Hunter and Prey from Battle of the Atlantic Discovered
Approximately 30 miles off the coast of North Carolina, researchers led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Office of National Marine Sanctuaries discovered two vessels from World War II’s Battle of the Atlantic: U-576 and the tanker Bluefields.
“There were many U-boats that were operating off the coast of the United States, and several that have been known since their sinking. These were pretty thick over here,” said Joe Hoyt, a NOAA sanctuary scientist and chief scientist for the expedition. “The real significance of this find is that it’s not just the U-boat, it’s the boat and the ship it sunk. It’s a whole battlefield scene, and that is much more uncommon. There’s very few instances where there was a whole convoy battle that took place and where both the U-boat and vessels of the convoy were sunk.” The vessels are less than 240 yards apart.
On 15 July 1942, Convoy KS-520—a group of 19 merchant ships escorted by the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard—was attacked off Cape Hatteras while it was on its way to Key West, Florida. U-576 sank the Nicaraguan-flagged freighter Bluefields and damaged two other ships, leading U.S. Navy OS2U Kingfisher aircraft to bomb U-576 while the merchant ship Unicoi attacked the sub with her deck gun. The Bluefields did not lose any men, but U-576 still holds the remains of her crew. The two wreck sites are protected under international law.
In 2008 NOAA and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management formed a partnership to survey and document vessels lost during World War II off the North Carolina coast. In early 2014, in partnership with the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, the NOAA ship Okeanos Explorer conducted an initial survey of this area. In August, archaeologists on board the NOAA research vessel SRVX Sand Tiger confirmed the ships’ identities. In a statement, the Federal Republic of Germany, the owner of formerly Reich-owned assets, said it is not interested in recovering U-576 or participating in a recovery project.
Moving forward, Hoyt said, “It’s likely we’ll go back out and conduct a more thorough assessment of the site. Right now we just have the sonar image of the U-boat. We’d look at it with high-definition photos, take stills, and put people on site. That will give us a better idea of its condition and what happened in the last bits of the battle. We’ll do the same with the Bluefields.” When and if this happens depends on funding.
In related news, NOAA and the U.S. Coast Guard will manage the historic wreck of Diamond Shoal Lightship No. 71. The ship was built in Bath, Maine, in 1897, and during her life served as a floating lighthouse, sound-signal station, and navigational beacon, marking the dangerous waters of Diamond Shoals off Cape Hatteras. She was the only American lightship to be sunk by the enemy during World War I. On 6 August 1918, ship was anchored off Cape Hatteras and reported that a submarine had torpedoed the unarmed American steamer Merak. U-140 intercepted the warning, gave the lightship’s 12-man crew the opportunity to abandon ship in lifeboats, and sank her by surface gunfire. NOAA, through the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary, will work to document the wreck’s physical remains and nominate the site to the National Register of Historic Places. Additionally, the ship’s remains are in 180 feet of water—within reach of advanced technical divers—and NOAA is planning to create dive slates and an online exhibit to help divers understand the site.
Battle off Samar Veterans Reunite
Veterans from World War II’s Battle off Samar in the Philippines reunited on 25 October in San Diego for a four-day commemoration of the event that included a ceremony on board the USS Midway and trips to the Embarcadero and Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. The battle, which occurred 70 years ago, is regarded as a “David vs. Goliath” encounter, with vastly outnumbered and outgunned U.S. Navy forces bravely defending Leyte Gulf from a powerful Japanese battleship force. Fifty-three veterans—whittled down from the thousands of initial survivors—attended, many of them now in wheelchairs.
“I’ve been attending reunions of these heroic sailors since 2001, but in at least two ways this was the greatest and most beautiful of them all,” said James Hornfischer, author of The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors (Bantam, 2004), a bestselling book about the Battle off Samar. “First, it was only the second time that all 13 ships gathered together as a group—Taffy 3 sorties again! Second, it was the last such event we will be likely to see. The 53 veterans who were there are the vigorous rear guard of their respective associations. Now it will be up to the families to carry their torch.”
Santa Maria Still at Large
In early October, a team of United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) experts concluded that a shipwreck found by American explorer Barry Clifford in May near Haiti is not that of Christopher Columbus’ famed Santa Maria (See “Naval History News,” August, p. 12).
Among the evidence for the ruling were the bronze or copper fasteners found near the wreck, which suggested that the vessel in question had been built in the late 17th or 18th century, when ships were sheathed in copper. Before then, only iron or wood fasteners would have been used—and the Santa Maria was built in the 15th century. Christopher Columbus’ journal also suggests that the Santa Maria would be closer to the shore.
According to a press release, UNESCO recommends further exploration to find the Santa Maria and inventory any other major wrecks in the vicinity. It also implores Haiti to protect its underwater heritage from further unauthorized exploration, which could damage historic wrecks, through legislative measures; excavation attempts should “meet the standards of UNESCO’s Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage, which Haiti has ratified.”
The View from Mt. Suribachi?
On 30 October, U.S. Naval Academy Midshipmen took another step in their project researching what the Japanese could have seen from atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle for Iwo Jima. At the center of the project is a 70-pound pair of Japanese binoculars that were recently donated to the U.S. Naval Academy Museum. The glasses, which were taken from the top of Mount Suribachi, are now on display at the Museum. The Marine who originally acquired the binoculars after the battle sold or traded them to a U.S. Air Force pilot. Eventually they made their way to David Gray, whose estate donated them.
Lieutenant Commander Claude Berube, director of the U.S. Naval Academy Museum, explained that the project, which combines history and physics, explores “how to apply our heritage to today’s Navy.” The history side will research the battle, while the physics side will evaluate how effective these glasses were compared to U.S. military binoculars of the era.
From the U.S. Naval Institute’s Vice Admiral William D. Houser–Battle of Midway Terrace at Beach Hall, Midshipman 1st Class Ian Sharbel and Midshipmen 2nd Class Karter Martin, Don Puent, and Cyrus Wilson used the glasses to take a set of measurements against an eye chart across the Severn River at NSA Annapolis. The Mids explained that the Japanese had an advantage in night battles because they could see U.S. ships before Americans could see them. These glasses were so effective because of their diameter: Their larger lenses could pick up more light at night that American-issued binoculars.
On hand was retired Admiral James Stavridis, dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, USNA graduate, and current Chair of the U.S. Naval Institute Board of Directors. After Admiral Stavridis took a look through the binoculars he noted that this project “was a microcosm of the debate on technology and the humanities.”
Winner of RADM Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature Announced
The New York Commandery of the Naval Order of the United States announced Jack Cheevers, author of Act of War: Lyndon Johnson, North Korea, and the Capture of the Spy Ship Pueblo (New American Library, 2013) as the winner of the 2014 Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature. His article “The Pueblo Scapegoat” was adapted from this book and published in the October issue of Naval History (pp. 50–57).
Named for the late Rear Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison, a Harvard University history professor widely considered to be America’s most distinguished naval historian, this writing prize is given to an American author “who by his published writings has made a substantial contribution to the preservation of the history and traditions of the United States Sea Services—the Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and U.S. Flag Merchant Marine.” Past recipients include Captain Edward L. Beach, USN (Salt and Steel); James D. Hornfischer (Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors); and, former Navy Secretary John F. Lehman, the only author honored twice with the Morison Award (Command of the Seas and On Seas of Glory). Cheevers is a former political reporter for the Los Angeles Times.