ISABEL’s Secret Sortie
3 DECEMBER 1941
ISABEL’S SECRET SORTIE
The 245-foot USS ISABEL (PY-10) was left over from WWI, built in 1917 to be the personal yacht of millionaire John North Willys (of Willys jeep fame). She had been requisitioned on the ways by our Navy and pressed into service chasing the Kaiser’s U-boats. The intervening decades were spent with our Asiatic Fleet, but by 1941 she was obsolete. Mounting only two 3-inch/50s and some .30 caliber machine guns; without radar, sonar, or depth charges; she was of little use even as a gunboat. Only her 28-knot speed had saved her from retirement.
Many of the day suspected a war with Japan was coming. Indeed, on 1 December President Franklin Roosevelt learned of a Japanese naval build-up at Cam Ranh Bay, French Indochina. Was this the preparatory massing for a possible attack on the Philippines? PBY Catalina’s from VP-101 and VP-10 counted fifty ships anchored, including troop transports. Roosevelt then ordered Asiatic Fleet commander ADM Thomas C. Hart to dispatch ISABEL on December 3rd, to more thoroughly scout the Japanese build-up. Japan and the US were still officially at peace, but reconnoitering the Emperor’s marshaling point might provoke Japanese aggression and become suicidal. LT Frank W. Payne was told to strip his ship of codebooks and ciphers, cover his guns with tarps, and stow his ensign. He presented the outward appearance of a coastal freighter but had verbal instructions to return fire if fired upon. Fully aware his “expendable” gunboat was being sent on a likely suicide mission Payne departed Manila Bay this afternoon.
The crew’s suspicions were confirmed on the first day out, when a Japanese tender crossing their bow in the distance was ignored by the skipper. Within 150 miles of Indochina, ISABEL was spotted by a circling Japanese seaplane. Payne ordered his crew to rig scuttling charges and ready the motor launch. Upon reaching the coast December 5th, Payne turned southward, hugging the shoreline toward Cam Ranh Bay. In so doing their silhouette was camouflaged against the shore when a Japanese cruiser charged past on an opposite heading. ISABEL remained at general quarters. Cam Ranh Bay now lay just over the horizon.
Suddenly the radioman came rushing to the bridge. At the last possible minute ISABEL was being recalled. The Japanese target of Indochina had become known through other means, making it unnecessary to expend ISABEL, no matter how antiquated her technology. The gunboat was tailed by aircraft again on the outward voyage but reached home safely on December 8th (Manila time), just as the first bombs were falling on the other side of the International Date Line in Hawaii.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 9 DEC 23
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 3 “G-K”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, p. 463.
Gault, Owen. “Saga of the USS Isabel: FDR’s Sacrificial Lamb.” Sea Classics, Vol 31 (2), February 1998, pp. 20-24, 57-61.
Messimer, Dwight R. In the Hands of Fate: The Story of Patrol Wing Ten 8 December 1941-11 May 1942. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1985, pp. 26-28.
Williams, Jack. “Marion Hugo Buaas: Navy Captain Lived to Tell of Harrowing WWII.” San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 April 1999, p. B-7.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: The mission of ISABEL is often cited by those who claim Roosevelt aggressively sought to provoke a war. Most credible historians assert, however, that Roosevelt, like many planners, simply believed that a war with Japan was inevitable. Roosevelt also surmised that such a war might start with a catastrophic Japanese surprise attack against US soil in the Philippines, Hawaii, or the Panama Canal. In some respects, his order of ISABEL to Cam Ranh Bay on a “defensive information patrol” had the potential to be a masterful stroke. If she were left alone, she would gather invaluable intelligence. If she were fired upon the inevitable war would be started–but in a controlled fashion, on foreign shores, with minimal US losses.
ISABEL’s XO, LTJG Marion H. Buaas, survived the war. Ironically, he was involved in a similar event in 1951, as skipper of the destroyer JOHN A. BOLE (DD-755) when MacArthur sent that ship on a secret “patrol” to Swatow, China, in MacArthur’s personal effort to provoke a wider war in Korea. Buaas died on 7 April 1999 at age 83 in his Point Loma, San Diego, home.
