Hurricane Maria Resurrects Ghosts of Wars Past

Although news reports about the devastation wrought by Hurricane Maria, which recently made its closest approach to Hampton Roads, frequently center upon the destructive winds and tidal flooding that such a storm can bring, this week it has come to light that there were other less-recognizable threats unleashed by the storm as it made its approach to North Carolina's Outer Banks.  On Monday, beachgoers found a barnacle-encrusted sea mine near the town of Avon on Cape Hatteras National Seashore, and another one was discovered nearly 80 miles north in Corolla, just south of the Virginia state line.

An object (above) presumed to be a sea mine was found near Avon on Cape Hatteras National Seashore on the morning of September 25, 2017, and another one was found near the town of Corolla about 80 miles north on the Outer Banks of North Carolina that same morning. They were subsequently turned over to military explosive ordnance disposal technicians.  Thankfully, the Corolla mine turned out to be a training target.  (National Park Service)

During the last century, mines have posed some of the gravest enemy threats to shipping in our home waters.  During both World Wars I and II, German submarines deployed mines along the Mid-Atlantic.  It was an effective, albeit unpredictable tactic.  The Naval History and Heritage Command is currently helping lead an effort to survey USS San Diego, which ran afoul of a suspected mine off the eastern end of Long Island on July 18, 1918. We are also approaching the 99th anniversary of the second such incident that took place during the First World War, not far off the eastern seaboard. On September 29, 1918, the battleship Minnesota (BB 22) ran into a mine only 20 miles off the coast of Delaware.

Photographed in 1911 by O.W. Waterman of Hampton, Virginia, the battleship Minnesota (BB 22) appears somewhere in Hampton Roads, flying the flag of Rear Admiral (Upper Half) Aaron Ward, Commander, Battleship Division 3, U.S. Atlantic Fleet. (Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph)

Built at Newport News Shipbuilding and commissioned on March 9, 1907, just in time for the Jamestown Tercentennial Exhibition and the epic circumnavigation of the globe with the Great White Fleet that followed, the veteran of the 1914 Vera Cruz expedition was assigned to Battleship Division 4, mainly to provide practical gunnery and engineering training for the tens of thousands of new recruits the Navy was taking in during World War I.  She was sailing off the Delaware Breakwater when she struck a mine that had been deployed earlier by U-117. 

Miraculously, only three days after striking a mine off Fenwick Island on the Maryland/ Delaware border on September 29, 1918, USS Minnesota (BB 22) was safely ensconced in a dry dock at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, where the serious damage that had been inflicted by a to her bow by a German mine could be ascertained.  She would remain there for five months. (Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph) 

Despite sustaining heavy flooding to her bow, there were no casualties and the battleship was able to make it to Philadelphia under her own power.  She would remain at Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for five months, during which time the war ended.  In January 1919, Navy Secretary Josephus Daniels visited the battleship and personally commended 27 crew members for their "courage and efficiency." After leaving Philadelphia, Minnesota would do her part bringing thousands of American soldiers home from Europe. 

Several thousand troops from Brig. Gen. Douglas MacArthur's celebrated "Rainbow Division" (42nd Infantry Division, U.S. Army National Guard), crowd the decks of USS Minnesota (BB 22) upon their return to New York from France in 1919. (Donation of Dr. Mark Kulikowski, Naval History and Heritage Command photograph)

The Minnesota incident of 99 years ago ended happily, but it stands out as the exception and not the rule in the long, violent history of what was originally called the "torpedo" by its inventors during the American Civil War. Although enemy mines did the worst damage to American vessels during both Twentieth Century wars, not to mention in the Middle East during the latter part of the century, it should not be forgotten that American-made mines were also deployed in large numbers along our coasts, particularly during the Second World War.  Although intended to protect American merchant vessels and warships from the enemy submarine threat, they too caused damage to American shipping when merchant vessels strayed off course or their captains and pilots did not possess the latest information.  

While waiting for a harbor pilot to arrive on the "dark and stormy night" of February 16, 1942, the one-year-old, 554 foot-long tanker SS E.H. Blum of the Atlantic Refining Company, described as "one of the largest and finest tankers in the world" in the War Record of the Fifth Naval District, was ripped in two after drifting into a Navy minefield only 950 yards off the Cape Henry lighthouse.  On June 11, the SS F.W. Abrams of the Standard Oil Company "through a combination of unfortunate circumstances which included bad weather, a misconception of escort duties, and lack of proper navigational information, strayed into the Hatteras Mine Field and was eventually lost."  

Just three days later, on June 15, two American ships and one British vessel ran into a German minefield within sight of Virginia Beach that had been set by U-701, killing 17 on the British vessel, HMT Kingston Ceylonite, and one on SS Robert C. Tuttle.   

The heavily damaged Esso tanker SS Robert C. Tuttle appears in dry dock at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in July 1942.  After preliminary repairs, she was towed to Newport News for completion. (Naval History and Heritage Command photograph)

Despite a concerted effort to sweep the area for German mines, SS Santore encountered another of U-701's mines while assembling to leave Hampton Roads in Convoy KS-511 on June 17, listed to port, and quickly sank, taking three crew members with her.  

Before the month was over, the 7,256-ton Norwegian passenger-cargo vessel MV Tamesis became the second ship sunk by the "friendly Hatteras Mine Field."  The American tug Keshena became its third victim on July 19 while attending to the Panamanian-flagged J.A. Mowinckel, that had itself been damaged by torpedoes and mines.  Three were killed in the tug's engine room.

Whether the mines that emerged from the depths off North Carolina this week present a renewed threat from a past war has yet to be ascertained, but one thing is for certain: the story of mines off the East Coast is far from over.  

Remembering USS San Diego at Christmastime

USS San Diego as Pacific Fleet flagship before the American entry into the war.  Note the Christmas tree on her forecastle. (NavSource Online. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Collection of Thomas P. Naughton, 1973)

United States Ship San Diego was the only large man-of-war lost by the United States Navy in World War One. 

USS San Diego was first commissioned as USS California on August 1, 1907. (NavSource Online/ Collection of Darryl Baker) 

San Diego was one of the Pennsylvania-class cruisers and displaced approximately 15,000 tons fully outfitted.  Her main batteries were comprised of four 8-inch rifles and between twelve to fourteen 6-inch rapid fire guns.  Along with twenty-two 3 inch guns and various other secondary armaments, the ship was outfitted with two 18-inch submerged torpedo tubes.  She also wore a belt of armor six inches thick and up to nine inches thick in the conning tower.  On September 1, 1914, she was renamed San Diego in order for her name to be given to a new, larger vessel.



California sailed as part of President Roosevelt’s “Great White Fleet” during the Pacific Ocean portion of the voyage. (NavSource Online)

San Diego photographed from an airplane in San Diego harbor, California. (Naval Historical Center photograph. Collection of Thomas P. Naughton, 1973)

On July 29, 1917, three months after the United States declared war on Germany, San Diego entered the Atlantic Ocean bound for Hampton Roads. She briefly served as the flagship for Cruiser Force, Atlantic Fleet, and on August 19, 1917, Captain Harley H. Christy was given command.  San Diego held a perfect record with all the ships she was assigned to escort through the submarine-infested North Atlantic without mishaps.

On the morning of July 19, 1918, she was bound from the Portsmouth Naval Yard to New York where it was to undertake yet another convoy escort voyage.  Many of the Sailors on board, wanting to take advantage of their limited time in New York, had already changed into their liberty uniforms.  Sometime around 10am, a lookout aboard the ship spotted what was believed to be a periscope in the water.  The gun crews quickly responded by firing at the object until it was no longer observed.  This marked the first time San Diego fired her guns at a suspected enemy force.

The cruiser continued to steam toward New York making approximately 15 knots in a zig-zag style pattern when at 11:05 am the ship was rocked by a massive explosion on the port side.  Capt. Christy was in the wheel house when hit and assumed the ship had been torpedoed.  He sounded the ship to quarters and ordered gun crews to fire on anything resembling a periscope in the water.  Twenty-two year old Sailor George F. Jarrett recalled, “After we were hit there was a great outburst of firing.  Every gun on the boat began to shoot at targets in the water, in case there might be a submarine.  There was a constant rattle of shots for several minutes.  I saw a barrel blown to pieces, but do not know whether the sub was hit or not.” 

Crew members abandon USS San Diego after striking a mine believed to be from the German submarine U-156 off Fire Island, New York, on July 19, 1918. (Painting by Francis Muller, Naval Historical Center Photograph, courtesy of the Navy Art Collection, Washington, DC.)

Capt. Christy ordered the ship to shoal water immediately, however the blast had disabled both engines and the areas below the water line were rapidly filling with water.  Approximately ten minutes after striking the mine, the ship began to list to port.  The captain issued the order to abandon ship with the exception of the gun crews who stayed in position to continue to engage any suspected enemy submarines.  The larger boat cranes were non-operational due to failed electrical winches.  The life rafts, whale boats, and dinghies were launched by hand.  These, along with mess tables, benches, hammocks, and lumber, comprised the floating equipment upon which the crew abandoned ship. 

The officers and men left the ship in expert order while the gun crews continued to engage targets until the list on the ship was such that the starboard guns were pointing up into the air and the port guns were below the water line and rapidly flooding.  The crews fired an additional 20 to 30 shots at mysterious targets in the ocean until they too were forced to abandon the ship at their captain’s orders.  True to naval traditions, Capt. Christy remained on board the ship until the end and was reportedly the last person into the water.  The cruiser is reported to have floated bottom-up briefly before slipping beneath the sea. 

George Dewey Neal, serving on board San Diego when it sank, recounted his ordeal once the ship sank.  “There were not enough life rafts so some had to hold on to the rafts.  We were in the water some four hours when a freighter came by and picked us up.  They carried us to New York where we were put on a battle ship.  We went from there to Norfolk, VA.  I was in Norfolk when the Armistice was signed.” 

Initial reports of the sinking of San Diego by the New York Times estimated “probably 40 lives lost.”  The official Navy investigation, however, concluded that only six sailors were killed and three to six more injured.  Three sailors were killed immediately upon the explosion.  C.E. Sims was on the bridge when the explosion occurred and later recalled the following, “…the smokestacks broke loose, one of them fatally crushing a sailor in the water.  Another crew member died when a life raft fell on his head.  A sixth sailor drowned after becoming trapped inside the crow’s nest.”

U-155, like U-156, was a large-cargo-carrying submarine before the war and was pressed into service with the Kaiserliche Marine in February 1917.  Unlike U-156, she survived the war and is seen here on display in London after the German surrender in 1918. (Wikipedia) 

The official Naval Court of Inquiry concluded that the sinking of San Diego had been caused by an external mine, probably laid by the German U-Boat U-156.  The U-boat is credited with sinking 36 vessels in the Atlantic before she succumbed to the same fate as San Diego.  The submarine is assumed to have struck a mine and went down with all hands somewhere between Scotland and Norway.  

San Diego is currently a popular dive site as she rests just 11 miles from Fire Island inlet, Long Island, New York in approximately 115 feet of water.  The cruiser rests upside down and many of the 3-inch guns can still be seen protruding from their mounts, just as the gunners left them in 1918. 

Pencil drawing of USS San Diego as she appears today off Fire Island, New York (njscuba.net) 

Story by Hampton Roads Naval Museum Educator Joseph Miechle.