THE CORSAIR
IN THE WAR ZONE
The task of the American Navy in the great conflict was performed exceedingly well, but so very quietly that even now the merits of the achievement are realized only by those who knew how near the German submarine campaign came to winning the war. There was no blacker period than the spring of 1917 when the losses of Allied merchant shipping were mounting toward a million tons a month, and the Admiralty was well aware that England stood face to face with starvation and defeat unless this piracy could soon be checked. It was when Admiral Sims cabled to his own Government, from London, “Briefly stated, I consider that at the present moment we are losing the war”; when Admiral Jellicoe privately admitted, “It is impossible for us to go on if losses like this continue”; and when Lord Balfour could see no escape from the same tragic conclusion.
The facts were purposely concealed from the people of both countries, and even after the declaration of war the attitude of the American mind was all too leisurely, while the British grimly hung on and tightened their belts with the tenacity of the breed. The battleship squadrons of the Grand Fleet still dominated the surface of the Seven Seas, but they were helpless to aid in this vital problem. It was perceived that the chief hope of salvation was in massing destroyers to protect the converging trade routes of the Irish Sea and the English Channel and thereby increasing the supply of food and material. For this service the British Navy was able to spare a flotilla of less than a score of these craft, a patrol force obviously inadequate. These were the reasons why the fleet of thirty-five fast and powerful American destroyers was sent across the Atlantic, and why Queenstown was chosen as the strategic base port.
As soon as the troop-ships began to move overseas, these destroyers were able to extend their operations and to help guard and escort the convoys through the Bay of Biscay to the coast of France. Meanwhile another urgent situation had developed and an appeal no less insistent had been conveyed to Washington. The navy of France was mostly in the Mediterranean where it properly belonged, and the small patrol force off the stormy shores of Brittany was racked, weary, almost discouraged. Thousands of French sailors had been sent from the ships and bases to fight in the trenches. The little torpedo boats and trawlers were unable to cope with the U-boats which ran amuck among the precious coastwise convoys or intercepted the ships that were homeward bound from distant voyages.
France was magnificent, but her maritime strength in the Atlantic was almost spent. To safeguard the approaches to her ports in which American regiments and divisions were to be landed, hundreds of thousands of men, with their mountains of supplies, was more than she could attempt. Help was needed and the American Navy was eager to respond, but no more destroyers were available. It was necessary to retain a certain number of them in home waters as units of the fighting fleet of big ships which was held in readiness for whatever emergency the war might suddenly unfold. To France, therefore, the Navy was compelled to send whatever it could lay hands on at short notice, planning to reinforce this vanguard with destroyers as fast as they could be launched and commissioned.
In these circumstances the only ships which could be hastily fitted out and sent across were the larger yachts, about twenty in number, whose owners had enrolled and offered them for service when the war clouds were gathering. It had been expected that these pleasure craft, with their volunteer officers and crews, would be used only in the coastal patrol areas and not for duty in the war zone, and in the naval organization they were defined as belonging to “Class IV,” which had a limited field of operation. This was no obstacle, it is needless to say, for when the greater opportunity offered, the amateur bluejackets who manned these yachts were eager to shift into “Class II,” or combatant ships, and to sign on for the adventure in the war zone.
The story of one of these yachts which bravely endured almost two years of battering service in foreign waters is more than a record of a single ship, for it will convey, I hope, something of the spirit and the experiences which they all shared together and which the Navy at large regards with pride as worthy of its traditions. These ships were flung into work for which they were presumably unfitted, into a kind of warfare which was wholly novel, and they sailed with crews who were mostly greenhorns, but they passed the test with flying colors and their admiral who commanded the American Naval Forces in France took pleasure in writing, not long ago:
U.S.S. Pennsylvania
New York, N.Y.
8 September, 1919
My dear Mr. Paine:
I am glad that you are to write the war story of the Corsair because the story of the yachts that came to France in 1917 is well worthy of record. These vessels, designed for pleasure and manned, in large part, by officers and men of little naval training, but of unconquerable spirit, were by peculiar circumstances given an important rôle in the war.
Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, N.Y.
ADMIRAL H. B. WILSON, COMMANDING THE U.S. NAVAL FORCES IN FRANCE
Because of the lack of destroyers, the yachts contributed a large share of the American naval effort on the French coast during the summer and fall of 1917—trying months of the submarines’ greatest activity. Their work then and subsequently, whether on troop and store-ship escort in the Bay of Biscay, convoy escort through the difficult coastal channels of France, or on the Gironde convoys, was frequently hazardous and was always well done.
Very sincerely
H. B. Wilson
(Admiral, U.S. Navy)
Such was the “Suicide Fleet” as it was dubbed by certain pessimists who were later compelled to eat their words. Of these yachts one of the largest and fastest was the Corsair, owned by J. Pierpont Morgan, and the second of her name to fly the pennant of the American Navy in war-time. The first Corsair was renamed the Gloucester and won a well-deserved renown at Santiago in 1898, under Lieutenant Commander Richard Wainwright, who engaged two Spanish destroyers, driving one ashore and sinking the other in the most brilliant single exploit of that battle. In size and armament either destroyer was more than a match for the converted yacht, called a gunboat by courtesy, whose main battery consisted of four six-pounders. This was the kind of blue-water warfare which American sailors would have vastly preferred in 1917, ship to ship, between honorable foemen, as navies had fought in days gone by.
The contrast between the naval careers of these two Corsairs is wide and significant. The older ship had known what to expect, a certain chivalry of the sea which had never been obscured, even when men slew each other with cutlass and boarding-pike upon reddened decks. It was exemplified in the conduct of the Spanish Admiral Cervera, and reflected in the behavior of Captain “Jack” Phillip of the Texas when he shouted to his bluejackets in the moment of victory, “Don’t cheer, boys. The poor devils are dying.”
The Corsair of twenty years later was to sail against an enemy who skulked beneath the sea with malice toward all and mercy toward none, who counted women and children as fair prey in war, and whose trail was marked by the agonies of unarmed and helpless castaways adrift in open boats.
This Corsair was no fragile, fair-weather yacht whose cruises had been confined to sheltered reaches, but a powerful ship familiar with the Atlantic in all seasons. She was no longer young, as vessels go, with eighteen years of service to her credit, but the Lloyd’s surveyor rated her as staunch and sound in every respect. As a yacht the Corsair had made six voyages to Europe, while owned by the late J. Pierpont Morgan, and her shapely lines were known to mariners from the Channel ports to the Mediterranean and the Golden Horn.
A faithful ship which has long withstood the ordeals of the sea becomes something more than a mere fabric of steel and wood. She seems almost sentient, like a living thing to those who have shared her fortunes, and therein is the immemorial romance which the sea peculiarly vouchsafes. It is obvious to sailor-men that these many years of fidelity, in winter gales and summer breezes, should have endeared the Corsair to her owners, father and son.
Designed by J. Beavor Webb, the yacht was built for offshore work, although not with the expectation that she would be used as a “fourth-rate gunboat” in the Bay of Biscay for a year and a half on end. This was too much to ask of a vessel so planned and arranged, but like the men of the Navy she proved that she could do a little better than her best. Her length was three hundred and four feet, with a beam of thirty-three and a half feet, a draft of seventeen feet, and a measurement of sixteen hundred tons—noble dimensions for a pleasure craft. The unusual speed of nineteen knots was maintained, when necessary, in the war zone. Her yachting complement comprised fifty-five officers and men. With spacious decks and living quarters, the Corsair was rather comfortable than ornate.
Captain William B. Porter had been in command of her for sixteen years. He was a deep-water sailor whose youth had known a merchant marine now vanished, the stately sailing ships from ports “down east” which lifted sky sail yards to the breath of the Pacific trades or snugged down to breast the tempests of Cape Horn. He knew shipwreck and the peril and misery of an open boat adrift in Far Eastern seas. He had gone into steam, at first on the China coast, and later he became an officer in the American Line. During the Spanish War he served on the auxiliary cruiser Yale with the naval rank of lieutenant (junior grade), and was given command of the Spanish Steamer Rita which was captured as a prize and used as a transport.
When the Corsair was taken over by the Navy, it was ruled that all vessels of this class should be commanded by an officer of the regular service. Captain Porter was appointed executive officer of the yacht, which position he held until promoted to command during her second year of duty in foreign waters.
In April and May of 1917 the Corsair was overhauled and refitted as a fighting craft at the yard of the W. & A. Fletcher Company in Hoboken, the firm which had built her. The Navy is severely practical and beauty was sacrificed to utility. The bowsprit, which had added the finishing touch to the fine sheer of the deck, was ruthlessly removed. Canvas-screened platforms, or crow’s-nests, disfigured the two tall masts. The white-pine decks, whose spotlessness had been the officers’ pride, were bored for gun mountings. Teakwood panels which had covered the steel plates of the bulwarks were sent ashore for storage. Plate-glass windows were boarded up and gleaming brass-work painted to decrease visibility and save the trouble of polishing it. The quarter-deck, no longer inviting to leisure with its awnings, cushions, and wicker chairs, was measured for the track and gear of the ready depth bombs.
The hardest problem was to stow a hundred and more men below. The large dining-room forward was stripped of its fittings and filled with tiers of bunks and a few hammocks. Down the middle ran two long mess tables, bare and scrubbed. Forty-five men were taken care of in this space, and although they could not have whirled a cat around by the tail, they were no more crowded than is customary in the Navy. Twenty-four more were berthed in the forecastle. By ripping out bulkheads, room was made in the “glory hole” for some of the petty officers. The old quarters of the yacht’s officers were given over to the chief petty officers. The bluejackets overflowed into the hold and slept close to the ice machine, where they philosophically reflected that they were sure to keep cool in the event of a torpedo attack.
The owner’s cabins and the library aft were occupied by the commissioned officers. Although the rugs and panels and much of the furniture were removed and the ship had a bare, business-like aspect, the officers found a certain luxury in the fact that there were bathrooms enough to go round. They ate in the forward house on deck and the library served as an office, with gun supports extending from the wide divans to the deck above. The rough-and-ready transformation must have seemed almost brutal to those of the crew who, for many years, had striven for perfection of detail in maintaining the Corsair as a yacht. As a fighting ship the gleaming black of the hull and the mahogany houses were covered with sombre gray paint.
A naval crew was put aboard as soon as the quarters were ready. For the most part they were eager and youthful volunteers who had chosen the Navy because it seemed to promise speedier action than the Army. They had lost no time in enlisting, many of them preferring the humble station of a bluejacket to the delay incident to studying for a commission at Plattsburg. The lack of seafaring experience was atoned for by unbounded zeal and enthusiasm. Their sublime ignorance was unclouded by doubts. They yearned to fight German submarines and expected to find them.
It was a democracy of the forecastle in which social distinctions were thrown overboard as so much rubbish. The yachts recruited many of their men from the universities, from offices in Wall Street and Broadway, and as sweating “gobs” with blistered palms they rubbed elbows or bunked with youngsters of all sorts and were proud of it. Princeton was strong aboard the Corsair, and more than a dozen of her sons, as a stentorian glee club, enlivened the Bay of Biscay with praise of Old Nassau. The older officers of the regular service disliked this new word “gob” as undignified and untraditional, but the Reserve Force adopted it with pride as the badge of their high-hearted fraternity.
COMMANDER THEODORE A. KITTINGER, U.S.N., COMMANDING U.S.S. CORSAIR
The Corsair was fortunate in the officers assigned for the hazardous employments of the war zone. Lieutenant Commander Theodore A. Kittinger, U.S.N., was in command of the yacht, having been transferred from the destroyer Cushing which had taken part in the long and arduous training that had whetted the flotilla personnel to a fine edge.
The service record of Commander Kittinger helps one to realize how varied is the experience and how rigorous the training of a naval officer, even in time of peace. Graduated from Annapolis in 1901, he served first in the battleship Alabama, of the North Atlantic Squadron, as junior watch and division officer, on deck and in the engine-room. As an ensign he was in the converted yacht Vixen in 1903 when she cruised in Caribbean waters and kept an eye on the attempt of the former Kaiser to meddle in the affairs of Venezuela. Then shifted to the China station, the youthful officer was in the monitor Monadnock and the cruiser New Orleans during the anti-foreign riots and the Russo-Japanese War.
Sent home to join the armored cruiser West Virginia, Lieutenant Kittinger was an assistant engineer officer in 1906 and again made the long voyage to the Far East and the Pacific. He became gunnery officer of the same ship before the tour of sea duty ended and he was appointed assistant inspector of ordnance at the Naval Gun Factory, Washington. In 1910-13 he was senior engineer officer of the battleship Minnesota, visiting Europe and then to Cuba and Vera Cruz. Again ashore, he was in charge of the smokeless powder works at Indian Head and executive officer of the station of the Naval Proving Ground, going from there to the Fore River Shipyard as naval inspector of machinery. Then came two years of sea service in a destroyer.
As executive officer of the Corsair, Lieutenant Commander Porter was an uncommonly experienced and capable seaman and navigator and, of course, knew the ship from keel to truck and what she could do in all weathers. Third on the list was Lieutenant Robert E. Tod as navigating officer. He was one of the foremost yachtsmen of the United States, a commodore of the Atlantic Yacht Club, and a licensed master mariner who had sailed his own large vessels without the aid of a skipper. The gunnery officer, Ensign A. K. Schanze, was a graduate of the Naval Academy who welcomed the opportunity to return to the Service. The chief engineer of the Corsair, J. K. Hutchison, who had been in her for several years, decided to stand by the ship through thick and thin, as did his assistants, A. V. Mason and W. F. Hawthorn. This was true also of Lieutenant R. J. McGuire who had been the first officer of the yacht and of Boatswain R. Budani and a number of the enlisted force.
The day’s work of making the Corsair ready for sea, the unaccustomed drudgery and the uncertainty which filled the ship with rumors, are reflected in the letters and diaries of the youthful seamen whose motto was, “We don’t know where we’re going but we’re on our way.” One of them wrote as follows:
April 3rd. 1917. The President of the United States to-day declared this nation to be at war with Germany.... 4th. Have determined that I had better join the Army or Navy, as we are really at war. Most of my friends are going to try to go to Plattsburg and get commissions. I do not think I shall do this.... 6th. A lot of men are planning to go to the Mosquito Fleet school at Newport. I can’t see it. Will go on a foreign-bound ship or none. Have decided to learn radio and join the Navy as an operator if I can learn it soon.
April 13th. Still plugging at radio. I am getting a little impatient. Think I shall enlist very soon.... 20th. Almost ready to leave the office. Hate to go, but war is war and it’s no fault of mine. Sorry there is war, but there is only one thing to do—see it through.... 26th. Finished all my work in the office and took away my things. I wonder if I’ll ever get through the war and come back to my old job.... 27th. On this day I made my final determination to enlist in the Navy. Saw Lieutenant Tod and Captain Porter who recommended me for the Corsair. Was enrolled in the Navy and assigned to this ship, with orders to report at once. My rank is seaman....
May 2nd. First day of decent weather on this ship and we worked like slaves. Coaling, cleaning decks, and drill. The food so far is good. Home liberty for the night.... 3rd. Was elected to mess, with Jack Faison. Worst job in the world. We washed hundreds of dishes, knives, etc., but got the fo’castle clean for the first time.... 4th. Same kind of work, although we added setting-up exercises and semaphore. We were signed out of the Reserves (for coast patrol) into Class II, regular U.S.N. service call.... 5th. Spent most of the morning learning knots in ropes. Also had to clean decks. Brought aboard the small arms. Stood watch from noon to 4 P.M. Chased away two suspicious looking Wops. Six men are to be sent off the ship soon. If I am elected there is going to be one awful kick.
May 8th. This morning we had boat drill and I stroked the cutter. Then the head gunner and I showed the rest of the men how to take down, sight, and load a Springfield rifle. After that we practiced signals and had infantry drill with full equipment. The new boatswain treats ’em rough and he bawled me out all day. Rumors on this ship spread like wildfire. First we are to be a flagship and then a dispatch boat and then to patrol the English Channel until nobody knows anything. There goes the boatswain’s whistle which means turn to.
May 11th. Spent the entire day at the Armory getting clothes. The only decent thing about Navy red-tape is the cheap price which we pay for stuff. We stood in line just seven hours. The Corsair now looks like a real battleship. The paint is all on, also the gun mountings. We hear that the Kaiser has offered a big reward to the U-boat captain who sinks this boat, because it belongs to J. P. Morgan. Here’s hoping he is disappointed! I learned a new way yesterday of making a deck-mop out of canvas. It is very useful.... 14th. We got our orders to-day and sail for the Navy Yard to-morrow. The dope is that we leave for good on Friday. We expect to be sent to the coast of Maine for two weeks’ target practice, then to Newport where we get definite sailing orders for some foreign service.... 15th. Had a good trip from Fletchers’ to the Navy Yard and then a terrible day. We had to coal ninety tons of soft coal in buckets and shovels. The crew is dog-tired and I never saw such a dirty crowd. I pray we may never have to live to-day again.
(Note. Inserted later. This day was repeated in France once a week. We soon got so used to it that it became routine.)
May 16th. We had been asleep two hours when the fire call was rung and all hands had to march double-quick to the Princess Irene, a converted German liner. It was a pretty bad fire and we were detailed to haul hose for three hours. To-day was spent in washing the ship and loading meat aboard. We are taking on provisions for six months. The work here in the Navy Yard is something fierce and I shall be glad to go to sea. I bought shore liberty from another gob for two dollars to go home and take a bath.
May 17th. To-day a strict censorship was put on us. All our mail is read by the executive officer before we send it out. Also no news of any kind is handed to us. We are not even allowed to tell our families when or where we sail. All the dope is that we are going abroad soon. I visited the Noma and the Harvard to-night, but they can’t compare with the Corsair. We also looked over some of the battleships and destroyers. Eleven of them left for France to-day. We now get home leave once a week. I washed some clothes to-day. They were in awful shape. We loaded ten tons more of provisions. Also got shot in the arm for typhoid and was vaccinated. I am all in to-night.
May 18th. To-day has been more like the real Navy. I was on anchor watch from 4 P.M. to 6 and again in the morning. I went aboard a submarine to-night and it was the most interesting craft I have ever seen, but I would not care to ship in her. My arm is a lot better to-night, but still sore. The food is not nearly as good as it was, mostly because the cook is lazy, but I think the skipper has got his number.... 19th. It looks very much as if we would sail any day now. All stores, ammunition, etc., are aboard and we are living a life of comparative ease. Now they say we are going to convoy the United States Commission to Russia. I hope we do.... 21st. Captain Kittinger told us this morning to get all the warm clothes we could as we are going to a cold climate. This sounds like Russia or the North Sea. Everybody says for sure we are going over soon, so I guess that must be right. I was recommended by the chief boatswain for a coxswain’s job and I hope I get the appointment. Dave Tibbott got one, too. Pay-day to-day, but I did not get a cent, as by some error of the Department my name was not on the list. Am studying hard on the deck and boat book and the seaman’s manual.
May 22nd. Got offered a job as yeoman, but I don’t want to be a pen-pusher if I can help it. Mr. Tod advised me to take it and say nothing if the commander makes a point of it.... 24th. This has been a trying day. In the first place a lot more men were transferred off the boat and it makes us all nervous. So far eight have got the gate. I painted the skylights and covers all the afternoon. We are still at the Navy Yard. Because of the Mongolia accident all our ammunition was condemned, so we had to unload it. The weight to carry was enough to pull all the rivets out of your back-bone. I suppose it will be the same when we load it again. We still don’t know for sure whether we will be kept on the boat. Several more men expect to get the hook.
Copyright by Kadel and Herbert, N. Y.
LIEUTENANT COMMANDER WILLIAM B. PORTER, LATER COMMANDING U.S.S. CORSAIR, AND LIEUTENANT ROBERT E. TOD, NAVIGATOR
May 26th. I have the P.O. mess. Dirty job. Another man got canned to-day. I do wish they would settle on the crew. I understand now that the Corsair will sail for Gravesend, England, on Thursday. Mr. McGuire told me last night that he is afraid some more men will have to be put off for lack of room. It certainly keeps us feeling jumpy.... 29th. Coaled ship all day. It was a frightful job. It was shot onto the decks and we shovelled it into the bunkers. We took on 350 tons and the dirt and coal dust are unspeakable. To add to the discomfort it rained all day. To-morrow is a national holiday, but not for us.
May 30. To-day we spent washing the ship. We turned loose the hose for four hours and it looks better, but is not clean by a long shot. I have caught a rotten cold. To-day more of the crew got fired. Thirty-two regulars from the South Carolina came aboard to fill up the crew. We now have a full complement.... 31st. Still raining. I have never known such beastly weather. We are still loading stores and I don’t understand where all the stuff is put. We are carrying the fleet paymaster and the fleet postmaster, so it looks as if we would also be the fleet dispatch boat on the other side. Heaven only knows when we will sail. We have been expecting to go every night. Liberty is very scarce these days.
June 1st. Still more rain. I don’t expect a decent day this summer. We are still loading, loading, loading. Food, clothes, and ammunition. A hundred and fifty pounds on my back is nothing any more. They first announced that we were to have liberty to-morrow and then cancelled it. Haven’t been mess cook or on watch for five days. Hope my good luck continues. The regulars are a good bunch, with few exceptions, and I am surprised that most of them are so young. They run from nineteen to twenty-two on an average, barring the petty officers who are older.
June 4th. We sail definitely to-morrow, nobody knows where. In the afternoon I went to the Subtreasury with the paymaster to get money. We both carried guns and brought back $10,000 in gold to the ship. It was some load to carry.... 5th. We shoved off from the Navy Yard at 8.30 A.M. and are now heading north in Long Island Sound. No idea yet where we are heading for. We cruised in the Sound all day and anchored at Whitestone for the night. Got our battle billet to-day. I am as follows:
Fire. Extinguisher in crew quarters.
Boat. Big motor sailer.
Gun. Fire control aft.
Arm and away. Fire control aft.
This is a joke on me. It was raining the other morning and we were getting under way. Everybody was dressed in dirty working whites. The bos’n yelled at me, “Hey, get the messenger for’ard.” I immediately rushed down to my locker, broke out a clean suit of whites, and reported to the bridge for messenger watch. I could hear the bos’n cursing all over the deck. The mate finally spotted me and asked what I was doing on the bridge. I told him the bos’n had put me on messenger watch, and the mate said, “Messenger watch! Hell! The messenger is a rope, you poor boob!” It turned out that the “messenger” was a long line which was stowed forward and he was wondering what in Sam Hill had happened to me. The “messenger” is used to hoist the motor sailer.
June 6th. Spent the morning overside, scrubbing the ship. At one o’clock we hove anchor and cruised down to Staten Island. There are eleven warships here with us.... 7th. Coaled ship all day at the Navy Yard. Filled the bunkers and then put thirty tons on deck in bags. The ship was a holy mess. Before breakfast we were over the side scrubbing.... 8th. Spent most of the day washing the whole ship. We left the Navy Yard and are tied to a dock at the foot of 80th Street in the Hudson River. The Seattle, Birmingham, and the Aphrodite are anchored near us. Got paid $13.00 to-day. So much money makes me dizzy.
June 11th. I got what amounts to a promotion. I am signal-man on the bridge. I handle all the signals, flags, semaphore, blinker, and searchlights, excepting radio. It lets me out of all the hard deck work. It will take lots of practice to make good, but I am coming along fairly well.... 12th. Three large transports are anchored off us, crowded with regular infantry. We hear we are to convoy them across. We shall be starting very soon. The dope is that we are to act as convoy all summer.... 13th. We are told that there will be no liberty to-night, so that means business. I called up father and he came to see me and said good-bye. The day was spent in putting on the finishing touches for sea. We think we are going over with about thirty other ships. The Seattle is the flagship. There will be cruisers, destroyers, our type of vessel, and the transports....
This young sailor and his comrades were about to take part in one of the most memorable voyages in American history. The crowded transports at which they gazed bore Pershing’s first contingent, the vanguard of an army two million strong. They presaged the enormous flow of troops and material, the bridge of ships which should finally shatter the military power of Germany. There was nothing outwardly dramatic in this sailing of this little fleet of transports. It stole out in secret and no newspaper hinted at its departure. The men in khaki belonged to regular regiments whose names and numbers meant nothing to the people of their country. It was to be the destiny of most of these unknown men to fall, dead or wounded, on the fields of France, but the regiments came back, and then the country knew them as they marched down Fifth Avenue, wildly cheered and pelted with flowers—the stern, bronzed ranks of the First Division.
They filled the decks of this first convoy, companies and battalions of the Sixteenth, the Eighteenth, the Twenty-Sixth, and the Twenty-Eighth infantry regiments which were to win glory at tremendous cost in the victorious assaults at Toul, at Cantigny, at Soissons, at Saint-Mihiel, and in the desperate advances of the Meuse and the Argonne.
It was the Navy’s job to shepherd them across the sea in safety. While the crew of the Corsair was busied with rumor and conjecture, her official record or confidential “War Diary” briefly noted the facts in the case:
April 28th. Corsair taken over by the Government at Fletchers’ Ship Yard, Hoboken, New Jersey.
April 28th to May 15th. Fitting out for duty as scout patrol, Third Naval District. During first week in May information was received that ship would operate with Nantucket Patrol when ready for sea.
May 15th. Sailed from Fletchers’ Ship Yard to Navy Yard to receive battery and continue fitting out. Commissioned as per following letter:
Office of the Commandant Third Naval District
Navy Yard, Brooklyn, N.Y. May 14, 1917
From: Commandant, Third Naval District.
To: Lt. Com’dr T. A. Kittinger, U.S.N.,
Commanding Officer.
Subject: Corsair, S.P. No. 159, placed in commission.
1. As authorized in reference (a) the Corsair, S.P. No. 159, is hereby placed in full commission, 15 May, 1917, 3.00 P.M.
N. R. Usher
Rear Admiral, U.S.N.
| Copy to Navy Department | Operations. | |
| Bureau of Nav. |
Commander Patrol Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet.
May 19th. Received orders to fit out for distant service, to be ready on May 30, 1917.
June 4th. Received orders to report to Rear Admiral Albert Gleaves, U.S. Navy, for temporary service.
June 5th. Left Navy Yard, New York, for shaking down cruise in Long Island Sound.
June 6th. Proceeded to anchorage at Tompkinsville for conference with Captain W. B. Fletcher, U.S.N., on the U.S.S. Noma.
June 7th. Proceeded to the Navy Yard for coal.
June 8th. Joined U.S.S. Seattle at anchorage, North River, New York.
June 14th. Sailed with First Expeditionary Force from United States to France.
The troop-ships in Group One of this First Expeditionary Force were the merchant steamers Tenadores, Saratoga, Havana, and Pastores. The escort assigned to them comprised the cruiser Seattle, flagship of Rear Admiral Gleaves, the yacht Corsair, the armed transport DeKalb, and the destroyers Wilkes, Terry, and Roe. Three other groups followed in a similar arrangement. The secret orders received by the commander of the Corsair were as follows:
From: Commander Destroyer Force, Commanding
U.S. Convoy Operations in the Atlantic.
To: Convoy Group Number One.
Subject: Movement Order.
1. Execute Operation Order No. 1 of 7 June, 1917.
Escort arrive Ambrose Channel Lightship at 7.00 A.M., 14 June.
Convoy arrive Ambrose Channel Lightship at 7.30 A.M., 14 June.
Group One will, on arrival at Ambrose Channel Lightship, assume following formation:
| Terry O | . | O Wilkes | ||||
| . | ||||||
| DeKalb O | . | O Seattle (2 points starboard bow of leading transport, distance 2000 yards) | ||||
| . | ||||||
| . | ||||||
| . | ||||||
| O Tenadores | ||||||
| Havana | O | |||||
| Roe O | O Saratoga | O Corsair (On beam 3rd transport, distance 2000 yards) | ||||
| Pastores | O | |||||
Distance between transports 600 yards.
(Signed) Albert Gleaves
FITTING THE CORSAIR FOR THE WAR ZONE
The instructions for warding off submarine attack have more than a passing interest. They signified a new chapter in the work of the American Navy, with no doctrine as precedent—the task of transporting an army across three thousand miles of ocean and protecting it against an enemy which was supremely confident that its undersea warfare could not be thwarted, which had boasted that it could prevent the landing of an American army in France. In a way, this was a momentous experiment. How thoroughly and intelligently the Navy had studied the problem may be discerned in these extracts from its confidential orders to the Corsair and the other ships of the escort:
Reports of enemy submarine activity indicate that the area of greatest activity is east of Longitude Twenty West, and within a circle radius five hundred miles from Fayal, Azores. Submarines may be operating on the Atlantic coast of the United States and Canada. Every effort has been made to hold secret the sailing of the convoy but it may be assumed that the departure of convoy from the United States and the hour of departure will be communicated to the enemy. It is possible that particular effort will be made by the enemy to accomplish the destruction of the convoy, and no part of the water traversed may be assumed to be free from submarines.
Ships will make every effort to maintain distance accurately and will be careful not to drop astern, particularly at night or in thick weather. Speed will be assigned by signal. During daylight every effort will be made to determine the revolutions necessary to make the speed of the convoy in order that each ship may maintain a more nearly constant speed during the darkness.
Convoy will be manœuvred as necessary by the Battle Signal Book. Ships will manœuvre independently in accordance with the Rules of the Road in all cases when necessary to avoid collision. When convoy alters course each ship of the convoy will turn in the wake of the next ahead except in zigzagging when all turn together.
There will be two well-protected and arranged lookout stations aloft; one on each side of the mast as high as possible, capable of holding four lookouts each. There will be four well-protected and arranged lookout stations on each side of the ship, capable of holding two lookouts each. During daylight there will be an officer in each top, in addition to lookouts. At all times there will be an officer in charge of lookouts on deck who will make periodic inspections. The communication system from lookout stations to bridge will be tested frequently.
Lookouts will be carefully selected for their fitness for lookout duty—keen eyesight, intelligence, and freedom from seasickness are essential qualities. A school for lookouts will be held daily. They will be instructed to report everything they see. In so far as practicable they will be furnished with binoculars and each lookout will always use the same glass. Each lookout will be assigned a definite sector and will be required to maintain the closest possible watch within that sector, no matter what may be happening in other sectors.
Gun crews will be at all times in the immediate vicinity of their guns. One man of each crew will be at all times on watch. Daily pointing, loading, and fire control drills will be held. When conditions permit and upon orders from the Group Convoy Commander, target practice will be held in accordance with the General Signal Book.
No radio message will be sent except in great emergency involving the safety of the ship. A continuous radio watch will be maintained. If it becomes necessary to communicate by radio, the cipher contained in the operation order will be used.
All vessels will be darkened so that no ray of light shall show outboard between sunset and sunrise. A single gleam of light may cause the loss of the ship. Sentries will make constant rounds to insure the strict enforcement of this order throughout the ship. Navigational lights will not be shown except when specifically ordered by the convoy commander or when immediately necessary to avoid collision and then only long enough to meet the emergency. Range lights will not be shown and all lights will be dimmed to two miles visibility.
Smoke from the funnels must be reduced to a minimum both by day and night. All vessels will keep fuel so trimmed that maximum speed can be maintained toward end of voyage. Neither the whistle or the siren shall be used in submarine waters except in case of emergency. Care will be exercised that the leads of the siren and whistle cords are such that these cannot be accidentally pulled or become jammed.
A station bill will be prepared showing the stations at fire quarters and abandon ship. Daily drills at fire stations and abandon ship will be held until all persons on board become familiar with their duties.
Necessary instructions in regard to rendezvous and courses will be found in the sealed instructions. These will be opened only as directed on the outside of the envelope. Before dark a rendezvous for 4 P.M. of the day following will be signalled by the Escort Commander.
Nothing that floats will be thrown overboard. All waste material that can be burned will be burned. Tin cans must be well punctured before being thrown overboard. Garbage that cannot be burned shall be accumulated in suitable receptacles and thrown overboard from all ships simultaneously one hour after sunset each night.
Submarine Attack
The following is generally accepted:
Submarines on surface are visible on the horizon. Submarine awash is visible about five miles. Submarine submerged, periscope showing, is not visible more than two miles unless periscope appears against skyline. Porpoising of submarine as it comes to the surface to obtain sight through periscope creates a distinct wake which is more clearly visible than the wake of periscope when submarine is steadied.
Under poor conditions of atmosphere and sea the probability of detecting a submarine decreases. It follows that constant vigilance alone will insure the early detection of a submarine. The wake of a torpedo is distinctive and can easily be picked up in smooth water at a distance of two thousand yards. In rough water it is difficult to observe the wake.
NUMBER TWO GUN CREW ON WATCH
THEY ARE ALL SEA DOGS TOGETHER
Daylight attack by surface craft (enemy raider), will be handled by signal from the Convoy Commander. Daylight attack by submarines shall be handled as follows by each vessel:
(a) Open fire instantly on any submarine sighted. Don’t delay the first shot even if it is apt to go wild,—it will show the direction of the submarine and will have a pronounced moral effect.
(b) Continue to fire as rapidly as possible. Short shots interfere with the ability of the submarine to see and aim.
(c) If submarine appears less than six points on bow and not more than 2000 yards away, head for submarine at best speed.
(d) If submarine appears more than six points on bow, abeam, or on the quarter, head directly away from submarine at best speed.
(e) If torpedo wake only is seen, fire gun immediately and indicate direction to other ships and manœuvre to avoid torpedo as in case of submarine, i.e.—turning towards torpedo if less than six points.
(f) Other ships of convoy turn from direction of submarine and scatter at best speed, maintaining keenest lookout for torpedo wake and for a possible mate of the attacking submarine.
(g) Resume course when it is deemed that your vessel is outside the danger zone of attacking submarine.
Night Attack:—All vessels instantly change course ninety degrees either to port or starboard. Course will be resumed before any vessel has proceeded ten miles after ninety degrees change. If any vessel is damaged by torpedo, that vessel will act independently and all other vessels of convoy escape at best speed. The damaged vessel may send out radio distress signals provided for merchant vessels.
Owing to the presence of escorting ships it is not probable that submarines will be caught on the surface and therefore will not attempt to use her guns. It is very probable that the first indication of the presence of a submarine will be the wake of her torpedo.
Mines, floating or submerged, may be encountered. All floating objects, the character of which is uncertain, must be carefully avoided. Floating mines have recently been encountered under the following conditions:
(a) Two mines connected by lines.
(b) Secured to bottom of dummy periscopes which were mounted in a box or other object.
(c) In waterlogged boats, used as decoys.
(d) Attached to wreckage of various kinds.
If submarine is sighted or if gunfire from any ship indicates attack, destroyers and fast yachts of escort will head at best speed in direction of submarine, force it to submerge, and attack as conditions permit. They will rejoin convoy at earliest possible moment. If any ship is damaged by torpedo, two destroyers will stand by ship, those nearest of escort, affecting such rescue as may be necessary and possible.