SAN DIEGO LOST

Almost as our ten Pennsylvania and Tennessee-class armored cruisers entered service at the turn of the 20^th century they were rendered obsolete by advances in technology and dreadnaught design.  By the entry of the US into WWI in 1917, our armored cruisers were no longer being detailed to front-line missions.  For example, USS CALIFORNIA (ACR-6), newly renamed SAN DIEGO to allow the former name to be given to the battleship BB-13, was shepherding merchant ships from eastern seaboard ports to the convoy assembly points in Nova Scotia.

This morning found SAN DIEGO steaming alone south of Long Island, headed for New York City.  She was zig-zagging in calm seas with good visibility.  But at 1123, the morning routine was interrupted when a violent explosion lifted her port quarter.  Seawater flooded through a large hole blown in her port side just aft of amidships.  Two secondary explosions signaled the bursting of her port boiler and the detonation of a magazine.  Sailors clamored to their GQ stations–all eyes searching the seas for a periscope.  Guns opened on anything even remotely resembling a feather wake.

CAPT Harley H. Christy ordered the starboard engine full ahead even as a list to port rapidly developed.  He turned in the direction Fire Island Beach in the hope that the settling cruiser could reach shallow water.  All her guns were in action, firing at any wisp upon the surface.  Assuming they had been torpedoed by a lurking German U-boat, her port gunners fired until their stations went awash.  On the starboard side the firing ended when the advancing list pointed the guns skyward.  Men stayed at their posts until the starboard engine flooded, and CAPT Christy became convinced the ship would founder.  Christy himself was the last to leave, working his way from the bridge to the boat deck, then over the side to the exposed docking keel.  He jumped the last eight feet to the water to the cheers of his crew in the boats, who broke out singing The Star Spangled Banner.  SAN DIEGO rolled and sank.  All but six of her crewmen were rescued.

SAN DIEGO was the only major US warship lost to combat in WWI.  A survey of her wreck by hardhat divers in the days that followed reported her capsized on the bottom with severe hull damage.  A salvage effort by the Navy was not attempted.  Though the men on the scene were convinced she had been torpedoed, the exact nature of her demise was never determined.  The controversy persists today, however German records indicate she was most likely the victim of a floating mine laid by U-156.  Her wreck remains a popular sport diving site today.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  25 JUL 25

CAPT James Bloom, Ret.

Albert, George J.  “The U.S.S. San Diego and the California Naval Militia.”  AT: http://www.militarymuseum.org/usssandiego.html, 7 June 2007.

Berg, Daniel.  “The USS San Diego Shipwreck.”  AT:  http://www.aquaexplorers.com/sandiego.com, 7 June 2007.

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

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  Though most of SAN DIEGO’s sailors were picked up by other ships in the area, four lifeboats full of sailors managed to row the 8 miles to shore, three landing at Bellport, and one at the Lone Hill Coast Guard Station.

          Though The Star Spangled Banner was often used for official occasions and ceremonies from as early as the 19^th century, it was not officially adopted by Congress as our National Anthem until 1931.

The post SAN DIEGO Lost appeared first on Today in Naval History.

                                                  USS HALLIGAN

The bloody and bitter fight for Iwo Jima had barely begun to quiet before the next target on the relentless march toward Japan was determined–Okinawa.  Here the Marines expected yet another tenacious fight to the death by entrenched defenders loyal to their Emperor.  D-Day was set for April 1^st, and the last weeks of March saw the pre-invasion bombardment of the Okinawa landing zones.  Accompanying this “softening-up” force was the Fletcher-class destroyer HALLIGAN (DD-584).  A veteran of the campaigns for the Marshalls, Saipan, the Philippines, and Iwo Jima, her skipper, LCDR Edward T. Grace, had been allowed only a few days to refit in Ulithi before getting underway for Okinawa.  This morning found HALLIGAN patrolling between Okinawa and Kerama Retto, protecting minesweepers who were preparing an area known to be heavily mined.

Around 1830 this day, FN1c Eddie S. Strine stood in the chow line aboard the destroyer-minesweeper AARON WARD (DM-34) steaming a couple miles starboard of HALLIGAN.  Out the port passageway hatch he watched the strong silhouette of the destroyer calmly coursing in shoal water three miles southeast of Maye Shima.  Then suddenly a silent flash enveloped the destroyer, and a massive column of black smoke mushroomed from HALLIGAN.  Seconds later the concussion struck WARD and sent her sailors to General Quarters.

HALLIGAN was wrenched in two in the explosion, only a handful of sailors forward of the bridge escaped in the seconds it took for the bow section to flood and sink.  LCDR Grace and all but two of the wardroom officers were killed instantly.  ENS R.L. Gardner, who happened to be in the after 5″ gun mount, leapt back to his feet uninjured, and quickly ran forward.  Recognizing himself to be the only officer left aboard, he began organizing fire-fighting, damage control, and rescue operations.  The explosion had detonated the forward magazines and nothing forward of the No. 1 stack remained.  PC-1128 and LSM-194 pulled alongside to assist, but it soon became apparent that there was little left to save.  Gardner ordered the remaining crew to abandon ship and made one last sweep through the spaces.  Luckily one sailor was found still alive below decks, pinned under wreckage.  A handy torch quickly freed the man.  In all, 153 sailors perished with HALLIGAN, most instantly when the Japanese mine detonated beneath the destroyer’skeel.  She was the first US warship lost in the Okinawa campaign, without having fired a shot in her own defense.

HALLIGAN’s after section drifted 12 miles before running aground on the Okinawan shore.  Her rusting hulk remained aground until 1958, when it was donated to the Okinawans for scrap.

Watch for more “Today in Naval History”  31 MAR 25

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, pp. 216-17.

Lott, Arnold S.  Brave Ship Brave Men.  Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 1964, p. 139.

Morison, Samuel Eliot.  History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol XIV  Victory in the Pacific.  Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Co., 1960, pp. 115-16.

Parkin, Robert Sinclair.  Blood on the Sea:  American Destroyers Lost in World War II.  New York, NY: Sarpedon, 1995, pp. 285-87.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  HALLIGAN was named for RADM John HALLIGAN, a veteran of the Spanish-American War and WWI, who later served as Chief of the Bureau of Engineering, Assistant CNO, and Commander of the 13^th Naval District.

Sailors feared mines as much as any other casualty, as ships striking mines were often doomed.  Sailors tread lightly on the decks in mine-infested waters, as a detonation would throw the decks up so violently that one would often suffer the fracture of both legs and be thrown overboard.

LCDR Edward Thomas Grace was awarded the Sliver Star for his actions this day.

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