River Gunboats
Page 59
Fate:
Scrapped 1949.
USS Michigan in her original configuration, circa 1860. (Photo US Navy)
Revenue Cutters
Initially intended for policing duties, the Revenue Cutters grew larger and more heavily armed, and during the Great War were incorporated in the new US Coast Guard, which fought alongside the US Navy during that conflict and in all subsequent wars.
USRC Fessenden
Fessenden was a typical product of the post-Civil War desire to economise, by rebuilding obsolete vessels rather than constructing completely new vessels from scratch – the so-called ‘rebuilt’ Civil War monitors were the most extreme examples of this doctrine. In her case she had a brand-new iron hull, but her old-fashioned machinery, with its vertical steam engine and walking beam, were handed down from a previous cutter William P. Fessenden of the 172ft Chase class built in 1865.
The calibre of her original armament is not recorded, but it is probable the four small muzzle-loading guns mounted on the broadside shown in the official drawing below were also passed down from her predecessor. These would later be replaced by modern QF Hotchkiss models, probably 6-pounders (57mm).
From commissioning on 11 August 1883 up until 1905 she cruised the Great Lakes, being laid up each winter. In 1905 she left the Lakes and for the last two years of her service career was based out of Key West, Florida.
Launched:
26 April 1883 by Union Dry Dock Company, Buffalo, New York. Cost of the ‘rebuild’ was $97,379.60.
Dimensions:
Displ: 330 tons; L: 58.4m/191ft 8in; B: 8.5m/28ft; D: 2.44m/8ft.
Crew:
40.
Power/Speed:
Side paddle wheels; vertical beam steam engine; schooner-rigged.
Guns/Armour:
1883: 4 × MLR; Later: 4 × 6-pounder QF.
Fate:
Sold March 1908.
USRC Fessenden. (Photo date and photographer unknown)
The Fessenden here shows the basic vulnerability of the early side-wheelers with their large paddle boxes and exposed ‘walking beam’ power transmission. She mounted two MLR on each beam. (Drawing: US Coast Guard)
Commodore Perry. (Photo USCG)
USRC Commodore Perry
The elegant brigantine-rigged steam cutter Commodore Perry was commissioned on 29 June 1884 for service on Lake Erie. In 1893 she was transferred for duty in the Pacific, and after serving in the Spanish-American War was wrecked on Tonki Point, St Paul Island in 1910.
Launched:
1884 by Union Drydock Company, Buffalo, NY.
Dimensions:
Displ: 282 tons; L: 50.3m/165ft; B: 7.62m/25ft; D: 3.4m/11ft 2in.
Crew:
41.
Power/Speed:
Single screw; steam engine. Brigantine rigged.
Guns/Armour:
2 × small QF guns, probably 6-pounders.
Fate:
Wrecked 27 July 1910.
USRC Tuscarora
In June 1908 Tuscarora became famous for chasing and capturing the notorious ‘pirate’ Captain ‘Roaring Dan’ Seavey after he had stolen a sailing vessel loaded with timber. Tuscarora left the Lakes to take part in the Great War, becoming a US Navy vessel until the end of hostilities, when she became Coast Guard Cutter CG-7. After Prohibition patrols and taking part in the Cuba crisis of 1933, she was decommissioned 1 May 1936, and sold for use as a banana boat.
Launched:
12 October 1901 by William R. Trigg Co., Richmond, VA.
Dimensions:
Displ: 620 tons, 739 tons full load in 1919; L: 54.3m/178ft; B: 9.1m/30ft; D: 3.3m/10ft 11in, Full load 1919: 4.65m/15ft 3in.
Crew:
65.
Power/Speed:
Single screw; VTE steam engine/14.2 knots.
Guns/Armour:
2 × 6-pdr QF; 1917: 1 × 3in/50 QF, 1 × 6pdr, MG, depth charges. 1919: 1 × 3in/50 QF.
Fate:
Scrapped 1939.
USRC Tuscarora on Lake Michigan. (Photo Rutherford B Hayes Presidential Center)
USRC Gresham, Algonquin and Onondaga
In the 1890s the US Revenue Cutter Service decided to undertake the construction of a class of five near-identical sister-ships to incorporate up-to-date features such as a steel hull, VTE steam engines to produce a reasonably high top speed, electric generators, and an armament of modern QF 3in guns backed up by a bow tube for 18in torpedoes – although on revenue patrols only 6-pounder QF guns would be carried. Three of the cutters were to be built for the Great Lakes, and as they were to be over 200 feet long, they would end up landlocked, as they would not be able to pass through the locks of the St Lawrence Seaway.
When commissioned, the three Great Lakes cutters Walter Q Gresham, Algonquin and Onondaga caused an international crisis, as the inclusion of a heavy gun armament and a torpedo tube, on what was basically a police cutter, contravened previous Canadian-American treaty agreements intended to restrict the armament of vessels used on the Great Lakes.
USS Gresham. (Photo Library of Congress)
USS Gresham as built. (Profile drawing: USCG Historian’s Office)
USS Gresham cut in halves to pass through the locks to the open sea. (Photo Library of Congress)
The problem was resolved with the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, when the USRC Service decided to send the three Great Lakes cutters to sea to support the US Navy. To get them through the locks, a drastic remedy was resorted to, in that each vessel was cut into two halves, which were passed separately through the locks, whereupon the halves would be reunited on the seaward side.
As with her two near sister-ships, Gresham, the cutter shown in the photos and plan, never returned to the Great Lakes. She did however have a long and interesting career. Arriving too late to join in the Spanish War, Gresham carried out normal Revenue Cutter duties, becoming part of the new Coast Guard Service in 1915, and joining the Navy on America’s entry into the conflict. Withdrawn and sold for scrap in 1935, Gresham was discovered by the Navy still afloat in 1943, and was taken back into service as a coastal escort.
Decommissioned before the end of the war and sold a second time for scrap, she became a tug, a coaster, and then a banana boat. Finally in February 1947 she was purchased by a Jewish organisation to carry refugees to Palestine, and renamed Hatikva. Captured during her refugee run by two RN destroyers, she was ordered to Haifa. In 1948 the Israeli Navy took over the old ship, but she was soon sold for scrap for a third time. Surviving into Greek ownership, she returned to the USA. Last seen in a backwater in Chesapeake Bay in 1980, her ultimate fate is as yet unknown.
Launched:
1896 by Globe Iron Works Company of Cleveland, Ohio.
Dimensions:
Displ: 1,090 tons; L: 62.6m/205ft 6in; B: 9.75m/32ft; D: 3.8m/12ft 6in.
Crew:
(1897) 9 officers + 63 men.
Power/Speed:
Twin screws; 2 × VTE steam engines/18 knots.
Guns/Armour:
1896: 2 × 6-pounder QF; 3 × MG; 1 × 18in torpedo tube.
Fate:
Last seen afloat in 1980.
PHILIPPINES
1899 – 1902
During the Filipino insurrection, to patrol the Passig River and its hinterland the US Army constructed a small flotilla of ‘tinclads’ on similar lines to those pressed into service during the American Civil War: a Navy tug and three commercial craft were armoured with boiler plate and railroad rails sufficient to ward off small-arms projectiles, and armed with a variety of available Navy and Army guns. Crews were formed mainly from personnel of the 3rd US Artillery Regiment. There were four gunboats: the Oeste, a large tug given to the Army by the US Navy, the Napindan, the Covadonga and the Laguna de Bay.
The latter was the largest of the gunboats and operated as the flagship of the little flotilla. She was a passenger side-wheeler used on the Manila–Laguna de Bay route. She was purchased by Major General Elwell S Otis, and armed and ar
moured by Captain Frank A Grant of the Utah Volunteer Light Artillery. 125ft (38.1m) long and 37ft 6in (11.43m) in the beam, she was armed with two 3in guns forward, two Nordenfelt QF guns at the stern and four Gatling MG.
The gunboat Napindan which saw much hard fighting. Her bridge and sides above the deck have been fitted with bulletproof plating. Her main armament is probably a 6-pounder QF gun mounted on her bow. (Photo Library of Congress)
Closeup of converted gunboat Laguna de Bay. (Photo Library of Congress)
1945
In April 1945, the Americans sent a force up the Mindanao River to capture Fort Pikit, some 85 miles (136km) from the sea. The troop-carrying LCMs and LCVPs were supported by a number of LCM-6s converted into gunboats by the 2nd Engineer Special Brigade. These LCMGs were armoured, and armed with guns taken from time-expired or damaged aircraft. Typical armament was a 75mm M4 from a B-25G Mitchell, a 37mm Oldsmobile cannon originally used as the main armament of the P-39 Airacobra fighter, plus twin .50 cal Brownings. A ‘Flak’ version mounted four B-25 (or A-20) dorsal turrets with twin .50 cal Brownings plus the 75mm cannon.
During the river run the LCMGs were reinforced by three US Navy PGMs (Patrol Gunboat Medium), converted from submarine chasers. Because of their deeper draught, the PGMs were unable to pass the wreckage of a bridge demolished by the Japanese, so the LCMGs carried on to capture the fort.
An LCMG of the 2nd Engineer Special Brigade in the Philippines, armed with a 75mm gun, an Oldsmobile 37mm cannon and a twin Browning mount. The LCM appears to be fitted with bulletproof plating. (Photo via Scott Taylor of Thatchweave Products, Website http://thatchweave.com)
A view of the turret deck of a ‘Flak’ version, armed with four twin Brownings in turrets taken from time-expired or damaged B-25 (or A-20) bombers. The armament was supplemented by a 75mm gun from a B-25 mounted in the bows. Note the turret plexiglass fairings have been removed as the speed of the LCMG did not warrant them! The fitting of safety stops in such a layout would have been complex, to say the least. Note the gunners wear earphones for this posed shot, but no helmets. The nearby muzzle blasts would have made helmets obligatory in action. (Photo via Scott Taylor of Thatchweave Products, Website http://thatchweave.com)
Launched:
LCM-6 1944 by various builders.
Dimensions:
Displ: 64 tons full load; L: 17.1m/56ft 1in; B: 4.3m/14ft; D: 0.91m/3 feet (forward), 1.2m/4 feet (aft).
Crew:
5 + gunners.
Power/Speed:
Twin screws; 2 × diesel engines: Detroit 6-71, total 348bhp or Detroit 8V-71, total 460bhp/9 knots.
Guns/Armour:
1 × 75mm M4; 1 × 37mm Oldsmobile cannon; 1 × twin .50 cal Browning HMG OR (‘Flak’ version): 1 × 75mm M4; 4 × twin .80 cal Browning HMG.
PGM-6
PGM-6 was one of eight 110ft wooden-hulled sub-chasers converted to gunboats, originally intended to provide support to PT-Boats, but found to be too slow for this role. In April 1945 she was one of the three PGMs supporting the advance up the Mindanao River.
PGM-6 seen in January 1944 following conversion from USS SC-1071. (Photo National Archives)
Launched:
PGM-6 launched as SC-1071 20 May 1943 by Mathis Yacht Building Co., Camden, New Jersey.
Dimensions:
Displ: 95 tons; L: 33.78m/110ft 10in; B: 7m/23ft; D: 3.3m/10ft 10in.
Crew:
28.
Power/Speed:
Twin screws; 2 × General Motors 16-184A 1,540bhp Diesel engines/21 knots.
Guns/Armour:
1 × 3in/23 cal QF; 1 × 40mm Bofors; 4 × twin .50 cal Browning HMG/Bulletproof plating around the new, lower bridge.
Fate:
Decommissioned 25 February 1946.
SOUTH AMERICAN RIVERS
USS Wilmington January 1899–May 1900
As part of her duties in the revived South Atlantic Squadron, on 23 January 1899 Wilmington arrived off Barima Point and stood up the Santa Catalina River, which led to the main branch of the Orinoco. After a brief stop at the town of Las Tablas, she put into Ciudad Bolívar on the 24th for an official visit. On 30 January she departed Ciudad Bolívar to return to Port-of-Spain.
She was based at Trinidad through February and into March 1899, visiting Guanta in Venezuela and Georgetown in British Guiana. She then proceeded up the Surinam River to Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana. Leaving Paramaribo on 6 March 1899, Wilmington entered the Amazon River, which during the rainy season was navigable for almost 2,300 miles (3,700km). After stops at Pará and Manaus, Brazil, she arrived at the Peruvian border at Leticia, Peru, on 11 April. Having obtained local permission to proceed further, Wilmington arrived at Iquitos on 13 April. There her crew received gifts from the locals of three monkeys and a tiger cat. On 18 April, she left Iquitos, and headed downstream to Rio de Janeiro which she reached on 28 May, having made a 4,600-mile (7,400km) round-trip voyage on the Amazon. On 16 October 1900, she departed Pernambuco, Brazil, bound for the Far East. For specifications, see China Gunboats above.
USS Wilmington anchored in the Orinoco. (Detroit Publishing Co Photo, Library of Congress Ref 4a05681u)
RHINE RIVER PATROL
On the cover of a US Navy magazine and in the photo above: one of the ten ex-Luftwaffe torpedo recovery launches which formed the original strength of the Rhine Patrol. (usarmygermany.com)
PR-41 on patrol. Note the steam goods train running along the river bank in the background. (Photo usarmygermany.com)
PR Boats
As part of the Cold War defence of West Germany, in December 1948 the US Navy established the Rhine River Patrol, with ten ex-Luftwaffe torpedo recovery launches (torpedofang-boot). From 1952 these began to be replaced with fast PR (Patrol, Rhine) patrol boats built in Germany. Their seven-man crews were supplemented by three members of the US Constabulary, one machine-gunner and a two-man demolition crew. The superstructures were of aluminium, bolted to the steel hull, and could be removed for rail transport. In 1958 the PRs were handed to the West German Army Pioneers. One PR was subsequently passed to Yugoslavia, and remains in service with the Serbian Navy under the designation RP 111.
Launched:
PR-33 to PR-41, 1952 by Hitzler, Regensburg.
Dimensions:
Displ: 28 tons; L: 24.05m/78ft 11in; B: 4.04m/13ft 3in; D: 1.3m/4ft 3in.
Crew:
7 + 3.
Power/Speed:
Twin screws; 2 × MWM diesel engines, total 440bhp/27 knots.
Guns/Armour:
2 × twin .50 cal Browning HMG.
Fate:
Handed over to the West German Army February 1958.
VIETNAM BROWN WATER NAVY
PCF Swift Boats
The PCF (Patrol Craft Fast) Swift Boats introduced in 1965 were used through to the end of American involvement in Vietnam. Surviving boats were handed to the South Vietnamese Navy, and were taken over by the Communists on the fall of Saigon. The Swift was an all-aluminium craft developed from an oil rig crew boat. The Mk I suffered problems in a seaway when encountering strong waves: the front glass panes of the cabin were often smashed. To resolve the problem, the Mk II introduced a higher bow profile with a stepped deck, the cabin being moved further aft.
PCF Mk I in a riverine context, photographed on the Dong Keo River in April 1969. These basically unarmoured boats made large targets and were considered as far from suitable for this role.
PCF Swift Boat Mk I.
The Mk II with a raised bow, a stepped deck line, the wheelhouse moved further aft, with reinforced front windows, and the large side window panes replaced by smaller round portholes.
The Mount 52 combined mortar and .50 cal Browning on the stern of a PCF. The 81mm mortar was used for direct and indirect fire. Maximum range in direct fire was 1,000 yards (914m), or in indirect fire at a high angle was 3,940 yards (3,600m). It could be drop-fired or trigger-fired, the maximum rate of fire in drop-fire mode at 45 degrees elevation was eighteen rounds per minute. In
trigger-fire mode the maximum rate of fire was ten rounds per minute. Ammunition comprised HE, smoke, illuminating and flechette. The perforated basket at the rear of the mortar protects the gunner from being injured by the barrel recoil. (Photo photobucket.com/user/AlanBradbury)
The boats’ vulnerability in confined waters was recognised, and in May 1968 Flak jackets were attached to the fantail rails and aircrew armour was fitted around the twin Browning Mount 51. Two years later, twenty sets of fantail armour comprising 9.5mm fiberglass/ceramic Bonded Woven Roving plates were installed on PCFs involved in riverine operations.
Launched:
From August 1965 by Sewart Seacraft of Berwick, Louisiana.
Dimensions:
Displ: 17.5 tons light, 22.2 tons loaded; L: 15.5m/51ft; B: 4.57m/15ft; D: 1.07m/3ft 6in.
Crew:
6.
Power/Speed:
Twin screws; 2 × 12V71N General Motors diesel engines, total 960bhp/32 knots.
Guns/Armour:
Turret with twin .50 cal Browning HMG (Mount 51); Mk 2 Mod 1 81mm mortar combined with .50 cal Browning HMG (Mount 52); Forward pintle-mounted 7.62mm M60 MG or Mk 19 Mod 1 40mm grenade launcher/Flak jackets, aircrew body armour, 9.5mm fiberglass/ceramic plates.
Monitors
These were known by their crews as ‘Riverine Battleships’, and they provided much of the close-in firepower of the river forces. The original models were the Armoured Troop Carrier (ATC) conversions from the basic LCM-6 landing craft. These could be fitted as command boats, the ‘Charlie’ version, or with a helipad for medevac, the ATC ‘Tango’ versions. All retained the standard bow ramp. The final version with a bow ramp was the ‘Douche’, being an ATC fitted with a powerful water cannon to clear out riverbank dugouts.