Search for the Bodies
(See page 11, January, 1944, Proceedings) Henry H. Porter.—I have just read “Search For The Bodies,” by Captain Damon E. Cummings, U. S. Navy. Apparently, as is natural in wartime, some people feel that the services are too conservative and are not taking full advantage of technical advancement. Captain Cummings has taken wireless communication as an example of typical Navy effort to supply the fleet with new equipment.
The following is a condensed outline of the facts given in this article, but the article itself should be read for fuller understanding:
1896—Marconi Patents. (During this interval, apparatus was being made in Europe.)
1899—Marconi brought apparatus to America for International yacht races (Navy observed). Retired naval officer asked to investigate European equipment, and six of recommended sets were bought, and Navy sent one officer and two enlisted men to Europe for instructions and to bring the sets back.
- Commander in Chief, North Atlantic Station, favored adoption.
- Recommended by Commander in Chief.
1905—Five naval transmitting stations in operation.
- Ships had been equipped with wireless telephones.
- Range—1200 miles.
1912—Congress assigned frequency bands.
1912—First communication with planes.
1915—Secretary of Navy talked from Naval Radio Station, Arlington, to fleet by radio.
1917—Communication with planes in general use. After the war, experimenting done at Bureau of Standards, Engineering Experiment Station at Annapolis, and the aircraft radio laboratory at Pensacola.
1922—Washington Navy Yard made improvements in tube design.
1923—Naval Research Laboratories established. 1925—Traffic Manager of American Radio Relay League joined Navy and demonstrated amateur high frequency developments which gave better range and performance than standard equipment.
1927—Short wave apparatus becomes available.
It appears that the Navy early took an interest in wireless communication and fostered the interest of American companies in the production of sets and the control of transmitting stations. As early as 1905 it was emphasizing greater range and reliability. After World War I it fostered development at the Bureau of Standards and at various naval establishments, and in 1923 started the Naval Research Laboratory. In spite of this, in 1925 it found itself technically far behind the high frequency technique that had been developed by the amateur “radio hams.” This appears to indicate that something was wrong with the system that was followed.
In order to keep the fleet at peak effectiveness, the Navy must procure engineering and research, as well as war materials. For the purpose of this discussion, engineering refers to the improvement of weapons along known principles, and research refers to the development of new weapons or principles.
Officers, by their training, in addition to fleet operations, are well fitted for procuring war materials and supplying the fleet. They are less fitted, in general, to do or procure engineering, though in most instances such work has been well done. It is asking too much to expect officers to be well equipped to handle research too. The best technical brains in the country are needed for this. This, I believe, is where the “system” has fallen down. There has not been the foresight in research that was needed. In this example, the high-frequency band which had major advantages was overlooked. Other examples are anti-aircraft and anti-submarine developments which apparently have been woefully behind.
I believe two requirements must be met. One is to keep able scientists working on these problems. This was not done in the Navy since it could not compete with industry and the universities for the best men in the face of such restrictions and frustrations as Civil Service and government procurement. Perhaps it will be possible to obviate this difficulty by contracts to industrial and scientific organizations for research. The other requirement is complete and constant interchange of ideas between these scientists and the top working levels of the Navy; thus, the officers can keep the objectives constantly clear, and modify the requirements with a knowledge of the technical possibilities. Also, the scientists, by gaining a background of requirements, can find solutions which might otherwise be overlooked.
I believe that our Navy is unquestionably the best in the world, but if we can solve the problem of rapid development of weapons, it will be even farther ahead.
U.S.S. Portsmouth
Rear Admiral A. Farenholt (M.C.), U. S. Navy (Retired).—With the completion of the new light cruiser Portsmouth there will reappear on the Navy list a name which has been carried with much honor and affection during a large part of our Navy’s life. As with other outstanding names a short account of her services may be of interest.
The first Portsmouth was a ship of 24 guns, 593 tons, and carried a complement of 220 men. She was built for the service at Portsmouth, N. H., at a cost of $60,000 and sold at Baltimore in 1801. She was authorized, built and commissioned during 1798 and went to sea in December of that year under the command of Captain Daniel McNiell. At that time the quasi war with France was in progress and she captured, in the West Indies, the French ship Le Fripon. In 1800 she was stationed off the Dutch colony of Surinam and engaged in convoying merchant vessels to the United States. During the same year she was sent to France to bring home our Minister and staff. She was one of the twenty public vessels sold out of service under the terms of the Naval Peace Establishment Act of 1801; the second of our unfortunate resolutions looking toward economy and the furtherance of peace. This Portsmouth was a sistership, but on a smaller scale, of the Cresent, 36 guns, built at the same time and place, which was presented to the Dey of Algiers in 1789 as part payment for tribute by the United States for protection of our shipping from the Barbary pirates.
The second Portsmouth also was built at the Navy Yard, Portsmouth, N. II., and launched in the fall of 1843, being commissioned one year later. She was constructed of live oak, cost $170,600, rated at 20 guns, and during her various cruises carried a varied battery, the first being four 8-inch and eighteen 32-pouiulers. She was of 1,022 tons and had a crew of 210 men. Extracts from her logs state: “Excellent whether sailing, steering, working, scudding, lying-to or riding at anchor in a sea-way.” Also, “she possesses the finest qualities of any ship I ever sailed in; rolls as easy as a cradle and stands up to her canvas like a church, sails very fast.” She made her first cruise to the Pacific, 1844-48, during the Mexican war. Raised the flag at San Francisco, in what is now Portsmouth Square, July 8, 1846, and later sent a boat expedition under Lieutenant Revere to raise the flag at Sonoma. She made the capture of three enemy vessels. From 1848 to 1851 she cruised as flagship on the African station and from 1851 to 1855 she cruised in the Pacific, being one of the earlier of our men-of-war to visit Honolulu in 1853. From 1856 to 1858 she served in China. In November, 1856, during one of the “wars” between England and China, one of the Portsmouth's boats was fired upon at Canton, where Commander Foote was protecting lives and property, and, no satisfaction being obtained, he engaged, stormed, and captured the Barrier forts at that place with the Portsmouth, San Jacinto, and Levant in a three-day engagement. From 1859 to 1861 she was in African waters on slave trade duty and made several captures. She served throughout the entire period of the Civil War; first on blockading duty in Texan waters, then under Farragut at the capture of the Mississippi River forts, and as station ship oil New Orleans from the spring of 1862 until the end of the war. Later she made several cruises in the North and South Atlantic squadrons and for three years was on surveying duty in and near the Hawaiian Islands. From 1879 to 1895 she was employed in the Atlantic with the Saratoga and Jamestown in a squadron for the training of naval apprentices. She was the first vessel of our Navy to be rigged with double topsails; the heavy single yards and canvas being too weighty for the young boys. Later she was loaned to the State of New Jersey for duty with the Naval Militia and in 1911 was used for a time by the Marine Hospital service. She was stricken from the Navy list on April 17, 1915, and burned by wreckers in August, 1915.
The Portsmouth was probably the fastest and best all-around sailer in our service, and had remarkably fine lines. Her hull plans were said by Rear Admiral T. 0. Selfridge to have originated in the following manner. A French “letter of marque” put into Boston during the War of 1812 and, needing some under-water repairs, was “thrown out,” or hove down, on the East Boston flats. As she had made a remarkably fast voyage from Europe, Josiah Barker, the shipwright engaged to do the work, was much interested in her and “was so forcibly struck with the symmetry and beauty of her bottom that he requested the captain to give him her lines; which he did without reluctance.” Later Mr. Barker became one of our first naval constructors and in building the sloop of war Prolic chose these plans on a somewhat larger scale. Shortly after Mr. Gray, a wealthy Boston merchant, commissioned Mr. Barker to duplicate the Frolic's hullfor a privateer. She was built and named the Union, but, as her size was above that of the usual privateer, she was dubbed “Billy Gray’s Frigate.” At the close of the war this vessel was “raised upon,” given another deck, and became an Indiaman, sailing between Boston and Calcutta and Batavia until 1823 and later on the
Liverpool run. After the first English run she was lost on Long Island, probably having overrun her longitude. Mr. Self ridge was her third officer on her last voyage to India and reported: “I can attest to her great speed, both going from and on a wind. Her maximum speed off the wind was 14 knots and by the wind 10.5 knots; sailing seldom equalled and rarely surpassed by vessels of her tonnage, 620 tons. She came up to 9 and 10 knots more easily than any vessel I was ever in.” In 1842 plans for the Portsmouth were being chosen and Samuel M. Pook, Naval Constructor, in conversation with Constructor Barker, who was still in the service, remarked that he thought he could do no better than to take the Union's lines and enlarge upon them as he had compared them with the lines of some of the best vessels in the Navy and found them in close accord. This was done and “the Portsmouth so built is today, 1880, probably the fastest sailing vessel of her length and displacement in the world.” In this connection it may be mentioned that the French, from the earliest days, had built the fastest and most graceful vessels during the sailing ship period. Captured French vessels were invariably the handiest in the British Navy and their lines were repeatedly copied, usually however with but small success.
The Portsmouth's years of service were seventy-one, the longest of any of our vessels, excepting the Independence, which retained to a large extent her original timbers. She was almost continuously employed, was a favorite and happy ship, and was speedy and handy. There is a story told which confirms this, although it is also a fine example of seamanship. Returning to Norfolk from a cruise she shortened sail when off the city* fired a salute to the Commandant with her main battery (saluting guns were not then used), sailed directly to the navy yard, clewed up, threw out her lines, and secured without the assistance of tug or boat—a maneuver no crank ship could possibly accomplish.