ESCAPE OF PLANTER

Robert Smalls was a 23-year-old slave who was contracted by his owner to Charleston, SC, tradesmen in exchange for the pay he earned.  The Spring of 1862 found Smalls in the employ of C.J. Relyea, owner of the 147-foot sidewheel steamer Planter.  Smalls served as pilot, a task at which he had become quite skilled.  Planter was one of the fastest boats in Charleston Harbor, encouraging the Confederate Navy to draft her into service as the dispatch boat for BGEN Roswell S. Ripley, the Confederate Army district commander.  On a day Capt. Relyea was ashore, Smalls donned the skipper’s hat in sport.  His co-worker’s jests to the effect that Smalls looked, “jus like de cap’un,” triggered an idea.

An opportunity presented itself on the night of 12-13 May while Planter was tied to Southern Wharf outside Ripley’s headquarters.  Relyea was ashore for the night.  One by one over several hours Smalls and six fellow Negroes walked unobtrusively aboard.  Sentries posted on the dock apparently took the activity for routine and challenged no one.  Not even at 0300, when Smalls fired the boilers, were the guards alarmed.  At 0330 Smalls cast off still raising no concern among those who had grown accustomed to seeing the steamer come and go.  Smalls’ band turned first up the Cooper River and coursed a few miles to meet the steamer Etowah, upon which their wives and children had hidden.

Risking certain execution if caught, Smalls now turned toward the mouth of Charleston Harbor.  He had timed his arrival off Fort Sumter to coincide with the twilight of dawn so as to avoid having to answer a hail.  As he passed the great guns of the fort he donned Relyea’s distinctive hat and hid his face.  The corporal of Ft. Sumter’s guard received a report of the boat’s movement, but such was not unusual, as Planter had run past the fort many early mornings on errands for the General.  But this time the steamer headed straight out to sea.  Once out of range of Sumter’s guns Smalls opened the throttle, struck the Stars and Bars and hoisted a white flag.  He made for the blockading ship USS ONWARD who accepted Planter’s surrender after some initial confusion.

Planter was discovered to be carrying six heavy guns, four of which had been removed from the Stono River defenses to be emplaced in Charleston’s forts.  Smalls had assisted in the loading of the weapons and knew of the Confederate defensive deployments.  Planter was taken into the Union Navy with whom she proved herself valuable for inshore patrols, having a draft of less than four feet.  Smalls survived the War and eventually entered politics to serve as Congressman from South Carolina from 1875-87.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  17 MAY 26

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 5 “N-Q”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1979, pp. 324-25.

Lineberry, Kate.  “The Thrilling Tale of How Robert Smalls Seized a Confederate Ship and Sailed it to Freedom.”  Smithsonian Magazine, June 2017.  AT: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/thrilling-tale-how-robert-smalls-heroically-sailed-stolen-confederate-ship-freedom-180963689/, retrieved 25 April 2026.

“Official Robert Smalls’ Website and Information Center.”  Robert Smalls Legacy Foundation, Inc., Press Release No. 12, www.robertsmalls.org/feb12-press-release.htm, 22 April 2004.

“Thar She Blows.”  Commercial Appeal (Memphis), 22 April 2004, p. A-8.

Wilcox, Arthur M. and Warren Ripley.  The Civil War at Charleston.  Charleston, SC: The News and Courier, 1989, pp. 31-32.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Smalls, his wife Hannah and two children, and Planter’s black crewmen and their wives and children all escaped slavery in this exploit—16 total.

In the 2021 Congressionally mandated purge of Confederate names from US military bases and assets, the names of several Navy warships were identified for change.  USS CHANCELLORSVILLE (CG-62), named for a Confederate victory in the Civil War, was renamed USS ROBERT SMALLS.  The cruiser continues to remember Mr. Smalls today, despite President Donald Trump’s reversal of the renaming of US Army bases.

Robert Smalls was also a member of the South Carolina militia after the war, rising to the rank of Major General.  On 21 April 2004, the US Army launched its logistics support ship MAJ GEN ROBERT SMALLS (LSV-8) from the docks at Moss Point, Mississippi.  She is the first US Army ship named for an African American and the first to be named for a Civil War hero.

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                                          FALL OF CORREGIDOR

The Japanese invasion of the Philippines began within hours of the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Landing in the Lingayen Gulf, they swept southward across the island of Luzon toward Manila, Subic Bay, and the Bataan peninsula in between.  The Japanese onslaught was overpowering.  On 10 December 1941 the Navy Yard at Cavite was bombed, and by December 21^st, the headquarters of the Naval Defense Forces of the Philippines had to be moved to the island of Corregidor off the southern end of Bataan.

Steadily the staunch but outmanned American defenders were pushed down the Bataan peninsula toward Corregidor.  Fighting every inch of the way, hoping in vain to stall the enemy until reinforcements could arrive, combined US and Philippine forces held out for months.  US Army troops made their last stand on Mt. Samat, a 588-foot hill in central Bataan.  Wounded, starving and dehydrated, they surrendered on April 9^th.  Those who were captured were marched 100 miles up Luzon in the hot Philippine dry season.  Mortality on this merciless march approached 50%, earning its designation as the “Bataan Death March.”  The remaining Army and Navy personnel fled to Corregidor two and a half miles offshore, including COL Samuel L. Howard, USMC, and his 4^th Marines from Naval Station Subic Bay.

Corregidor is a three square mile fortified island that in 1942 was home to an airfield, parade ground, extensive barracks, and numerous gun emplacements.  Tunnels sunk deeply into Malinta hill provided underground storage, command bunkers, and a hospital.  As the situation deteriorated, GEN Douglas MacArthur was ordered to leave his command post deep in the Malinta Tunnels.  On a dark night of 11 March, as he and wife and son stepped onto four PT boats, he uttered his famous promise, “I shall return.”

The garrison was now under the command of LGEN Jonathan M. Wainwright and by May the situation was desperate.  Howard, his Marines, and 700 bluejackets defended Corregidor’s beaches.  The Japanese bombardment was unrelenting.  Though the gun batteries on the island fought bravely many were hindered by the fact that the guns were cemented in place facing the wrong direction (traditionally it had been thought that attack would come from the sea).  To make matters worse most of their ammunition consisted of armor piercing anti-ship rounds–of limited use against planes and personnel.  Subjected to heavy 24-hour bombardment, the 13,000 weary and hungry troops endured until the 6^th of May.  Then, to save further carnage, Wainwright surrendered the garrison.  Navy personnel (including nurses) taken prisoner totaled 1700.  Wainwright and COL Howard survived the war as POWs, Howard received the Navy Cross and was promoted to MGEN.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  12 MAY 26

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Aluit, Alfonso J.  Corregidor.  Manila, Philippines: Galleon Publications, 1989.

Hall of Valor, Navy Cross Citation of Samuel Lutz Howard.  Military Timee website, AT: https://valor.militarytimes.com/recipient/recipient-7713/, retrieved 24 April 2026.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol 3  The Rising Sun in the Pacific.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1948, pp. 193-206.

Morris, Eric.  Corregidor: The End of the Line.  New York, NY: Stein and Day, 1981.

Site visit, Bataan Peninsula, Corregidor Island, Mt. Samat, Republic of the Philippines, February 1989.

Sweetman, Jack.  American Naval History: An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 2^nd ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1991, pp. 165-66.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The fall of the Philippines on this day was the last in a series of stunning Allied defeats at the beginning of the Pacific war that stretched from Pearl Harbor to Wake Island to Singapore.  Radio broadcasts from the garrison on Corregidor during the final days had been relayed back to American living rooms, giving the general public a sense of involvement in the loss.  But the situation brightened in the days that followed, as news of the battle of Coral Sea reached America.

          The WWII escort carrier USS CORREGIDOR (CVE-58) remembers the battle for the island.  Our modern Arleigh Burke destroyer HOWARD (DDG-83) remembers a Marine Corps 1^st SGT from Vietnam with the same surname.

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                                         LAST CRUISE OF LPH-11

On the sunny Friday morning of 2 May 1997 the amphibious assault ship NEW ORLEANS (LPH-11) nudged toward Pier 6 at Naval Station San Diego.  A seasoned 28-year veteran, she was returning from 92 days at sea.   The Iwo Jima-class LPHs were the world’s first to be built from the keel up for the purpose of helicopter assault, a tactic born of our experience in Korea.  But today’s arrival ended the last deployment of an LPH in the Pacific.  Overtaken by advancing technology, the LPH role was now being filled with newer LHAs and LHDs.  Her sisters IWO JIMA, OKINAWA, GUADALCANAL and TRIPOLI had already been retired.  INCHON (LPH-12) had been converted to a mine countermeasures ship, MCS-8.  Only GUAM (LPH-9) in the Atlantic and NEW ORLEANS remained as operational LPHs.

Slated for retirement herself, NEW ORLEANS’ last cruise had not actually been planned.  CAPT Richard C. Perkins received the call after repairs to Japan-based BELLEAU WOOD (LHA-3) forced her last-minute cancellation from upcoming maneuvers.  With only 25-day notice, LPH-11 departed San Diego on February 1^st for Okinawa, where 1500 Marines embarked for Operation Tandem Thrust.  Her three months off Australia were marked by more than just exercises.  Typhoon Justin stalked her in March, bringing monstrous waves that pitched the carrier into 40^o rolls.  During the height of that storm the captain’s gig broke free and smashed a helicopter in the hangar deck, and in medical, an OR table crashed through a bulkhead.

Even on the final leg of her return to San Diego, when rest for this tired warrior seemed imminent, another call went out.  The Panamanian freighter Dexter Eagle, three days out from Mexico bound for the Philippines, sent a distress call when her master, Celso Montano, fell ill with an apparent case of appendicitis.  The freighter’s designated “medical officer” (the engineer) had used the strongest drugs in his med locker, Tylenol and Maalox, without effect.  At the time, NEW ORLEANS was 700 miles distant, but she was vectored by the Coast Guard in Hawaii as the closest vessel with medical capability.  The two ships turned toward each other at flank speed and had closed to within 40 miles the following day.  A CH-46 “Sea Knight” was launched carrying LT Nicholas Kalynych of NEW ORLEANS’ medical staff.  Kalynych was lowered to Dexter Eagle, Mr. Montano was collected, and all were brought back aboard the amphib.  His illness proved to be gallstone pancreatitis, and happily, plans to fly Montano to NMC San Diego were postponed when his medical condition brightened.

A veteran of the Apollo space missions, the 1980 Iranian hostage crisis, and Operations “Desert Shield” and “Desert Storm,” NEW ORLEANS decommissioned 1 October 1997.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Crawley, James W.  “Daring Rescue Marks Vessel’s Farewell Voyage.”  San Diego Union-Tribune, 3 May 1997, p. B-2.

Crawley, James W.  “Warship Returns Home One Final Time.”  San Diego Union-Tribune, 3 May 1997, p. B-2.

Morin, Steve.  “New Orleans Returns from Last Deployment.”  Navy Compass, Vol 3 (41), 9 May 1997, pp. A-1, A-7.

“Navy Aids Ailing Civilian Skipper.”  San Diego Union-Tribune, 30 April 1997, p. B-2.

Oral Histories, USS NEW ORLEANS crewmen, May-June 1997.

Polmar, Norman.  The Naval Institute Guide to the Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet, 16^th ed.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1997, pp. 157-59.

“USS NEW ORLEANS hosts CNO.”  ComNavSurfPac press release, April 1997.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The first five LPHs were left-over aircraft carriers from WWII (initially called CVHs).  The seven purpose-built Iwo Jima-class followed.  None carried landing craft.  They all bear the names of famous US Marine Corps battles.  The respective final letters in their successor’s hull numbers, LHAs and LHDs, simply identify serial designs.  These ships are all Casualty Receiving and Treatment Ships (CRTS), making it easy to remember which “gator freighters” have hospitals (those with an “H” in their hull number).

In addition to the damage listed above, typhoon Justin cracked the aircraft elevator frame.  Seawater shipped at three gallons/minute on her return voyage.  The damage was not repaired prior to NEW ORLEANS’ decommissioning.  She was stricken from the Naval Vessels Register on 23 October 1998 and expended as a target off Hawaii on 10 July 2010 in a joint SINKEX with warships of Japan, Canada, France, Australia, the United States, and B-52s from 2^nd and 5^th Bomb Wings.

LPH-11 is the fourth US Navy ship of that name.  The first was an 87-gun ship-of-the-line laid down in 1815 but never completed.  The second was a class-of-one protected cruiser purchased in 1898 for the Spanish-American War.  And NEW ORLEANS (CA-32) was a heavy cruiser of WWII.  All three remember the “Crescent City.”  The modern LPH-11 and LHD-18 remember the US Marine Corps battle of New Orleans, the last battle of the War of 1812.

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                                                     CSS NEUSE

Union forces gained control of North Carolina’s shoreline south of the Virginia border during the first year of the Civil War.  By late 1862, Union troops were garrisoned at New Bern on the Neuse River, Washington on the Tar River, and in Plymouth on the Roanoke River.  This Union presence on key commercial waterways constantly irritated, if not outright threatened, North Carolina’s governor.  Late in 1862 contracts were let for five ironclad gunboats intended to help North Carolinians retake their rivers.  The gunboats were to be constructed at inland towns many miles upstream, with the intent to attack downriver, hopefully in conjunction with Confederate land forces.  Two of these were to be nearly identical 150-foot, 600-ton ironclad sister ships, each mounting two rifled cannon and an iron ram under the bows.  CSS ALBEMARLE was laid down at Edward’s Ferry on the Roanoke River, and CSS NEUSE was started at Whitehall (modern Seven Springs) on the Neuse River south of Goldsboro.

ALBEMARLE slid off the ways first and proved a decisive factor in Confederate MGEN Robert F. Hoke’s successful attack on the Union garrison at Plymouth, NC, on 20 April 1864.  Hoke’s victory encouraged a similar operation a week later against New Bern on the Neuse.  MGEN George E. Pickett’s (of Gettysburg fame) force was based at Kinston, 30 miles upriver from New Bern.  CSS NEUSE had barely been completed when she was ordered from Kinston in support of Pickett’s attack.  To complicate matters the Spring rains had ended, and the level of the river was dropping daily.  NEUSE drafted eight feet, and sensing he must get underway with haste or be trapped in Kinston, LT Benjamin Loyall, CSN, decided he could await his pilot no longer.  The ironclad got underway this day.  NEUSE had two 6-foot diameter screws, but by shortsighted design, both were driven by a single shaft.  The screws could not be used to assist in steering, and predictably, at a bend in the river only 1/2 a mile downstream, NEUSE ran hard aground.

Without his ironclad support Pickett postponed his attack.  For weeks Loyall and his crew labored to refloat the ironclad but succeeded only in returning her to her berth at Kinston.  ALBEMARLE was ordered from the Roanoke as NEUSE’s replacement but was interdicted in transit.  Pickett’s opportunity at New Bern passed, and as Union troops moved into Kinston shortly thereafter, NEUSE was fired and scuttled to prevent her capture.

CSS NEUSE lay undisturbed for a century.  Then in 1961 local Kinstonians began an effort to salvage her wreck.  She was damaged considerably in the process, but her preserved hull can be seen today at a historical site off State Route 70 in Kinston.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  2 MAY 26

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 2 “C-F”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1977, p. 552.

Site visit.  CSS Neuse historical site.  Kinston, NC, 15 January 2002.

Still, William N., Jr.  Iron Afloat:  The Story of the Confederate Armorclads.  Columbia, SC: Univ. of South Carolina Press, 1985, pp. 91, 158-63.

Trotter, William R.  Ironclads and Columbiads:  The Civil War in North Carolina, The Coast.  Winston-Salem, NC: John F. Blair, Pub., 1989, p. 234.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Today it is possible to wade across the Neuse River in many locations, and as such, it’s hard to imagine an ironclad gunboat operating in her upland reaches.  But in the early 19^th century our coastal rivers represented major routes of commerce, and the Army Corps of Engineers continuously dredged the Neuse, Tar, and Roanoke rivers.  At one point in the late 1800s the Neuse was navigable as far inland as Smithfield, NC, 75 miles upstream.  In the 1920s however, the development of efficient railroads obviated the need for river transport, and dredging in the Neuse above New Bern was abandoned.

          The other three ironclads contracted in 1862 were all laid on the Cape Fear River at Wilmington; CSS RALEIGH, CSS WILMINGTON, and CSS NORTH CAROLINA.  WILMINGTON was not completed before the war’s end.  NORTH CAROLINA and RALEIGH both reached the mouth of the Cape Fear River, where RALEIGH made an impotent, 6 May 1864 sortie against Union blockaders offshore.  It was the only combat any Wilmington ironclad saw other than service as a floating artillery battery. 

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                                    CSS WEBB’S RUN FOR THE SEA

The 206-foot sidewheel steamboat William H. Webb started her career as a coastal steamer in New York in 1856.  She fell into Confederate hands in 1861 and was converted to a ram a year later.  Lacking plate iron to protect her boilers, her outfitters “armored” her nevertheless with layers of cotton bales stacked around her mechanical spaces.  Her bow-mounted 130-pounder Rodman gun and two 12-pounder howitzers, along with a spar torpedo on a long pole from her bows, suited her for operations against Union gunboats on the Mississippi.  But after the fall of Vicksburg in July 1863 the Union Navy completely controlled the Mississippi.  CSS WEBB found herself trapped in Louisiana’s Red River by Union gunboats waiting at its confluence with the Mississippi.

The Confederacy was in its waning months by the time LT Charles W. Read, CSN, volunteered himself to President Jefferson Davis.   Impressed with WEBB’s phenomenal 22 knots speed, Read arrived in early April in Alexandria, Louisiana, and labored for three weeks to muster a crew and provision the vessel for duty.  He became increasingly frustrated over news of the surrender of Lee at Appomattox and wrote to President Jefferson Davis of his plan tomake a last-ditch dash to the open sea.  On this afternoon of 23 April his preparations were complete.

Read’s departure from Alexandria was timed to arrive at the Mississippi after sunset, and at 2030 WEBB charged into the “Father of Waters” under a full head of steam.  The sudden arrival of the white-painted sidewheeler took the three blockading Union gunboats by surprise.  The confusion was deepened as Read displayed a Union ensign, correctly flown at half-mast out of respect for President Lincoln’s recent death.  By the time the Federals discerned the situation, WEBB had a considerable downstream lead.  Read charged down the Mississippi at frightful speed in a chase that followed, estimated by some at up to 25 knots.  He stopped only once to cut telegraph wires along the bank and outdistanced the Union ironclads USS TENNESSEE and MANHATTAN and the gunboats SELMA and QUAKER CITY that were overtaken by surprise.  He reached New Orleans in three hours, running this city at midnight against the fire of Union gunboats that had been forewarned.  The unshaken Read now broke the Confederate ensign and plunged onward.

But 25 miles further Read reached his bitter end.  Running upon the powerful guns of the Union screw frigate USS RICHMOND and leading a flock of pursuing gunboats, Read set WEBB ablaze and ran her aground.  He and his crew were quickly rounded up before sunrise, ending this last significant action of the Confederate Navy in home waters.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  28 APR 26

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Clark, Charles E.  My Fifty Years in the Navy.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1984, p. 65.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Civil War Naval Chronology 1861-1865.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1961, p. V-92.

Luraghi, Raimondo.  A History of the Confederate Navy.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1996, pp. 339-40.

Silverstone, Paul H.  Warships of the Civil War Navies.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1989, p. 231.

Trudeau, Noah Andre.  Out of the Storm:  The End of the Civil War, April-June 1865.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1994, 336-38.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  WEBB was hit only three times in this five-hour chase.  Her only noteworthy damage was to the rigging of her spar torpedo, which had to be jettisoned.  This loss of the spar torpedo may have influenced Read’s decision to scuttle the steamer rather than tackle USS RICHMOND.

Contemporary Union accounts of this episode downplay the surprise they experienced and concentrate rather on the speed of WEBB.  Ironically, despite accounts to the contrary, WEBB’s appearance had probably surprised RICHMOND as well, the latter being unprepared to offer resistance.

Charles William “Savez” Read graduated last in his US Naval Academy class of 1860.  A Mississippi native, he joined the Confederacy after Fort Sumter.  His class rank at the Academy belies his conduct as a Naval officer.  His daring raids and surprising successes earned him the nickname “Seawolf of the Confederacy.”

Lee surrendered at Appomattox on 9 April, and by this date the Civil War was all but over.  Read’s men were captured and subjected to public display in New Orleans before being paroled to return to their homes.  Two days later, on 26 April, General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered the last Confederate force of consequence, the Army of Tennessee, in Greensboro, North Carolina.

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                                        USCGC SPENCER vs. U-175

Ocean Escort Unit A-3, a multi-national collection of the US Coast Guard cutters SPENCER (WPG-36) and DUANE (WPG-33) along with the British corvette HMS DIANTHUS, the Canadian corvettes CHILLIWACK, ROSTHERN, TRILLIUM and DAUPHIN, and the Polish destroyer BURZA, was underway this day escorting Convoy HX-233 from Nova Scotia to England.  The two 327-foot, 2200-ton “Treasury”-class cutters of A-3 were some of the Guard’s newest and had been pressed into escort service since the opening of the war.  Having left St. Johns April 12^th, for five days the 57 merchantmen of Convoy HX-233 pitched through the rough North Atlantic to the longitude of Reykjavik.  The stormy Winter of 1942-43 had been a successful one for Hitler’s U-boats and SPENCER’s men had vowed not to shave until they had bagged “a hearse.”  By now CDR Harold Berdine, USCG, and his crew were looking pretty scruffy.  Then at noon on this day SPENCER recorded a contact inside the escort screen.

SPENCER charged this unseen contact, cris-crossing the spot with two trains of depth charges.  She then threaded her way between the columns of the convoy, maintaining contact and vectoring DUANE to the spot.  Meanwhile 38 fathoms below, the crew of U-175 had their hands full.  The depth charges had burst light bulbs, battered men and equipment, and ruptured pipes throughout the boat.  The crew worked feverishly to stem the flooding as the skipper maneuvered to escape his pursuers.  The continuing “pings” of the cutters reminded them of the immediacy of further attack.  And failing to stem the flooding after 48 minutes, U-175 had no choice but to surface.

The sub broached about a mile from SPENCER and was immediately spotted.  SPENCER, DUANE, and the Naval Armed Guard of nearby freighters fired every gun they had!  Germans who braved the deck to return a few shells were cut down in minutes.  The U-boat’s conning tower was mauled by 5-inch shells, and her hull was enveloped with splashes.  One return shell did hit SPENCER, fatally wounding USCG Radioman Julius Petrella, but rudder damage condemned the stricken sub to impotent circles.  SPENCER bore in to ram but turned away when the enemy was seen scrambling for their life rafts.

SPENCER had drilled for just such an occasion–a boarding party was immediately launched!  As the cutters picked up 41 enemy sailors, Berdine’s men entered the sub.  But they could not stop the flooding.  One giant wave washed completely over her, her stern rose, and it became obvious she was doomed.  The Allies would have to wait another 14 months for the successful capture of a U-boat, when the USS GUADALCANAL (CVE-60) escort group captured U-505 and the codebooks and ciphers she held.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  23 APR 26

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol 1 The Battle of the Atlantic.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1947, pp. 344-45.

Noble, Dennis L. and Truman R. Strobridge.  “Spencer vs. the Nazis.”  Sea Classics, Vol 48 (10), October 2015, pp. 10-21.

Scheina, Robert L.  U.S. Coast Guard Cutters & Craft 1946-1990.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1990, p. 28.

Walton, William.  “Scratch One Hearse!:  Spencer vs. U-175.”  Sea Classics, Vol 35 (3), March 2002, pp. 50-56.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  During WWII the US Coast Guard was a branch of the Treasury Department, having been created originally to stem smuggling.  The “Treasury”-class cutters were named for former Secretaries of the Treasury.  SPENCER was named for John C. Spencer who served President John Tyler between 1843-44.  DUANE was named for the Honorable William J. Duane, one of several Treasury Secretaries in the Andrew Jackson administration.  On 1 April 1967 the Coast Guard was transferred to the newly created Department of Transportation.  Then, after 9/11, the Coast Guard became part of the Department of Homeland Security.

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                                         MISSOURI TURRET FIRE

The first years of the 20^th century were heady times.  The Wright brothers had achieved the first heavier-than-air flight only months before this date.  Theodore Roosevelt was President, and from a naval perspective, our nation was emerging onto the world scene as a power with whom to be reckoned.  Our then launching fleet of armored cruisers and Maine-class battleships was the equal of contemporary navies.  Indeed, our latest, the battleship USS MISSOURI (BB-11) had been commissioned only months before, on 1 December 1903, the third warship to honor our 24^th State.  CAPT William S. Cowles completed sea trials off the Virginia Capes in February, then joined our Atlantic Fleet.  His first assignment was in support of training in the Caribbean.

Wednesday, April 13^th, MISSOURI was engaged in target practice.  Her 12-inch guns boomed with authority as gunners honed their skills.  A crew of 40+ sailors served the twin barrels of her after turret and labored in the munitions handling room one deck below.  Suddenly this morning, as the breech of the port barrel was opened to reload, hot gasses “flared back.”  The turret immediately flashed-over, igniting powder charges awaiting the next rounds!  Flames filled the space.  Chief Warrant Gunner Robert E. Cox remained at his post to direct firefighting, while from outside the turret, Chief Gunners Mate Mons Monssen dove through the hatch with a bucket and began slinging water with his hands to douse the flames.  The turret filled with the cacophonous screams of men painfully burned; others fell unconscious.  In only moments the fires spread to the munitions handling space below.  It looked like the powder magazine would be next–a consequence that would doom the new battleship!  GM1c Charles S. Schepke in the handling space below escaped the initial flash to man a hose outside the magazine. 

Under the direction of CWO Cox, the crew of the turret soon gained the upper hand.  Hoses shortly brought more water, wetting down unburned powder and smothering the flames.  But not before 36 sailors in the spaces had been burned beyond saving.  When the fires were ultimately quenched many more had excruciating injuries.

The actions of the turret crew saved MISSOURI from disaster.  Monssen, Cox, and Schepke were all among the survivors.  Indeed, both GMC Monssen and GM1c Schepke received the Medal of Honor and were warranted to Gunner.  At the time officers were not eligible for the Medal, but when they became so in later years, CWO Cox was retroactively honored as well.  Our WWII destroyers USS MONSSEN (DD-436) and (DD-798) remember Norwegian-born Chief Warrant Gunner Monssen.  The disaster prompted changes to the construction of gun turrets and improvements in munitions handling that remain in effect today.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  17 APR 26

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 4 “L-M”. Washington, DC: GPO, 1969, pp. 391-92, 421.

United States Congress.  United States of America’s Congressional Medal of Honor Recipients and their Official Citations.  Columbia Heights, MN: Highland House II, 1994, pp. 564-65, 567, 568.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Monssen’s namesake, the Gleaves-class destroyer USS MONSSEN (DD-436), steamed into the Pacific after the Pearl Harbor attack and fought in the Coral Sea.  At the naval battle of Guadalcanal in November 1942 she was hit 37 times, being reduced to a burning hulk.  Still ablaze the following dawn, BM2c L.F. Sturgeon and GM2c J.G. Hughes climbed back aboard to rescue nine more shipmates still trapped in the inferno.  Like many warships lost to combat, DD-436 was replaced later in the war with MONSSEN (DD-798).

Officers became eligible for the MOH on 3 March 1915, and many retroactive officer awards were granted in the years that followed.

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                                 YAMATO’S DESPERATION SORTIE

A second offshore phase of operation “Ten-Go” involved the Imperial Navy.  Its warships were to sally forth and blast what remained of the Allied invasion fleet after the April 6^th kikusui raid.  But by this date, the once proud Imperial Navy was but a shadow of its former might.  From war-worn bases in the Inland Sea, Combined Fleet Commander ADM Jisaburo Ozawa could muster only a small “Special Surface Attack Force” of a light cruiser, eight destroyers, and the super-battleship YAMATO.  This 863-foot, 68,000-ton leviathan sported nine 18.1 inch guns that could hurl a 3200-pound shell 22 ¹/₂ miles.  On this last-gasp mission, no air cover could be provided, and YAMATO could be spared only enough fuel for a one-way trip.  Most realized YAMATO would probably not survive what amounted to a suicide mission.  According to historian Russell Spurr, it was the Japanese naval command’s intent that the battleship ravage the American flotilla, then beach herself.  Her guns would form a defensive battery, and her surviving crew would scurry ashore to augment the Japanese land forces.  Under the overall command of VADM Seiichi Ito, the force got underway from Tokuyama at 1520 on the 6^th.  They were spotted at 1745 by THREADFIN (SS-410) in the Inland Sea, and three hours later by HACKLEBACK (SS-295), but neither sub could position for an attack.

VADM Marc Mitscher’s airstrike against YAMATO launched at 1000 this morning, and at 1230 BENNINGTON’s (CV-20) pilots bloodied YAMATO’s nose with two bombs near the mainmast.  For the next two hours the battleship endured near continuous attack.  Her inexperienced anti-aircraft gunners were unable to hit much at all.  In the first hour, YAMATO took five torpedo hits to the port boiler rooms and began to list.  Skipper RADM Kosaka Ariga ordered the starboard boiler rooms counter-flooded before several hundred sailors could be evacuated.  YAMATO now had but one turning screw.  The fourth attack wave brought more portside torpedoes and ten more bomb hits.  YAMATO’s deck plates cracked and crumpled, her list rendered her guns inoperable, the water-tight radio shack flooded, and a blast to sick bay killed the medical officer and corpsmen.  TBM Avengers now made runs so low and measured that LTJG William T. Delaney’s caught fire from his torpedo’s blast.  The last wave struck at 1400.  Communications aboard YAMATO went out, and she rolled onto her beam ends.  Loose shells crashed about, exploding, and at 1423 a giant mushroom cloud signaled the end.

In the enemy’s last naval sortie of WWII, 2498 battleship sailors died, including admirals Ito and Ariga.  The cruiser and four destroyers were sunk as well.  Taken to be revenge for the loss of USS ARIZONA (BB-39) at Pearl Harbor, only 10 US planes were downed.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  13 APR 26

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Dull, Paul S.  A Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy (1941-1945).  USNI Press, Annapolis, MD, pp. 333-35, 1978.

Mitsuru, Yoshida.  Requiem for Battleship Yamato.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1985.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol 14  Victory in the Pacific.  Little, Brown and Co., Boston, MA, pp. 199-209, 1960.

Rohwer, Jurgen and Gerhard Hummelchen.  Chronology of the War at Sea  1939-1945.  USNI Press, Annapolis, MD, p. 346, 1992.

Spurr, Russell.  A Glorious Way to Die:  The Kamikaze Mission of the Battleship Yamato, April 1945.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1981.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Historians argue today whether YAMATO’s sortie was indeed a suicide mission.  Nevertheless, the sortie is often described as the last “banzai charge” of the Imperial Navy.  Four destroyers survived, FUYUTSUKIi, HATSUSHIMO, YUKIKAZE, and SUZUTSUKI, the latter creeping back to Sasebo stern-first after American bombers blew off her bow.  These and a handful of submarines constituted all the remained of the Imperial Japanese bluewater Navy.  Never to be a threat for the remainder of the war, the above destroyers were sunk at their moorings by American aircraft a month later.

LTJG Delaney crashed into the water in the midst of the Japanese fleet and hid under his inflatable life raft as the battle raged.  He was spotted by one of the last departing US planes, who radioed a PBM Mariner circling out of range.  He was picked up, literally, amongst the bobbing heads of hundreds of Japanese sailors.

The wreck of YAMATO was located in 1984.  She lies in two pieces under 1100 feet of water, 180 miles southwest of Kyushu.  Plans to raise the battleship, at Japanese government expense, to recover the remains of her crew never came to fruition.

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                                 “FLOATING CHRYSANTHEMUMS”

The Japanese plan for defense of Okinawa was known by the language characters “Ten-Go.”  While defenders on land waged a battle of attrition, Japanese air and naval forces would engage the American invasion fleet.  But the Japanese air forces were flagging.  Most of their planes and skilled pilots had been lost, the technology of their remaining aircraft was out-classed by the American Hellcat and Corsair, and their reserves of fuel were nearly spent.  This desperate situation bred a desperate response.

Kamikazes first appeared at the battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944.  They attacked in small groups, usually under fighter escort.  The first kamikaze pilots came from the ranks of veterans and could fly the ideal approach–a near vertical plunge from above the anti-aircraft barrage that was aimed amidships, at the base of the bridge structure.  Such a flight profile required evasion of enemy combat air patrols and proper timing of the push-over.  But as attrition claimed experienced pilots, the remaining resorted to a simpler, shallow, glide-in approach with its devastating exposure to anti-aircraft fire.  By Okinawa, kamikaze tactics had matured.  They appeared at dusk, out of the setting sun, sometimes approaching “on the deck,” below radar.  Planes were sent in mass flights, kikusui’s (“floating chrysanthemums”), 50 or more at a time, striking from all directions at once.  The target of choice was the aircraft carrier or battleship, but to the eyes of inexperienced pilots, destroyers appeared equally tempting.  One advanced variation, the baka, was a 500-knot rocket-propelled glide bomb, manned by a suicide pilot, and launched from the belly of a larger plane.

The terror of kamikazes cannot be overstated.  Initially American sailors were aghast that pilots would willfully sacrifice themselves in such a manner.  As we had never imagined such a weapon, our defenses were not up to the task.  Ultimately, radar pickets, interception sorties, raids on home airfields, and robust anti-air defenses insured that the majority of the hundreds of kamikazes thrown at the Allies off Okinawa failed in their attempt to glorify the Emperor.  Nevertheless, those who succeeded wrought death and destruction beyond description.  On this date, the first in a series of ten kikusui raids claimed the destroyers BUSH (DD-529) and COLHOUN (DD-801), the minesweeper EMMONS (DMS-22), an LST and the cargo ships Hobbs Victory and Logan Victory.  Twelve more were damaged including four crippled beyond repair; MORRIS (DD-417), LEUTZE (DD-481), NEWCOMB (DD-586), and WITTER (DE-636).

Kamikazes proved to be Japan’s most effective weapon against our Navy in WWII, sinking more ships and killing more sailors than any other weapon system.  Off Okinawa, they claimed most of the 34 ships sunk and 368 damaged and were responsible for most of the 4907 sailors killed. 

Continued tomorrow…

Astor, Gerald.  Operation Iceberg:  The Invasion and Conquest of Okinawa in World War II–An Oral History.  New York, NY: Donald I. Fine, Inc., 1995.

Belote, James H. and William M. Belote.  Typhoon of Steel:  The Battle for Okinawa.  New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1970.

Hoyt, Edwin P.  The Kamikazes.  New York, NY: Arbor House, 1983.

Inoguchi, Rikihei and Tadashi Nakajima.  The Divine Wind:  Japan’s Kamikaze Force in World War II.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1958.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol 14  Victory in the Pacific.  Little, Brown and Co., Boston, MA, pp. 181-282, 1960.

Poolman, Kenneth.  Allied Escort Carriers of World War Two in Action.  USNI Press, Annapolis, MD, p. 225, 1988.

Rohwer, Jurgen and Gerhard Hummelchen.  Chronology of the War at Sea  1939-1945.  USNI Press, Annapolis, MD, pp. 345-46, 1992.

Silverstone, Paul H.  “Naval Intelligence”.  Sea Classics, Vol 28 (4), pp. 6, 70, April 1995.

Yahara, Hiromichi.  The Battle for Okinawa.  New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1995.

Zimmerman, Robert.  “Okinawa:  A Last Step on the Bloodstained Road to Japan”.  San Diego Union-Tribune, p. A16, 1 Apr 1995.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  In the 3^rd kikusui raid on April 16^th LAFFEY (DD-724) was crashed by four bombs and six kamikazes (17 others missed or were shot down), killing or horribly burning 103 crewmen.  Though every gun aboard was disabled, she is remembered today as the US Navy warship to endure the single most intense enemy attack and remain afloat.

A surviving example of the baka can be seen at Navy Museum of the Washington Navy Yard.

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                                     COLOMBIAN INTERVENTION

As Prestan’s fires left 8,000 homeless in Colon, the rebellious Azipuru was stirring again on the Pacific side.  Having initially been chased into the hills, Azipuru regained Panama City when Colombian troops crossed the isthmus to address the Prestan uprising.  Azipuru began a second killing spree and again declared himself supreme ruler of Panama.  Under an 1846 treaty with Colombia, the United States was pledged to maintain the neutrality of the Panama province and insure safe operation of the US-owned trans-isthmus railroad.  Both Azipuru and Prestan had ripped up track, tampered with switches, derailed engines, and robbed trains along the line.  Desperate railroad officials pleaded with the US for help.

On April 6^th two more screw frigates, USS SHENANDOAH and USS WACHUSETT, arrived off Panama’s Pacific coast.  In four more days our Navy arrived in force when RADM James E. Jouett in the screw frigate TENNESSEE reached Colon with an eight-ship squadron embarking 2648 bluejackets and Marines.  He immediately landed 600 Marines who seized Colon and the Atlantic terminus of the railroad.  The railway’s rolling stock was then armored with half-inch boiler plate and topped with Gatling guns.  The Marines moved down the length of the Panama Railroad thusly, securing key postings at the Barbacos bridge and Matachin.

Simultaneously, landing parties from WACHUSETT and SHENANDOAH secured Panama City.  Here too, the Marines carted their Gatling guns to and fro, on one occasion dispersing a large crowd with several bursts fired at the rooftops.  Azipuru persisted in his claims of sovereignty, even offering the promise of future cooperation in exchange for US recognition of Panamanian independence from Colombia.  But Jouett, who was under orders only to secure the railroad and avoid meddling in Colombian affairs, declined the offer.  [Ironically a nearly identical circumstance two decades later in 1903 would again transpire in Panama, and in this latter incident American recognition would be forthcoming.  In 1903 our interests in the railroad were augmented by then President Teddy Roosevelt’s driving desire to construct a Panamanian canal].

Azipuru surrendered to US Navy officers at the Central Hotel in Panama City on April 24^th, after which US forces began a month-long pull out.  Pedro Prestan fled to the jungle and was eventually captured and executed by Colombian officials.  Interestingly, this effective exercise of seapower in the protection of our national interests abroad vividly impressed the skipper of WACHUSETT, CAPT Alfred T. Mahan, who transferred shortly thereafter to begin an instructor’s tenure at the Naval War College.  Mahan’s writings on Naval employment would form the foundation of 20^th century naval reform.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  6 APR 26

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Department of the Navy, Naval History Division.  Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Vol 6 “R-S”.  Washington, DC: GPO, 1976, p. 482.

McCullough, David.  The Path Between the Seas:  The Creation of the Panama Canal – 1870-1914.  New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1977, pp. 175-79.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  This was RADM Jouett’s last mission in a Naval career that spanned 49 years.  He served initially in the African Squadron and during the Mexican War, then went on to command three Navy warships during the Civil War.  He retired in 1890 and lived for the next 12 years on an estate near Sandy Springs, Maryland.  He has been remembered with three destroyers, DD-41, DD-396, and DLG-29.

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