PATHFINDER AND THE PHILIPPINE TYPHOON

A "Typhoon".....an oh-so-dirty-word to the sailor.  Even in 1932 when a flush-deck, coal burning, steel steamer, with a wooden pilothouse......875 tons of weight....nobody liked the 100 mph winds or anything that went along with these hellish storms.

What I'm talking about is a small vessel....actually a U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey ship... built in Elizabeth, New Jersey  in 1899....sent from Alaska to the Philippines in 1901 to do some coastal work.  Her name was "Pathfinder".

She was old and grey when she met this typhoon in 1932....her with only 846 horsepower triple expansion engines...at an early age she could do about 12 kts....with grey hair about all she could muster up was 10.

She was run by 9 officers, all Americans, and a crew of 71 Filipinos.

This is her story:

RIDING OUT A PHILIPPINE TYPHOON

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WHERE DID THE OREGON GO?

As with any reputation, celebrity can be daunting.  In itself the noun celebrity suggest a sense of responsibility and honor that to be truly deserved should also be enduring - almost eternal.  So it is that certain ships enjoy celebrity.  An excellent example is the battleship USS Arizona, whose sunken hulk at Pearl Harbor possesses a special significance in the heard of every American.  Another highly respected celebrity vessel is Adm. Dewey’s Battle of Manila Bay flagship USS Olympia - now a well preserved museum ship at Philadelphia visited by thousands each year.  Then there’s World War two’s USS Missouri (BB-63) on whose decks the treaty was signed to end the war.  Missouri too enjoys eternal celebrity status.
But what about once famous vessels that have disappeared from history’s radar?  For instance, what happened to the acclaimed battleship Oregon, which won fame and glory in 1898 for her epic dash from San Francisco around the tip of South America to join the main fleet off Cuba after the sinking of the USS Maine in 1898.

WHAT EVER BECAME OF THE BATTLESHIP: OREGON?

SCHOOL OF WAR

Despite ineffectual attempt by both the Russian and Japanese navies during the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) to employ "submarine torpedo boats" in Far Eastern waters, modern submarines received their first real baptism of fire in WW I (1914-1918).

Even with the global proliferation of submarines during the first few years of the 20th century, it was the Germans and British who first demonstrated their dangerous potential for undersea warfare in the Atlantic and Mediterranean during 1914 and 1915.........

Well I'll let the above slide on into the article itself....that is if your interested in this sort of history.

If you wish to glance over the other 10 or so pages of it...just click on the below link.

AMERICAN SUBMARINES IN WW I

Hope you enjoy the article

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CATCHING THE SCUD RUNNER

SUSPICIOUS SHIP STOPPED AND SEARCHED BY ALLIED NAVIES

Some of you may recall reading about this event that took place on Dec. 9th 2002...in the Gulf of Aden...about 600 miles or so from the Horn of Africa.

At the time you may not have gave it a lot of thought, but 15 SCUD missiles were hidden under sacks of concrete down in the hold of the MV SOSAN.  Well this is what took place during that encounter...the chase....and the order to "stop or be sunk" as well as what the fear is of what she was carrying and the damage that can be the result from these "Short-Range Ballistic Missiles."

If you wish some reading with your morning coffee....this is a good one to have your second cup with....link below:


CATCHING THE SCUD RUNNER


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DONALD DUCK NAVY

This particular 'Patch' was displayed by some SCTC sailors.  Now the Navy never authorized this patch to be worn and they [the Navy] got a tad tough on this issue.  If they were found to be wearing it they were considered out of uniform and subject to discipline.

Actually the sailors that attempted to wear the patch was somewhat of a "Navy within a Navy".  They were made up of a small group of warships that was essentially designed to hunt U-boats.....as well as provide ocean escorts to our amphibious fleets.

This was a very unique group of men who served in the "Donald Duck Navy"....fairly rugged in every manner of speaking.

If you wish to give this one a read just click on the below link:

REMEMBERING THE DONALD DUCK NAVY

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SS DAVID DUDLEY FIELD [SHE SURVIVED]

The Kamikaze seemed to like being around this ole girl.....she was peppered a few times by those Japanese attacks....but she managed to always get by with just some minor damage and no loss of any crew.

Things got a tad serious on October 24th, 1944.....and at the time she was hauling 4,500 tons of gas.....

If you'd care to her short history....just click on the below link:

SS DAVID DUDLEY FIELD

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COMPLETED TOO LATE FOR WWII SERVICE THE USS DES MOINES, SALEM AND NEPORT NEWS WERE TO BE THE ULTIMATE ALL-GUN HEAVY CRUISER OF THE U.S. NAVY

They were called the "Three-Sisters" and these three vessels actually came into being due to the 'kamikaze squadron's' that was having a heavy impact on our warships of the time.

To counter these squadrons we needed some heavy-caliber antiaircraft weapons.....so this is how the " All-Gun Cruisers" came into being designed and built.

They were being designed from the proved Baltimore-class of the 1940....and to couple these massive vessels with the new fast firing automatic 8in/.55-cal at the time being developed. 

Click on the link below if you'd care to give this one a look see.

THE LAST ALL-GUN CRUISERS

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Hope you enjoy

USS FORRESTAL (CV-59).“LOOK OUT!! SHE'S GONNA EXPLODE!”

Two months before being shot down over Hanoi, Naval airman John McCain III narrowly escaped a fiery death in a tragic shipboard accident that claimed 134 lives aboard the super-carrier USS Forrestal (CV-59)

Hundreds of Forrestal’s 4800-man crew were scurrying about the 4.5-acre flight deck readying and positioning planes.

Suddenly, one of an F-4B Phantom’s armed Zuni rockets accidentally fired, its warhead piercing the 250-gal external fuel tank of a taxiing A-4 spilling its volatile content of jet fuel onto the flight deck. The sloshing liquid ran under several still parked aircraft and the feet of scores of running crewmen.

The Link to this tragic ordeal:

ORDEAL OF FIRE

Hope you enjoy the article

USS ENTERPRISE: ON TO TOKYO

The "Big E" was returning to sea, most of her guns being replace by more powerful 20-mm, as well as her fighter squadron was being increased.  All in all she was backed up by two heavy cruisers, four destroyers and an oiler.

The "Big E" was teaming up with the carrier "Hornet," and there target was "JAPAN."

If you'd care to give this one a read....just click on this link: ON TO TOKYO 

Hope you enjoy the article

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NARVIK:[PART ONE AND TWO]

GERMANY'S LOSS OF TEN DESTROYERS AND THREE CRUISERS DURING THE NORWEGIAN CAMPAIGN

THIS IS THE BATTLE THAT ALTERED THE OUTCOME OF WW II....SO DECIMATED THE KRIEGSMARINE THAT ADOLPH HITLER WAS COMPELLED TO CALL OFF THE INVASION OF GREAT BRITAIN.

Peering into the darkness as the heavy cruiser Blucher cautiously led the vanguard of German warships proceeding through the narrow straits of Norway’s Drobak Sound,

Kapitan zur See Heinrich Woldag tried without success to identify the darkened fortress at Oscarborg on the tip of Kaholmen Island.

The unseen fort was the invading column’s last obstacle before they would triumphantly steam into Oslo Harbor to quickly deploy the 1,000 German army shock troops hiding inside Blucher’s darkened hull. By dawn, the shocked Norwegian citizenry would awake to find the Nazi swastika flying over Norwegian King Haaken II’s palace; their capital fully under German military control with gun bristling Nazi tanks and scout cars patrolling the city’s streets.

NARVIK PART I

NARVIK PART II

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SS DANIEL CARROLL [A LIBERTY SHIPS HISTORY]

The SS Daniel Carroll....a hard charger....and she carried the name well...because she was named after a hard charger of a man that actually represented Maryland as a senator in the First Congress.

Oh yes she got banged up a tad...but she was patched up....and sent on her way.  Built in 1942....she didn't go to the bone yard until 1960.

Here is her link to her history

SS DANIEL CARROLL

Hope you enjoy

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SS DANIEL HUGER [A LIBERTY SHIPS HISTORY]

The SS Daniel Huger more or less just got built and delivered to her operator.....when a few months later she was setting on a harbor bottom in Bone, Algeria.  

 Well that isn't too surprising when you find out she had 7,000 tons of drummed aviation gas aboard, and she had one or two bombs dropped near enough to be described as near misses.

So....if your into histories of Liberty ships....you may wish to give this one a read.

Well that isn't too 

SS DANIEL HUGER

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SS CYRUS H. K. CURTIS [A LIBERTY SHIPS HISTORY]

Ah yes!!!....your wondering what does this picture have to do with the history of a 'Liberty Ship'....  Well the three cents had a connection with the man who's name was assigned to this particular Liberty Ship...so that is the connection.

But wait till you get a gander at the ships convoy history....she was a worker....even after being slightly damaged by two mines she keep going.

Her history as well as the history of the 'three cents' and what it developed into

SS CYRUS H. K. CURTIS

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SS DANIEL BOONE [A LIBERTY SHIP HISTORY]

Here you see the SS Daniel Boone shortly after being launched.  Named after the wandering hunter and trapper, whom became one of those first white explorers in Kentucky  and worked to established the 14 colony....a hero in his own right.

Well the Liberty ship named after him pretty much followed in the 'hero's' foot steps.....hope you enjoy the history.

Click on link below 

SS Daniel Boone

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THE CARRIER ADMIRAL'S ADMIRAL

Above all else, concern for the Naval aircrews who took the war to the enemy were the top priority of this often misunderstood carrier tactician.

------------------------------------

Marc Andrew "Pete" Mitscher spent more time on the bridge of his flagships than many other admirals.  Himself once adrift for days in a sinking seaplane on the storm Atlantic, he kept his promise to always place a high priority on the welfare and safety of his aircrews.


Below is a link to his life as "Pete"...he had his bad points but he also had many good one's as well


ADMIRAL MARC ANDREW "PETE" MITSCHER


Hope you enjoy the article


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HEROIC LINER "LA JENELLE"

Few of those who playfully romp or fish from Port Hueneme's rocky northern breakwater realize that beneath their feet lies the rusting wreckage of the once proud cruise ship La Jenelle.

Best remembered by her former name as popular Caribbean cruise ship Bahama Star, she rescued many survivors from the blazing inferno that engulfed the liner Yarmouth Castle in 1965.

Well if you'd care to give this one a quick read through just click on the below link.

Hope you enjoy the article.

STRANGE FATE OF AN HEROIC LINER

Bud Shortridge

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