USS SANTEE
27 DECEMBER 1917
USS SANTEE
Even before the United States entered WWI, our Navy was assisting the British in combating Kaiser Wilhelm II’s U-boats. This effort intensified after US entry in June 1917. At the time, targets for the U-boats were so plentiful in the waters around Britain that U-boats had to return to port not for fuel or provisions, but for more torpedoes! Indeed, U-boat skippers learned to save precious torpedoes by surfacing and attacking defenseless freighters with their deck gun. An Allied counter measure was the Q-ship–a merchant freighter armed with hidden guns. The Q-ship would cruise about, baiting a U-boat to surface, then unmask her guns to duel the enemy. Our Navy toyed with the Q-ship concept as well, in both World Wars.
On 27 November 1917 the Royal Navy Q-ship HMS ARVONIAN was transferred to our Navy, “for war purposes.” CDR David C. Hanrahan was placed in command of a crew drawn from other US warships in the theater. As combat was assured, her crew included Medical Officer LT James P. Compton and Assistant Surgeon Thomas L. Sutton. ARVONIAN was impressively armed with three 4″ guns, three 12-pounders, two .30 caliber machine guns and four 18″ torpedo tubes. She fitted-out in Devonport, England, and on 18 December was commissioned as USS SANTEE,, after the river of central South Carolina. The absence of an assigned hull number indicates the ad hoc nature of her service in American hands. On this day she cruised south of Kinsale, Ireland.
At 2045, a lookout spotted the wake of an incoming torpedo! Kapitänleutnant Victor Dieckmann in U-61 had sent the underwater missile at the innocent-looking freighter. It struck to port, abaft of the engine room. Electric power blinked, then SANTEE went dead in the water. Hanrahan ordered his crew to battle stations and dispatched the “panic party,”–men who took to the boats in a ruse they hoped would entice the German skipper to the surface. Indeed, Hanrahan later wrote that the boatmen exited in, fine panicy [sic] style.” Meanwhile SANTEE’s concealed gun crews waited.
Moments ticked by. Damage control temporarily stemmed the flooding but could not re-fire the engines. Lookouts aloft strained to see into the darkening horizon but detected nothing. Two and a half glasses slipped by. No U-boat appeared. Dieckmann had slinked away, whether he knew it or not, dodging a bullet!
Hanrahan now radioed for tugs while STERRET (DD-27) and CUMMINGS (DD-44) picked up the boat parties. No sailors were lost in this, SANTEE’s only combat action with our Navy. Her short service ended after repairs. She was returned to the Admiralty for the remainder of the war, operating from Gibraltar as HMS BENDISH.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 3 JAN 26
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
Department of the Navy, Naval History Division. Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 1 “A”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1991, p. 414.
Helgason, Guömundur. “Ships Hit during WWI: Q-Ship SANTEE.” U-boat.net website. AT: http://uboat.net/wwi/ships_hit/5437.hmtl, retrieved 16 March 2018.
“Victor Dieckmann.” U-boat.net website. AT: http://uboat.net/wwi/men/commanders/51.html, retrieved 16 March 2018.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: ARVONIAN ultimately served in two world wars with three nations. After changing hands multiple times between wars, she ended up in Latvia as SS Spidola. She fell into German hands with Hitler’s July 1941 invasion of the Baltic States and carried freight for the Nazis throughout WWII.
Dieckmann was one of the more successful U-boat “aces” of WWI. His two commands, UB-27 and U-61 totaled 43 Allied ships sunk, 11 damaged, one captured, and included USS CASSIN (DD-43) (damaged), the British Q-ship HMS WARNER (sunk), and the French Q-ship HMS JEANNE et GENEVIEVE (damaged). He is twice the recipient of the Iron Cross.
Time can be kept at sea using sandglasses, also known as clepsammia (“thief of sand”). Nautical sandglasses came in three denominations, 4 hours (duration of a watch), 30 minutes, and 28 seconds (for measuring ship speed). Two and a half glasses equals 75 minutes.
SANTEE above was the second of three US warships to bear this name. The first was a Civil War sail frigate. The last was an escort carrier from WWII.
