Geoffrey Stephen Allfree, IWM ART 5252

The Wreck of the Hampshire by Geoffrey Stephen Allfree, IWM ART 5252

Further, without a shot in the arm, the Tsar’s army largely walked away from the war the next year, though not even the hero of Khartoum would likely have change that.

Remnants of Hampshire are considered relics in the IWM collection.

Fragment of boat belonging to HMS HAMPSHIRE in IWM collection

Fragment of boat belonging to HMS HAMPSHIRE in IWM collection

Royal Navy cap tally found among the effects of Midshipman E E Fellowes. Image via IWM

Royal Navy cap tally found among the effects of Midshipman E E Fellowes. Image via IWM

Fragment of a pinnace, or ship's boat, from the wreckage of the armoured cruiser HMS Hampshire, washed up in Hoy Sound, June 1916. Image via IWM

Fragment of a pinnace, or ship’s boat, from the wreckage of the armoured cruiser HMS Hampshire, washed up in Hoy Sound, June 1916. Image via IWM

Located in 180 feet of water, a small gun, some other minor wreckage, and one of her props were illegally salvaged in 1983 but have been recovered and preserved in museums.

HMS Hampshire gun at Marwick Head

HMS Hampshire gun at Marwick Head

hampshire prop

As for her sisters, the five other Devonshires were luckier, with the exception of HMS Argyll, which wrecked on the Bell Rock, 28 October 1915. The four surviving ships were paid off soon after the war and sold for scrap.

Hampshire‘s name, though currently not in use, was bestowed to a County-class guided missile destroyer (D06) in 1963 and scrapped in 1979 after just 16 years service as part of the Labour Government’s severe defense cuts pre-Thatcher.

A memorial, planned by the Orkney Heritage Society is trying to raise £200,000 to more extensively commemorate the ship.

Image via Orkney Heritage Society

Image via Orkney Heritage Society

Some 737 names will be inscribed in panels on the wall, which will arc around the tower, with a separate panel for the staff of Lord Kitchener – and another one bearing the names of nine men killed on the drifter Laurel Crown, which was blown up in June 1916 while trying to clear the minefield.

Specs:

BR hampshire 1
Displacement: 10,850 long tons (11,020 t) (normal)
Length: 473 ft. 6 in (144.3 m) (o/a)
Beam: 68 ft. 6 in (20.9 m)
Draught: 24 ft. (7.3 m)
Installed power:
21,000 ihp (16,000 kW)
17 Yarrow boilers; 6 cylindrical boilers
Propulsion:
2 × Shafts
2 × 4-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines
Speed: 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph)
Complement: 610
Armament:
4 × single BL 7.5-inch (191 mm) Mk I guns
6 × single BL 6-inch (152 mm) Mk VII guns
2 × single 12-pounder (3-inch, 76 mm) 8 cwt guns
18 × single QF 3-pounder (47 mm) Hotchkiss guns
2 × single 18-inch (45 cm) torpedo tubes
Armour:
Belt: 2–6 in (51–152 mm)
Decks: .75–2 in (19–51 mm)
Barbettes: 6 in (152 mm)
Turrets: 5 in (130 mm)
Conning tower: 12 in (305 mm)
Bulkheads: 5 in (127 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.

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!


A gal, a huge rifle, a passion for Curios and Relics

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I had a really interesting interview last week with Mae from C&Rsenal, primarily about their massive Mauser M1918 T-Geweher anti-tank rifle, but also about curios and relics in general.

T-gewehr-shoot-3-

Photo by C&Rsenal

Check it out over at Guns.com


Combat Gallery Sunday: The Martial Art of Col. John W. Thomason, Jr., USMC

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Much as once a week I like to take time off to cover warships (Wednesdays), on Sundays (when I feel like working), I like to cover military art and the painters, illustrators, sculptors, and the like that produced them.

Combat Gallery Sunday: The Martial Art of Col. John W. Thomason, Jr., USMC

Born in Huntsville, Texas, 28 February 1893, John Thomason was a Southerner with a family tree steeped in military tradition. His grandfather was no less a person than Thomas Jewett “TJ” Goree, one of Longstreet’s closest aides, who was immortalized in Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels.

Goree

Goree

An uncle and four great-uncles had also been Confederate officers. As noted by Donald Morris in an excellent 1993 article on Thomason, Grandfather Goree was closer to John than his father was, and taught him to ride, hunt, and fish while he developed a passion for sketching.

It should have come as no surprise that, after spending two years at the Art Students League in New York City, and a year as a cub reporter for the Houston Chronicle while training at civilian military camps during the summers, that Thomason rushed to join the Marines when the U.S. entered World War I in April 1917.

11-thomason

Not too much difference from Gramps…

After a good bit of stateside training, 1st Lt. John W. Thomason, Jr., U.S.M.C., arrived in France in May 1918, in the 1/5 Marines, part of the 2d Division, American Expeditionary Forces. Fighting with his platoon (and later as Executive Officer of the 49th Company) in five major engagements and fourteen battles, including Belleau Wood, Château-Thierry, San Mihiel, Soissons, and Mont Blanc, Thomason led from the front.

As noted by the Naval History and Heritage Command, “When a German machine gun nest held up a Marine advance at Soissons 18 July 1918, Thomason and one of his men fearlessly advanced on the position and killed 13 of the enemy. For his heroism he received the Navy Cross and the Silver Star.”

5TH MARINES AT CHAMPAGNE Champagne, France 1918. By John W. Thomason, Jr., USMC

5TH MARINES AT CHAMPAGNE Champagne, France 1918. By John W. Thomason, Jr., USMC

Remaining in the Marines during the “peacetime” between the two World Wars, Thomason found time to write and illustrate together no less than 11 books including Fix Bayonets (1926), Jeb Stuart (1930), Gone to Texas (1937), and Lone Star Preacher (1941) while serving a very diverse career that included deploying to Cuba, Nicaragua, China (where he was at the Legation in Peking in the 1930s and documented the China horse marines in his sketches during his time as the commander of the 38th Company); served as commander of the 103-man Marine det on the cruiser USS Rochester; serving as an aide to Assistant Secretary of the Navy Col. Henry Roosevelt; and worked at the Latin-American desk of the Office of Naval Intelligence just prior to Pearl Harbor.

1927_Fix_Bayonets-Captain_John_W_Thomason_Jr thomason_sketch tumblr_new2csmm5Y1u1sj3io1_1280 usmc_collage_frenchcannon A-fighting-swirl-of-Senegal

The Automatic Riflemen, Fix Bayonets

The Automatic Riflemen, Fix Bayonets

36417253_3_l img_1878 img_1877

China Horse Marine

China Horse Marine

Chinese soldier on horseback

Chinese soldier on horseback

Cantonese soldiers in China 1932

Cantonese soldiers in China 1932

When WWII came to the U.S., Thomason was made a Colonel attached to Nimtz’s staff and, though in poor health due to ulcers and cardiovascular issues, served as war-plans officer and inspector of Marine land bases. He toured forward areas in the Solomons and survived a Japanese air attack that left all the other men in his slit trench dead.

Coming down with double pneumonia and his health continuing to decline, he was released and shipped back to the West Coast for stateside duty. There, at the Naval Hospital at San Diego on March 12, 1944, he died at age 51.

tumblr_n0a0jtkavz1s19ppuo1_500A well-known author and something of the W.E.B. Griffin of his time, he was carried by special train to Oakwood Cemetery, Huntsville, while the state of Texas lowered flags to half-staff for the week of his interment.

Recognizing his service, SECNAV named the new Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer, DD-760, after the late Col. Thomason 30 September 1944; sponsored by his widow. USS John W. Thomason remained on the Navy List, seeing action in Korea and Vietnam and having 10 battlestars to show for it, until 1974 when she was transferred to the Republic of China, serving as the ROCS Nan Yang (DD-17) until 2000.

800px-USS_John_W._Thomason_(DD-760)

As for the author, his bestseller Fix Bayonets is still in publication and is considered by many to be perhaps the finest account of Americans in the Great War.

51pRk0gyRML._SX334_BO1,204,203,200_His portrait hangs in the Texas Hall of Heroes at the Capitol in Austin. In addition, the Graphic Arts Building at Sam Houston State University bears his name, as does the special collections room of the university library, which houses a permanent exhibit of his drawings and manuscripts. The University of Texas at Austin also holds a number of his papers.

Besides the extensive collection maintained by the Navy and Marines, Sam Houston University’s Newton Gresham Library has over 3,900 of his works ranging from photos to sketches to paintings online.

Thank you for your work, sir.


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