You are looking at the maiden voyage of the new CG29247, a Response Boat Small, Generation two (RBS-II), at U.S. Coast Guard Station Apra Harbor, Guam, the Western-most USCG base in the world.

The RBS-II has an offshore racing hull design with trim tabs and was the competition winner by Metal Shark with their 29-foot Defiant-series deep V aluminum-hulled boat. The company won a $192 million contract in 2011 for (upto) 470 of these vessels to be used at Coast Guard stations as by large ocean going cutters. So far, 180 of 224 boats ordered and paid for have been delivered. Another 20 boats may be ordered by CBP and up to 10 by the U.S. Navy.

They are replacing the 400 remaining 25-foot SafeBoats Defender-class RB-S vessels– since 2001 the most common vessels in the Coast Guard, used by sectors, stations, MSRT/MSSTs, MSUs, training centers, and some AUXFACs.

However, the Defenders, the last of which were delivered in 2009, ironically replacing a myriad of aluminum-hulled Boston Whalers and RIBs used by the Guard, only have a 10-year lifespan as their hull/electronics and outboards all time out about the same.

The ‘Sharks have drop down windows for all-weather use, can pack upto 600 HP of outboards or twin Yanmar 6LPA-STP2 diesels mated to Hamilton 241 jet drives, have shock-mitigating seats just like the Navy’s SWCC boats, glass cockpits, can mount M2/M240s on two different towing points that double as pintle bases, surface search nav radar and lots of other neato features.

And, they will be coming to a station and waterway near you…

WATERS NEAR GUAM (Mar. 07, 2016) The Arleigh Burke-Class guided-missile destroyer USS McCampbell (DDG-85) fires an MK-54 exercise torpedo (EXTORP) over the port side during an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) event as part of MULTI SAIL 2016. MULTI SAIL is a bilateral training exercise aimed at interoperability between the U.S. and Japanese forces. This exercise builds interoperability and benefits from realistic, shared training, enhancing our ability to work together to confront any contingency. McCampbell is on patrol in the 7th fleet of operations in support of security and stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Bryan Jackson/released.)

Long a staple of ASW training, exercise/recoverable torpedoes (extorps/rextorps) have been around for the Mk44, Mk46, Mk48, Mk50 and 54 variants and are typically the reworked warshot fish in which the explosive is replaced with an electronic signaling and guidance package that records the position of the device for data analysis after the exercise, and various signaling devices that help locate the torpedo in the water for recovery afterward.

They are pretty brightly marked, and colorful.

130924-N-XZ912-002 MEDITERRANEAN SEA (Sept. 24, 2013) – Gunners Mate 3rd Class Amelia Sandoval, left, and Gunners Mate 2nd Class Samuel Ervin perform maintenance on a torpedo tube aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Barry (DDG 52). Barry, homeported in Norfolk, Va., is currently on a scheduled deployment supporting maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the 6th Fleet area of operations. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Christopher B. Stoltz)

Almost always retrieved after tests or exercises, they are refurbished and shot again, sometimes dozens of times.

040129-N-9288T-087 Pacific Ocean (Jan. 29, 2004) Ð Search and rescue swimmers Quartermaster 2nd Class Justin Peel, from Polson, Mont., and Sonar Technician Surface 2nd Class Stephen Stavros, from Springtown, Mass., secure an MK-46 exercise torpedo to be hoisted aboard the guided missile cruiser USS Vincennes (CG 49) after a successful torpedo exercise. Vincennes is participating in Multi-Sail, a combat readiness exercise in the Okinawa operational area. Its designed to complete Surface Force Training Manual Requirements and to exercise participants in a multi-ship operational environment. U.S. Navy photo by PhotographerÕs Mate 2nd Class Brandon A. Teeples. (RELEASED)

If not recovered by retrieval personnel for some reason, they have a ‘phone home’ marking on the casing should a random skin diver or fisherman chance upon one.

130926-N-ZI955-062 MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan (Sept. 26, 2013) Staff Sgt. Justin Walter, left, originally from Greenville, S.C., inspects a MK46 Recoverable Exercise Torpedo as Aviation Ordnanceman 1st Class Jeremy Rooks, a native of Chesapeake, Va., observes during a fuel spill response drill at the Navy Munitions Command East Asia Division (NMC EAD) Unit Misawa complex on board Misawa Air Base, Sept. 26, 2013. Walter serves as an explosive ordnance disposal technician for the 35th Fighter Wing Civil Engineer Squadron and Rooks is a weapons training team observer for NMC EAD Unit Misawa. NMC EAD Unit Misawa is conducting a Torpedo Readiness Assessment, which calls for the command to inspect and validate its Otto Fuel II response procedures. (U.S. Navy photo by Senior Chief Mass Communication Specialist Daniel Sanford/Released)

We all live in a yellow submarine…

Boeing’s massive 51-foot Echo Voyager, debuted yesterday, is an outgrowth of their 18-foot Echo Ranger and 32-foot Echo Seeker prototype testbed UUV’s– which were capable of 2-3 day operations– only Voyager would be capable of missions lasting months in theory.

Equipped with a hybrid rechargeable power system and modular payload bay, the midget sub sans crew, according to the video below, can do everything in theory from being a weapons platform, to launching and operating UAVs, to protecting infrastructure (read= smoking frogmen operating near sensitive bases), to submarine decoy, mine countermeasures, ASW search and barrier ops, and battlespace prep– though the video spends a lot of time talking about how it can help with oceanography and oil spills as well.

“Echo Voyager is a new approach to how UUVs will operate and be used in the future,” said Darryl Davis, president, Boeing Phantom Works. “Our investments in innovative technologies such as autonomous systems are helping our customers affordably meet mission requirements now and in the years to come.”

In 1959 this chap by the name of Christopher Cockerell working for Saunders-Roe on the Isle of Wight came up with the first working and practical hovercraft, the “Saunders-Roe Nautical 1” (SR.N1), using an Alvis Leonides radial piston engine that drove a lift fan, and used ducted air from the fan for propulsion, producing a neat three-person craft that was capable of crossing the Channel at 35 knots.

This led to the 65-foot SR.N2 in 1961, which could make 73 knots (that’s seventy-three) and carry 48 passengers.

1963 brought the SR.N3 which was designed for military use and mounted a quartet of Bristol-Siddeley Gnome gas turbines, which enabled it to make 70 knots. The prototype didn’t work out too well but set the stage for what was to come.

SR. N3 Loading Royal Marines at Cowes for the Inter-Service Hovercraft Unit trials.

Saunders-Roe and Vickers Supermarine merged to become the British Hovercraft Corporation (BHC) in 1966, and their fourth hovercraft, SR.N4, was a mammoth design that eventually topped out at 185-feet long. While the RN theorized using these as mine countermeasures craft, these vessels, of which six were eventually built, were used as passenger ferries as last as 2000.

Then came the primary subject of our tale, the SR.N5 military model of which 14 were built, half by BHC in the UK and the other half Bell in the U.S..

Navy patrol air cushion vehicle glides over the waters of Cau Hai Bay near Hue, South Vietnam hovercraft

These 39-foot hovercraft were beamy, at 22 feet wide, and tall at almost 17 feet with the skirt inflated. Powered by a single 900hp Rolls-Royce Gnome turbine for both lift and propulsion, they could make 70 knots and carried enough jet fuel for about 3-4 hours of patrol. They could carry 16 troops.

The hovercraft were flown more than they were sailed

Of the 7 British built vessels, one each were bought by the Sultanate of Brunei and the Canadian Coast Guard, the Brits kept four for the RNAS and the last UK boat went into commercial use. Of the 7 Bell hovercraft (designated SK-5s by that company and equipped with a GE engine), three were bought by the U.S. Navy as Patrol Air Cushion Vehicle (PACV, “Pac Vees”) and three by the U.S Army as Air-Cushion Vehicles (ACV) while the last U.S. boat was bought by San Francisco and Oakland Helicopter Airlines to use as a high speed ferry around the Bay Area.

Navy PACV, dig the mouth

In U.S. military service in Vietnam, these hovercraft picked up .50 cal and 7.62mm machine guns, a modicum of armor and sandbags to protect their four-man crews (thought they could get by with just two crewmen), and by 1966 were hot and heavy in South East Asia as part of Task Force 116 for the Navy craft while the Army’s boats followed the next year as the catchy Air Cushion Vehicle Test Unit, (Armor Platoon Air Cushioned) 39th Cavalry Platoon of 24 men.

Navy PACV3. Note the sandbagged fighting position atop the house

Operating on the Mekong Delta, Cat Lo, and other hot spots, these half-dozen craft were soon dubbed Quai Vat (Monsters) by Mr. Charles as they raced around the swamps dropping off ARVN troops, Nung mercenaries and U.S. forces in hard-to-reach mudbogs. They were loud as hell (ever been around an LCAC?) but they were effective and, with the turbine shut down and the skirt on a relatively dry spot in the middle of the marsh, they were instant fighting positions.

By early 1968, the Army was even looking at (neat report here) making entire platoons of these craft, armed with 106mm recoilless rifles, Tow or Shillelagh missiles and FFAR rockets much like the helicopter gunships of the day.

Army ACV

Army ACV. They weren’t as wild as the Navy’s PACVs

That Loach is really hugging (and looks like it is having a hard time keeping up)

Then came the epic six-day battle in the Plain of Reeds.

While conducting a combat operation in July 1968 in support of a South Vietnamese CIDG (Civilian Irregular Defense Force) unit and US infantry advisors, the Army SK5s were engaged in a 7-hour continuous fight with enemy forces.

During the reconnaissance sweep, the SK5 boats inspected over 60 houses along the waterline and discovered over 25 bunkers within the area.

After destroying the bunkers with their supporting infantry, the two hovercraft came under enemy fire. Both craft returned fire, but were unable to press the attack since the CIDG forces were unwilling to dismount into a potential ambush.

After disengaging, both ACVs repositioned to another area and were once again taken under fire. Both vessels returned fire and when the infantry inspected the area they discovered several killed enemy soldiers.

All was good until one of the Army craft, ACV #901, was destroyed on 9 Jan 1970. ACV #902 was destroyed in August 1970. The final Army unit, #903 was returned stateside.

The three Navy PACVs were likewise brought back CONUS and transferred to the Coast Guard in 1971.

Behold, the Coast Guard’s hovercraft fleet!

They actually look snazzy in hi-viz livery. Above is CG-38102, formerly PACV1.

Numbered CG-38101, 38102 and 38103, one (103) was lost in an accident while the first two were transferred to the US Army Mobility Equipment Research and Development Center on 25 April 1975, making the Army the only U.S. military hovercraft owner until the Navy took possession of the first 87-foot long Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) vessels in 1986.

Of the British hovercraft, the original SR.N1 is held by the Science Museum at Wroughton, the only SR.N2 was broken up in the 1970s, SR.N3 was used for target practice, 4 of the 6 SR.N4 ferries were broken up and the two left are currently at the Hovercraft Museum in Lee-on-the-Solent but are facing imminent destruction.

Of the SR.N5s, one U.S Army boat, ACV 903, was returned to the states and is on display at the Transportation Museum in Ft. Eustis, VA. The sole remaining Navy PACV is at the Bellingham International Maritime Museum in Washington.

The last Navy PACV. Image via Flickr

As for the British Hovercraft Corporation, moving past the SR.N5s they built the 58-foot SR.N6 in large numbers in the 1960s, being their most successful model of all with at least 54 completed. Popular in commercial use as a 58-passenger ferry, a military version capable of carrying a platoon was used by the Canadian Coast Guard, Italian Navy, Egyptian Navy, Iraqi Navy, Iranian Navy and the Saudi Arabian Frontier Force. The Shah liked them so much he ordered a half dozen larger 78-foot BH.7 hovercraft in the early 1970s while the CCG bought three of BHC’s last hovercraft, the 90 passenger AP1-88 boats before the company folded in 1984.

But we do have 91 U.S.-built LCACs today…

A landing craft air cushion leaves the well deck aboard the USS Iwo Jima in the Persian Gulf, Sept. 21, 2006

DARPA just released some neat but brief 360-view footage of their Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) including some of it underway at a good clip (27 knots). The 132-foot USV is meant to be the expendable subchaser of the 21st century, and actually looks pretty sweet.

If they can get past concept and put 50-100 of these cheaply in the Western Pac, networked all sweet to a central ASW War Room, it could really negate all the skrilla the Norks and PLAN are dropping on subs.

Hey buddy, got some 7.62×39?

In a 31-day period between 27 Feb and 28 March this year, the Royal Australian Navy Adelaide-class frigate HMAS Darwin (FFG-04), French Navy FREMM-class destroyer FS Provence (D652), and the Cyclone-class patrol craft USS Sirocco (PC-6) impounded the following from three separate stateless dhows:

-5,500 AK-47 assault rifles,
-309 rocket-propelled grenade launchers,
-49 PKM general purpose machine guns,
-39 PKM spare barrels
-64 Dragunov SVD sniper rifles
-21 DShK and KPV type heavy machine guns
-20 60mm mortars

It was determined that the munitions originated in Iran and were likely bound for Houthi insurgents in Yemen, where U.S. allies Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are leading an 11-nation coalition against the Houthi, which are supported by Iran and Hezbollah.

More photos and details in my column at Guns.com

Throwback Thursday: The German Bundeswehr posted this groovy six-minute film about the Type 206A coastal diesel boats filmed in 1984. Entitled Stahlfisch (Steelfish) its chock full of really neat operational scenes filmed aboard S176, a handy little 159-foot/450-ton boat which was in commission for 30 years, only being scrapped in 2005.

Of course it’s in German, but all good U-boat films are, right?

Just unveiled a few weeks ago, the 132-foot USV which aims to be the Navy’s newest 21st Century expendable sub-chaser has been formally christened.

Part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)’s Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV Pronounced “Active,” ) program, in conjunction with the Office of Naval Research (ONR), Sea Hunter as she is now know, is a game changer.

“This is an inflection point,” Deputy U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Work said in an interview, adding he hoped such ships might find a place in the Western Pacific in as few as five years. “This is the first time we’ve ever had a totally robotic, trans-oceanic-capable ship.”

Sea Hunter will now move to San Diego for a two year pilot program to R&D just what the platform can do and what sensor package works best.

The ship’s projected $20 million all-up price tag and its $15,000 to $20,000 daily operating cost make it relatively inexpensive to operate. For comparison, a single Littoral Combat Ship runs $432 million (at least LCS-6 did) to build and run about $220K a day to operate– but of course that is a moving target.

Still, its easy to see where a flotilla of Sea Hunters could provide a lot of ASW coverage on the cheap and even if mines or torpedoes take half of them out, it’s a hit to the treasury and not incoming C-17s to Dover with waiting honor guards.

And with that in mind, check out this super sweet walk-through/construction video to see just how simple this craft is.

I’ve talked a lot about the Navy’s Sea Hunter program and others, but how about this news ICYMI from the Pitcairn Islands– you know, that windswept group of four volcanic atolls in the Pacific inhabited mostly by descendants of the Bounty mutineers and the Tahitians who accompanied them. Sparsely populated, the British Territory sees the occasional USCG/USN or RN ship pass through the area, but there is no enduring presence.

It seems they have hit on the idea of protecting their huge EEZ (322,000 sq. mile, or about the size of Texas and Montana combined!) by unmanned submersible operated by Satellite Applications Catapult and the Pew Charitable Trusts at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Harwell, Oxfordshire.

Apparently the preserve is home to at least 1,249 species of marine mammals, seabirds and fish, as well as some of the most near-pristine ocean habitat on Earth, and the 54 inhabitants of the Pitcairnians– who depend on the sea for survival– can’t stop trans-global poachers all by themselves.

From the BBC:

The drone, made by US firm Liquid Robotics, will be directed by staff at the satellite watch room which is monitoring fishing vessels. The craft is equipped with a camera that can take snaps of fishing vessels that are in restricted areas, and satellite technology that can pinpoint their location. The unmanned craft starting patrolling late last month.

The Liquid Robotics drone, called a Wave Glider, is a two-part craft made up of an instrument-bearing boat that floats on the ocean surface that is tethered to a submersible. The craft uses the differential motion between the sea surface and the region the submersible traverses to propel itself.

The self-propelling propulsion system means the Wave Glider can stay at sea for months at a time.

Smile, you’re on camera…

Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all of their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places. – Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday May 18, 2016: Spanish gunboats a-go-go

NHC NH 45328

Here we see the General Concha-class cañonero (gunboat) Elcano shortly after she became the USS Elcano (PG-38) because of the activities of one Commodore Dewey. She would go on to serve 44 hard years in total.

Laid down 3 March 1882 by Carraca Arsenal, Cadiz, Spain, Elcano was a small warship, at just 157’11” between perpendiculars (165′ oal), and tipping the scales at just 620-tons with a full load. Slow, she could only make 11-ish knots. However, what she could do was float in just 10 feet of water and carry two 120mm low angle guns, a single 90mm, four Nordenfelt QFs and two Whitehead torpedo tubes around the shallow coastal littoral of the Philippines where the Spanish were having issues with the locals that often involved gunplay.

120mm 25cal Hontoria M1879 (left) in Spanish service. Elcano mounted two of these guns. Note the opulent wheelhouse.

Sisters, designed for colonial service, included the General Concha, Magallanes, and General Lezo, they were officially and maybe over ambitiously listed as “Crucero no protegido de 3ª clase” or 3rd class protected cruisers.

Class leader, Cañonero de la Armada Española General Concha, 1897

Described as “pot-bellied,” Elcano had a quaint Victorian era ram bow and carried a mixed sailing rig for those times when coal, never plentiful in the PI, was scarce. She was commissioned into the Armada Española in 1884, arriving in Manila late that year. Like most of the 18 or so Spanish ships in the region (to include sister General Lezo), she was commanded by Spanish officers and manned by Filipino crews.

Cañonero español Elcano at commissioning. The Spanish liked dark hulls

Her peacetime service was quiet, spending more than a dozen years puttering around the archipelago, waving her flag and showing off her guns. Then came the Spanish-American War.

Just five days after a state of war between the U.S. and Spain existed, on April 26, El Cano came across the U.S.-flagged bark Saranac—under Captain Bartaby—carrying 1,640 short tons (1,490 t) of coal from Newcastle, New South Wales, to Iloilo, in the Philippines for Admiral Dewey’s fleet and captured same with a shot across the bow.

You see the good Capt. Bartaby, sailing in the days without wireless and being at sea for a week had missed the announcement of hostilities and said into Iloilo harbor to the surprise of El Cano’s skipper, who dutifully placed the ship under arrest. Bartaby was able to cheat a Spanish prize court by producing convenient papers that Saranac had been sold for a nominal sum to an English subject just days before her capture, though she had sailed into a Spanish harbor with the Red White and Blue flying. We see what you did there, Bartaby, good show.

Dewey lamented this loss of good Australian coal, which was hard to find in the Asiatic Squadron’s limited stomping grounds after the Brits kicked them out of Hong Kong. Incidentally, the Saranac was the only U.S. ship captured during the war compared with 56 Spanish vessels taken by Yankee surface raiders.

Speaking of which…

The rest of Elcano‘s very short war was uneventful save for being captured during the Battle of Manila Bay 1 May 1898 along with the rest of the Spanish Pacific Squadron under Admiral Patricio Montojo after Dewey battered his way into the harbor.

ELCANO at Cavite Navy Yard, Philippine Island. Note the extensive awnings. Description: Courtesy of D. M. MC Pherson, Corte Madena, California. 1967 Catalog #: NH 54354

Her three sisters all had more final run-ins. General Concha fought at San Juan, Puerto Rico and narrowly escaped capture only to wreck herself on a reef off Morocco in 1913. General Lezo was ruined by a magazine explosion and sank just after Manila Bay. Magallanes, escaping destruction in Cuba, was discarded after sinking at her dock in 1903.

As for Elcano, her Spanish/Filipino crew was quickly paroled ashore at Cavite, and she languished there for six months under guard until being officially taken over by the U.S. Navy on 8 November.

USS ELCANO (PG-38) at Cavite Navy Yard, Philippine Island circa 1900, before being refitted for the U.S. Navy. Note she has been white-washed and her awning shown above in Spanish service deleted. You can also make out her starboard torped tube door just above the waterline. Description: Courtesy of LCDR John E. Lewis, 1945. Catalog #: NH 54353

Refitted for use to include swapping out her Spanish armament for American 4″/40cals (and plugging her 14-inch bow tubes), she was commissioned as USS Elcano (Gunboat No. 38) on 20 November 1902– because the Navy had a special task for the shallow water warship.

You see, once the U.S. moved into the PI, they used a series of captured and still-floating near-flat bottomed former Spanish gunboats (USS Elcano, Villalobos, Quiros, Pampanga and Callao) to protect American interests in Chinese waters. These boats, immortalized in the book and film the Sand Pebbles, were known as the Yangtze Patrol (COMYANGPAT), after the huge river system they commonly haunted. The first modern patrol, started in 1903, was with the five Spaniards while two more gunboats, USS Palos and Monocacy, built at Mare Island in California in 1913, would later be shipped across the Pacific to join them while USS Isabel (PY-10) would join the gang in 1921.

Elcano was based at Shanghai from February 1903, her mission to protect American citizens and property, and promote friendly relations with the Chinese– sometime promoting the hell out of them when it was needed. She kept this up until 20 October 1907 when she was sent back to Cavite for a three-year refit.

During this time, she served as a tender to 1st Submarine Division, Asiatic Torpedo Fleet, with the small subs of the day having their crews live aboard the much larger (dry-docked) gunboat.

USS Shark (Submarine # 8) In the Dewey Drydock, Olongapo Naval Station, Philippines, circa 1910. The gunboat Elcano is also in the drydock, in the right background. Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1978. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 86963

Recommissioned 5 December 1910, Elcano took up station at Amony in China, and resumed the monotony of river cruises in China’s decidedly strife-ridden countryside that included bar fights with British gunboat crews, welcoming visiting warlords with an open hand (and a cocked 1911 under the table), sending naval parties ashore to rescue random Westerners caught in riots and unrest, besting other USN ships’ baseball teams to the amusement of the locals, and just generally enjoying the regional color (though libo groups were ordered to always go ashore in uniform and with canteens).

In August 1911, Elcano and the rest of the patrol boats were joined by the cruisers USS New Orleans and Germany’s SMS Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in Hankow for the unrest that came along with the anti-monarchist putsch that ended the Manchu dynasty.

There, Elcano participated in an impromptu naval review along with other arriving vessels from Austro-Hungary, Japan, France, Russia and a six-ship task force dispatched by the British. The ceremony’s true purpose: keep an eye on the nearly one dozen semi-modern Chinese warships in the harbor to make sure a repeat of the Boxer Rebellion didn’t spark. During this period, Elcano‘s men joined others in the International Brigade, sending 30 bluejackets with their Colt machine guns in tow to help guard the Japanese consulate. They were relieved ashore later in the year by a company of the British Yorkshire Light Infantry and a half-regiment of Siberian Cossacks shipped in for the task.

While on the Yangtze River Patrol, circa 1917. Description: Courtesy of Arthur B. Furnas, Corte Madera, California, 1969. Catalog #: NH 69694

During the Christmas season, circa December 1917, while in the Philippines. Note the Christmas tree on the bow and the other decorations aboard the ship.  She would keep up this tradition for years. Description: Courtesy of Arthur B. Furnas, Corte Madera, California, 1969 Catalog #: NH 69697

Elcano would get a short break from Chinese waters when the U.S. entered WWI, being recalled to Manila Bay to serve as a harbor gunboat, patrolling around Corregidor from April 1917-Nov. 1918, just in case a German somehow popped up. Then, it was back to the Yangpat.

Meanwhile in China, as the putsch of 1911 turned into open revolution and then Civil War, Elcano and her compatriots in the Yangpat were ever more involved in fights ashore, landing troops in Nanking in 1916 along with other nations during riots there, in Chungking in 1918 to protect lives during a political crisis, and again in March 1920 at Kiukiang (now Jiujiang on the southern shores of the Yangtze), where Elcano‘s sailors acted alone, and then at Ichang where she landed a company of Marines for the task and remained as station ship and floating headquarters until September 1922.

Some of the ships of the U.S. Navy’s Yangtze River Patrol at Hangchow during the 1920s, with several local junks and sampans also present. U.S. Navy ships are (from left to right): USS Isabel (PY-10); USS Villalobos (PG-42); and USS Elcano (PG-38). Courtesy of Donald M. McPherson, 1969. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 67127

Chinese general visiting Elcano. The commanding officer of Elcano is seen waiting to greet him at the top of the gangway, Ichang, China, circa 1920’s. Also note how they have to walk right into the muzzle of the 4-incher when coming aboard– very subtle. Look up: Gunboat diplomacy. Catalog #: NH 68976

Ship’s baseball team going ashore, in China, during the early 1920s. Courtesy of Frederick Cornman, Valois, New York, 1971. Catalog #: NH 77142

Rare today is a bluejacket who was a member of the Noble and Exclusive Order of the Brotherhood of Mighty River Rats of the Yangtze c.1903-1941. Photo via The Real Sand Pebbles.

These two letters from Elcano sailors from the 1920 volume of Our Navy, the Standard Publication of the U.S. Navy. Note the mention of the ship’s baseball team, hooch at $1.20 a quart, and the retelling of how 60 bluejackets cleared the streets of Kiukiang by bayonet point:

During this service, Elcano proved a foundry for future naval leaders. Stars rained upon her deck, as no less than six of her former skippers went on to become admirals including Mississippian later Vice Adm. Aaron Stanton “Tip” Merrill, who picked up the Navy Cross at the Battle of Blackett Strait in 1943 by smashing the Japanese destroyers Murasame and Minegumo without a single casualty.

Airing her sails in Chinese waters during the 1920s. She was undoubtedly one of the last warships with canvas in the fleet. Courtesy of Mr. Donald M. McPherson, Corte Madera, California, 1972. Catalog #: NH 75577

In dry dock at Shanghai, China, circa early 1920’s note the 4″/.40 caliber gun (lower) and the 3-pounder (above) Courtesy of Mr. Donald M. McPherson, Corte Madera, California, 1969 Catalog #: NH 68978

In dry dock, at Shanghai, China, during the early 1920s. Note stern 4″/40 gun. Courtesy of Frederick Cornman, Valois, New York, 1971. Catalog #: NH 77143

Between 1923-25, armed landing teams from Elcano went ashore and stayed ashore almost a half-dozen times in two extended periods in Shanghai during unrest and street fights between rival factions.

Armed guard from Elcano, photographed in Chinese waters, during the early 1920s. Note Lewis machine guns. Courtesy of Frederick Cornman, Valois, New York, 1971. Catalog #: NH 77144

In March 1927, Elcano along with the destroyers USS William P. Preston, USS Noa, and the RN’s HMS Emerald took a “mob of undisciplined Nationalist soldiers” under intense naval gunfire outside of Nanking when the American Consul General John C. Davis and 166 others were besieged at the Standard Oil compound on Socony Hill.

It would be Elcano‘s last whiff of cordite.

By 1926, the seven veteran river gunboats were all worn out and the navy went shopping for replacements. With dollars always short in the Navy budget, it just made sense to build these new boats in China, to save construction and shipping costs. These new ships consisted of two large 500-ton, 210-foot gunboats (USS Luzon and Mindanao); two medium-sized 450-ton, 191-foot boats (USS Oahu and Panay) and two small 350-ton, 159-foot boats (USS Guam and Tutuila).

Once the new gunboats started construction, the five old Yangtze Patrol ships’ days were numbered. In November 1927, Elcano became a barracks ship in Shanghai for the newly arriving crews of the PCUs and by 30 June 1928, she was decommissioned after some 14 years of service to Spain and another three decades to Uncle Sam.

At Ichang China. Note trees on mastheads. Courtesy of Lt. Commander Merrill, USN, 1927. Catalog #: NH 54352

Elcano was stripped of all useful material, some of which went to help equip the new Yangpat boats, then towed off the coast and disposed of in a Sinkex by gunfire on 4 October 1928. Two of her former companions in arms suffered the same fate. Villalobos (PG-42), model for Richard McKenna’s San Pebbles, was likewise sunk by naval gunfire 9 October 1928, and joined by the ex-Spanish then-USS Pampanga (PG-39) on 21 November. The days of Dewey’s prizes had come and gone, with the Navy getting a good 30 years out of this final batch.

Of the other Spanish armada vessels pressed into U.S. Navy service, Quiros (PG-40) was previously sunk as a target in 1923, and Callo (YFB-11) was sold at Manila the same year where she remained in use as a civilian ferry for some time.

The website, Sand Pebbles.com, keeps the memory of the Yangpat and her vessels alive while scrapbooks and uniforms are preserved in the hands of private collectors.

However, in Nanjing, on an unidentified monument there, is a series of Navy graffiti left by those Yankee river rats, if you look closely, you can just make out USS Elcano under USS Chattanooga.

They were there.

Group of Elcano crewmembers visit a joss house, in China, during the early 1920s. Courtesy of Frederick Cornman, Valois, New York, 1971. Catalog #: NH 77147

Specs:

Displacement: 620 long tons (630 t)
Length: 165 ft. 6 in (50.44 m)
Beam: 26 ft. (7.9 m)
Draft: 10 ft. (3.0 m)
Installed power: 1,200 ihp (890 kW)
Propulsion:
2 × vertical compound steam engines
2 × single-ended Scotch boilers
2 × screws
Rig: Schooner
Speed: 11 kn (13 mph; 20 km/h)
Complement:
Spanish Navy: 115
U.S. Navy: 99-103
Armament:
As commissioned:
2×1 120mm/25cal Hontoria M1879
1x 90/25 Hontoria M1879
4×1 25/42 Nordenfelt
2x 356mm TT (bow)
1902:
4×1 4″/40
4×1 3pdr (37mm) guns
2x Colt machine guns
1x 3-inch Field gun for landing party along with Lewis guns and rifles, handguns and cutlasses

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HI Sutton, who has been kinda enough to mirror some of our posts from LSOZI before at his excellent Covert Shores blog (and I do recommend going over there and checking it out regularly) penned a piece for Foreign Brief on the evolution of Narco Subs, which included this dope (no pun intended) info graphic (click to very much big up!)

2400-x1152

From the article:

2016 looks set to be a bumper year for narco-sub incidents.

Just last month, Colombian security forces discovered a 15-metre narco-sub in the jungle near the Pacific coast. A few weeks earlier, the U.S. Coast Guard published footage of a narco-sub intercepted off the Panamanian coast with 5.5 tonnes of cocaine on board, valued at $200 million. In March, an abandoned narco-sub was found stranded on a reef off the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico, its load of narcotics already unloaded by drug smugglers.

More here.

The British completed 53 T-class (Triton) submarines in the 1930s and 40s and these 276-foot vessels took the war to the enemies of the crown and we have covered at least one of these boats, HMS Tribune (aka HMS Tyrant) in a past Warship Wednesday.

These sea monsters, designed in 1935, had an impressive armament of 10 torpedo tubes (6 bow, 4 aft) which was considered devastating at the time, room for 16 torpedoes, and mounted a QF 4-incher on deck. A crew of 48 manned the 1,500-ton smoke boat and twin diesel/electric engines/motors could drive them at nearly 16 knots on the surface and 9 when submerged. They weren’t flashy compared to the German, U.S. and Japanese fleet boats of the day, but they could sail 8,000 nautical miles and could operate at a 300 foot depth with no problem.

Nearly one in three T-class boats did not survive the war, with 16 destroyed, largely by mines and in scraps with Italian and German subs in the Med.

Which brings us to His Majesty’s Submarine P.311

Commissioned 7 Aug 1942, she was the only unnamed T-class boat, the late series  Group Three boat would have been dubbed Tutenkhamen but lost just over four months later before she could be renamed.

Here is one of the few photographs in circulation of her:

The depot ship HMS FORTH transferring a practice torpedo to the submarine P311. HMS SIBYL (P217) is seen alongside. IWM (TR 532)

Fitted to carry 2 Chariot human torpedoes, she along with sisters Thunderbolt and Trooper and U-class sub HMS Unruffled (P 46) were part of Operation Principle, the Chariot attack on Italian cruisers at La Maddalena (Palermo).

HMS P 311 departed from Malta on 28 December 1942, sending her last signal three days later from 38º10’N, 11º30’E.

After this signal she was not heard from again and she is presumed sunk by Italian mines in the approaches to Maddalena on after she was reported overdue and failed to return to base, her 71 crewmen on eternal patrol.

A submarine down, Principal didn’t really go off as planned, but did claim an Italian cruiser and some small craft for the loss of ten highly trained frogmen:

Submarines TROOPER (with Chariots 16, 19, and 23) and THUNDERBOLT (with 15 and 22) launched all five Chariots against Palermo. They then withdrew, leaving submarine P.46 to pick up the crews. The fates of the Chariots follow:

Chariot 16 (Sub Lt R G Dove RNVR and Leading Seaman J Freel) mined liner VIMINALE (8500grt) which was badly damaged.

Chariot 19 (Ty/Lt H F Cook RNVR and Able Seaman Worthy). Lt Cook was drowned when his suit was torn getting through the boom defense nets, but AB Worthy drove the Chariot ashore and blew it up prior to being captured.

Chariot 23 (Sub Lt H L H Stevens RNVR and Leading Seaman Carter) had to abandon the attack due to mechanical failure and her crew was picked up by P.46.

Chariot 15 (Ty/Petty Officer J M Miln and Able Seaman W Simpson) was lost with due to unknown causes prior to entering harbour. AB Simpson was lost, but PO Miln survived.

Chariot 22 (Lt R T G Greenland RNVR and Leading Signalman A Ferrier), was able to mine new light cruiser ULPIO TRAIANO, which was sunk. Mines were also fixed to destroyer GRECALE and corvettes CICLONE and GAMMA, but were removed before exploding.

The crews of Chariot 16 and 22 were also captured.

As for her two mission sisters, Thunderbolt was sunk by the Italian corvette Cicogna off Messina Strait on 14 March 1942 and Trooper was lost, probably to German mines, on 14 October 1943.

Now apparently P.311 has been found

A team led by Genoa-based wreck-hunter, Massimo Domenico Bondone, located the final resting place of the British T-class submarine, the HMS P 311, on 22 May 2016.

The vessel was found at a depth of 100 metres, not far from the island of Tavolara, off the northeast coast of Sardinia.

Paola Pegoraro of the Orso Diving Club, who helped prepare the dive, told the Associated Press the sub was identified by the two Chariot “human torpedoes” still affixed to the outside.

Vale, P.311, rocked in the cradle of the deep.

Throwback Thursday!

February’s Tip of the Spear, the journal of SOCOM, includes a great article by James D. Gray, the Combatant Craft Historian of the Combatant Craft Crewman Assc, (page 24-25) that ran originally on the Ethos Live NSW blog the month before.

It covers the operation of HSB detachments of Special Boat Unit-12 and three accompanying SEAL platoons during Desert Storm.

What is an HSB?

SBU-12 Fountain HSB carrying a CRRC. Note the M60 mount (Photo: Ethos Live blog)

These were the High Speed Boats in operation mainly with SBU-12 from the late ’80s to the late ’90s. And were made by several manufacturers in my neck of the woods including Halter Marine and United States Marine, Inc (USMI) both in Gulfport as well as to a lesser degree, Fountain Powerboats of Washington, NC.

A 33-foot Fountain used around 1990. Note the open engine compartment and exhaust pipes. Via Warboats.org Please visit that site for more info on SWCC craft

These boats were generally 33-41 feet long fiberglass racing hulls, powered by 500hp Bulldogs, then Innovation Marine’s 557’s and finally 572s and 575’s to scoot them along at speeds of up to 70 knots. They had all sorts of covert tweaks such as an under hull silent exhaust system, recessed deck hardware, and concealed engine drives to help make them stealthier.

Manned by three SWCC crew, they could carry as many as 12 cramped passengers (or a more typically a half platoon or a boat team of SEALs and a Combat Rubber Raider across the bow as shown above).

They were also termed HSAC (High Speed Assault Craft) and replaced the 1980s era Sea Fox boats.

Here is one I visited at the SEAL Museum in Fort Pierce recently on my way back down to Key West. This is a USMI 42-footer with twin 550-hp gas engines on racing outdrives dubbed SOC6 (Special Operations Craft #6).

Note the Furuno commercial nav radar, M60 mount, and general low profile, (Photo by Chris Eger)

Controls were spartan at best but remember these were coastal boats. Also note the pintle-mounted M60E3 to the starboard (Photo by Chris Eger)

Outdrives. While this one does not have below-hull venting for the exhaust, many models did. (Photo by Chris Eger)

The blue on blue-gray scheme was effective (Photo by Chris Eger)

SOC6 was used in the Great Deception Raid along with three other HSBs to draw the attention of two Iraqi armored divisions to a beach that would see no action while the main attack went further north. In effect using a few dozen special operations guys to tie down 25,000+ Iraqis.

A Halter HSB type used on the Great Deception Raid. Note the M2s on the bridge wings. Photo from the Ethos Live Blog.

From Gray’s article:

At Mina Saud, Kuwait, the SEALs under Lt. Tom D. Dietz, assigned to Seal Team Five, boarded their CRRCs and moved into the target area. The HSBs loitered to provide recovery or hot extract if needed. Within two hours, the SEALs in the area planted demolition charges and beacons to indicate an amphibious landing and ex-filtrated. They linked up with the CRRCs then transited to the recovering HSBs. The escort HSBs then moved in within 200 yards of the beach and conducted two firing runs on bunkers on the beach with .50 cal machine guns and Mk-19 and 7.62 Mini-guns, and threw satchel charges into the water during egress. The planted demolitions by the operators, exploded shortly after leaving the area, and air strikes were also called in. The raiders returned to base shortly before dawn.

After the arrival of the purpose-built 82-foot Halter Marine MkV SOC boats in the mid-1990s, most of the NSW HSBs were scraped or stripped down and sold to the general public. That has put a number in circulation.

SOC6 was found in poor repair in 2000 after being sold as surplus and was restored by retired SEAL personnel working with the Naval Historical Center with funds provided by the President of USMI.

Others have been reworked by civilians and security companies for their own reasons.

A Fountain for sale, cheap

A close up of the Fountain’s cockpit

Three privately owned Halter HSBs at a dock near Rudee Inlet across from the Owls Creek public boat landing Virginia Beach, Va. 2008

A scrapped condition 39-foot Halter HSB was up for sale recently for $4995 (without engines or drives and with holes in the hull).

Note the high radar tower replacing the bar used previously

So with a little elbow grease and a lot of patchwork you can make like 1990 all over again– though you’ll never be cool enough to tie down two divisions of Iraqis cool.

BATH, Maine (June 18, 2016) Sally Monsoor christens the future USS Michael Monsoor (DDG 1001), which is named in honor of her son, Medal of Honor recipient Navy MA2 (SEAL) Michael A. Monsoor. DDG-1001 includes new technologies and will serve as a multi-mission platform capable of operating as an integral part of naval, joint or combined maritime forces. (U.S. Navy photo 160618-N-NO101-002 courtesy of Bath Iron Works/Released)

Petty Officer Second Class (SEAL) Michael A. Monsoor poses for a photo in Hawthorne Nev.. He was postumously awarded the MOH after he leap on a live grenade saving the lives of two fellow SEALs

MA2 Monsoor distinguished himself in by his actions on actions on Sept. 29, 2006

The ship named in his honor will be the second Zumwalt-class guided missile destroyer and as such is huge.

How huge? Check this out when compared to the rest of the U.S. Navy’s destroyer lineage.

French Floreal-class frigate (“frégate de surveillance”) Germinal (F735) of the French Marine Nationale moors to the Mole Pier in Key West 17 June, 2016.

She is roughly the size of Key West’s normal “naval” presence– the 270-foot medium endurance cutter USCGC Mohawk, though marginally better equipped and about a decade newer.

Commissioned 17 May 1994, she is one of a class of six lightly armed (a 100mm CADAM mount re-purposed from retired destroyers, a couple of Exocets and a couple of 20mm cannons) sentry ships designed to patrol French overseas territories and dependencies such as Tahiti, French Guiana, etc.

Equipped with an all-diesel powerplant, she can cruise forever, just not very slowly and is built to merchant specs (dig the marking for the bulbous bow and thruster).

Basically, she is the modern concept of a “peace cruiser.”

Germinal is based at Fort-de-France, Martinique, which actually makes the Keys part of her “beat.”

Was reading up on 80-foot Nasty Boats (PTFs) used by the Navy during Vietnam and found the following tid bit from the most excellent N6CC.com site which covers military radios, MIUWUs, and a good bit of brown water Navy antics of the 1960s:

We carried approximately 20 M-16 Rifles, four .45 cal pistols, two .38 cal pistols, two M-60 machine guns, two M-79 grenade launchers, two M-870 12 gauge shotguns, a 40 mm Very pistol, a .45/70 line-throwing gun plus the .50 cal M2, two 20 mm cannons, the 40 mm cannon and the 81 mm mortar. Without a doubt, the most heavily armed vessel of its size anywhere.

Keep in mind these craft were slightly smaller than the Point-class Coast Guard cutters used in Market Time that we have covered here earlier.

Here are some shots from N6CC:

The M-16 was brand new at the time…note the AAA ring for the 40mm in the foreground (All photos via N6CC.com)

Nothing says Vietnam better than a waist-level M60

Nice! The perfect accessory for your M2 .50 cal is always an 81mm mortar

That beautiful Bofors…keep in mind the Navy largely scrapped these from the fleet by the 1950s, but the PTFs were still putting them to good use in Southeast Asia long after that

More here

“Kit up.” The Royal Malaysian Navy’s elite special operations unit – Pasukan Khas Laut/ PASKAL. By Marc Lee  

PASKAL is relatively new in the combat swimmer/VBSS/maritime counter-terrorism game, only being founded in 1980. However, they got up to speed quick, regularly training with UK Royal Marines Commandos/SBS and U.S.Navy SEALs/Marine Recon.

In their dress uniform they wear a distinctive magenta beret with a classic British commando-style sleeve rocker but when suited up for work they look very NATO as noted by the Draeger and HK MP5.

They are estimated to number ~1000 men including support personnel, training cadre, and pipeline.

Island-class Coast Guard Cutter Grand Isle was decommissioned after 24 years of service in 2015, and her or one of her sisters may soon go to live a new life in Central America as the last two classes of USCG patrol boats have in recent decades

The U.S. government will donate two surplus Island-class cutter patrol boats with a total value of $18.9 million to the Costa Rica Coast Guard (Guarda Costas).

U.S. Assistant Secretary William Brownfield of the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs announced the donation following a meeting with President Luis Guillermo Solís at Casa Presidencial last Wednesday.

In modern times the Costa Rican Coast Guard, established as a branch of the Guardia Civil in 1949, had a single sea-going patrol boat on each coast (Caribbean and Pacific) along with some smaller shallow water vessels with outboard motors.

In 1989 they picked up their most advanced ship, the former 95-foot patrol boat USCGC Cape Henlopen (WPB-95328) which served as Astronauta Franklin Chang Diaz (SP 951) until 2001 and was later sunk as a reef.

Diaz was augmented in 1991 by a surplus USCG Point-class cutter, the 82-foot Colonel Alfonso Monje (SP 82-1) (ex-USCGC Point Hope (WPB-82302)) and in 2001 by SNGC Juan Rafael Mora (SP 82-2) (ex-USCGC Point Chico (WPB-82339)).

Monje and Mora Points in Costa Rica service. You can almost close your eyes and smell the Mekong…

So presumably the new-to-them 110-foot cutters will replace the significantly smaller and now nearly 60~ year-old Monje and Mora. These boats are vastly different with the Islands carrying a Mk.38 25mm chain gun and 2-4 M2 .50 cals while the former “Points” were transferred without any mounted weapons and have subsequently been fitted with twin M60s forward.

Further, the 82’s have 8-10 man crews while the 110’s go twice that.

The English-language Costa Rican media outlet Tico Times reports some 50 CRCG members will soon be sent to the U.S. to train on their new ships.

The 110-foot ships will be the largest in the Costa Rican Coast Guard fleet when they arrive in 2017.

Better than them going to Sea Shepherd.

Here at LSOZI, we are going to take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1859-1946 time period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all of their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places. – Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday July 6, 2016: Of British frogmen and Japanese holy mountains

Colorized photo by Atsushi Yamashita/Monochrome Specter

Here we see His Imperial Japanese Majesty’s Ship Takao, the leader of her class, who would go on to fight giants only to be crippled by midgets.

Beginning in the 1920s, the Imperial Japanese Navy had progressed from their traditional enemies– the Chinese, Russians, and Imperial Germans– to the prospect of taking on the British and Americans in the Pacific. This led to new battleships and carriers.

To screen these ships, heavy cruisers were needed. This led to the eight ships that included the 9,500-ton Furutaka-class, 8,900-ton Aoba-class, and 14,500-ton Myōkō-class heavy cruisers built between 1925-29. Building on the lessons learned from these, the Navy ordered four impressive 15,490-ton Takao-class ships, each mounting 10 20 cm/50 3rd Year Type naval guns (the heaviest armament of any heavy cruiser in the world at the time) and buttressed by up to five inches of armor plate.

Bow turrets of Takao about 1932. Via Navweaps

Capable of making 35+ knots, these were bruisers and if their main guns did not catch you then their eight tubes of Type 90 (and later Type 93) torpedoes would.

Laid down at Yokosuka Naval Arsenal on 28 April 1927, class leader Takao was named after the holy mountain in Kyoto which is home to the Jingo-ji temple that dates back to the 9th Century.

She was commissioned 20 May 1932 and soon three sisters followed her into service.

IJN heavy cruiser Takao as published in The Air and Sea Co. – The Air and Sea, vol.2, no.6 1933

Japanese heavy cruiser ship: H.I.J.M.S. TAKAO Catalog #: NH 111672

May.11,1937 Takao class Heavy-cruiser Takao at Sukumo Bay. Note her extensive bridge and mast location. Colorized photo by Atsushi Yamashita/Monochrome Specter

Proving top-heavy, Takao and to a lesser degree her sisters were modified by having their bridge reduced, main mast was relocated aft, and hull budges added to improve stability.

World War II era recognition drawings, showing the configuration of Takao (1932-1945) and Atago (1932-1944), as modernized in 1938-39. The original print came from Office of Naval Intelligence files. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 97770

July 14, 1939 Takao-class Heavy cruiser “Takao” on sea trials at Tateyama after reconstruction. Colorized photo by Atsushi Yamashita/Monochrome Specter

1939 Yokosuka

Takao cut her teeth patrolling off the coast of China during military operations there and on Dec. 8, 1941 fired her first shots in anger against Americans when she plastered the shoreline of the Lingayen Gulf on Luzon in the Philippines.

Moving into the Dutch East Indies operating with Cruiser Division 4, she quickly sank five Dutch merchantmen, the British minesweepers HMS Scott Harley and M-51, the Clemson-class destroyer USS Pillsbury (DD-227) with all hands, and the Royal Australian Navy sloop HMAS Yarra in the first part of 1942.

During the Battle of Midway, Takao and her sister Maya took part in the diversionary task force to capture Attu and Kiska in the Aleutians.

November 1942 found her off Guadalcanal with Adm.Nobutake Kondō’s task force built around the battleship Kirishima, Takao and her sister Atago, light cruisers Nagara and Sendai, and nine destroyers. There they collided with TF-64 under Admiral Willis A. Lee made up of the new battleships USS Washington (BB-56) and South Dakota (BB-57), together with four destroyers.

By Lukasz Kasperczyk

In the ensuing melee, Takao hit SoDak multiple times with shells, knocking out her radar and fire controls and fired Long Lance torpedoes at Washington but missed. Kirishima sank and the battle was a strategic victory for Halsey and the U.S. fleet.

For the next year, she spent her life on the run, hiding from the ever-increasing U.S. submarine force while she helped evac Guadalcanal and hid out at Truk. During the war her armament and sensor package changed a number of times (as evidenced by the plans under the specs section below).

In Nov. 1943 Takao was shellacked by SBDs Dauntless from USS Saratoga, dodged torps from USS Dace the next April, then sucked up two torpedoes from USS Darter that October which left her unable to do much more than limp around the ocean at 10-knots.

By Halloween 1944, Takao was the last of her class. Sisterships Atago, Maya and Chokai were all sunk (two by submarines) within the same week during the Battle of Leyte Gulf/Samar by U.S. forces.

A wreck, by Nov. 1944 she was largely immobile at Singapore, afloat with nothing but a skeleton crew on board and no ammunition for her large guns. Her value strictly as a floating and heavily camouflaged anti-air battery.

Crucero Takao en 1945 – Lukasz Kasperczyk

She was joined there by Myōkō, who like Takao and the rest of the available Combined Fleet, had participated in the Battle of Leyte Gulf which left her with an air-dropped torpedo in her hull and another, picked up from the submarine USS Bergall as the heavy cruiser staggered off to Southeast Asia, left her irreparable at Singapore without more materials, and impossible to tow to Japan.

Operation Struggle

During the war, the British built a more than two dozen 54-foot long X/XE/XT-class midget submarines. Capable of just a short 24-36 hour sortie, they had to be launched close to their target (think SMS Tirpitz) by a tender ship and, after penetrating an enemy harbor, frogmen would attach demo charges to ships belonging to the Emperor or Der Fuhrer.

They carried a crew of four: typically a Lieutenant in command, with a Sub-Lieutenant as deputy, an Engine Room Artificer in charge of the mechanical side and a Seaman or Leading-Seaman. At least one of them was qualified as a diver.

In January 1945, the converted freighter HMS Bonaventure (F139) set sail for the Pacific with six XE-type submarines on her deck, arriving at Brisbane, Australia on 27 April– as the European war ended. The first action these Lilliputian subs saw was in an attempt to cut the Japanese underwater telegraph lines off Borneo.

In Hervey Bay, Queensland, XE3 prepares for trials July 1945

Warming up for more daring missions, the Brits launched Operation Struggle in August in which Bonaventure sailed for the coast near Singapore and launched HMS XE1 and XE3 into the waves with a mission to sink the (already busted) Japanese cruisers Myōkō and Takao respectively. Escorted closer by the S-class submarine HMS Stygian, the tiny XE boats took all afternoon and night to penetrate the harbor defenses.

Lieutenant Ian Edward Fraser RNR, commanded the three-man crew inside XE-3 when they found Takao, then lying in the Johore Straits to guard the entrance to occupied Singapore, and what he saw was surreal.

The plates of the hull and the rivets of the big cruiser could be seen very clearly through the porthole of XE-3 in the 18-feet of seawater between the bottom of the ship and the mud. One side tank held 2-tons of amatol high explosive, the second one held six 200-pound limpet mines, and Fraser held two “spare” limpets in the casing of the midget sub.

After setting all of their charges, Fraser surfaced the tiny sub not too far off from the cruiser so the crew could see the vessel for what they thought was the last time, “I thought they might like to see it,” he said in a post-war interview.

Six hours later the charges tore a gaping hole in the cruiser’s hull, putting her turrets out of action, damaging her range finders, flooding numerous compartments and immobilizing the cruiser for the remainder of the war. She settled six feet six feet deeper into the harbor though her 01 deck was still above water even at high tide and was still technically afloat.

Both Magennis and Fraser gained the Victoria Cross for this hazardous mission, with the other two crew members also decorated ( Sub-Lieutenant William James Lanyon Smith, RNZNVR, who was at the controls of XE3 during the attack, received the DSO; Engine Room Artificer Third Class Charles Alfred Reed, who was at the wheel, received the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal).

James Magennis VC and Ian Fraser VC WWII IWM 26940A

A week later, after aerial recon showed the Takao was still in the harbor– though nearly on the bottom of it– Fraser and his crew were readying a second go round on the ship and the Myōkō that was postponed by the dropping of the A-bomb and then later canceled once the surrender was announced.

This, Fraser said, made him a big fan of the Bomb and left him with a rough attitude towards Japanese.

Both Myōkō and Takao surrendered to the British when they arrived in Singapore in force on Sept. 21 as part of Operation Tiderace, and when the RN got a closer look at the two found out the truth about their condition.

Fraser even returned to inspect the Takao in Singapore himself just after the end of the war. The beaten cruiser, however, would never see Japan again. She was patched up and scuttled 27 October 1946 by British Forces, with the Crown Colony-class light cruiser HMS Newfoundland (59) sending her into very deep water by the judicious use of naval gunfire and torpedoes– likely one of the last time a cruiser used a torpedo on another.

Her crew was repatriated to Japan in 1947.

As for XE-3, she was scrapped along with most of the other British midgets with only XE8 “Expunger” saved and put on public display at the Chatham Historic Dockyard.

For Takao, little remains.

A 1930 1:100 scale builder’s model of the Takao, captured in Japan in 1945, is in the collection of the Naval History and Heritage Command and has been displayed off an on for generations.

Catalog #: NH 84079. Note her original mast and bridge.

Takao has, however, inspired a number of pieces of naval art, mainly for model covers over the past several decades.

In the UK, the Imperial War Museum has the frogman swim suit worn on by Leading Seaman James Joseph Magennis RN, VC when as the diver of the midget submarine XE3 (commanded by Lieutenant Ian Edward Fraser RNR) he attached limpet explosive charges to the hull of  ‘Takao‘, as well as a white IJN captain’s field cap recovered from the vessel.

The IWM also has a 1980 interview with XE 3 skipper Lt. Comm. Ian Fraser, V.C., D S.C. that includes his own account of the Takao strike (reel 2 and 3).

He wrote a book about his WWII exploits, which is long out of print but is still very much in circulation.

Specs:

Takao’s ever-changing plans via shipbucket

Displacement:
9,850 t (9,690 long tons) (standard)
15,490 t (15,250 long tons) (full load)
Length:
192.5 m (632 ft.)
203.76 m (668.5 ft.) overall
Beam:
19 m (62 ft.)
20.4 m (67 ft.)
Draft:
6.11 m (20.0 ft)
6.32 m (20.7 ft.)
Propulsion:
4 shaft geared turbine
12 Kampon boilers
132,000 shp (98,000 kW)
Speed: 35.5–34.2 knots (65.7–63.3 km/h; 40.9–39.4 mph)
Range: 8,500 nautical miles (15,700 km; 9,800 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Complement: 773
Armament:
Original layout:
10 × 20 cm/50 3rd Year Type naval guns (5×2)
4 × Type 10 12 cm high angle guns (4×1)
8 × 61 cm torpedo tubes (4×2)
2 × 40 mm AA guns (2×1)
2 x 7.7 mm Type 92 MG (2×1)
Final Layout (Takao):
10 × 20 cm/50 3rd Year Type naval guns (5×2)
4 × Type 89 12.7 cm (5 in) dual-purpose guns, (4×1)
66 × Type 96 25 mm (1.0 in) AA guns (26×1, 12×2, 24×3)
4 × Type 93 13.2 mm (0.5 in) AA machine guns
Type 93 torpedoes (4×4 + 8 reloads)
depth charges
Armor:
main belt: 38 to 127 mm
main deck: 37 mm (max)
upper deck: 12.7 to 25 mm
bulkheads: 76 to 100 mm
turrets: 25 mm
Aircraft carried:
One Aichi E13A1 “Jake”
Two F1M2 “Pete” seaplanes
Aviation facilities: 2 catapults

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The International Naval Research Organization is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the encouragement of the study of naval vessels and their histories, principally in the era of iron and steel warships (about 1860 to date). Its purpose is to provide information and a means of contact for those interested in warships.

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A modern Schnellboot, the Deutsche Marine‘s Type 143A (Gepard-class) fast attack craft Frettchen (P61260/S 76) firing her 76mm OTO Melera main gun over her starboard side, a blossom of fire in a cold sea.

The 10-ship Gepard-class, just 430-tons full and 189-feet overall, can make over 40-knots and in addition to their popgun shown above mount a quartet of MM38 Exocets for ship-busting.

With the draw-down following the Cold War, most of the Gepards have been taken out of service. Following the Gulf War, where Saddam’s Fast Attack craft falling easy victim to U.S. and RN helicopters, the Germans were quick to add a 21-cell RAM launcher to the Schnellboots that remained in service.

Frettchen and her three remaining sisters, now pushing 30 years on their hulls, make up the 7th Fast Patrol Boat Squadron (7. Schnellbootgeschwader) at Warnemünde, with their mission to take on all comers in the Baltic.