Sea History 069 - Spring 1994

No . 69

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY

SPRING 1994

THE ART, LITERATURE, ADVENTURE, LORE & LEARNING OF THE SEA

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D-DAY

TEXACO Salutes the Tall Ships • • •

and invites you to join the National Maritime Historical Society to help keep them sailing!

Each print measures 12" x 13"

Join the NMHS today and Texaco will send you, absolutely free, a handsome portfolio of fourteen tall ship prints. As a member, you will also receive SEA HISTORY quarterly-and you'll be helping to keep the maritime heritage alive.

The original paintings were commissioned by Texaco and painted by the renowned artist James E. Mitchell. It's our way of saying thank you for joining the National Maritime Historical Society and supporting their good work.

Since the supply is limited, we urge you to send in your membership enrollment today.

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If the National Maritime Historical Society return form is missing, send your $30 membership contribution to the address below or call 800-221-NMHS for credit card enrollment.

FUEL AND MARINE MARKETING

WORLDWIDE Texaco Inc.

National Maritime Historical Society

Fuel and Marine Marketing Dept.

2000 Westchester Avenue White Plains, NY 10650 Tel: 914-253-4000 Fax: 914-253-6002

5 John Walsh Boulevard PO Box 68 Peekskill New York 10566 Tel: 800-221-NMHS (6647)

ISSN 0146-9312

No . 69

SEA HISTORY

SEA HI STORY is publi shed quarterl y by the National Maritime Hi storical Soc iety , Charl es Point , PO Box 68 , Peekskill NY 10566. Second class postage paid at Peekskill NY I0566 and add itional mailing offices. COPYRIGHT Š 1994 by the ational Maritime Hi stori ca l Society. Tel: 914 737-7878.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Sea History, Charles Point, PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566.

MEM BERSHIP is inv ited. Plankowner 10 ,000; Benefactor $5 ,000; Afterguard $2 ,500; Sponsor $ 1,000; Donor $500; Patron $250; Friend $100; Contributor $50; FarnjJy $40; Regular $30; Student or Ret ired $ 15. All members outside the USA please add$ JO for postage. SEA HISTORY is sent to all me mbers. Indi vidual copies cost $3 .75.

OFFICERS & TRUSTEES: Chairman, Alan G. Choate; Vice Chairmen , Richardo Lopes , Edward G.Zelinsky;President , Peter Stanford; Vice President , Norma Stanford ; Treasurer, Bradford Smith ; Secretary , Don a ld Derr; Trustees , Walter R. Brown, Grove Conrad, George Lowery, Warre n Marr II , Brian A . McA lli ster, James J. Moore , Doug las Mu ster , Na ncy Pouc h , Ri chard W. Scheuing, Marshall Streibert, David B. Vietor, Jean Wort; Chairman Emeritus , Karl Kortum OVERSEERS: Charles F.Adarns , Walter Cronkite, Town se nd Hornor , George Lamb, John Lehm an , Schuy ler M. Meyer,Jr ., J. William M iddendorf,11 , Graham H. Phillips, John Stobart, Willi am G. Winterer ADVISORS: Co-Chairm en , Frank 0. Bray nard , Melbourne Smith ; D.K . Abbass, Ray mond Aker , George F. Bass , Francis E. Bowker , Oswald L. Brett , David Brink , Norm a n J .

Brou wer , Willi a m M. Doerflinger, Fran cis J. Duffy, John S . Ewa ld, Joseph L. Farr, Timothy G. Foote, Tho mas Gi ll mer , Richard GooldAda m s , Walte r J. Ha nd e lm a n , C ha rl e s E. Herdendorf, Steven A. Hyma n , Hajo Knutte l, Co nrad Milster , Edwa rd D . Mu hl fe ld , Willi am G. Muller , David E. Perkin s, Ri chard Rat h , Na ncy Hu ghes Richardso n , Timothy J. Run yan , George Salley, Ralph L. Snow, John Stobart, Albert Swanson , Shannon J. Wall , Raymo nd E. Wa ll ace, Robert A. We in ste in, Thomas Well s AMERICAN S HIP TR UST: International Chairman , Karl Kortum ; Chairman , Peter Stanford; Trustees , F. Bri ggs Dal zell , William G. Muller, Ri c hard Rath , Melbourne Smith, Edward G. Zelinsky SEA HISTORY STAFF: Editor , Peter Stanford; Executive Editor , Norma Stanford; Manag ing Editor , Kevin Haydon ; Assistant Editors, Ju stine Ah lstrom , Bl air Benj amin ; Accounting , Joseph Cacciola; Membership Secretary, Patricia Anstett; Membership Assistants, Erik a Kurtenbac h , Kirn Pari si ; Advertising Assistant ,Carmen McCall um ; Secretary to the President, Karen Rite ll

SPRING

1994

FEATURES 8 D-Day: Defining Moment in a Century of Conflict How the Allies forged the unity that led them to Normandy on 6 June, 1944

by Peter Stanford 10 Operation Overlord A look at the planning and execution of the largest amphibious assault in the history of warfare

by Jerry Roberts

17 Building the Normandy Beachhead The saga of American blockships at Normandy and the gale that wrecked the American Mulberry

by James E. Valle

20 Convoy '94 50 years later, veterans put steam in the boilers of three old ships to return to Normandy

by Kevin Haydon 22 "It Looked Like Every Ship in the World Was Coming" A merchant mariner recalls his passages to Normandy

by Richard W. Scheuing

24 Amending the Constitution A naval architect's view of the on.going overhaul of " Old lronsides"

by Thomas Gillmer 28 Robert Sticker: The Sailor's Eye

DEPARTMENTS 4 Deck Log & Letters 32 Marine Art News 34 Shipnotes, Seaport

43 Book Locker 44 Reviews 48 Patrons

& Museum News COVER: A sea-stained Liberty ship lies close in off Omaha beach, over the heads of two young Americans heading inland to liberate France. On these beaches, on 6 June 1944, the fa te of Hitler's Thousand Year Reich was settled.

(Photo courtesy US Naval Institute)

Our seafaring heritage comes alive in Sea History SEA HISTORY brin gs to life A m e ri ca ' s seafarin g past. It is the qu arterl y j o urn a l of the National M ari ti m e Hi storica l Soc iety, a national non-profit member s hip o rgani za-

t ion , estab li shed in 1963 , that works to increase m aritime awareness and educate the public in o ur nation ' s maritime heritage .

Come aboard with us today!

To: National Maritime Historical Society, PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566 Yes, I want to help. I understand that my contribution goes to help the work of the Society and that I'll be kept info1mecl by receiving SEA HJSTORY quarterly . Please em-oil me as:

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These bequests came entirely on the initiative of the donors. This year we are making it easier for members to establish funds, annuities, or trusts that can be mutually beneficial.

For information about including the National Maritime Historical Society in your estate plans, please phone or write: Mr. Bradford Smith, Treasurer NMHS 5 John Walsh Boulevard Peekskill NY 10566-0068 Telephone: 914 737-7878

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DECK LOG

LETTERS

Timing was crucial in the invasion of Normandy in northern France fifty years ago, the "D-Day" invasion that led to victory over Nazi Germany less than a year later.

In retrospect it seems clear that we did all the big things right-notably, not scheduling D-Day too early, despite extreme pressures to do so. And our mistakes, the greatest of which was our Navy's delayed reaction in focusing maximum effort on the Battle of the Atlantic, were overcome, first, by the heroism of civilian merchant seamen taking worse casualties than the armed services-and going back for more; and second, by the astounding productivity of the American people united in the overriding purpose of winning the most terrible war of modem times.

On the big scene, we held an unwieldy worldwide coalition together, fielding its forces decisively against the world's most formidable fighting machine, the German Wehrmacht. But there was positive magic in how this unifying spirit prevailed throughout America, down to its small towns and country hamlets.

Most Happy Convoy: HX 355 Captain Hope's suggestion in the letters of Sea History 68 for numbering the Normandy Convoy '94 is appropriate and I heartily endorse it. However, the number should not be HX 355, as that number was assigned to a convoy that left New York on 9 May 1945. Convoy HX 355 was schedu led to depart New York on 8 May 1945 , the sailing conference to be at 1200 hours on 7 May. The conference and departure of the convoy was postponed 24 hours so that all hands could celebrate VE Day in New York.

I was the Armed Guard Officer on the Liberty ship SS Richard Coulter. At 0445 on 9 May 1945 we got underway to join HX 355, which consisted of 57 ships and 5 escorts. Because it was not certain that the German submarine menace had ended, the convoy was under orders to maintain blackout and radio silence.

The SS Richard Coulter arrived at Gurock, the Clyde, Scotland on 26 May 1945, where she lay atanchoruntil l June when she departed sailing independent for the Kola Inlet, Murmansk, USSR. Congratulations on your success with the John W. Brown. My support has been primarily directed to the Jeremiah O'Brien. May the John W. Brown and all the ships in the commemorative convoy have a safe voyage to Normandy!

GLEN E. LACKEY, Lt. (USNR) Ret. San Diego, California

How to Do It From 1943 to 1945 the small Texas town of Orange built 250 ships of all types, including 138 destroyer escorts and 30 fleet destroyers of the formidable Fletcher class. This little town that Adolph Hitler probably never heard of played a big role in building the ships that swamped his U-boat offensive against Allied shipping in the Battle of the Atlantic. By such efforts the battle for the seas was won, enabling an Allied coalition to crush Hitler's terrifying vision of a "Thousand Year Reich."

Commenting on this effort in the magazine Sea Classics, Thomas S. Hargest wondered how our small towns could have come to play such a pivotal role in history. What was the secret of this fantastic effort of Americans of all walks of life?

Hargest answers his own question: "It was successful because it never thought about what it was asked to do, but only rather how to do it."

In an age of self-doubt and questioning in America, surely we may build with more confidence in our future, knowing what we have achieved together in our shared past-and the spirit in which we did it. Let's hear it for Orange, Texas, say I! PETER STANFORD 4

La Perouse By Any Other Name As usual , I read the last issue of Sea History cover to cover. I was especially taken with the article on "Exploring Maritime Sydney." My wife and I do a lot of exploring pretty much like you described in the article. Since I had just finished the book Pacific Explorer: The Life of Jean-Francois La Perouse, by John Dunmore, I was immediate( y interested in the La Perouse connections. I also collect stamps with a maritime theme, and as you may know, there are stamps that show La Perouse and his ships.

I have one question concerning the spelling of his name. I have never seen it spelled "Laperouse" which I assume is a local variation on his name. Could you please confirm this for me? The origin of that spelling would make an interesting comment in any story I might put together about his explorations.

MYRON MOLNAU Moscow, Idaho Indeed, the museum referred to in the article is named the Laperouse Museum

and the museum literature refers to the explorer as Laperouse. To confound us further, the museum is located in a Sydney suburb called La Perouse!--ED Salvors Seek Rights I never really thought about NMHS's stand on the "Abandoned Shipwreck Act" until I read the articles by Kevin Haydon and George F. Bass in Sea History 68. It is my opinion that states and other governments do not have the right to claim shipwrecks or their propertyespecially those in international waters.

Of course it is a shame when wrecks are totally destroyed by would-be salvors, but for museums to refuse donations of artifacts because of this defeats the purpose of preservation.

States and other governments do not have the available funding to work even a fraction of the wrecks they claim. The ravages of time and immersion in seawater will not allow all of these artifacts to wait forever. Far better for them to be salvaged by individuals than to be lost due to government restrictions.

A happy medium should be reached whereby archaeologists and salvors can work together, but not to the point where the government steps in and takes control. I am a private collector of WWII German Navy artifacts. Ifl start making concessions to laws such as the Abandoned Shipwreck Act, how long do you think it will be before some state or other government decides to step in and take away my right to own such a collection?

For these reasons , I do not support the Abandoned Shipwreck Act in any way, and I will continue to fight for its reversal.

MARC J. COHEN Fort Lauderdale, Florida Seamen Still Await Recognition On 22 May it will be Maritime Day, and we must remember the history of the American merchant marine in WWII: 733 ships were lost from enemy action; 100 ships were lost on the Russian run; 397 American merchant ships were sunk

by German subs in the first 6 months of the war. One out of every 35 seamen was killed from enemy action; over 8000 seamen were recorded missing. It was the only all-volunteer service in the war, yet the US Government waited until most of us were dead before they gave us veteran status 43 years late in 1988.

They sent a price li st with every medal we won; only the Russian government gave us a free bronze medal and letter of SEA HISTORY 69, SPRING 1994

thanks: "On behalf of Boris Yeltsin and entire Russian people .... This award is a token of recognition of your outstanding courage and personal contribution to the Allied support of my country which fought for freedom against Nazi Germany." When will the US remember its forgotten heroes?

PETER SALVO

McKeesport, Pennsylvania

Enough Seamen's Recognition I was a Master Mariner of the US merchant marine. I support the principles of the Society, but I question your advocacy of non-military personnel receiving military status: the "Seamen's Recognition Campaign." Many civilians were exposed to enemy action, some in military-type uniforms. They were paid for their risks, and could always say no.

S .P. BERRYMAN

Amelia Island, Florida

Don't Forget the Little Ships I was pleased to see the article on the British trawlers that served on the US Atlantic coast in 1942 (see " The Destroyer's Poor Relation" in Sea History 68). I joined the Royal Naval Patrol Service in 1940 and served aboard one of these trawlers, HMS St. Zeno out of Norfolk, Virginia. I have been trying for a long time to get more recognition for the Royal Naval Patrol Service, but all that people want to know about is the big ships: cruisers, destroyers and corvettes.

In fact, the Battle of the Atlantic had been going on for two years before the corvettes first came on the scene. Thanks for spreading the news.

CHARLES A. WINES Yarbridge, United Kingdom

A Father's Tales Thank you for your continuing supply of "Marine Art News" in the pages of Sea History. I have at home a large etching

by Charles R. Patterson depicting the ship Jabez Howes , all sails set, inbound at the Golden Gate.

My late father, a retired Coast Guard Officer, often told me of his experiences as a young seaman aboard this ship during a voyage around the Horn from New York. I have estimated the date at about 1885. He recounts that, like other seamen of that age, he found that there was a dark side to life aboard windjammers apart from the normal perils of the sea. Often, as on that ship and voyage, harsh and brutal treatment was meted SEA HISTORY 69, SPRING 1994

out to the crew (usually by the mate) with no recourse until arrival, if then.

Of particular interest on his voyage was the bosun, a man named Andrew Furuseth, who did much to ease the seamen's lot. In later years he was to organize the first Sea Union to protect the rights of seamen.

In his youth my father also became acquainted with Jack London, a fellow enrollee in a journalism course at Berkeley, who eagerly garnered many true tales of the sea from my father and other seamen, incorporating these tales into his novels in recognizable form.

The latest addition to the fast-growing number of sailing ships built in Poland is the big Dutch brigantine Swan fan Makkum. This impressive vessel joined the charter fleet late last year.

Another newcomer is the Dutch bark Europa. The Stichting Het Varend Museumship was lucky to purchase a 1911 former German lightship. Most of the German lightships were built like sailing vessels so the strongly built hulls are well-suited to a second life under sail, as the bark Alexander von Humboldt, the barkentine Atlantis and the three-masted schooner White Shark demonstrate.

CAPTAINROGERJ. MEADE

WERNER JURKOWSKI

Babylon, New York

Berlin, Germany

Tall Ships in Eastern Europe

QUERIES

In Sea History 67 you mentioned the four-masted bark Kruzenshtern as in laid-up condition. In October 1993 a friend of mine told me that he had seen a big sailing ship in a shipyard in Wismar (Germany). Because I knew that the Sedov was scheduled forrefit in Wismar, I was surprised to learn that it was in fact the Kruzenshtern being worked on. After a five month refit she is now back under sail. Since then the Sedov has taken her place in Wismar, so we can expect her back in her old glory in 1994.

Although both vessels took part in the Columbus race and sailed up the Hudson during the Tall Ships Parade (I was on the Sedov), it seems to me that Americans have not noticed that both vessels changed their home ports in 1991. At the time of independence of the Baltic states, Kruzenshtern went from Tallin (Estonia) to Kalingrad, former Koenigsberg (Russia). Sedov changed from Riga (Latvia) to Murmansk (Russia).

In June I saw the Peace (see Sea History 65) in Kiel. She is rigged as a barkentine (not as a three-masted schooner) and her home port is Valletta (Malta).

Apparently her hull is much older and looks like a converted fishing trawler.

The Segelschiff Fridtjof Nan sen Society in Wolgast (Germany) owns two sail training vessels and runs a shipyard.

One vessel is the three-masted topsail schooner Fridtjof Nansen (topsails on fore and main masts) which they rebuilt in 1991-92 from a 1919 coaster. They added the brig Roald Amundsen last year. She is a former coastal tanker of the East German Navy built in 1952.

Currently the society is working on two smaller vessels which should be under sail later this year.

WolfWolfensberger wants to know who has written an extensive work on marine quarantine and so-called marine hospitals, a seldom-mentioned maritime subject. He writes: "to my amazement, not even Morison's The Maritime History of Massachusetts contains a single index entry (in his otherwise very detailed index) on hospitals, marine hospitals, pestilence, leprosy, cholera, typhus, sickness or disease; and 'quarantine' is only mentioned once-as the name of a ship!

He does not even list Buzzards Bay or Pekinese Island where the leper colony was." Contact him at: 805 South Crouse Avenue, Syracuse NY 13244-2280.

Michael Dooling is researching the life of a seaman from Swansea MA named Aaron Wood. Wood went to sea as an ordinary seaman in 1854 and spent most of the next 30 years as mate or master of various ships. An auction in the mid1970s broke apart an accumulation of materials relating to his life including journals, letters, etc. Mr. Dooling has located portions of the material and is seeking more information. Wood's ships included: Emerald Isle, Monarch of the Sea, Norway, Sagamore, St. Mark and Sovereign of the Seas II. Contact him at PO Box 1047, Middlebury CT 06762.

Paul Morris of Nantucket needs photos of the four-masted bark Auburn built by S.S. Bowker in Phippsburg ME in 1906, which went missing in 1910. Send information to him at 5 New Mill Street, Nantucket MA 02554.

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DRAWING BY OSWALD L. BREIT

In Commemoration of the Cadets from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point and the Merchant Mariners who served so valiantly along the shores of Normandy in June 1944.

Their courage and dedication live on!

A. Timothy Pouch, Jr., former treasurer of the

National Maritime His torical Society was among them, serving aboard the SS Cyrus H. K. Curtis on 6 June 1944.

D-Day: A Defining Moment in a Century of Conflict

by Peter Stanford So the long, and to some Americans, diversionary process of Mostly, battles are named for the places they occur: Marathon, Agincourt, Waterloo , are names that echo in hi story because wearing down German resistance began. Sicily was invaded of the decisive battles fought at these otherwise unimportant from the sea in July 1943, followed by landings on the Italian towns. D-Day however is named for the time it took place. peninsula, which initiated a grinding campaign northwards culminating in the fall of Rome just two days before D-Day in And timing, in this case, was all-important.

When the United States was plunged into World War II by northern France in 1944. The campaign was made much longer Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on 7December1941, and harder than it need have been, as Eisenhower noted at the followed within days by Germany's declaration of war, US and time , by the failure to provide the numbers of landing craft British planners set immediately to work on plans to invade mandated at the Casablanca Confere nce in January 1943 .

While the Italian campaign could hardly produce decisive France and drive into Germany to overthrow the triumphant German war machine that held sway over Europe. The Pacific results in itself, it did relieve the seige of Malta and open the was designated a secondary theater, since even US planners whole length of the Mediterranean Sea to Allied shipping saving the additional shipping required for the lengthy alternate recognized that Germany, not Japan , was the main enemy.

The US approach was direct: the aim was to get the biggest passage around the Cape of Good Hope.

And it did help Russia, directly and indirectly. A hefty part possible army ashore in the sho1test possible time, above all to relieve the Russian front, where the Soviet Army had suffered of the German armored force in the Battle ofKursk in July 1943 over three million casualties in six months. There was talk of was withdrawn from the battle-the greatest tank battle of the mounting a "Second Front" in 1942-certainly, US planners war-to counter the Allied landings in Sicily that month . Air forces were also withdrawn, leading to Soviet air superiority for reckoned , in 1943.

The British, whose forces had been thrown out of France in the balance of the war. And - the threat of the Second Front still June 1940, and out of Greece a year later, had found their hands hung , a sword of Damocles over the north coast of France. The full fighting a small detachment of the all-conquering German Germans dared not divert forces from the D-Day front , even before it came into being. From WehrmachtinN01thAfrica.The ~ Hitler on down , it was appreciAfrica Korps , made up of just "'~ ated that the one chance of getthree German divisions under ~ ting a stalemate out of the develField Marshal Erwin Rommel, ~ oping disaster of the war would with Italian auxiliaries, had re路 ~ be to crush the Allied invasion . versed early British gains against ;: ~ On the Allied side , Eisenthe Italians and actually, by the ~ hower, named to head up the Dsummer of 1942, threatened the ~ Day invasion forces in England vital Suez Canal. For these rea-~~ ...,. ',;..~~; ~ ~~-,~.. __..,._....,_ ............... ~ in December l 943 , immediately sons the British took a wary ap~!lflOi!lii 8 doubled the size of the assault, proach to tackling the Germans, adding high-ri sk airborne landwho fielded what was easily the ~ ings in the German rear to help most powerful army on either confuse and delay effective Gerside in World War II. 路' man response, and broaden hi s Appointed to US command in the European Theater of Op~-M~~b~~~~~b...--~路_d... actual landings from a constricted .;. front of 20 mi les to 50 miles. erations (ETO) in June 1942, "It is a wonderful sight to see this city ofships," wrote Churchill, Shipping shortages plag ued General Dwight D. Eisenhower, visiting the armies on shore. Here landing craft stream ashore the planners throughout. D-Day , who had been working on war fi'om the ships, under the muule of a silenced German 88. at first fixed fo r May , was postplans under General George C. Marshall , soon reached his own conclusion: A successful inva- poned to 5 June to provide another month 's production of sion of no1thern France - the shmtest, best route to conquer landing craft. Then , because of a heart-stopping deterioration Germany - could not be unde1taken before late 1943, or more in the weather , it was postponed to 6 June. And on that day, likely the spring of 1944. "Production limitations alone ruled out it happened.

People like my father, Commander Alfred Stanford , USNR, any possibility of a full-scale invasion in 1942 or early 1943 ," Eisenhower later wrote. "Indeed, it soon became clear that involved in the planning and the difficult piecemeal assembly unless practically all American and British production could be of materials and men to build the artifi cial harbors required , concentrated on the single purpose of supporting the invasion of were struck dumb by the actuality, the masses of sh ips, the men and crawling machines and the wreckage on the beaches Europe that invasion cou ld not take place unti l early 1944."* But the British and Americans realized that they could not sit studied so long in photographs. Second mate Di ck Scheuing, still - they had to attack and wear down the formidable German from his vantage point aloft on a Liberty ship 's boo m, stopped war machine. So on 8 November 1942, American and British a moment to look round him on the morning of Tuesday, 6 forces invaded Africa from the west, driving east to join the June 1944, and realized for the first time that he was seeing a British 8th Army fighting Rommel. The Germans in Africa were force in motion that would win the war and change the course finally crushed by overwhelming masses of Allied tanks and of world history in his time.

This it did . May that fact never be forgotten in generation s planes (force ratios reaching l 0-to- l toward the end) and their army, which had been built up to some 250,000 men , was cut to come. apart and forced to sun-ender in spring of 1943 , a surrender that *Dwight D. Eisenho wer, Crusade in Europe (New York , 1948) actually matched in magnitude the German surrender to encirpp 53-54. cling Russian aimies at Stalingrad a few months earlier. :.::

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SEA HISTORY 69, SPRING 1994

A Perspective on The Battle of the Atlantic Admiral King's Failure of Vision From the beginning, US national strategy had been clear: it was to support Britain in her battle for survival after the Ax is powers overran France, and then to keep the Sov iet Uni on ali ve after Hi tler's onslaught.In clearsighted pursuit of thi s strategy the US took positive meas ures: traded 50 o ld (but useful !) destroyers to Britain to help keep her sea lanes open and ado pted Lend-Lease to supply British and Ru ss ian armies in the fi eld .

American troops occupied Iceland , and a Neutrality Patrol was extended more than halfway across the Atlantic to help defend the vital convoys to Eng land .

By the spring of 1941 an agreed plan ca l led ABC- 1 was adopted by the combined chiefs of staff of both nations. And th at summ er Pre s ide nt Franklin D .

Roosevelt and Prime Minister W insto n S. Churc hill met in Newfoundland to iss ue the Atlantic Charter, which spe lled out agreed war aims prior to American e ntry into the war .

Despite the Navy ' s parti cipation in the ABC- 1 pl an and its effective ro le in the Neutrality Patrol, the Ja panese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 194 1 bent naval strategy toward battles in the Pac ifi c rather than the defense of plodd ing merchant convoys in the Atlantic. Half a year into the war , George C. Marshall , Chief of Staff of the US Army , wrote Admiral Ernest J. King a scorching memo saying that shipp ing losses on the US East Coast " threate n the entire war effort ."

In these stark words Marshall recogni zed the primacy of the Battle of the Atlantic. And resources were then fo und to bring the escalating toll of sin kings under control - resources, it must be said, that had been there all along. T he United States had entered World War II with the largest and most modern destroyer fleet in the world . Severe as the Japanese threat was in the Pacific, the conversion of World War I destroyers into attack transports for fu tw·e assault on Japanese islands was a questionable use of assets desperately needed in their unadapted form to clear the Atlantic shipping lanes . And the diversion of vital resources fro m the war ' s most vital front did not end there . At the Casablanca conference in January 1943, held soon after the landings in Africa , when Atlantic sinkings were running high, 80 very long-range bombers were mandated to cover the mid-ocean gap in air coverage. The Navy had 11 2 such bombSEA HISTORY 69 , SPRING 1994

thing he needed - everything, that is, except the shipping. There was no way to make up the defi cit in landing craft induced by King's unil ateral decision.

As a result, the in vas ion of southern Fra nce , conce ived to be simul ta neous with the landings in Normand y , came over two months later. W argam ing sinee then has shown that Germany can ' t stand up to the s imulta neo us a ttack as planned - the war ends in the fa ll of l 944 instead of the spring of 1945 .

But Eisenhower knew thi s at the time - that is why he pl anned it that way! By a bitter irony , Admi ra l King, who taunted the Briti sh regul arl y o n the iL delays and un willingness to go headl ong at the Germans, ended up in troducing the cri tica l delay that measurably prolo nged a terrible war.

T he US Navy went on to do bril liantly in Normandy - US destroyers virtually saved Omaha beachhead by their hotl y served 5-inch guns- and subsequentl y in southern Fra nce. And when the Japanese surre ndered , the Imperi al Japanese Navy had been driven fro m the Pacific , its remnants hiding in harbor.

No one wo uld dream of de nying Admi ral King cred it for mobili zing and leading thi s great fi ghting force . But in a brilli antly conceived and executed coaliti on strategy , hi s was the one signifi cant fa ilure - a fa ilure of visio n. T he fighting admi ra l ev ide ntl y could not see that strategy is not just about w inning battles, bu t w inning the battles that most PS full y achieve the agreed goal s .

ers. But all were sent to the Pacific, despite the confere nce decision, while the primary Atlantic fro nt went bare for months as sinki ngs moun ted.

Admiral King also took the amazing ste p of refusing to honor the agreed priorities in the allocation of landing craft. Samuel Eli ot Mori son reports: " When the 1942- 1943 Channel crossing was abandoned , and for a year the British refu sed to firm it up for 1944 , the Navy saw no reason to pile up amphibi ous craft in England fo r an operation that might never take place."* Thi s is o ne case whe re Admira l Mori son is wrong in hi s interpretation of what happened . T he fact is that the Combin ed C hi efs of Staff res o lved at Casablanca in January 1943 upon a major buildup forthe in vasion set for late 1943early 1944. Admiral King was bound by that mandate and chose to flout it when the decision came dow n for early 1944 when the in vasion actuall y took place .

Jo hn R. Norris, who had served under King earlier , and who ad mires him to thi s day as a great fi ghting adm ira l, says that " King tried to get more latitude for a more rapid prosecution of the Pacific war; all the British me mbers of the Co mbined Chiefs objected and the rest of the US members sided w ith the British."

It was not a matter of who " sided" with whom , but executi ng ag reed plans.

T he call had been made. King defi ed it.

General Eisenhower needed everything go ing for him in the D-Day landings , the criti cal act to win the worldwide war.

And by heroic efforts he d id get everyM AP FROM MOR ISO .US

* S.E. Mori son,

US Naval Operations in WWII: Vo lume XI (Boston, 1956) p 53 .

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9

O peration Overlord Years of planning for a critical day of combat

by J erry Roberts

hrou ghout the course of history there have been fe w occasions when the fates of nati ons and the course of human destiny have hinged on the outcome of a single day. But June 6th 1944 was such an occasion. The events which took pl ace on the beaches of Normand y on that day helped to set the stage fo r the conclusion of the most horrific struggle in the history of mankind . Fifty years later, Overlord still represents the largest single military operation in hi story, and continues to conjure vivid images . On thi s day, thousands of ships and planes, and vast armi es of men, converged on a broad strip of beach to decide the future of Europe and shape the world in whi ch we now li ve.

Ever since the las t British soldier waded into the sea at Dunkirk in 1940, it had been clear to both sides that if the war lasted long enough, particul arly once the United States had become involved, Britain and her allies wo uld someday attempt to return . It was equally clear that with the bul k of Germany's fo rces bogged down on the Eastern Front, the future of Hitler's Third Re ich would no doubt depend on the success or failure of an A ng lo-A merican in vasion. Consequentl y, in March 1942, Hitl er appointed Field Mars hal Karl von Rundstedt to the post of Commander In Chief West and ordered thatan "Atlantic Wall" be created along the exposed coast of France and the Low Countries, with a mobile reserve held inland, ready to swiftly and decisively counter any attempted assault.

By Ja nuary 1943 the Allies had indeed committed themselves to a cross-channel invasion, and in March, Britain 's Lt. General Sir Frederick Morgan was named Chief of Staff to the as yet unnamed Supreme All ied Commander (COSSAC).

Morgan was tasked with planning the All ied assault to be carried out as early as possible in 1944. T he prospect was daunting. Somehow, along an occupied coast, where the enemy was in fac t expecting to be attacked, enough men and equipment had to be put as hore to engage the most powerful army on earth , an arm y that had already conquered Europe and had had

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The first consideration was to determine how many troops would be needed.

Based on thebuild-up of American troops then pouring into England, the British and A ll ied troops already there, and the projected availability of landing craft, the plan called for three infa ntry di visions and two ai rborne di visions in the firs t assaul t, to be supported by two fo llow- up d ivisions. Twenty addi tional in fa ntry divisions would be embarked once a beachhead lodgement had been establi shed.

The next, and perhaps most importa nt, consideration was the locati on of the assault. The obvious cho ice was the Pas-de-Calais where the French coast li es less than 20 miles across the Engli sh Channel at the Strait of Dover. Calais

Rommel differed with his direct superior, Von Rundstedt, as to how the invasion should be repelled . .. the enemy must be defeated on the beaches.

Otherwise, the battle for France was as good as over. also represented the shortest possible breakout ro ute toward Germany. But the Pas-de-Calais had its di sadvantages as well. The Germans expected the Allies to strike here, so it was the most heav ily fo rtified area on the entire coast. Second ly, the Engli sh ports c losest to Dover were not large enough to all ow the tremendous buil d- up of shi ps necessary to stage the in vas ion. Simil arly, there were not any suitable deep water ports near Calais to handle the fl ow of men and materials needed to support the campaign. The physical nature of the area itself was also less than idea l, with narrow beaches backed by steep cha lk cliffs.

The other suitabl e stretch of French coastline was in Normandy. Here were broad flat beaches and an interior suitable to a build up of fo rces and airfi eld development, all in close prox imity to

the maj or port of Cherbourg on the Cotentin Peninsula. Although Normandy lay one hundred mil es south of England, it was directly adj acent to major British ports like Portsmouth , Southampton and Plymouth . An additional attraction was the element of surprise-it was not where the Germans ex pected the assault and the defenses were li ghter. For a ll of these reasons, Normandy was se lected.

In Novemberof 1943 ,justone mo nth before General Dwight D. Eisenhower was named Supreme Allied Commander in charge of Overlord, Germany's legendary Field Marshal Erwin Ro mmel was pl aced in command of the forces defending the French coast. Ro mmel differed with hi s direct superior, Von Rundstedt, as to how the invasion shoul d be repelled. Rundstedt be! ieved that sinee there was no guarantee where the All ies wo uld land, a large mobile reserve should be held well back from the coast ready to move quickl y to the in vasio n area.

Rommel, on the other hand, fe lt that with the decisive air superi ority he ld by the A llies, Germ an mobil e reserves wo uld be delayed. Rommel believed that the enemy must be defeated on the beaches, at the hi gh water mark where they would be most vu lnerable. Otherwise, the battle for France was as good as over.

Rommel set about strengthening the Atl antic Wall. The major ports which the A llies would need to capture quickly to ensure a suffi cient fl ow of re inforcements were equipped with large coastal batteri es and stro ng garri sons. On the beaches themselves, natural e lements such as high bluffs were enhanced with concrete casemented arti llery and machine gun strong po ints which could ra ke the beaches with deadly crossfire.

The broad beaches of Normand y were of particular concern to Rommel. Landing at hi gh water, the enemy could di sembark hi s forces well up on the beach where a combinati on of the natural gravel shingle at the hi gh water mark, often acco mpanied by a seawall , would provide cover fo r enemy troops.

To prevent thi s, Rommel ordered that SEA HISTORY 69, SPRING 1994

D-Day! The invasion's on! A flotilla of LC!'s (Landing Craft, Infantry) drives across the English Channel to open the invasion of Western Europe. Overhead fly barrage balloons, as protection against strafing by enemy aircraft.This photograph was the first invasion picture radioed by the US Signal Corps.

Above, Gls clutter the decks of LCls heading for the shores of France.

Months of invasion practice aboard US Coast Guard- and Navy-manned landing craft preceded the historic blow against the German defenses on the French Coast . At right, troops board LC/Ls (Landing Craft Infantry, Large) for fina l in vasion maneuvers.

At far right, crewmen of the ba11leship USS Nevada listen as an officer reads a message to all hands on D-Day in the English Channel.

the beaches between the low and high water mark be strewn with obstacles, all capped with contact mines and laced with barbed wire. Invisible at high tide , these obstacles would impale landing craft , making them easy prey to the aitillery strong points and machine gunners on the bluffs. To deal with the invaders that might still reach the sea wall , the coast roads wh ich paralleled the wall s were lined with more bai路bed wire and the grassy sand between the beach roads and the sloping bluffs was heav ily mined. Beyond these entrapments, the few natw-al ravines wh ich led off the beaches were guai路ded by more gun emplacements, and the villages above were also f01tified .

Low lying ai路eas were flooded by the damming of rivers to create endless marshes which would bog down the troops and prevent the passage of tanks and other SEA HISTORY 69, SPRING l 994

COURTESY OF US NAVAL INSTITUTE

vehicles. The few dry causeways which led from the beaches inland were again protected by st:rongpoints.

As aerial reconn aissance and information from the French underground reached Allied planners , countermeasures were developed for the fo rmidable array of defen ses awaiting the Allied troops . Although it was fe lt that the coastal defe nses could be "softened " by naval and aeri al bombardment, the beach obstacles proved a tougher nut to crack.

On a secluded stretch of the Florida Gulf coast, the tetrahedrons , sloping beams and "Belgian Gates" were recreated and bombed , bl asted , and rammed by reinforced landing craft- all to no avail-the open structure of these obstacles made them almost immune to blast damage.

So a radi cal depaiture from traditional militai路y doctrine was ca ll ed for.

COURTESY OF US NA VAL INSTITUTE

To prevent the landing craft from be ing hung up or sunk by obstacles they could not see at hi gh water, it was decided that the invasion should take place on a ri sing low tide when the obstacles would be visible on the broad exposed beach.

Engineers could then be sent in with the assault troops to manu all y clear safe corridors through the obstacles with explosives and bulldozers so that followup waves coming in on the flood tide could di sembark their troops higher up on the beach. Of course this meant that the first-wave troops and the engineers would be totally exposed on the broad sands. To give them the close-in artillery support they would need , the British developed an amphibious version of the 33-ton Sherman tank , fitted with vulcani zed canvas flotation collars and propellers. These Duplex Drive (DD)

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tanks would be deployed from LCTs ~ (landing craft, tank) three miles off the ~ beaches and swim in with the assault !;;~ forces.Foradditional protection,DUKW amphibious vehicles would remain just outside the surf line to provide additional counterfire when needed.

As planning progressed, Eisenhower felt that the forces allocated would not be enough to guarantee success, so the assault forces were increased to three airborne and five seaborne divisions.

This increase in manpower meant more landing craft were needed , so the invasion was shifted from May to June.

The actual day of "Neptune," the seaborne assault component of Overlord , had to be selected for the necessary combination of low tide an hour after dawn (to provide an hour for the air and sea bombardment to soften the defenses) in conjunction with a rising moon at midnight, needed by the transport and glider pilots to drop the airborne troops on target. Low tide at dawn only occurs twice a month on the Normandy coast,

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After a rendezvous ten miles southeast of the Isle of Wight, the ships proceeded toward the coast of Normandy in ten columns, each led by a squadron of minesweepers. and only once a month with a rising moon. The first of these windows, June 5th , was selected as D-Day .

Eisenhower, who had commanded the North African and Mediterranean landings, now put together a formidable Anglo-American team to direct Operation Overlord. Britain's Air Chief Marshal Arthur Tedder would serve as Deputy Supreme Commander, General Montgomery would command all land forces, with Lt. General Omar Bradley in direct command of American ground forces. Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay was in overall command of the Allied naval forces , Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory was in command of the invasion air forces , and General Walter Bedell Smith served as Chief of Staff. Sir Frederick Morgan was retained as Deputy Chief of Staff as COSSAC was superseded by SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force) .

The fifty-nine miles of Normandy coast selected for the landings were di12

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... the choppy seas swamped ten of the landing craft before they even reached the beach.

CO URTESY NA VAL HISTORICAL CENTER

vided into five beaches, two American and three British and Canadian . Farthest to the west was the first American beach, code-named Utah. Backed by flooded lowlands, only four dry causeways exited this stretch of beach . About ten miles to the east lay Omaha, the second American beach . Omaha was dominated by 150 foot bluffs pierced by four ravines which led up to the villages above.

These ravines had been heavily lined with strong points and machine gun positions . Six miles farther along the coast, the three British/Canadian beaches , Gold, Juno, and Sword had more conventional terrain. The beaches were faced by a number of small villages backed by solid ground.

After months of training, the troops returned to their marshaling areas and on May 25th the camps were sealed off

for security reasons , with D-Day set for June 5th. By June 3rd all 170,000 assault troops were on board the transports, and some of the ships based in distant Scotland , Ireland, and Bristol , had already put to sea. However at 0430 on the morning of the 4th, Eisenhower was forced to postpone the invasion due to an approaching gale. The invasion rules called for winds no higher than 13 to 18mph offshore , visibility at least three miles, and cloud cover to be no more than six tenths. But at the following night's briefing the RAF's chief meteorologist predicted a break in the weather beginning on the afternoon of the 5th and lasting until late on the 6th. After considering his staff's opinions, Eisenhower made the decision to risk an invasion on the 6th. Conditions would be less than desirable, but Eisenhower SEA HISTORY 69 , SPRING 1994

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Landing craft, launched f rom American transports rwelve miles out, beyond the range of shore batteries, stream toward the beach.

The USS A ugusta stands at alert in the background.

On the fa cing page, a British LCT, operating under the US flag, approaches the in vasion beaches with f resh US Army troops, during the post-assault buildup, 7 June 1944.

At right, a Coast Guard LC/ , loaded with troops, lists heavily to port before sinking in the English Channel . She had time, however, to pull alongside a nearby assault transport and evacuate her troops befo re going do wn.

felt that a delay of at least two weeks would be worse.

Once again , the ships with the farthest to go put to sea on the 4th while the balance of the 5 ,000 ship armada got underway on the 5th. After a rendezvous ten miles southeast of the Isle of Wight , the ships proceeded toward the coast of Normandy in ten columns, each led by a squadron of minesweepers. Under the command of Admiral Ramsay, the Allied Naval Expeditionary Force was divided into an Eastern Task Force (commanded by Rear-Admiral Vian aboard HMS Scylla) bound for the three British beaches and a Western Task Force (commanded by Rear-Adm Kirk aboard USS Augusta along with Lt. General Bradley) for the two American beaches. Behind the minesweepers came the battleships USS Texas, USS Nevada and USS Arkansas SEA HISTORY 69 , SPRING 1994

with the Western Task force, and HMS Warspite and HMS Ramillies with the Eastern Task Force. HMS Rodney and Nelson were available as reserve squadron battleships. Behind these came a force of British, American , Canadian , French , and other Allied warships including 23 cruisers , 2 monitors, 3 gunboats, 105 destroyers and 1,073 smaller naval vessels.

Following these came the troop-carrying assault transports, LSTs, LCTs LCis and other landing craft, along with the merchant ships that would supply the beachhead . Last came the tugs towing the monstrous components of the two Mulben-y ports, prefa bricated systems of breakwaters and pi ers which would be assembled off the beaches to supply the beachhead until Cherbourg could be captured and made u able.

As the invasion force churned through

many of the troops , especially those already embarked in landing craft, were suffering the effects of acute sea sickness, crammed into ships ' holds and anticipating their corning ordeal. Despite the best efforts of the minesweepers , an LCT and the destroyer USS Cory , from Force A (bound for Utah) were sunk by mines.

Meanwhile,RAFandUSAAFbombers were softening up targets throughout Normandy all night, while others bombed Calais to keep the Germans off guard. Allied air operations involved 3,467 heavy bombers, 1,645 medium, light, and torpedo bombers, 5,409 fighters , and 2,316 transport aircraft. At 0030 on the morning of the 6th, the three airborne divisions began landing beyond the beaches on the flanks of the invasion coast. Unfortunately , many missed their drop zones. But, through hard fighting and initiative, most of the important objectives were achieved by morning.

Among the most notable were the British glider assault and capture of the Caen Canal Bridge, the storming of theMerville Battery , and the American 82nd Airbome 's conquest of St. Mere Eglise.

At sea , the ships took up their assigned stations off the beaches. The American transports began embarking their troops into the smaller LCVPs and LCMs twelve miles out, beyond the range of the shore batteries . However, this meant the small craft were subjected to five-foot seas , which still prevailed in the wake of the previous day 's gale. The American naval bombardment ships took up their positions nine miles out, while the LCTs that were to launch the Duplex Drive Tanks moved in as close as three miles. H-Hour for the American beaches was set for 0630, while on the British beaches, further along the coast where low tide came later, the assault would hit the beaches at 0730. The British had also chosen to bring their ships much closer in to the beaches than the Americans and, to assure accuratedeployment, the British warships were guided into their anchorages by signals from two midget submarines .

As the Allies poi sed to strike , the in vas ion beaches were guarded by three German infantry divisions , supported by one armored di vision , the 21st Panzer, south of Caen. Two more infantry divisions were in the area , as well as an additional three armored divisions. Despite the strongpoints and fortifications on the beaches, Germany's ability to 13

Top left, the fi rst wave hits the French coast. Bottom left , from Coast Guard landing barges (LCVPs ), Americanjighting men wade ashore on Omaha Beach under heavy fi re from German machine gun nests.

An Am.erican soldier lies dead alongside a beach obstruction on Omaha Beach, 6 June 1944, bottom right. He is one of some 1,000 American trooops landed on Omaha that did not see the successful conclusion of D-Day.

A major turning point on Omaha began when Navy destroyers , seeing the slaughter, maneuvered in so close they were in danger of going aground, and started giving close in counterbattery support.

COURTES Y OF US NA VA L INST IT UT E

COURT ES Y OF US NAVA L INST ITUTE

repel the invas ion wou ld largely depend on ho w 4uickly the reserve forces could reach the beachhead.

At 05 30 the firs t thunderous salvoes from the British warships announced the beginning of a two hour naval bombardment of Gold , Juno and Sword .

Twenty minutes later, at 0550, the American fleet opened fire, the ir dead ly proj ecti les archin g to ward the beaches over the landin g craft whi ch had already beg un their run in at0415 . Although Allied destroyers and air cover had co mpletely suppressed the U-B oat threat to the invasion fl eet, a small squadron of hi gh speed E-Boats managed to get into the protecti ve smoke screen and sink a Norwegian destroyer.

As the naval barrage continued , thousands of Allied fi ghters and bombers began attacking the beaches. Flying over 14

the incoming landing craft in wave after wave, the drone of the " heavies" and the explosions on the shore greatl y encouraged the assault troops. Although many of the targets on Utah were effectively bombarded , overcast skies at the other beaches , particul arly Omaha , fo rced the bombardiers to drop their loads thro ugh the cloud cover by in struments. Not wanting to hit the landing craft already on the way in , the aircraft delayed their release. Consequently , most of the bombs destined fo r Omaha fe ll miles inland.

At about0625 , when the landing craft were within a few hundred yards of the American beaches , the naval bombardment was lifted . As the German gunners climbed from the ir shelters to man the defenses , specially equipped LCTs sent up a baffage of several thousand rocketpropelled projectil es arching over the

COU RTES Y NAVA L HISTORICAL CENT ER

incoming assaul t troops and onto the beach defenses. And then, at 0630 , the first ten landin g craft lowered their ramps. The landings had begun .

Because of the poor visibility and lateral currents on the run in , the fir st twenty landing craft came ashore at the southern end of Utah . By luck, thi s area was less heav il y defended than the sector they had been ass igned and the follow up troops were ordered to jo in the first assault where they had landed . Engineers cleared the obstacles within an hour and po ints of resistance were qui ckly overcome. Although Utah suffe red some traffic jams due to the limited beach ex its , casualties were light , with less than two hundred killed and 60 missing . By the end of the day 23 ,000 men, 1,742 vehicles and 1,695 tons of equipment had been landed .

SEA HISTORY 69 , SPRING 1994

The US Nevada fi res her huge I 4-inch guns to support troops fi ghting their way ashore.

Below left, the ebb tide reveals a slainsoldier, wrecked tanks and trucks and the menace of landing obstacles, as fig hting rages inland.

Below right, Allied guns weave a tapestry of.fire in the night skies off the Cherbourg peninsula , as Nazi planes appear overhead to bomb a group of invasion ships. In the foreg round is the sinking hulk of an American Liberty ship. Two bomb explosions flare up in the distance .

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COURTESY OF US NA VA L INSTITUTE

Meanwhile , three companies of US Rangers had landed at the base of Pointe du Hoc , a large promontory between Utah and Omaha, where a coastal battery commanded both the American beaches. Scaling the cliffs with ropes and ladders, the rangers assaulted the battery. After a desperate struggle they fo und the gun emplacements empty .

Searching inland , the guns were at last found and destroyed.

While the landings at Utah led to rapid movement inland , things did not go so well on Omaha. Bombardment had failed to knock out the defenses.

Tragically, the Piper Cub spotter planes that had been meant to direct the naval a.t1illery against specific targets were shot down by our own overzealous troops in the landing craft on their run in. To make matters worse, the choppy seas SEA HISTORY 69 , SPRING 1994

swamped ten of the landing craft before they even reached the beach, and 27 of the 32 duplex drive amphibious tanks also went to the bottom. The remaining 51 were brought all the way into the beach by their LCTs, but eight of these were destroyed as soon as they landed.

As the troops poured out of their landing craft into the waist-deep surf, they immediately came under intense fire from the bluffs. Those who did make it across the beach were pinned down behind the relative safety of the shingle and seawall , totally demorali zed and concerned only with survival.

The engineers attempting to clear the obstacles for the succeeding waves were left defen seless without the counterfire from the DD-tanks ortheDUKWs. Several of the landing craft were destroyed by direct hits and many of the engineers

COURTESY OF US NA VAL INSTIT UTE

were killed while rigging the obstacles with explosives. Only six of the planned sixteen lanes were cleared by the time the ri sing tide forced the engineers to join the survi ving assault forces crouching behind the shingle at the hi gh water mark . Things were so bad that the German officer commanding thi s section of beach reported that the invasion was being turned back into the sea , and that he did not need reinforcements.

Out on the flagship USS Augusta, General Bradley was unaware of the tragedy taking place on Omaha. Gradually, the badly mauled assault troops began to realize that no one was going to get them off the beaches but themselves.

Through individual initiati ve by surviving officers, small units were finally able to breach the barbed wire and mine fields , or scale the cliffs at either end of 15

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e; Division . Although a fe w elements of the

~ 21st Panzer managed to reach the coast in ¡ "'~ the gap between Juno and Sword , Briti sh u armor, effective use of artillery and antitank weapons, backed by rocket firing RAF Typhoons, prevented reinfo rcements from following through. Despite heavy losses by the British tanks , the counterattack was repelled . Although the Bri tish failed to achieve their major objective of capturing Caen, they secured the eastern flank and successfull y th watted the only counterattack that had a chance of di slodging the beachhead . On the Briti sh beaches about 75,250 men were ashore by the end of the day with about 3000 casualties , about l 000 of these Canadian.

By nightfall , all fi ve beaches had been secured and reinforcements poured ashore.

In terms of ground held, the Allies had not achieved all of their optimi sti c first-day objectives, but the broader goal of establishing a tenable beachhead had been accomplished. Because of German confusion, and a cumbersome chain of command, reinfo rcements arrived too li ttle too late to thwart the landings. Effecti ve Allied air cover had dominated the invaBy the end of D-Day, a total of 156,215 Allied /roops had pierced Hitler 's sion ru¡ea, crippling the defender' s attempt Allantic Wall at Omaha, Utah, Sword, Gold and Juno . For several weeks to move reinforce ments to the coast. Alafte r the initial thrust, men and supplies poured onto the beaches . Wh en lied aircraft so do minated the coast that a severe storm broke up Mulberry A, the artific ial harbor built at Omaha, US only two German fig hters appeared over Navy LSTs were used to carry their cargo directly up to the beach. The the beaches on the 6th, although a large amphibious ships were beached at high tide and unloaded as the tide receded. number of Allied aircraft were lost to German ground fi re.

By theend of the day ,a total of 156,215 Allied troops had pierced Hitler' s Atlantic Wall. But the cost had been high. The Allies had sustained casualties totaling 10 ,300 men. Yet despite the worst that the beach, and infiltrate the German 34 ,000 men had made it ashore and the Hitler's war machine could throw at them , the Allied soldiers had managed to fight defen ses. A maj or turning point on beachhead was secured .

Omaha was when Navy destroyers, seeWith the British H-Hour set fo r 0730 , their way ashore and stay there . In the ing the slaughter, maneuvered in so close the Royal Navy had begun its bombard- days and weeks to come , the big naval they were in danger of going agro und , ment of the defenses a full two hours guns would continue to provide support and started giving close-in counter-bat- before the troops went in . The transport even miles inland as the beachhead was tery support. Once a handfu l of naval anchorage was also much closer than on expanded and German defensive posigunnery spotters managed to get ashore the American sector. Thi s meant that the tions were di slodged one by one . The with radios, naval arti ll ery fire was ef- seas were not as rough on the landing Battle fo r France was far from over, but as fectively directed to the stro ng-points craft or the DD tanks . Despite areas of the Mulberry po1ts became operational guarding the beach ex its in the draws. strong German resistance , most of the and the men and materials that would Beyond the western end of the beach a DDs got ashore and provided immediate eventually sweep across France and into large coastal battery which had proved counter-battery fire. The British had also Germany poured ashore , the end of the immune to air and sea bombardment developed a number of other specialized war in Europe came in sight . now came under direct fire from the vehicles known as "fu nnies" to clear huge guns of the battl eship USS Texas, mine fields, destroy pill boxes , traverse Jerry Roberts is Senior C urato r at the whi ch literall y bl asted the cliff, along antitank ditches and shoot fl ames into Intrepid Mus eum in New Yo rk and is currently preparing the M useum 's D-Day with the German batte ry , into the sea. enemy gun emplacements.

Omaha suffered the heaviest casualThe British were able to move inland exhibit which will op en on 6 Jun e. Photo ties on D-Day with I 000 dead and 3000 quickly and deploy a defensive perimeter research fo r this article was conducted injured . However, by the end of the day in anticipation of the expected main Ger- by Sea History editor Kevin H aydon.

16

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The Mulb erries were huge artificial harbors built to speed the landing of troops and men. They were comprised of Phoenixes, protective barriers of enormous concrete caissons as big as a fi ve-story apartment house, Gooseberries, vessels sunk in an outer line of protection, and Whales, pontoon-supported ramps capable of handling heavy armor.

The Saga of American Blockships at Normandy

tions, referred to as "Phoenixes," to do the job adequately. Some means had to be fo und to supplement these concrete

By James E. Valle "caissons" and it was fi nally decided to scuttle a line of ships adjacent to the The Allied amphibious landing on the design and construction.

Normandy Beaches on June 6, 1944 was A critical element in the design was the caissons to extend the area of sheltered the most ambitious seaborne assault ever construction of fo ur artificial breakwaters water. Mulberry A off Omaha Beach undertaken in the history of warfare. to calm the seas over which troops and would require about sixteen American Among the many facets of th is mighty supplies would be ferried. This scheme, merchant ships and Mulberry B off Gold endeavor was the plan to build two arti- codenamed Operation Gooseberry, was Beach would need sixty-five British and fic ial harbors to land the huge masses of unique in that it required the services of other Alli ed merchant ships.

These ships were precious assets in men and equipment on the coast of approximately one thousand men of the France-one for the British landing, United States Merchant Marine and an wartime and the decision to sacrifice them called Mulberry B, and one for the equal number of Army Transportation was not made easily. The British ultiAmerican landing, called Mulbe1Ty A. Service seafarers. These men would be mately made their selection from cargo The basic idea for Mulberry harbors among the few civilians participating in vessels available in the British Isles that were over thirty years old, supplemented was the work of the British Scientist that momentous occasion.

As the preparations unfolded, it be- by a few wo1t hless warships such as the JohnDesmondBemal,oneofChurchill 's famous "Wizards." Bernal realized that came obvious that the req uired break- disarmed dreadnought Centurion. The any landing on the Continent would waters were so extensive that it would be Americans settled on eight World War I have to take place over open beaches impossible to build enough concrete sec- Emergency Fleet "rustbuckets" and eight Liberty ships that had been extenand that it might take weeks or Blockships fo rm a Gooseberry line at Normandy . sively damaged. All vessels seeven months to capture a proper lected were in commission with seaport. He first broached his ffi crews aboard and were capable of plan to the British Prime Minis~ moving under their own power.

(J ter while he and hi s party were -' Six additional Liberty ships were en route to the Quebec Confer- 25 selected and earmarked to serve ence aboard the Queen Mary in ~ as breakwater accommodation August, 1943. Utilizing a partly i and service vessels. fi lled bathtub in his cabin, some ..J :; Preparation of the bl ockships paper boats and a life preserver, ~ took pl ace in one of seven locaBernal demonstrated the con~ tions in Scotland, England or cept and was given the go ahead ~ Wales and consisted of setting by an enthusiastic Churchill. ::::> ~::::.,,;=:z..;=:.......~___::::;.....:::____J 8 demolition charges in the holds, Thus began a year of frantic

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SEA HISTORY 69, SPRING 1994

17

The Gale that Wrecked Mulberry A cutting through bulkheads to faci litate Overaperiodofninedays,MulberryA wasassembledoffOmahaBeach. rap id flooding , and in stalling ballast to The staff of Mulberry A, under the command of Capt. A. Dayton Clark, bring the sh ip 's draft down to exactly 19 fought exhaustion and the elements to complete the giant puzzle of feet fore-and- aft. The Navy type gun s "Pheonixes," "Whales," "Lobnitz pierheads " and "Gooseberries " that constituted the ship 's defensive ar- well ahead of deadline. It was a stunning achievement that allowed for mament were removed and replaced by an average ofover8,500 tons ofcargo to pour ashore daily between June army sty le anti-aircraft weapons.

16and18.

Then, on 20 June, there blew up the strongest summer gale known in While their ships were being readied for the invasion , the maritime commis- the English Channel for forty years. Mulberry A staff looked on in horror sion crews were taken under full military for two days while wind, waves and vessels that dragged their anchor control by the Supreme Headquarters pounded against the installation and took the lives ofmany engineers and AJ lied Exped itionary Forces. The Naval boat operators. Jn the end, Mulberry A looked like a complete wreck.

Armed Guards went ashore with their Using extraordinary resourcefulness, the officers and men responguns and were replaced by Army gun- sible repaired Mulberry A so that on June 23 the tonnage landed rose to ners. Their merchant seamen were asked 10,000 tons, and on the 26th to 14,500 tons.

Deputy Commander of Mulberry A, Alfred B. Stanford, USNR, to volunteer for an undisclosed mission and, upon doing so, were told that they wrote a stirring and dramatic account of the planning and building of were now subject to military authority Mulberry entitled Force Mulberry.from which the following excerpts and that they would be confined to their are taken. ships until it was time to sail. They were given no exact information about where Tugs manipulate the huge structures that comprise Mulb erry A . they wou ld be going or what they wou ld be doing. They were told that, prior to departure , all non-essential personnel would be taken off, leaving on ly enough The blockship Centurion awash. men for three steaming watches and meal service. Th is was high ly unusual treatment, even for wartime , but the men took it in stride with little thought of the legal and jurisdictional implications of what they would undergo.

After approximately a month of enforced idleness, the sixteen origina l blockships, now codenamed "Co rncobs," got underway proceeding separately to their assembly areas carry ing their reduced merchant crews, Army gunners and Navy Seabees who wou ld supervi se the positioning of the ships and detonate the scuttling charges. On D-Day they began their fina l run to Omaha Beach in a special convoy. During this phase,oneoftheirnumber, West Honaker, was dive-bombed by a German aircraft. A lthough no damage was others went to Gooseberry II off St. thecriticaJ moment her two assigned Almy done , her master, Charles R. Stevens, Laurent. Although this phase of the op- tugs cut loose and bolted. The Contee then ordered most of her crew into the boats eration was an overall success, a few became unmanageable and drifted close inshore. Her Seabees blew her charges to be picked up by escorts . With onl y problems were encountered. twelve men left to steam the vessel, he The area was still far from secure, and she sank out of position, enduring brought her to anchor off the beachhead with active minefields and well directed heavy shellfire in the process. M il itary where she endured a day of intermittent artillery fire a constant hazard. The crew secrecy and lack of psychological prepashe llfire until all ofhercompatriotscould of the James Iredell was completely unration were the apparent cause of these be assembled and scuttling commenced. nerved when the ship was straddled by two incidents .

All of June 7 (D-Day+l) was taken shells from shore batteries, and demanded The remaining ships were sunk acup with collecting the "Corncobs", asto be taken off just as she began to move cording to plan and, together with ships signing Army or Navy tugs to assist toward her assigned position in Goose- from the British contingent, successthem, and determining exact!y where to berry II. The men were removed under fu ll y formed the American Gooseberplace the two Omaha Beach breakwa- fire and the Seabees steamed the ship into ries I and II. Meanwhile, in the space ters , designated "Gooseberry I" and position with a hastily assembled pickup between the two lines of ships , the Mul"Gooseberry II." Finally, on June 8 the crew. The Benjamin Contee also came berry Phoenixes were being positioned ships began to move into position , some under fue as she headed for her station in and sunk , and construction on the going to Gooseberry IoffVierville while Gooseberry I. Her crew stood fast, but at "Whale" floating pierhead and cause-

18

SEA HISTORY 69, SPRING 1994

D-Day + 10, June 16, " With a roar the first vehicle emerged ... and turned into the roadway. With but a brief grin for a moment at the crowd the driver sent his vehicle down the steel tracks toward shore.

"The dream of Mulberry actually worked. The theoretical scheme on paper had finally been translated into actual units of steel that fitted together and now were operational .... "

COURTESY OF US NA VAL INSTITUTE

D-Day + 12, June 18, Lt. Comdr. Everrett Morris, USNR , Port Director, Mulberry A, from aboard blockship Centurion:

"It is going to blow like stink if you ask me."

D-Day + 14, June 20, "The huge seas, well over one hundred foot long, were now sweeping across the decks and superstructures of the blockships."

D-Day + 15, June 21, "The problem of saving Mulberry seemed hopeless. During the night more LCTs had piled into the bridging .. . plus barges, LCVPs and small craft, in a tangled, heaving mass working against the structure. At one point the bridging had completely twisted under the strain till it stood on edge."

COU RTESY OF US NA VA L INSTITUTE

way began. It would be ten days before the Mulberry harbor began to function at Omaha Beach , but the Gooseberry breakwaters were an immediate success. They smoothed out the surf on the beach , formed a protective lee and convenient homeport for hundreds of small craft, and established anti-aircraft batteries to defend the main landing site. On June 11, two more American ships were added to Gooseberry I. As the troops began to move inland and take out the German artillery emplacements, life on the blockships became less hectic, but the challenges faced by their now purely mjlitary crews were not over yet. On June 19, the English Channel unleashed a Force 6 half-gale SEA HISTORY 69, SPRING 1994

which ravaged Mulberry A and rendered some of the Gooseberry ships uninhabitable . When the storm subsided on June 23, Rear Admiral Alan Kirk and Captain Dayton Clarke, the Navy commander of Mulberry A, decided to abandon the floating pierheads altogether and use whatever could be salvaged from them to repair Mulberry B in the British sector. The Whale piers had been severely damaged,and the unanticipated success achieved by running land ing ships and small coasters right up on the beach made them less important than originally planned .

The Gooseberries, however, had been an unqualified success and it was decided to reconstitute and even expand them. A

total of ten additional American freighters were sunk at Gooseberry I and II during July and August. By this time , Cherbourg was in Allied hands and, as more ports were captured , the importance of the Beach landing sites diminished .

Omaha Beach went from being the busiest port in Western Europe to a forgotten backwater. Twenty-seven American freighters were slowly pounded to pieces by the next winter's storms and today nearly all trace of them is gone. But these ships and their sailors had surely earned a place in history!

Dr. James E. Valle is chairman of the Department of History and Political Science at Delaware State College.

19

"All the charts were there,from Normandy to the Pacific. The wartime instructions were posted alongside the mark XIV gyro.

The captain's night order book at Normandy beach was in the desk drawer. The ship was a time capsule."

-Rear Admiral Thomas Patterson on finding the Jeremiah O'Brien in 1962

Convoy '94

The Liberty ship Jeremiah O'Brien.

50 Years Later, Veterans Put Steam in the Boilers of Three Old Ships to Return to Normandy

by Kevin Haydon t was the evening of 5 June 1944, and Walter Botto, a young ship's officer, found himself on course to Normandy in the dark choppy seas of the English Channel. Botto's unforgettable trip had begun eight weeks earlier when he reported aboard the Liberty ship SS Benjamin Hawkins, loading at the Brooklyn Army Base for convoy duty to Liverpool.

Upon discharge of its cargo, the vessel joined an armada of ships to be held in Scotland and other safe locations in "incommunicado status. "There was no shore leave and no outgoing mail. And now, on the English Channel with the 82nd Airborne Division backup group aboard, this merchant mariner and his humble merchant ship were sailing into one of the largest military actions in history.

The Benjamin Hawkins was one of hundreds of Liberty ships that made their way at the appointed hour, from ports all over Britain, in giant D-Day flotillas, to the beaches of Normandy. They served as troopships and they served as supply ships-transporting among other things tanks, trucks, food and ammunition. Not without hazard either. The night of 6 June found the Hawkins high and dry on the beach at Utah waiting for the tide and under fire from enemy shore batteries.

The Libertys were the ships of the moment, a class of 2,751 built for the war effort beginning in 1942. What

I

20

wagon trains were to the West, they were to the war effort. Navy Department photographs show the unmistakable outline ofLibertys dominating the scene off the Normandy beaches. To the several thousand merchant mariners who served on them, and to many of the tens of thousands of troops they transported, they still evoke powerful memories.

This is why three WWII veteran merchant ships will make a passage to Normandy to take part in the D-Day commemorations. The LibertysJohn W. Brown and Jeremiah O'Brien and the later more advanced Victory ship Lane Victory are the last of their kind. The epic restoration of these ships over the last decade, an effort led by veterans, and their upcoming trans-Atlantic pilgrimage, wherein they will be sailed by veterans, will probably be remembered as the last great effort of an aging group to redress, relive and/or reconcile their war experience. More, perhaps, than any other emissary, they will represent all the Americans, from shipyard workers to assault troops, that helped the Allies breach Hitler's Atlantic Wall .

D-Day's Lone Returning Survivor, the Jeremiah 0' Brien Alone of the US vessels among the armada of 5,000 ships amassed for D-Day, the San Franci sco-based Jeremiah

O'Brien will be returning to the historic beaches she visited 50 years ago. She crossed the English Channel safely eleven times in support of the invasion. "She was bombed off Normandy, but the bombs never hit her," said retired Rear Admiral Thomas Patterson, the prime moverof the campaign that has brought her from the rust-bound scrap row of the reserve fleet to readiness for the 20,000 mile return trip to Normandy.

The second life of the Jeremiah O'Brien began in 1962, with Admiral Patterson on assignment for the Maritime Administration surveying Liberty ships at the rate of fifteen a day to decide which would be fust to go to the scrappers. One day, Patterson recalls, his eye was caught by the 0 ' Brien: "She was completely unaltered . .. . All the charts were there, from Normandy to the Pacific. The glass was intact in the license frames on the bulkhead. The wartime instructions were posted alongside the mark XIV gyro. The station bill signed by the captain was in the right place. The captain's night order book at Normandy beach was in the desk drawer. The ship was a time capsule."

So Admiral Patterson began "hiding" the ship. Her name was put on the bottom of the scrap list-the least desirable for sale. When the Navy came to the Reserve Fleet looking for spare parts for its operating Liberty ships, she was relocated.

SEA HISTORY 69, SPRING 1994

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The Liberty ship John W . Brown steaming down the Chesapeake Bay in September 1991 , her first official trip after her restoration.

But the day came when there was only one Liberty ship left-the Jeremiah O'Brien. That's when the idea of preseiving a Liberty ship as a museum took form.

Subsequentl y, the ship found friends in the maritime community and was listed on the National Register. A berth was arranged for her at Pier 3 at Fort Mason.

Eventually, it was time to take her from the Reseive fleet in Suisun Bay. "Let's steam her down ," said Capt. Ernie Murdock. It was a crazy idea, no ship had ever sailed out of the Reseive Fleet under her own power, but Chief Engineer Harry Morgan and his crew put in 1,000 hours of labor to get the engine operating. On 6 October, 1979, she sailed straight into the drydock at Bethlehem Shipyard in San Francisco for an 8-month overhaul. She has cruised the Bay on Maritime Day every year since.

The Idea Was to Create a "Bridge of Ships" The concept for the Liberty ship was a simple one: the Maritime Administration wanted a "bridge of ships" from the US to Europe. The ship was built quickly and incorporated a dated, but proven and easil y assembled, powerplant-the triple expansion steam engine. Construction time averaged 58 days per ship, the astounding record being 4 days, 15 hours, set by Kaiser Shipyards. The John W. Brown was built in 41 days. She was one of the 2,351 still in operation at the end of the war. Two hundred had been lost to the enemy, and another 200 to marine casualty.

The Brown did not go to Normandy, but as a troopship she participated in a number of invasions, including the invasion of Southern France at St. Tropez at 0600 hours, 15 August 1944, which was D-day, H-hour, transporting 350 Gls of the 36th division. Through a quirk she SEA HISTORY 69, SPRING 1994

A World War I/fighter does a fly-by ofthe Lane Victory steaming out of San Pedro, California on her inaugural cruise in October 1992 .

was lucky enough to suivive the post war dispossession of her sisters. In 1947 she went into seivice as a maritime trades high school in New York City. This was closed in 1983.

She was to wed by the Maritime Administration to the James Ri ver in Virginia and slated to be scrapped. But public s upport, in the for m of the NMHS-sponsored Project Liberty Ship, bouyed by the O' Brien save in San Francisco and championed by individuals like Michael Gillen and Jim Ean, then President of the Intrepid Sea-AirSpace Museum, brought deliverance for the O'Brien. Through the intercession of John Boyleston, a home was found for the ship in Baltimore and the arduous task of restoring a second Liberty began.

The third vessel to make up Convoy '94 is the Victory ship SS Lane Victory, now operated as a museum ship in San Pedro, California, by the US Merchant Marine Veterans of WWII. She too is a unique vessel-the only unaltered suivivor of 400 prefabricated Victory ships also built to haul troops and supplies, but engineered to be faster than the sluggish Libertys. As one of the next generation's

vessels, the Lane suivived two trips during World War II to seive during both the Korean war and the Vietnam War. She made history in December 1950 by rescuing more than 7 ,000 Koreans from Wonsan during the Chinese invasion. The Lane also spent years shedding paint and rusting away, one step from oblivion in Suisun Bay, until veterans adopted her in 1988 and brought her back to life.

Why the "Last Convoy" Should Sail As any good museum person knows, it is people that give an historic ship her life and meaning. The voyage to Normandy will climax many years and many thousands of hours of remarkable volunteer effort. This is why Convoy '94 must sail.

It may be the last great group catharsis of the seivicemen of World War II. When the Jeremiah O'Brien steams through the Golden Gate en route to Omaha, she will be under the command of Capt. George Jahn, 78, with a crew of 45 old salts-average age about 70!

Jahn captained a Liberty ship on the perilous Murmansk run as well as at Normandy. Aboard the John W. Brown, Continued on page 30

At left, volunteer Tom Dorn at the O ' Brien 's engine room controls. At right, the O'Brien's propeller shaft being inspected for the trip to Normandy.

21

"It Looked Like Every Ship in the World Was Coming"

By Richard W. Scheuing

Mr. Scheuing, second mate on the Liberty ship William N. Pendleton at Utah Beach on D-Day, 6 June 1944, reports how his ship was hit by a German bomb. And how some young women bound for the embattled beach told him some things he had been unaware of

We came into Liverpool with a war cargo, as usual. When we got there and unloaded, instead of com ing home we were held in England. The British started to make our ship a troop ship with about 100 bunks in a Number 3 hold and 100 bunks in a Number 4 hold-200 bunks altogether. And naturally, when you see preparations for so many soldiers, you know something's about ready to pop.

At the time we assumed that we were going to be carrying British troops. Three or four days before we loaded the troops, the captain got back from a meeting ashore andhesaid: "Well,everything's changed."

And I said: "What is changed?" He said: "Well, we're not carrying British troops, we're carrying Americans." "That's great," I said. Then he asked: "Why do you say that?" I replied: "Because we'll be more careful." Unfortunately, it's the truth.You wantto make sure you get them ashore, a place where they have a good chance of being able to get from the beach to the sand dunes.

As it turned out we landed troops on D-Day itself, at Utah Beach. I told the captain: "I think the best thing to do is to get up as close as we can to the beach without running aground." He said: "Why?" And I said: "Because they're firing, you know they have tanks, mobile guns, the 88s.* But they're up on a bit of a bluff, and they can't really come down to hit us if we're in close." We're getting in closer and closer and I'm looking and looking and finally I said: "Holy cow, we'll go aground and never get off." He said: "Mr. Scheuing, will you take care of the anchor?" I said: "Yes, sir!" So I went up and took one of my men with me. The anchor was all ready to go, but the old man wanted to do his best for the troops. I kept waiting and waiting.

Finally he said: "Let go the anchor!"

Thousands of Them When we went in we had what you'd call "torpedo nets" slung out alongside on booms. When we'd get in close to shore we' d have to take the torpedo nets up. There was a big ring and chain hold-

* The dreaded German 88mm gun.

22

ing the net. It went through an eye up at the top of the boom-about 100 feet up.

Somebody had to go up there and give that a shot when the pressure got on it, whack it so the ring would go through the eye. The crew had been trained by me and they were good, but I didn't want to send any of them up there. I dido 't want to see them falling down. I felt that I'd been up on booms and masts enough that I knew how to hang on. You've got

of our ships and still hold the beach.

There were more ships anchored in harbors all over England, loaded as spares.

After seeing all this I knew in my heart that we were going to win.

A Bomb Belowdecks We started to prepare so that we could unload the gear and we had 550 men on board. For all the units, whatever they were, we would unload the men and their equipment at the same time, so when they went ashore they had everything with them. If it took a little bit of time to get that one unit ashore, the others would just wait. We'd getthem so that they had everybody together. Then they could proceed from there.

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The Armed Guardsmen aboard the Jeremiah O'Brien shaved their heads for the invasion.

Morgan Williams , Gunner's Mate Second Class, pictured above, sports his version of the "Mohawk. "

At top , Seaman First class Helbing at the 20mm going into Omaha. Below, James Jones , Gunner's Mate Third Class, on watch at Omaha Beach.

to have a leg crossed around underneath the boom, because when you finally get this ring through, the boom ramps back and forth and gives you quite a ride.

Being 100 feet above the deck, I decided to use the opportunity to look around and see what was happening.

I've never seen so many ships in my life, before or since, as there were on D-Day. It looked like every ship in the world was coming.

They were all coming from England and there were thousands of them, all loaded with troops. I think that they had figured that we could lose a whole bunch

better than unloading 550 men at once who dido 'tknow where their trucks were.

I rode the last boat of every unit in to see what it looked like. And it wasn't too bad. There were casualties but there weren't too many. We got our people ashore without losing a man to enemy fire. The only ones we lost had nervous breakdowns. They were a couple of men who had been around awhile, sergeants.

They just choked up and froze up.

It took us two days to get rid of all the cargo and everything. We pulled back and anchored near one of the battleships that was out there. They-were shooting SEA HISTORY 69, SPRING 1994

J.

14-inch guns out over our heads and it sounded like a freight train coming through. It seemed a pretty good spot to be. We had a lot of protection-I thought.

It had been three days or more since I'd had a shower, so I took off all my clothes, grabbed my towel and headed for the shower. And all of a sudden I heard ba-boom, ba-boom, ba-boom-a German plane was coming over and had dropped a string of bombs on us. They mi ssed with three of them, but the second bomb hit the signal halyard mast, which flipped it over; it landed flat on the deck. It broke right through and went down three decks and caught fire. But it didn 't explode. I had no idea why.

If it had exploded, I wouldn ' t have had to worry about another trip, I'd have had a free one-way trip to Normandy. And so we had this bomb on board, and I was there without my clothes on. My door was closed, and somebody hollered "Gas!" among other things. I took about three big gulps of air and held my breath in case there was gas. Then I ran up to the bridge, arriving without any clothes on. The captain looked at me and said: "I've never seen an officer without any clothes on on my bridge." I told him I had to report that we had a fire below: "What do you want me to do?" He said: "Take care of it."

Taking Care of a Bomband a Bomber The man wanted me to take care of it. I went trudging down to see exactly what was happening. The bomb had ended up in the shower-the shower that I was going to use. And it was burriing. One of our cadets from the United States Maritime Academy, an engineroom cadet, had picked up this big fire extinguisher outside his cabin and walked into that shower room and put the fire out all by himself. He was walking out with the fire extinguisher, as I arrived. I congratulated him and I looked at this thing.

Half a bomb was lying there. I could see the powder in it. I wondered what I should do. I thought I probably should pick it up and throw it over the side. And then I thought ifl picked that damn thing up it was liable to go off, so I'd better leave it where it was. We were rolling a little bit and the bomb was rocking back and forth.jn an unnerving fashion . I went around to all the officers' cabins and collected all their pillows. I packed the pillows all around the bomb so it wouldn ' t rock. Then I went up and told the captain what had happened . He said: SEA HISTORY 69, SPRING 1994

"Do you think it will go off?" How the hell did I know?

The next morning we took off for England. When we got to Portsmouth, they wouldn ' t let us into port because we had unexploded ammunition on board, so we had to anchor out and they sent the bomb crew to inspect. They were older gentlemen, British Navy people, not civilians. They came on board and they went to work. They said: "You never know what's going to happen. There 's no sense in everybody taking a ride. " And so one of them went in and looked it over. He said: "You Yanks were lucky thi s time. That bomb didn ' t explode because the detonator was knocked off."

I thought, "Boy, that was a lucky thing."

But we did get a hole in the deck and a couple of cabins were messed up a little. So I thought we'd probably get into the shipyard for a couple of days and get a little rest.

When we came in , I could hear a band playing. I looked over and saw a long pier and a Iine of American soldiers. The soldiers were being served donuts and coffee, and there was a crane alongside the dock. The crane had a man standing up on it and a plate and a compressor on it. The minute we got alongside the dock and tied up, they dropped the plate right down on the hole. The man adjusted the plate so it covered the hole properly.

And he got the compressor going and started welding. When he finished welding, he got the crane to come by and pick him up and take him away with his compressor. I said: "Aren't you going to do any more work?" He said: "No, you got plenty of bunks on board." By this time the gangway was down, the soldiers started coming up, and we were ready to go right back to the beaches.

After we were hit by the bomber, we kept the men on the guns day and night.

One night we shot down a German. It was unbelievable. I was on the bridge and I saw the whole thing happen. The plane came down heading right for us and all of a sudden he must have seen the barrage balloon we had up. So he swung off to hi s right, and as he swung his belly was wide open and it slowed him down a lot. Our three-inch gun fired at the plane and hit him. They hit him right where the wing and the body meet and I could see it hit. I could see the streak and the hit and that damn thing blew up and only pieces hit the deck and the sea alongside. That 's all that was left. That was a wonderful shot.

For These Young Women, Just One More Invasion So we got ashore. And once we got ashore, nothing was going to stop us.

Utah Beach ran about 100 feet up or more, a bluff all the way along, with some terrible places to have to get troops in. But in about ten days there were amphibious engineers going ashore with shotguns slung over their shoulders, driving orange bulldozers which hadn 'teven been painted grey. The guys ashore were having trouble with the gun pits that the Germans had laid, made of concrete a yard thick. They couldn ' t get to them.

Those guys with the bulldozers just came charging in with that big plate up in the air. They would dig a great big hunk of earth and then they would slop it right into that gun pit.

The destroyers that escorted us across stayed on to roam up and down the beaches shooting at the German 88s.

The destroyers were fast. When they'd Continued on page 42

This Liberty ship was not as lucky as the Willi am Pendleton. Bombed off the French coast, she is sinking at the stern while an LCT stands by to take off cargo and crew. At right, O' Brien crewmembers offioad vehicles onto a landing craft at Omaha.

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23

Arrtending the

Constitution An old ship, with an even older problem, finds a solution buried in her past

by Thomas Gillmer

T

he name "Old Ironsides" implies infallible durability-we know, however, that it is only a popular term for the frigate Constitution originating in her conquests of British frigates during the 1812 war. The word durable offers a fair description of the 1797 frigate, but few things endure for-

This restoration is undoubtedly the most extensive and unusual that she has ever had. ever. Although she is planked and timbered in oak and has tough sides, she has been attended to on a rather ragged and sometimes indifferent schedule during much of her long career. She has undergone refits, repairs, overhauls and restorations at varying intervals for nearly two centuries.

The simple and prideful statement that she is the "oldest warship still afloat" is a truth that is not without end. She is probably not on! y the oldest warship but the oldest ship afloat. That floatability is now temporarily suspended because she is presently in dry dock for restoration and will likely be there until late 1995.

This restoration is undoubtedly the most extensive and unusual that she has ever had. It might better be described as a rejuvenation. This does not mean that she is being rebuilt with restored frame and planking. Remarkably, her timbers and planking were not a great concern.

Such obvious structure has been closely watched and well cared for during the last half century.

The concern for some years among those who have watched her, particularly ship's structures people in the Navy, as well as ship historians, has been her hull distortion.

The word "hogging" has been used longerthan the age of USS Constitution to 24

describe ship distortion. Normally it is visible in the upward curvature of the keel-higher amidships than at each endand the drooping of the bow and stem.

This curvature is common in most large wooden ships and begins as soon as a new ship is waterborne. It is more evident in warships than in merchant ships, which carry a homogeneous cargo in their large holds amidships. It is caused, of course, by the longitudinal mal-distribution of the vertical loads: there is greater buoyancy pushing upwards in the middle belly of the hull than in the ends, loaded with heavy weights. These opposite forces actually bend the hull and the visible distortion is called hogging. The ultimate result is loose fastenings, leaking and decay.

Unless these symptoms are attended to, the vessel will not survive.

The designer of Constitution and her sister frigates in 1794 understood the problem. Joshua Humphreys was a skilled shipwright and naval architect.

He was not a particularly skillful marine draftsman, but that was unimportant. He employed a good one. He understood thoroughly the mechanics of hogging in the ship's geometry , and in his structural specifications for the new larger frigates in 1794, he attempted to provide an interior structure that would resi st the force imbalance. It is reasonable to believe that he was the earliest ship builder/ designer to confront the problem; there is no evidence in written shipbuilding specifications, plans or models of earlier date. Joshua Humphreys 's written specifications for these new, remarkable frigates are still available and can be found in the National Archives. Titled "Dimensions and Sizes of Materials for Building a Frigate of 44 Guns," they contain a detailed description of an item headed "Diagonal Riders," a paragraph of 13 lines listing their locations on the ship, fastening types and sizes.

There is some disagreement among historians as to whether these diagonal riders were ever installed during Constitution's construction. They were

The concern for some years ... has been her hull distortion ... or "hogging" in USS President and USS UnitedStates, the sister ships of "Old Ironsides," and one of Constitution' s building progress reports mentions, in two words, that they were in place. Other than the speci-

The Constitution has undergone refits , repairs, overhauls and restorations at varying intervals for nearly two centuries. The near right photograph shows her hauled out in Portsmouth , New Hampshire in 1858, being made ready for service as a school ship for midshipmen at the new US Naval Academy at Annapolis. The 1874 photograph at middle right shows her at Philadelphia Navy Yard stripped of planking from her upper rail to her waterline to reveal her close-set frames.

A celebrated nationwide public funding effort led to the most extensive restoration the Constitution had ever had, 1927-30. At far right she is shown hauled out at the Boston Navy Yard in 1927. ln 1931 she departed on a nationwide cruise.

SEA HISTORY 69, SPRING 1994

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A view of the hull looking forward . The ship's bilges are supported on pre-cut blocks to form a semi-cradle in the area where the bilge is sagging. The keel is resting on crushable caps placed on keel blocks. When first placed, hogging prevented the keel from touching in the middle area of keel blocks. Soon after, the keel subsided some 8 1/2 inches, leaving the residual hogging of about 8 inches.

The USS Constitution in September 1992 , shortly after entering drydock in Boston.

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fications and this very brief mention during construction, there is no other reference to them, and there is no evidence today that they were ever installed.

It is difficult to downplay the structural magnitude or the related intensive labor involved in the inclusion of diagonal riders in a wooden ship. The massive dimensions (12" x 24" cross section) and the individual shaping of each component, builttofitthe interior of the ship's bottom as the riders rise from the keelson diagonally up to the beam 's end of the berth deck, would add significant labor and cost to the hull construction. Knowing this,

TESY OF THE US NA VAL INSTITUTE, ANNAPOLIS MD

SEA HISTORY 69, SPRING 1994

Mr. Gillmer recommended a modified form of the traditional transverse and diagonal riders be used to add strength to the Constitution's hull and prevent hogging (see diagram above).

Similar riders were originally specified by builder Joshua Humphreys in his 1794 description of the 44-gun frigates but there is no evidence that they were ever used. Such an inner structure could be the anti-deformation panacea the Constitution has needed for so long .

COURTESY OF THE US NA VAL INSTITUTE, ANNAPOLIS MD

COURTESY OF THE US NA VAL INSTITUTE, ANNAPOLIS MD

25

why is there no record in all of the Constitution's shipyard overhaul reports of their removal, assuming they were originally installed? Also, why before her first major refit and dry docking in Boston, was she reported to have a very serious hogging condition? If she had diagonal riders in her then or before, there should have been no hogging, or very little, for that is the function of these riders.

It is my belief that during this frigate 's con struction , 1795-1797, they were

we are looking at a ship doctored during past overhauls for her symptoms only. omitted. There was so much government indecision in 1794-97 as to whether the country needed and/or could afford all of these major ships for an unproven and conditional Navy, that construction was a start-stop process, even after the contracts had been let. The negotiations with the Barbary States that resulted in treaties that were regularly violated were largely responsible for the indecisiveness. This, together with a Congress and State Department that were not much in favor of a Navy to begin with , made the ship builders doubt their getting paid.

Some of the six frigates under construction during these shaky times were actually put on hold. Some that were farther along, as was the Constitution, were not.

It would be most understandable, in this political atmosphere, that a builder might well want an earlier launching. It would also be understandable that an unproven and experimental structure, such as diagonal riders, might be silently omitted in order to proceed toward ship delivery more rapidly. It would seem a logical reason why Constitution was the second frigate of the original six to be delivered, after the Constellation . The Constellation's builder in Baltimore is on record as refusing to put diagonal riders in as specified, giving the reasons of complexity and extra building time.

Constitution was dry docked in Boston ' s Charlestown Navy Yard on 25 September 1992, with something close to 15 1/2 inches of hogging in her keel. Of course, when a ship with such extensive hogging settles on to keel blocks, she should be settled down easy. And she was--on keel blocks with sand box caps.

Within a week of settling, her keel had subsided on a straight line or close to it.

26

Shoring, pre-shaped to fit and support her bilges, was also placed as the water was pumped down in the dock.

Her keel being without hogging when in dry dock is sort of like a leaky roof when it is not raining-people tend to forget about the problem. Constitution was originally, but informally, scheduled to be refloated late 1993 or January 1994 after routine repairs and maintenance. It was not until late in 1993 that the question resurfaced of whether to try to prevent the recurrence of hogging. On 23 October 1993, it was announced that the dry docking and associated restorative work on the old frigate would be extended-probably until autumn, 1995. The decision had been made in the summer, and preliminary work was going forward on the installation of diagonal riders in the ship 's bottom-to be done as closely to Joshua Humphreys ' original specifications as possible.

I had been retained by a contract with the US Navy, Ship's Structures Division, in early 1991 to study Constitution' s condition and make a structural assessment of her as well as recommendations for restorative measures. Among the several recommendations in my report, the most significant was to install a diagonal rider system similar to that described by Humphreys. At that time, I had little hope that such a major restructuring would be considered, because of the cost, time and difficulty of construction.

to put the old ship under sail again is not an impractical proposal.

It is considerably satisfying now to know that the old frigate will get her due.

In an engineering sense, it is a most fundamental step, giving the hull the longitudinal strength and rigidity it apparently has never had.

Whether she had diagonal riders as specified originally, she has not had them for some known time and has survived.

After all, as a warship, her hull had been heavily built-nearly 20" through her outside planking, close framing, and inside ceiling. To this add all of the deck beams and decking on three full-length decks, hanging knees, lodging knees, diagonal knees, keel , keel riders, keelson, sister keelsons, deck stringers, bilge stringers and many more here unnamed, all held together with heavy copper bronze fastenings. But without the built-in truss of

diagonal riders, greater flexure in the hull is inevitable. And in a wooden hull, flexure means movement and wear at every joint and every fastening-the drift bolts, plank rivets, plank butts, timber scarfs, etc.-which, over the years, makes large and discouraging repair problems. (It is a wonder she did not leak more than several hundred gallons a day.)

The above comments are a brief glimpse at the problems of an aging ship.

In this case, we are looking at a ship doctored during her past overhauls for her symptoms only. And with these localized treatments, replacing decay with fresh material and worn fastenings with new, the frigate today is an image with built-in distortions. Over the years-from her beginnings, when repair was for battle damage, and through the long years of survival-she was treated with varied talent and skills. It would also be good during the present overhaul to attend to some restoration of her visual image, as Congress wi Lied some years ago. Her bow and stem should eventually be restored to a coordinated period, say 1803 or 1812.

However, her present major structural rejuvenation is progress. This is the most fundamental restoration in her entire career. While the Navy has been appropriately silent on the matter of disposition when completed, with the added inner strength of the diagonal riders in place, a consideration to put the old ship under sail again is not an impractical proposal. She will have renewed spars and new rigging.

And with her working sails bent on there would be no better way to astonish the maritime world- and even stir up some feeling for the ship among our citizens whose patriotic fervor has been progressivel y dimm ed- th a n to see " Old Ironsides" sail out of Boston harbor on her 200th birthday! Wow!

Thomas Gillmer, designer of the replica ships Pride of Baltimore II, Lady Maryland, and Peggy Stewart, is a fo rmer prof essor of naval architecture and chairman ofnaval engineering at the US Naval Academy. He is also the author of a new book entitled Old Ironsides, published last year by International Marine and available through NMHS. SEA HISTORY 69 , SPRING 1994

TWO SPECTACULAR LIMITED EDITION PRINTS by marine artist William G. Muller "View from South Street, N ew York in 1892" In this moonlit view, we look ' over the East River and Brooklyn Bridge from South Street at Fulton Ferry, as the full-rigged ship Largo Law sets sail with th e t ide on a September night in 1892.

In a limited edition of 950 signed and numbered prints at$175. 00 Image size: 20 1/2"x 29 1/4'' Sheet size: 27" x 35 1/4'' Printed on 120 lb. acid-free stock.

"Poughkeepsie Landing, 1910" Looking north up the Hudson River toward the famed Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge, the Day Line steamer Robert Fulton prepares to make her landing at the busy Poughkeepsie, N .Y. waterfront during the grand era of steamboat travel on the river.

An exclusive limited ed ition of just 500 signed and numbered prints at $150.00 Image size: 181/z" x 28" Sheet size: 24" x 33" Printed on 100 lb. acid-free stock.

Available through:

NATIONAL MARITIME HISTORICAL SOCIETY 5 John Walsh Blvd., PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566-0068 For credit card orders phone 1-800-221-NMHS Artist's proofs and remarqued prints also available. Please inquire.

Please add $12.50 for shipping & handling. New York State residents add your local sales tax.

MARINEART

"Preble' s Boys," oil, 12 x 15 inches.

"General Quarters, USS Constitution by Moonlight," oil on canvas, 22 x 24 inches.

28

Robert Sticker: Robert Sticker was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1922and learned an early interest in art from his father, a writer and graphic artist. Not only did the elder Sticker guide Robert in the use of his watercolor books at an early age, but he introduced the boy to oils when he was only six years old.

The Stickers summered on Staten Island and then moved there permanently when Robert was still in grade school.

Both the pleasure boats and the huge ocean-going ships fascinated the fledgling artist, so it is not surprising that his early start in art should be combined with a special interest in maritime subjects.

But, for most of his young life, art was merely a pleasant pastime. After high school, Bob went to Brooklyn College to study accounting and economics, but lost interest in those subjects and left school to take a job in the oil industry.

During World War II, Bob served as a Navy pilot in huge flying boats on patrol in the Pacific. Those long, monotonous flights taught him the many moods of sea and sky.

After the war, he returned to his career in the oil business and resumed his study of economics with night courses at New York ' s City College. Once again, he found those studies unrewarding and transferred to the Art Students League.

When his company reorganized, a substantial severance allowance enabled him to study at the Art Students League full time. Bob recalls his work under the direction of the teacher Frank Reilly: "He had made an extensive study of the history of teaching [art] and . . . what the Old Masters had known about the art of drawing, anatomy and materials. He put together a school within a school-a complete education in fine art.

"I've found that most of the books on art are simply the story of techniques.

But the real secret is observing things and understanding what you ' re observing. That was the magic of Frank Reilly's course. He pointed out just what you were seeing. He gave homework assignments to demonstrate the meaning of his lectures. For instance, he would have us do what he called the "twenty-four head problem." We would take a piece of canvas boardanddrawtwenty-fourheads on it, all the same size and shape. Then we started out painting the first head in normal light, the second in low light, the third in extremely bright light, the fourth in yellow light, the fifth in red light and so on-right through all of the possible SEA HISTORY 69, SPRING 1994

The Sailor's Eye ways of seeing a head. He treated all subjects like this .... He never claimed he was trying to teach art. He taught a craft-painting pictures. If you were going to be an artist, you were going to develop into an artist by yourself."

After completing art school , Bob wanted to paint aviation scenes, but there was no interest in that subject. So he began to paint scenes of New York Harbor and then whaling scenes. One of these was sold by Grand Central Galleries within a week, and he knew his course was set.

Bob Sticker creates about twelve hi storical marine paintings a year, each one carefully researched, largely through hi s extensive files built up over the years.

Lately, he has chosen subjects which show men at work in their daily livesan officer wri ting in hi s journal, a sai lmaker, men repairing a gun-bringing the ships' people to life in these most ordinary activities.

Does he regret giv ing up his business career for art? Hardly. "All I have to do is deliver a picture to the gallery··· and I can't wait to get back home again and start another. " ;t,

"Fresh Vegetables for the Privateer George Washington ," watercolor, 21x27 inches.

"Trafalgar," oil sketch, 5 x 8 inches.

SEA HISTORY 69, SPRING 1994

29

A Commemoration of the SOth Anniversary of the Normandy Landings, June 1944 We are delighted to announce the publication of this important new Stobart limited edition print honoring the venerable Liberty Ship and the valiant men who made her a legend. A proud and shining star in the annals of America's maritime heritage, 2,710 were built in four years, a feat which contributed to the rescue of occupied Europe.

This view shows the John W Brown, now a museum ship in Baltimore, carrying out her perilous mission, as the USS Barry, a WWI "Four Piper'' flying the signal "U-boat contacted," lays down a smoke screen.

Edition of750 prints (35 remarqued).

Image size 19" x 31", $400.00 per copy plus $15 S & H. For details call

1 800 989-3513

or write

Town House #23, Union Wharf Boston MA 02109

Convoy

'94Jrompage21

departing New York on Thursday, 5 May , will be Dick Scheuing, a mate aboard the William Pendleton when she made numerous trips to Normandy in 1944. Among the many veterans following the voyage closely from back home will be Tom Hale, who vividly recalls the grey cresting waves of the Atlantic he saw from the deck of a Liberty as a young soldier returning from Europe.

There is another reason the "Last Convoy" must go through. That 's because it is wanted-and expected.

The British and the French have not forgotten the contributions of the Libertys.

Marci Hooper, who runs the office forthe Jeremiah O'Brien, reports an outpouring of goodwill from British veteran organizations eager to provide help to the vessels in South England. "And in France, when we said 'Liberty ship' their eyes lit up. In Rouen, the port people are providing us free dockage, free fuel , pilots, tugboat, water and an office ashore!" Jim Ean, while soliciting funds for the Brown some ten years ago, came to understand this interest: "One of the most moving experiences was being approached by a grand lady, a British war bride, who in30

The "John W. Brown" in Convoy off the East Coast, April 13, 1944 IB3 y

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sisted I take her check for $500 ' on behalf to make port visits in France and Britain of the many British who are beholden to and will meet again off the south coast of the Liberty ships-without them, we prob- England for the return trip. ably wouldn ' t have partaken of our mea"For our 50-year-old ships and our ger food supply."' largely 65- to 70-year-old crews, it promFinancing for the trip is not complete, ises to be quite an adventure," says Hope. however. A bill introduced by Congress- "The last eastbound convoy from New woman Helen Delich Bentley was en- York turns out to have sailed right after acted in December 1993 to provide VE Day in May 1945. It was designated $750,000 to each of the convoy vessels HX-355. I guess that makes us HX-356!" from the sale of six scrap ships. But more is needed. The voyage is estimated to cost To get information on the vessels'itinereach ship about $2 million. Though money aries, or to give support for the commemorative activities, contact the fo llowing: is short, it isn 't stopping anybody.

"We 're going to sail," says Admiral SS Jeremiah O 'Brien: National Liberty Ship Patterson. "Weoweittothecrew. They 've Memorial, Landmark Building A, Fort Maput their lives into fixing up this ship for son Center, SanFranciscoCA 94123-1382; the voyage." So the timetable is in place. 415 441-3101 The current plan is for the Brown and SS Lane Victory: US Merchant Marine the Lane to meet in New York and steam Veterans WWII, PO Box629, San Pedro CA 90733; 310 519-9545 out together, rendezvousing with the SS John W. Brown: Project Liberty Ship, O'Brien in the Atlantic near Bermuda for PO Box 25846, H ighlandtown Station, Balthe trans-Atlantic crossing. Then all three timore MD 21224-0846; 410 661-1550. vessels will steam across the channel from Portsmouth on 5 June in company with a Note: As we go to press it has been fifteen-ship US Navy Battle Group, cen- learned that the John W. Brown will not tered on the carrier George Washington. be making the trans-Atlantic journey, due The John W. Brown's Brian Hope won- to dockyard problems. She will now visit ders if they realize Libertys can only various East Coast ports and will be in make 10 knots in a following breeze! The No1folk, Virg inia for the D-Day observathree ships will separate after Normandy tions on 6 June.

SEA HISTORY 69, SPRING 1994

300 Years of Service "Your staunch pilot boats are always ready in storm and fog, and it takes skill, courage and long years of experience to carry on this important and hazardous work so necessary to our commerrce.

I congratulate you on your remarkable record...."

Franklin D. Roosevelt

201 EDGEWATER ST. , STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. 10305 â&#x20AC;˘ 718-448-3900

MARINE ART NEWS A visitor admires a shipmodel in the Seamen's Church Institute Gallery exhibit, "Workplace of the Sea. "

High Tide at Water Street Gallery Since opening its Water Street Gallery in 1992, the Seamen 's Church Institute in New York has progressively provided more and more of its outstanding marine art collection of shipmodels , paintings, artifacts an~ sea~ari ng me~o­ rabilia for display. It 1s a nch chromcle of ships and seafaring life, much of which was in storage for twelve years as the Institute awaited the opening of its award-winning new home in 1991. All glass and light and open space, the new building offers the perfect backdrop for focusing in on the artworks themselve ~.

New in the first floor Gallery this year is an exhibit entitled "Workplace of the Sea," which features ship models, life-sized photographs and a multi-media presentation examining shipp!ng from the seafarer's unique vantage pomt.

Visitors will find the 50 ship models in the exhibit a powerful draw. "Workplace" combines models from SCI' s own collection with twenty-three models from the extensive collection of New York architect Der Scutt. Also on loan are models from Central Gulf Lines, Energy Transportation Corporation, Mobil Shipping and Transportation, M. Rosenblatt& Son and North Star Galleries. They show the types of vessels that serve as the seafarer's workplace today, from the Nordkap, a Norwegian fishing vessel, to the Green Lake, a car carrier with a capacity of 4,726 units. But while you 're there, definitely make time_to go upstairs to the second floor and lmger.

Seafarer's art is found in all comers of the new, nautically-inspired building.

SCI director Rev. Peter Larom introduced "Workplace of the Sea" back in January with this admonition: "Seafaring is a forgotten profession. Crews of 20 or so people navigate ships that are longer than some of the country's tallest skyscrapers are high. The public receives the fruits of the seafarer's labor daily ... but returning from a voyage safely and on schedule is often the only indication of a job well done." Laro~ hopes _tha~ this exhibit will re-emphasize the d1gmty of the seafaring profession. We, in tum, hope something for Rev. Larom: that he will find the support he needs for his goal of restoring SCI's entire ship model collection by the spring of 1995. (SCI, 241 Water Street, New York NY 10038; 212 349-9090; Gallery open Mon. to Fri., 8:30am to 5:30pm, Sat., noon to 6:00pm) 32

South Street Opens Buttersworth Retrospective "Ship, Sea and Sky: The Marine Art of James Edward Buttersworth," opening at South Street Seaport on April 14, promises to be the year's la~g~st marine art retrospective. The exh1b1t, curated by art historian Richard Grass by, contains close to 60 works by Buttersworth ( 1817-1894) and will be on view through September 5 before going on_th_e road.

The exhibit opens after this issue of Sea History goes to press, but, if the tastefully designed, 128-pageRizzoli color catalog of the exhibit can be our guide,this new look at the British-born painter will differ from the Buttersworth retrospective mounted by Mystic Seaport some 19 years ago. Whereas the Mystic show talked much about the artist' s father, Thomas Buttersworth, and his life before America, the South Street Seaport exhibit approaches Buttersworth as an Am~rican phenomenon, giving _serious atten~on to how his art embodied some pnmary themes of nineteenth-century America: the impetus for discovery, technological innovation, belief in progress and reverence for Nature.

Grassby 's careful selection of paintings and his thoughtful essay have at least two intended effects. One, to demonstrate how easily Buttersworth tran-

scended the conventions of traditional ship portraiture and two, to add weight to the growing belief that his art could and should be appreciated alongside that of the Hudson River School, the painters of Cape Ann and the western expansion. On view wiJI be yachting scenes and images of ships "in extremis," such as "The Yacht Magic Defending America's Cup; 1870" and "The Clipper Eagle in a Storm, 1851," that share some of Buttersworth's best artistic qualities.

"Ship, Sea and Sky" will leave South Street Seaport for exhibition at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem MA (Sep.-Dec. 1994) before traveling to the Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago IL (Jan.-Apr. 1995).

Art Notes If a visit to "Ship, Sea and Sky," South Street Seaport's Butters worth retrospective, prompts a partiality for ~i s _wor~, two Northeast galleries specialize m nineteenth-century art. Quester Gallery of Stonington, Connecticut, and Oliphant & Company on Madison Ave in New York have both made recent offerings of James E. Buttersworth paintings.

Mystic Seaport opened a new exhibit on March 18 , entitled " Art of the Yacht," that explores yachts as subjects for works of art through paintings, prints, photographs and models. The opening was held in conjunction with the Seaport's annual "Yachting History Symposium," an event which this year focused on yachting in art and attracted a number of experts on the subject, including writer A. J. Pelu~o, collector Llewellyn Howland, ill, artist John Mecray and photographer Benjamin Mendlowicz.

"Art of the Yacht" continues through September in the Seaport's Mallory Building.

Mystic Gallery will be on the road this year providing regional opportunities for marine art enthusiasts to sample the gallery's worldJames E. Buttersworth's The

Clipper Eagle in a Storm, 185 1; oil on canvas , 20" x 30."

SEA<\ HISTORY 69, SPRING 1994

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class stable of artists. For the second year in a row, the gallery will set up exhibits at The Mid-Atlantic Maritime Festival in Eastern Maryland, 23-24 April, and the Charleston Maritime Festival, 15-18 September.

Nationally known Chesapeake Baybased maritime artist John Barber set a new record with the sale of his 1993 collection held at the Luper Auction Galleries in Richmond, Virginia, last October. Barber created a body of 63 new pieces for the sale which was attended by 250 eager buyers. The offering concluded with a total of over $250,000 in sales.

Acclaimed American artist John Stobart recently completed a D-Day 50th Anniversary commemorative titled "The Liberty Ship John W. Brown," available in June in a limited edition. A photo preview of this print provided to Sea History reveals the Brown in convoy proceeding down the East Coast escorted by a World War I class destroyer (known as a "Four Piper") laying down a smoke screen for protection from U-boats.

American Society of Marine Artists's (ASMA) shows are a first-class opportunity to view up-and-coming talent. The Society has organized a Northwest regional show featuring member's work at theColumbiaRiverMaritime Museumin Astoria, Oregon, to run from June until late September. (ASMA, 1461 Cathys Lane, North Wales PA 19454) -KEVlN HAYDON

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Exhibitions •Through 4Ju1 y, Workplace of the Sea, (see above), Seamen's Church Institute, 241 Water Street, New York NY 10038; 2 12 349-9090.

• 18 March through September, Art of the Yacht (see above), Mystic Seaport Museum, 75 Greenmanville Avenue. Mystic CT 06355; 203 572-5317.

• 14 April through September, Ship, Sea and Sky (see above), South Street Seaport, 207 Front Street, New York NY 10038; 212 669-9400.

• 23-24 April to 11September,15th Anniversary Show, Mystic Maritime Gallery, Mystic CT 06355; 203 572-8524.

• 9 June, Lace and Leaves, Nineteenth Century Women Artists of Searsport Maine, depicting the art and lives of Dolly Smith and Angeline Nichols Carver.

Penobscot Marine Museum, Searsport ME 04974; 207 548-2529.

• 24 September, 15th Annual Mystic International, Mystic CT 06355-6001.

SEA HISTORY 69, SPRING 1994

A PORTRAIT OF YOUR YACHT

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SHIPNOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS Great Lakes Alive with Maritime Festivals this Summer Ships, chanteymen and sailors will cruise the inland seas bringing a lively mix of maritime culture to Great Lakes waterfronts this summer. Port organizations throughout the lakes have labored diligently to attract two Polish sail training ships and a number of East Coast replica sailing ships to their port festivities this year. A trio ofmajorevents will provide the highlights , beginning with Sail Toronto 1994, 29 June-4July, followed by the popular Tall Ships Erie bash, 811 July, and culminating with a maritime extravaganza in Georgian Bay, 29 July-10 August. Between these dates most of the fleet will move together around Lakes Ontario, Erie and Huron.

Historian/chanteyman John Townley, who was instrumental in attracting the two Polish ships Zawisza Czarny and Pogoria, had one special goal in mind when he started planning ports of call for the vessels: to put together a moving maritime music festival. Festival-goers can expect concerts of maritime music (chanteys, ballads and other songs and dances of the sea) every night, and daily concerts and workshops by the ships, featuring anywhere from a half-dozen to a dozen international performers. On top of that, it is expected that the Polish ships will also have performing crews. "This is a first for the tall ships," says Townley, "which have never before regularly featured maritime culture on their tours."

The first stop is Toronto, where 25 majestic brigs, schooners and seawaysize ships will sweep into the harbor on 29 June. Some of the vessels joining the Polish ships at Toronto will be the fullrigged ship "HMS" Rose, the brig Niagara, the schooners Lady Maryland, Madelaine, Inland Seas and New Way, and Toronto 's own brigantines Path-

finder and Play/air. Sail Toronto '94 is hosted by Harborfront Center, which ten years ago staged the Lake Ontario Tall Ships Rendezvous, an event that attracted a million spectators to the waterfront.

Weekend festivities will be capped by a special Canada Day fireworks display.

At Erie, where last year's event attracted six tall ships and drew 35,000 visitors, fifteen tall ships will tie up in company with Erie 's own host vessel, the brig Niagara. Erie will also be the site of the American Sail Training Association 's Great Lakes Tall Ship Rally. These popular rallies, which ASTA has held throughout the country in recent years, provide on-the-water and shoreside activities for

The Polish barkentine Pogori a will visit the Great Lakes. First stop is Sail Toronto '94.

seasoned sailors to test their skills in safety and seamenship, and give onlookers a unique insight into traditional sailing practices.

The Georgian Bay segment of the tour will feature not one but many port festivals. Two years ago, organizers approached 61 local communities to see if they would like to participate in the proposed Georgian Bay '94 Maritime Heritage Festival. Forty-five communi-

Atlantic Challenge.featuring international crews, will be part of the events at the Georgian Bay Maritime Heritage Festival.

ties bought into the idea, which incorporated tall ship visits at a number of small communities leading up to a grand gala in Penetanguishene, 29 July-2 August. The activities will center around Discovery Harbor, formerly known as the Historic & Military Establishments, built in 1812.

Here, the ships will be open daily and activities will include a military band tattoo, a Navy "gun-run" and over 400 performers providing military re-enactments and musical entertainment.

Discovery Harbor is home to a number of replica vessels, including the 78-ft schooner HMS Bee, modeled after a naval transport schooner stationed there from 1817 to the mid-1830s. But on this weekend, Discovery Harbor will be christening a new flagship, HMS Tecumseth , a replica of a 124-ft warship of the same name built as part of Britain 's defense fleet during the War of 1812.

Discovery Harbor's boatbuilding program has produced a number of replica longboats and gigs, making the site a natural choice for mounting the Atlantic Challenge '94, taking place the following week, 2-10 August. This is a truly international event, drawing over 250 young contestants from ten countries for rowing, sailing and seamanship events. Initiated in 1986, Atlantic Challenge is the brainchild of small boat building legend Lance Lee. It brings crews and their boats, 38-ft sailing gigs, to compete against each other every two years.

For traditional sail lovers and maritirneculture buffs, the Great Lakes beckon this summer. For information about the Toronto events, contact Harborfront, (416 973-4600); at Erie, contact Erie Maritime Programs (814 456-5600); at Georgian Bay, contact Discovery Harbor (705 549-8064).

KH

Below left, Discovery Harbor, Penetanguishene, home of the schooner Bee, shown at right.

,

34

SEA HISTORY 69, SPRING 1994

SHIP MODELS SINCE 1975

Sail Training Conference Expands on Safety Theme "Our finest yet" is how the American Sail Training Association (ASTA) described its 1993 Annual Sail Training conference held in Toronto last November. The event marked a numberoffirsts for AST A. It was the first ever joint Canadian Sail Training Association (CSTA)-ASTA Conference and was held in conjunction with the first International Safety Forum organized with help from the British Sail Training Association (STA).

The Forum attracted representatives from the UK, Australia, Oman, Japan , Ireland and the Netherlands. With the growing number of international sail training events comes a need for understanding. Participants discussed safety in sail training from the regulatory perspective in general and during tall ship events in particular. Plans are afoot to make the Forum an annual event.

Proceedings from the International Safety Forum will be transcribed and made available from AST A, PO Box 1459, Newport RI 02840.

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New Maritime Center in Milwaukee A new maritime center opened on the Milwaukee waterfront in late 1993. The Milwaukee Maritime Center, located at 500 N. Harbor Drive, in the former offices of the Port of Milwaukee, opened with a ship model and artwork exhibit entitled "Great Lakes Shipping: Past and Present." The Center plans to provide maritime and ecological education programs and construct and operate a full-sized reproduction of a Great Lakes cargo schooner as an educational facility and a promotional tool for Milwaukee and the state. The Center is a project of Milwaukee Lake Schooner, Ltd. , 500 N. Harbor Drive, Milwaukee WI 53202.

Waterfront Top Honor Awards to Duluth, Winnepeg and San Antonio Top honors in the Waterfront Center' s seventh annual juried "Excellence on the Waterfront" competition were awarded last October to three North American cities. Top Honor Awards for current projects went to the City of Duluth for its Downtown Waterfront, a project that impressed the jury for its retained industrial character and large public art effort, and the City of Winnipeg for its Assiniboine Riverwalk and Bonnycastle Park project, on account of SEA HISTORY 69, SPRING 1994

Nauti~ues ... Memories of a Grand Era Since 1986, Nautiques has taken great pride in offering the best in personalized service to the discerning collector of ocean liner memorabilia.

We offer a wide variety of ttems from the legendary liners, including furntture, linens, posters, silverware, china, crystal, and an extensive selection of paper goods. We can also assist you in locating special ttems to enhance your collection.

Our Atlanta showroom is open weekdays or by appointment. Take the opportuntty to vistt the USA's only store stocked exclusively in qualtty ocean liner merchandise. Wrtte or call for a current catalog; the $5.00 catalog fee is refundable wtth your first order.

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WOODEN SHIP MODELS Hand-carved by skilled craftsmen . this miniature expresses the beauty of the famous " Bluenose " fishing schooner, launched in Nova Scotia in 1921, holding the international trophy for 17 years . Prized by the collector or yachtsman .

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The 15th defense of the Cup provided the most exciting of all the J-boat matches. After losing the first two races, Rainbow narrowly defeated the challenger, En dea v our. We hav e a limited number of Ernest C legg' s original 1934 multi-color lithograph "A Chart of the Waters." These 60 year-old , 22" x 19" prints are in mint, uncirculated condition. Each numbered print contains a ca psule Cup history, along w ith a variety of portraits from A merica to Rainbow . $150.00 check or money order, postpaid, unframed.

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SHIPNOTES, SEAPORT & MUSEUM NEWS its forthri ght approach to periodic flooding, its quality of workmanship, and its design for year-round use. The Top Honor Award for historic projects was presented to the city of San Antonio for the River Walk, a combination of shops and cafes, active water uses and cultural features dating to the 1930s. (Waterfront Center, 1536 44th Street NW, Washington DC 20007) Getting Around the Ships The US Lighthouse Society's restoration of lightship L V 605 is expected to receive a major boost from a $110,000 matching ISTEA grant from the local Metropolitan Transportation District.

Final approval of the grant is anticipated soon, allowing work to progress on the vessel 's hull. (USLS, 244 Kearny St., San Francisco CA 94198) The unlucky light ship L V 189 was sunk this past December off the New Jersey coast to form a fishing reef. LV 189 served on station from 1947 to 1975 when she was given to Atlantic City to be operated as a museum. Unfortunately, the ship was struck en route by a tanker which put a gaping hole in the stem of the vessel.

The hole was never repaired and life as a museum ship eluded the stricken vessel.

Progress has been made on restoration of the USS Massachusetts in Battleship Cove, Massachusetts. Most notable is the correction of the ship's longstanding starboard list. Word on the WWIIera hospital ship USS Sanctuary is that the funds to tum her into a hospital ship to Third World countries have not yet been raised. In the interim, her owners, Life International, plan to utili ze the vessel as a homeless shelter in Baltimore.

(Historic Naval Ships Association of North

America, US Naval Academy Museum, 11 8 Maryland Avenue, Annapolis MD 21402-5034) The steam tug Challenge, veteran of the Dunkirk evacuation of 1940, has been taken over for restoration by the Dunkirk Little Ships Association Trust in the UK. The 100-ft tug, powered by a l ,lOOhp triple-expansion engine, survived three round trip s between Dunkirk and Ramsgate.

The upcoming movie based on Anne Rice's popular novel Interview with a Vampire , which includes shots of the barkentine Gazela and the three-masted schooner Alexandria, will definitely please a number of movie-goers-not least for the sight of victims falling from the Gazela's upper topsail yard! These two vessels were chartered for scenes in the movie shot in New Orleans in November. The charterof the Gaze la earned a tidy sum for the Philadelphia Ship Preservation Guild.

first maritime reform legislation in more than 20 years. H.R. 2151, the Maritime Security and Competitiveness Act, creates a Maritime Security Fleet (MSF) by authorizing $1.2 billion for a 10-year program to replace existing operatingdifferential-subsidy contracts.

A number of US-flag operators praised the act as a step toward a comprehensive program that will enable US flag ships to compete in international trade on a more level playing field. Timothy A. Brown, President of the International Organization of Masters, Mates and Pilots, hailed the act as a first step toward maritime revitalization but cautioned that the union must press for the inclusion of more ships in the MSF program. (IOMM&P, 700 Maritime Blvd., Linthicum Heights MD 21090-1942)

Underwater News AN ational Geographic television special to be aired in the spring may throw some light on the controversy surroundChina Voyage Abandoned ing the sinking of the Lusitania. In Irish navigator Tim Severin was forced August 1993, underwater explorer Robto abandon his daring China Voyage on ert Ballard conducted a 12-day expedi 16 November. This attempt to sail 5,500 tion to the wrecksite of the 785-ft pasmiles from Japan to California in a 60- senger ship sunk by a single German foot bamboo raft was given up only 1,000 torpedo in May 1915. Previous diving miles short of the goal, when the raft's explorations to the dark, silty spot 315 rattan lashings began to rot following a feet below the surface have not deterseries of battering gales. The crew was mined the extent of the damage to the rescued by the Japanese-flag container vessel. Did the torpedo strike the cargo vessel California Galaxy. The voyage area and ignite a secret supply of muniwas an attempt to reproduce the legend- tions, or did it strike a boiler, sparking an ary voyage of Chinese mariner Hsu Fu, explosion and sinking that led to the deaths of 1,198 people? Controversy recorded in 218BC. centers on the questionable policy of using an ocean liner carrying civilians Maritime Revitalization Plan On the fourth of November 1993, the for explosives shipments, and whether House of Representatives adopted the the co urse dictated by the Navy exposed the vessel to attack.

Dr. Ballard's next project is an underwater exploration of the Black Sea. Because of the low oxygen content of the Black Sea water, Ballard expects that many earl y wrecks will be found well preserved.

The wreck site of HMS Royal Anne, which foundered in a storm off the Lizard, on the south coast of Cornwall, in 1721 , has been granted official protection by the British Heritage Mini ster, reports the World Ship Trust. Divers have known of the wreck for 30 years, The replica of Captain James Cook's bark Endeavour dockside in Perth, Australia and cannon and other artifacts have alshortly after her launching in December last year. The full-size , 110-ft, 550-ton ready been salvaged. replica was built by the HM Bark Endeavour Foundation using the original plans Museum News held at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England. (Bark Endeavour New Jersey legislators seek an approFoundation, PO Box 1099, Freemantle W.A. 6160)

SEA HISTORY 69, SPRING 1994

37

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priation of $2 million to help build a museum similar to Mystic Seaport in Barnegat Bay, reports Soundings magazine (February 1993). The $2 million would greatly expand the existing Barnegat Bay Decoy and Baymen's Museum in Tuckerton, New Jersey, opened last July after volunteers donated materials and labor to build the 1,200-square-foot building on a halfacre of leased land at the Stanley "Tip" SeamanPark. (BBD&BM, 137W.Main Street, Tuckerton NJ 08087) The Vasa Museum in Stockholm will open an exhibit this year setting forth the difficult art of sailing the 1628 Swedish warship Vasa. In June 1993 the mainmast was put back on the preserved vessel and

by April Vasa will have her lower standing rigging. In all, the rigging will use over four kilometers of hemp ropes specially ordered from Germany. More than half the 22 blocks and 112 deadeyes used are original, retrieved when Vasa was salvaged in 1961. Six sails were also found, the oldest extant sails in the world.

(ICMM News, Fall 1993) The Philadelphia Maritime Museum has purchased and is refitting the 96-foot, 66-year-old, Ted Geary yacht Principia to carry passengers from the museum's new home at Penn ' s Landing. The Principia is the heaviest-built of three sister ships built between 19281930 at the Union Dry Dock in Seattle.

A winter refit, expected to cost up to $500,000, will prepare her for her new duties. (PMM, 321 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia PA 19106) Membership Offered Through NMHS Americans can now conveniently join the World Ship Trust, founded by the late Frank Carr and NMHS to save historic ships. Headquartered in london, the Trust issues an authoritative quarterly newsletter. Membership is $27.50 payable to NMHS, marked "WST." Membership is also now available through NMHS in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England, which houses the world ' s leading collection of ship models, paintings and records of seafaring worldwide. Members receive lively newsletters and a richly illustrated annual magazine. Dues of $30 can be paid to NMHS marked ''NMM.'' Similar arrangements exist for joining several US museums at reduced prices. For information write NMHS, PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566.

SEA HISTORY 69, SPRING 1994

INVENI PORTAM Thomas J. Watson, Jr. (1914-1994) Tom Watson gained world renown as leader ofIBM during that corporation's rise to greatness in the decades following World War II. He was recognized also for his public service, notably as ambassador to the USSR. A devoted sailor, he served as trustee of Mystic Seaport Muse um and was a benefactor ofthe Sea Education Association and a valued supporter of NMHS. Walter Cronkite paid tribute to the qualities of mind and spirit his friend Tom Watson brought to his sailing and other adventures at the memorial service following Watson's death in January this year.

Tom was a great sailor. His enthusiasm for sai ling was the enthusiasm he brought to everything he tackled. Enthusiasm, dedication, and greatest of all, courage.

When something caught his interest-and so many things did-he went after the Holy Grail. He had an incredible drive to succeed ... never in a sense of self-aggrandizement but in the sense of self-fulfillment and self-realization.

He aimed for the top--sometimes literally. When he tried mountain climbing, he was not satisfied until he had conquered that most treacherous of peaks, the Matterhorn. It took him three tries, but with his typical doggedness, he finally clawed all 15 ,000 feet to the top.

Mountain climbing was just an extension of the winter sport to which he had a lifetime devotion. He was a superb skier and at least annually made a pilgrimage to the slopes of Switzerland.

And he built a magnificent ski lodge in Stowe and protected it by buying half the mountain on which it sits. That ski lodgewasOliveandTom 'sTajMahala material representation of their deep affection. It was on the slopes at Stowe that they had met.

Olive had to share another of Tom's passions-hi s love of flying. He learned to fly while a freshman at Brown, and he frequently said that he spent more time flying than studying. He excelled at flying as in everything else.

He was a World War II transport pilot flying hazardous uncharted routes in Siberia in the early days of America's participation in the war, and flying the notorious Hump in Southeast Asia. He later flew jets and helicopters and tiny sport planes with lawnmower motors.

SEA HISTORY 69, SPRING 1994

He exulted in flying motorless sai lplanes-mastering, as in sailing, the winds and thermals to stay aloft.

And, of course, there was hi s old stunt biplane. As sad as the departure always was, it became a wonderfu l part of the ritual of sailing out of the Watson harbor at North Haven. For as one sai led off, seemingly only minutes after Tom waved goodbye from the dock, he was back overhead in that biplane, doing a few Immelmans and loops and spelling out an unforgettable farewell.

As great as was his passion for flying , I always wondered if at those moments he didn't wish to be below, casting off on another voyage. He learned to sail as a boy and never got over it. As soon as he and Olive were able to set up housekeeping after the war, he bought their first boat--one he later described as fun but leaky. They called it Tar Baby. She was their last leaky boat. Soon thereafter began the parade of magnificent yachts, all called Palawan after a Pacific Island that had captured Tom 's imagination.

He built some of the early Palawans as strong as icebreakers and with them he sailed his way to Antarctica and Cape Hom , Hudson Bay and Greenland. He also followed Captain Cook' s route through the Pacific. Somewhere along the way he got an idea that he would like to try the adventure alone. In 1982 he lifted Palawan's anchor in Maine and sailed unaccompanied to South America.

There were other solo sai ls. Tom had that need to meet challenges from which lesser men abstain. He only admitted later that solitude wasn't his cup of tea.

I could never get Tom to tell me whether he loved flying or sailing more but I'm certain they both satisfied a pair of those stimuli which inspired and motivated him. He had a great sense of the adventure oflife, and a great sense of a oneness with nature. Soaring in the limitless blue sky or sai ling on the limitless blue of the oceans had a like appeal. And, as with life itself, Tom made the most of them .

Justa year ago he wrote: " As we look toward the future with the company of our spirited children and grandch ildren, there is always something to occupy our interest, our hearts and our love. I trust that I have done my best to pass on to them a safer world, and to impart to them the values and the sense of discovery that I have gained in a lifetime of sailing."

WALTER CRONKITE

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Jack R. Aron (l 908-1994) Jack Aron, who died in January this year, made a fortune as a coffee importer and dealer in precious metals. He put that fortune to work in the service of causes he believed in. Besides hospitals in New York and New Orleans, he supported the South Street Seaport Museum from its early days and formed a special foundation to bring the bark Peking to South Street and restore her as a museum ship. He also contributed generously to support the work of NMHS. Jack 's style was interventionist and hands-on. Not one for lengthy arguments or hair-splitting debates , he always moved toward action to get the results he wanted, and he expected the same of others. He did not suffer fools gladly, but enjoyed the company of all sorts and conditions of people, and reveled in telling a good story, or hearing one.

His ready wit was always available to illumine a point or puncture pretension.

Hi s son Peter, who serves as Chairman of the South Street Seaport Museum, commented on Jack's feeling for the museum to which he contributed so greatly: "He loved the struggle, the challenges and the great trust and altruism people put into the effort"-an apt description of Peter's own commitment.

Jack had a fine collector's taste in marine art and nautical memorabilia.

The bark Peking may stand as a monument to his quest for the real thing and to his admiration of great ships and seafarers. He is survived by his wife, two sons, a daughter, and seven grandchi ldrenand by bright sunlit memories among those whose lives he touched.

PS Jeremiah Timothy Driscoll (1909-1994) Captain Jerry Driscoll, or "Pops" as he was known on the New York City waterfront, came to New York from Ireland in 1928. He never lost his brogue or hj s sense of fun, or his high standards, or his capacity for rage at sloppy seamanship or bad ethics. Starting out in a fishing boat, he went on to skipper hi s own harbor passenger boats, and was one of the founders of Sightseeing Yachts, Inc., later famous as Circle Line. In 1947 he went into the marine fuel business, and when South Street Seaport Museum opened up twenty years later, he became one of its most eloquent and generous supporters, talking up the museum's SEA HISTORY 69, SPRING 1994

cause and supplying free fuel and cash gifts for needed supplies-which he did quietly and without ostentation. He was also a staunch supporter ofNMHS, and enjoyed great respect and affection among our New York City members. PS

Fishing in Troubled Waters New England 's hardy fishermen are returning to port with disappointing hauls and are fishing farther afield in an effort to fill their boats. America 's oldest commercial fishery is in trouble, and it is not alone: worldwide, 13 of the 17 major fishing zones are reporting steep declines in fish population.

There is agreement that pollution is a cause. But equally important is the growing demand for fish . As the world's population has exploded, so has our appetite for fish. According to The New York Times (7 March '94), the global fishing industry has doubled in the last generation to meet this demand , and "the oceans may have reached the limit of what they can produce."

The US Commerce Department has taken several measures to build up stock in American waters. In its March issue, National Fisherman reports that New England vessels will be limited in the number of days they may be at sea; the size of net mesh will increase (larger apertures to allow more young fish to escape); and a large part of the Georges Bank will be off limits altogether.

Added to the traditional fisherman's woes is fish farming . Its low-cost product has been depressing prices for fish , whereas the normal trend would be for prices to rise as supplies diminish.

While most fishermen recognize the need for stock rebuilding, they also know that boat mortgages have to be met, as operating costs continue to rise. As the fish populations recover, the numbers of fishermen will inevitably diminish-a harsh sentence for men wedded to the stem demands and wild beauty of the NS fisherman's life.

SEA Takes Teachers To Sea A $1 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant has enabled the Sea Education Association (SEA) of Woods Hole, Massachusetts, to continue its teacher's program, SEA Experience, for five more years. SEA Experience, comprised of a three-week onshore program of lectures, labs and field trips, and a tenday at-sea program aboard SEA schooners, shows teachers how to use the oceans to teach scientific principles. (SEA, PO Box 6, Woods Hole MA 02543)

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Scheuing,Jrompage 23 get a report of an 88, they would rush in like the dickens. They had good gunnery-they could pretty much pinpoint the gun and knock it out.

Our guns ashore were arranged all around and they were firing continuously, trying to pulverize everything in sight. The dukws * would come out to our ship and we'd load a rope net full of shells for that gun. We'd load it onto a crane and drop it into the dukw and the dukw would head for shore. It would drive right up to the gun, unload its net, and come right back.

On a later trip, we had the first field hospital to go ashore. There were 100 people in the unit, 50 nurses, and 50 doctors and aides. The nurses were dressed just like soldiers except they didn ' t have weapons . They were nice girls, nice people. I gave them a lecture back by the number 4 hatch. I got all the girls out and I said: 'Tm the second mate on board the ship, navigation officer, and you can call me Mr. Scheuing. My nickname's Dick. I'm doing away with all rank. I have some serious things to discuss and I don't want you to think that I'm overstepping my bounds." They said: "Fine." So I said: "When we land you on the beach, don ' t ever wait till all your people are there and then line up and march away as if you ' re on a parade. If you do that you ' re going to get knocked right off. Somebody will see itand they ' ll hit you with something. So the minute they drop that ramp in the boat, you run as fast as you can run up into those dunes. You get into those dunes and then you wait and fonn up with your people, but none of this marching." I just wanted to tell them the basic things that keep you alive. Finally, one of the older gals said: "Dick, I have something to say to you." I said: "Fine, what do you think?" She said: "Well, what you ' re saying is a very good idea, and thank you for sharing it, but I want you to know we ' ve all been through two invasions before this one. "I said: "No kidding." She said: "I wouldn't kid on something like that." She said: "We were all in Africa and we were all in Sicily and we know how to land, though we appreciate your saying what you did."

This unit was top notch. They set up a hospital that could handle almost anything within reason. The very worst wounded got sent out to a hospital ship.

* Amphibious trucks.

So we got them ashore in one piece. I was very pleased. A lot of people today talk about how terrible it is having women in action, and why they shouldn ' t be flying airplanes. But at Nonnandy they were right in the middle of the whole damn thing from the beginning.

They carried two canteens each--on either side. One was filled with water and the other with scotch. If a guy was hit real bad, they 'd give him water. If he wasn ' thittoo bad, they 'd give him scotch to make him feel a little bit better.

I don ' t know how many trips we made altogether. We just kept traveling back and forth. It took about half a day to load, and probably two days to unload, and a half a day maybe to go overabout three or four days round trip. We ran from June to September.

USS Nevada-a Bone in her Teeth On one of the trips over we saw the battleship Nevada heading back. She had four destroyers with her, one on each quarter. She had her battle flag flying- a huge battle flag . She had a bone in her teeth, running full ahead.

She was out of ammunition , heading back to England to restock so she could get back to the beaches where they needed her. She was beautiful, built in 1914, and she could only do about 20 knots, but that was an awful lot for such a bulky ship. The bow was coming down and rising, and then coming down again in a flurry of spray. She was coming upon us , so I ran down to dip our flag , but I knew damn well they wouldn ' tdip that big flag of theirs. It takes six guys to get it back up again .

I've told this story to a few people.

One time a fellow said: "You know, I was on that ship at the time. " His name is Joe Miller. He's originally from Connecticut. He 's in the Navy League and he presently lives out in Colorado. He said to me: "We flew that flag very proudly, but there weren ' t too many people ever mentioned it to me." I said: "Well, that was the only time I ever saw such a big flag. It was a hell of a big flag and you were flying it very proudly." I liked that ship. We had been lying underneath her guns when we were hit by the bomber off Normandy. l.

Mr. Scheuing, president of the Empire Region of the Navy League , is a trustee of NMHS. This article is from a longer memoir of his experiences at sea in World War II , available from NMHS. SEA HISTORY 69, SPRING 1994

THE BOOK LOCKER We have promised Sea History readers a concluding chapter in the series "Rediscovering Columbus," which ran in eight parts in these pages in 1990-92. The ninth part will review the actual discoveries and fresh insights of the 500th anniversary of Columbus's 1492 voyages which opened the Americas to the world-rejecting the fluff and meanspirited nonsense that such occasions seem to produce nowadays. Part IX is on its way, but meantime, brilliant light has been cast on the publications of the quincentenary by the Society for the History of Discoveries. Their annual Terrae lncognitae for 1993 lists nine pages of works on the 1992 anniversary, with critical reviews of key works. The reviews are invaluable, real models of historical criticism. It is good, for example, to read a suspended judgment on the authenticity of Ferdinand Columbus's biography of his father (though I don ' t share that judgment: I find a distinct character in the author of this work, and that character most credibly Ferdinand's); and on the other hand, it is good to see judgment pronounced on Kirkpatrick Sales's Conquest of Paradise as a work not of history but of obsessed polemic.

Scholars, like scientists, are surely right to be slow in casting definitive judgments. But to get at the good stuff it is really necessary to clear away rank growth which is simply not worthy of serious consideration, save perhaps as an example of the pathology of history.

SaJes's work is in a class with forged documents, only in this case we are dealing not with with faked paper, but faked purpose. In works like Sales' s, the intent of publication, once subject to reasonable scrutiny, turns out not to be what it is presented to be, a quest for historical truth, but rather the deliberate imposition of preconceived doctrine upon a distorted factual record. Of course such work has every right to be published ... but not to be taken seriously as history.

Learning from Error In this issue of Sea History, Dr. William Dunne reviews an inadequate history of the US Navy , pointing out in the first SEA HISTORY 69, SPRING 1994

instance that the history doesn't even list trade among the topics it is concerned with. As Dr. Dunne quite properly observes, "trade is what naval history is all about-no trade, no navy." This is one of those facts that is, paradoxically, too big to be seen by those who get too close to their subjects-as Admiral King in World War II was too close to the dramatic battles of aircraft carriers in the Pacific to appreciate fully the utterly vital role of the plodding freighters that kept England and Russia in the war and delivered the armies that ultimately overthrew Hitler's Thousand Year Reich.

We generally don 'treview bad books, but Dr. Dunne fulfills an important function in warning people off them, particularly when they come impressively credentialed. And any reasonably constant reader is aware how errors often assume a life of their own, like viruses, and leap from book to book!

Thomas C. Gillmer's noble work Old Ironsides, hailed in our last "Book Locker" as "the most important book ever to appear on the actual structure of America's most important ship" (USS Constitution) has come in for some justified criticism by Dr. Dunne. The list of errors he finds in Gillmer's book is considerable; but the errors themselves (for example, getting the building date of HMS Victory wrong) are inconsiderable. They are mostly what might be called venial sins, stemming from reliance on secondary sources, and from lack of historical proofing.

Historical proofing means critical reading of a work by knowledgeable reviewers before it is printed. This is a favorite theme of Seattle's Captain Harold Huycke, who is another bear for accuracy-and we do need those bears to keep the rabbit-like proliferation of error in historical works under control!

The cheerful side of reporting error is thatitcan be corrected. I for one hope for a second edition of Gillmer 's Old Ironsides (where I'm sure all errors caught by Dr. Dunne will be corrected), and in themeantime we'll send a copy of Dunne's critique to anyone interested in pasting an errata sheet into their copy of PETER STANFORD the book.

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The Last Liberty: The Biography of the SS Jeremiah O ' Brien, by Walter W. Jaffe (Glencannon Press, PO Box 341 , Palo Alto CA 94302, 1993, 490pp, illus, appen, index; $29hc incl s&h) This splendid work is dedicated to "all Liberty sailors, past, present and yet to come." A remarkable dedication for the story of a workhorse ship massproduced under emergency conditions for wartime serv ice over half a century ago ! The most remarkable thing about the Liberty ship Jeremiah O'Brien, built in South Portland, Maine, in 1943, however, is simply that she does have a qualified serv ing crew who steam her regularly around San Francisco Bay, and who, as these words are written, are making herready for an 8,000-mileocean voyage to revisit the Normandy beaches she brought men and guns to 50 years ago, in June 1944.

Why thi s devoted service to a ship which last carried cargo in 1946, a ship built in a hurry with an outmoded engine (for ease of production) , for a war fought and won before most Americans alive today were born ? Captain Jaffe ' s spirited and carefully researched story brings you about as close as you can come to an answer to this question, without being part of the crew yourself.

Wisely he begins by quoting the German Admiral Doenitz' s estimate of what it would take to win the U-boat war. The U-boats, Doenitz noted, were si nking enough ships to win in May 1942 when Doenitz wrote his appreciation for Hitler.

"His mistake," Jaffe notes, "was in underestimating the ship-building capacity of American yards." And indeed, the U-boat war was won partly by improved anti-submarine warfare, but still more because we learned how to build ships faster than the Germans could si nk them.

A graduate of the US Merchant Marine Academy at King's Point, and an experienced master mariner, Jaffe wri tes with authority about the construction techniques that produced thi s miracle, and about the wartime experience of the Libertys in general and the 0 ' Brien in particular. Wartime crew members contribute vivid vignettes of life aboard the ship, which had the distinction of being a "good feeder" with a Chinese cook in charge of the big iron galley stove. Abundant photographs help bring the story to life. One shot of self-propelled "Long Tom" guns waiting on pierside to be loaded for the battle in Normandy reminds one that it was the 0 ' Brien and

her kind that delivered the army 's punch when and where it counted. And after he r service in the Atlantic, she went on to do vital work in the Pacific war against the Japanese.

Jaffe's account covers the resurrection of the ship by her volunteer crew. A veritable seafaring culture, that of the triple-expansion engine, was revived to bring this about. And new people, thankfully , are being trained in that culture today-note that Jaffe 's dedication incl udes future Liberty sailors!

PETER STANFORD

History of the US Navy, by Robert W. Love, Jr. (Stackpole Books, Harrisburg PA , 1992, Vol. I: 766pp, illus, notes, index; Vol. II: 904pp, illus, notes, index; $39.95 hc, each) Professor Robert W. Love of the US Naval Academy has attempted a comprehensive history of the service whose officer candidates he educates. The result encompasses two volumes totaling l , 678 pages. Each volume is complete within itself and has its own index. If valued on size and effort alone, this work might earn the encomium "magisterial ," but unbalanced content and a plethora of errors rule out any such award.

In the first paragraph of the introduction the author makes it clear that regardless of its all-encompassing title, the book is not an all-encompassing naval history: "The object of this bookis to c hronicle and explain the high politics of American naval history." The litany that follows-"the book is also concerned with the interplay among international politics, American foreign policy, overall military strategy, naval strategy, tactics, and naval operations"- fai ls to even mention trade. And trade is what naval history is all about-no trade, no navy.

This review only addresses Volume I, which in itself raises a pertinent question: If Love ' s real interest as a historian lies in 1941-1992, why bother with 17751941 ? Professor Love devotes thirtythree chapters to the earlier period , but fails to cite a single archival source. He relies instead upon a vast bibliographic array of secondary sources interspersed with a slim selection of published documents. It is one thing to write a selective hi story. But Love chose to address the period 1775-1941 andmustpaythecritical price for a second-hand effort.

"In this book I employ an occasional naval term," the author informs us on page xv. It is di smayi ng to discover that SEA HISTORY 69, SPRING 1994

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During the chase of the American rebels' Alfred and Raleigh by the Royal Navy's Ariadne and Ceres, "the Raleigh had the lee g-a-g-'e " (p. 24). Presumably the Britons had the weather g-a-u-g-e. Love has, in fact, given us an entirely new vernacular.

Then there is historical fact. Or rather, in this case, a string of erroneous statements: "The British fleet lifted Howe's army to the mouth of the Delaware Bay, then advanced up the bay against Philadelphia." That fleet indeed looked into the Delaware, but decided it was too tough a proposition, continued on to the Virginia Capes, sailed up the Chesapeake Bay, and landed Howe 's troops at Head of Elk, Maryland.

We begin the Federal era and the Quasi War with an illustration of "the 2,200-ton frigate Constitution" (p. 43).

With the British 38-gun frigate averag-

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ing less than 1, 100 tons and the Royal Navy's 74-gun ships-of-the-line averaging 1,750 tons, the US Navy appears to enjoy quite an advantage. Constitution, however, measured but 1,487 tons by the Congressional formula, and 1,444 tons by Carpenter's rule. The United States ( 13 July) and Constitution (22 July) were not at sea by late May (p. 61).

"Early American naval losses to France, though serious, did not crimp [President John] Adams's naval strategy" (p. 62).

Possibly Love refers to the French recapturing the 12-gun schooner Retaliation, ex -La Croyable. There weren ' t any other American "naval losses."

During Constellation's victory over L'Insurgente, she held the "windward g-a-g-e," which brings the author ever closer to the correct term , "weather g-au-g-e." "Truxton ordered Lieutenant John Rodgers and Ensign David D. Porter and a prize crew to take over ... ."

Quite an accomplishment, considering that David D. Porter was not born until 8 June 1813 , and "ensign" did not become a rank in the US Navy until 3 March 1837. "Captain William Marley (presumably Lieutenant William Malet) . .. and hi s crew fought back bravely" (p.

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69). But the fact is that Midshipman David Porter and others later charged Malet with cowardice.

Space does not permit a further detailing of the author's factual errors.

Unfortunately, their rate of appearance does not lessen as the book progresses.

Also, despite Love' s almost total reliance on secondary sources, he does not appear to have digested the contents of many of the works he has cited. For example, he mentions William Stinchcombe's The XYZ Affair, but misses agent "W," and has American diplomats using the coded initials to President John Adams, rather than Adams inserting the codes in his report to Congress.

One can only hope that Volume II of the History of the US Navy comes closer to Love 's professed objective of chronicling and explaining the high politics of American naval history.

DR. W. M. P. DUNNE Long Island University Southampton, New York

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To place your classified advertisement at $1.60 per word, phone Carmen at 914-7377878. Or mail in your message and payment to Sea History, Ad Desk, PO Box 68, Peekskill NY 10566-0068

46

From Maps to Metaphors: The Pacific World of George Vancouver, edited by Robin Fisher and Hugh Johnston (University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver BC, 353pp, illus, maps , appen, index; $39.95hc) These 13 papers were selected from 33 given at an interdisciplinary and international conference held in Vancouver, British Columbia, 22-26 April 1992, organized by the editors, both professors of history at Simon Fraser University, to commemorate the arrival of Captain George V ancouveron the north west coast of America. Vancouver's great voyage was the last and longest ( 1791-95) of the great Pacific voyages of the second half of the eighteenth century, and completed the work of James Cook and the maritime explorers of Russia, France and Spain in exploring and charting that intricate coast.

Collectively, the voyages verified the nonexistence of a navigable sea route across North America.

Given the high quality of the papers presented and the distinction of each presenter, the editors were faced with a difficult task in deciding which papers to publish. Those published here constitute particularly significant contributions to their topics.

Special mention should be made of several outstanding papers. Glyndwr Williams establishes the magnitude of Vancouver's achievement, finally proving the theoretical geographers wrong by charting so accurately the lengthy coast from the Strait of Juan to Fuca to Cook Inlet. Andrew David (chief editor of the Hakluyt Society's monumental three-volume Charts and Coastal Views of Captain Cook's Voyages) discusses Vancouver's surveying methods in great detail. Canadian geographer James R. Gibson discusses how, for some time, the Russians viewed the Pacific Ocean more as a boundary than an invitation to explore further. Australian historian Alan Frost documents Great Britain 's massive political, commercial and strategic effort to break Spain 's monopoly on the Pacific trade . Canadian historian Christon Archer uses original sources to establish how the Spanish appropriated native people to bolster their claim to the northwest coast.

This volume is a significant addition to the list of fine pubJjcations produced to commemorate the 1991-92 bicentennial of the early exploration of the Pacific Northwest.

FREEMAN TOVELL

The Viking Compass Guided Norsemen First to Amer ica, by Christen L. Vebrek and S¢ren Thlrslund (Vebrek & Thlrslund, 342 Teglgardsvej , DK 3050 Humlebrek, Denmark, 1992, 59pp, illus, bibli o; $12pb + $5s&h) From Norse bearing dials recovered in Greenland to the Bayeu x tapestry showing Norse-deri ved ships in the Norman invasion of E ngland in 1066, the authors search o ut and analyze the evidence of how the Norse determined direction and an approximation of latitude by sun bearings in their transatlantic sailing from a little before lOOOad onward. The acco unt includes interesting experiments at sea and a close examination of written records and archaeological remains.

PS Steamboat Legacy: The Life & Times of a Steamboat Family, by Dorothy Heckmann Shrader (The Wein Press, 514 Wein St. , Hermann MO 6504 1, I 993, 288pp, illus, appen; $27 .95hc, $ l 2.95pb + $ I.50s&h) For 40 years, Mary Miller Heckmann , wife of Captain Wi ll iam Heckmann and mothe r of Steam boat Bill, witnessed and participated in the growth, heyday and demise of the steamboating life in Hermann Missouri. The author, Mary 's granddaughter, weaves Mary 's chronicle of her hardsrups and joys into the ill story of her town and the legacy of the steamboats with newspaper accounts and fami ly recollections that evoke life on the river.

JA Sail & Steam: A Century of Maritime Enterprise: 1840-1935, by John Falconer (David R. Godine, Publisher, Inc., Hortic ultural Hall, 300 Massachusetts Ave., Boston MA 02115, 1993, 192pp, illus, ref; $50hc) This volume is an evocative collection of photographs from the National Maritime Museum in England.

Fine explanatory text highlights each image of ships-sail and steam , large and small-and of men and women whose lives were domi nated by the demands of seas and rivers, in England and in distant waters.

JA Ord eal of Con voy N. Y .119, by Charles Dana Gibson (Ensign Press, Camden ME, 1992, 212pp, illus, notes, gloss, biblio, index ; $28hc + $3s&h) In September 1944, a convoy of tugs, yard tankers, railcar carriers and barges began a 31 day cross ing of the North Atlantic. This 1973 book , once out of pri nt but now available again, detail s the preparation by the officers, the heroism SEA HISTORY 69, SPRING 1994

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But it is really about the ethos and folkways of the remarkable community that is the US Navy, a subject the author has immersed himself in since serving in the Pacific toward the end of World War II. Vivid individual personalities play their roles in the story, and the mechanical elements of the plot-from the workings of an Asiatic drug empire to those of the Russian army in decay-are told with verasimilitude and verve. But the actual hero is the US Navy, the institution that binds together and inspires the peoplewhocarrytheactionofthestoryan institution the reader will come to PS know well in this lively yam.

She Went A-Whaling: The Journal of Martha Smith Brewer Brown from Orient Point, Long Island, New York, Around the World on the Whaling Ship Lucy Ann, 1847-1849, edited by Arine McKay (Oysterponds Historical Society, PO Box 844, Orient NY 11957, 1993, 104pp, illus; $9.95pb) More than 400 women-mostly captains' wivessailed out on whaling voyages in the 18th and 19th centuries. Their voyages took them far from the sheltered lives of most women of their era, but many, Martha Brown among them, retained the trappings of "true womanhood" throughout their adventures. Martha assumed the womanly tasks of cleaning, cooking, sewing and aiding the sick on board the Lucy Ann. Her constant concern about her own spiritual well-being and that of the men around her, and her compulsion to record her daily successes, failures , fears and hopes were also typical of her period. She was, however, unusual in several respects: she left behind her two- . year-old daughter-whom she missed desperately throughout the voyage; she spent several months ashore in Hawaii awaiting the birth of her son; and she wrote more frankly about events than JA many of her sister sailors.

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