AROUND THE WORLD
Anti-submarine Indicator Loop stations in the United States
East Point Loop Receiving Station, Nahant,
Massachusetts
Drawing by Gerry Butler (2000)
Loop Receiving
Stations (LRS), as they were known, were operated by the United States Navy
during WW2 as part of the harbor defenses largely against German submarines
(U-Boats). This
webpage is about the Indicator Loop Receiving Station operated by the
United States Navy at East Point, Nahant, Massachusetts. Other
nearby loop stations include North Scituate (Fourth Cliff to Provincetown,
Massachusetts); Appledore Island (Portsmouth, New Hampshire) and Peaks Island/Fort Williams Loop Station
in Casco Bay (Portland,
Maine).
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If you worked there or have any feedback please email me:
Dr Richard Walding
Research Fellow - School of Science
Griffith University
Brisbane, Australia
Email: waldingr49@yahoo.com.au
My thanks to Gerry Butler and Dave Pierson for their
splendid help with this webpage. Liberal use has been made of Gerry's new
book for the Nahant Historical Society "The Liquid Battlefield" (2012). |
INTRODUCTION
From the outbreak of hostilities in Europe and the Middle East in September
1939, the US Navy had given some thought to harbor defenses. With the increasing
likelihood that the US may become embroiled in the war work became more urgent.
In July 1941 - before the US entered the war - the Chief of Naval Operations
recommended that indicator loops be installed as harbor defensive measures in all
New England ports, including Boston. Before we consider the installation
of harbor defenses at Boston in WWII, we should look at the early days of
antisubmarine research there, particularly at East Point, Nahant, just to the
north.
ANTI-SUBMARINE DEVELOPMENT AT NAHANT
Nahant, one of the smallest towns in Massachusetts, has
the solitary distinction of being the origin of United States Naval
antisubmarine warfare. In his book for the Nahant Historical Society details the
history of the Anti-submarine Laboratory at Nahant from 1917-1919. The following
extracts from The Liquid Battlefield have been used with permission.
Detection of enemy ships by their subaqueous sound started to
be investigated in the late 1800s in Europe. However, in 1901 in the US, the
Submarine Signal Company was set up in Boston to realize the commercial
possibilities of underwater acoustics. From then on limited, secret research
soon began at various areas along the eastern seaboard to include Boston,
Gloucester, Cape Cod, and certain military installations.
Due to its strategic location and deep water, the first
laboratory established to detect submarines was set up at East Point, Nahant by
the Submarine Signal Company on the estates of General Charles J. Paine, Mrs.
Knivet W. Sears, and Miss Clara Sears. The facility, designated the Nahant
Antisubmarine Laboratory, (NASL), was completed April 7, 1917, one day after the
United States declared war on Germany and began operation immediately. Enclosed
within a rectangular compound and surrounded by a tall chain-link fence topped
with barbed wire, tents immediately appeared, quickly succeeded by seven wooden
buildings. Two small personnel gates and a main entrance with a sentry box
allowed access and egress.
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|
The Nahant Antisubmarine Laboratory -
1917. Drawn by Gerry Butler.
The large building to the left was the existing building and the small
building in front of it is the Observation Bay. There was a small
personnel gate next to this. To the right are the seven laboratories and
classrooms all surrounded by a chain-wire fence. The main entrance is at
the back of the property. |
Under direct control of the U.S. Navy, the laboratory was
staffed with scientists and engineers from the Submarine Signal Company of
Boston. Additional personnel were brought in from the Western Electric Company
who was actively experimenting and building submarine-detection systems for the
U.S. Army Coast artillery Corps at Fort Story, Virginia. The General Electric
Company was also involved with electronic detection systems both in the US and
the UK and provided scientists and engineers for the secret project as well.
Between the three major companies, each more or less a rival, were revealing
secret information to each other, waiving all questions of patent ownership and
cooperating with utmost friendliness and loyalty to each other and the country
they served,” the submarine detection systems of World War One were developed.
The Nahant facility was now on a "war basis mobilization plan"
and more guards were posted in and near the laboratory while security at the
station became most strict. Armed patrols were constant all along coastal East
Point and no unauthorized person was allowed to pass through the estate area or
to walk the beach or rocks within view of the static shore installations.
Simultaneously, fishing and small private boats were not allowed to pass East
Point at any time.
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|
Photo of the NASL taken from a newspaper
report. The three closest huts incorporated laboratories and classrooms.
The others at the rear were laboratories only. |
The scientists’ first challenge at the East Point facility was
to identify underwater sounds produced by various types and classes of vessels
and measure the distance at which they became audible. Three months of analysis,
testing, and design had created a prototype submarine detector. On May 14th,
1917, the Nahant scientists reported that they could detect propeller noises
from a submarine moving nearly ten miles away. This distance, of course,
included the measurement from the shore stations at East Point to static
apparatus secured offshore. U.S. Navy operations and naval personnel assigned to
the secret Nahant station were then commanded by Lieutenant Hicks, USN. Beyond
the structures and military systems operating at East Point, the Antisubmarine
Laboratory set a new requirement. On August 7th, the General Electric Company
expressed a desire to create and “erect an additional experimental station on
the eastern point of the estate of Senator H.C. Lodge.” Because of the
experiments’ content and their expected contribution to methods of antisubmarine
detection, approval was granted in one day by letter from the District
Engineer’s Office at Boston.
In May 1918, war officially arrived off the American
coastline. Submarine attacks in American waters began on May 25th, when two
coastal schooners were sunk off the Delaware Capes. Early in June, a number of
coastal craft were destroyed or sunk, including the 5,000-ton steamship
Carolina.
Beginning in April 1918, the Army-operated searchlight
installed at the Lodge Estate for the duration of the war, was used by the First
Coast Defense Command and extensively for naval experiments. Mostly, the
powerful 60-inch light use was for target-tracking and illumination projects for
the Hammond Radio Research Laboratory. In addition, the static, cliff-mounted
60-inch searchlight at Bayley’s Hill, designated Searchlight Number 16, Coast
Defenses of Boston, was also used at varying intervals in conjunction with the
light and torpedo experiments at East Point.
In the following spring, the military auctioned some wooden
buildings and structures and the site leveled. All concrete foundations, blocks,
telephone and radio support poles, and the high chain-link fence were removed
and the grounds were graded and reseeded. A small guard force remained in place
under the direction of Ensign Poteat, USN, while the remainder of cables and few
electronic devices were removed and the site returned to its original condition.
By early 1929, no trace of the Nahant Antisubmarine Laboratory
remained at the site or at the tip of East Point and the field remains empty at
the present date.
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| At present, only two of the original
wooden laboratory buildings remain in Nahant; the one above is located at
6 Cary Street, on the Herbert J. Motley, Jr. property. HAC |
The other remaining hut is located at
172 Willow Road, set back from Willow Road proper. Vi and Mark J. Patek,
Jr. now own this structure, with subsequent modifications. HAC |
BOSTON HARBOR IN WWII
In July 1941 the Chief of Naval Operations
recommended that indicator loops be installed for harbor defense at Boston (and
other New England ports). Boston Harbor was to receive four indicator loops, 14 sono-radio-buoys,
and 10 Army hydrophones under the secret code name "Plan 04 - Rainbow". By October 1941 East Point (in Nahant) and Strawberry
Point (In North Scituate) had been selected as loop control stations.
Authorisation to establish the loop station at East Point was requested on 24th
December 1941 and finally approved on 3rd January 1942 by Major General Thomas
A. Terry, US Army.
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|
The tip of East Point, 1943.
The large, wooden spools of cable
are quite possibly for the naval indicator loop station (although
the Army had quite a bit of communications cabling in the area as
well). A number of 40mm AA guns were placed here, and this area
may have been emplacements and ammunition storage for both 40mm
and 155mm weaponry.
The blurry image of a white house
to the top far left is the Mifflin estate, and had a rectangular
tower with SCR-296A radar installed atop it. It was also used by
Raytheon Electronic Company from 1943 to 1946 or so for electronic
experiments. Mostly the experiments were with small craft radars -
including all U.S. PT boat and patrol craft surveillance shipboard
radars. This photo was supplied by Gerry Butler. He said that he
isn't sure if all of the initial submarine radars were tested here
or not. |
Work began in late February but the contractor (for both sites) - Richard White
and Sons of West Newton - was ordered to stop (on 22 April 1942) as the navy
didn't have the permission from the army to build the structures. After an
emergency meeting on 25th April, a modified plan was agreed to. Accommodation
huts would not be built for the naval personnel and they would have to be
transported form barracks at Fort Ruckman. Further, the loop hut (Naval
Operations Building) was to be reduced from a 20' x 24' building to one of 14
foot square. However, the Administration and Power building was to be increased
from 10' x 12' to 12' x 22' to provide standby barracks for two men.
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|
Visitors to the Nahant naval station in February
2012 were Mrs Calantha Sears (Curator, Nahant Historical Society),
Miss Carole McCauley (Northeastern University), Jerry Butler
(author and researcher), Edmond White (son of Richard White,
builder of the naval buildings) and his son Kenneth White (of Richard
White Sons, Inc.). |
SEAMAN JOHN LOVENBURY'S PHOTOS
The following photos were sent in by Susan C. Johnson, née Lovenbury, whose
father John Peter Lovenbury was in the Navy and stationed at Nahant for the
early part of the war. He trained at the Naval Sound School at Boston and then
the Magnetic Loop School at New York.
At Nahant he helped with the building of fences and laying of the loops, and
once they were operational he became shift leader on the watches. He married in
May 1944 while living in a YMCA hostel at Lynn, Nahant and a month later he
transferred to the Panama Canal station for the rest of his duty. John passed
away in 1985. There are a couple of photos of the loop cable on my Panama Loop
Station webpage.
If you can identify any of the seamen in these photos please
email me (address at start of webpage).
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| L to R: George Curtin,
Andrew Coffee, John Lovenbury, Irving Katz, Cliff Muse, Unknown
(joined group in Panama). |
L to R: George Curtin, John
Lovenbury, Irving Katz, Cliff Muse, Unknown (joined group in Panama). |
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|
Taken in Panama. Front row - third seaman
is George Curtin, fifth seaman is Irving Katz. Row 2 (behind officers) -
First seaman is John Lovenbury, last seaman is Andrew Coffee. Row 5 - only
two seamen: on right, seaman in uniform is Cliff Muse. |
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|
Former Nahant Naval Station seamen on the
beach at Panama. The seaman marked "7" is
John Lovenbury. The man he has is hand on was
not at Nahant; he joined them in Panama. Cliff Muse is the seaman in the
white uniform. |
ANTI-SUBMARINE INDICATOR
LOOPS
Indicator Loops are long lengths of armoured cable laid on the
seafloor of harbors to detect enemy submarines. They were developed by
the Royal Navy in the early 1900s and first trialled at the end of WW1.
They were successfully deployed in WW2 in British ports and other
Commonwealth countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South
Africa, Kenya, Ceylon, Penang, and in allied harbours (Iceland, Holland,
Dardanelles). By 1942 the United States had adapted this technology for
its own needs and a dozen United States Navy "loop
receiving stations" were established along the eastern seaboard of
mainland USA particularly at the ports of Boston and Portland. The Pequot was the main cablelayer for the USN's
indicator loop harbor defense. The deployment of indicator loops was
highly secret and hardly any of the men on the ship knew the purpose of the cables;
most thought they were underwater communications cables. The words
indicator loop were not used - just cable. The sailors
manning the loop huts were given rudimentary (3 week) training in harbor
detection by indicator loops and sono-radio-buoys. To find out more about the role of the Pequot go to
the USCG cableship Pequot webpage.
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|
This diagram shows the
arrangement of the cables in the loop ("3-legged") and the
tail cable connecting them to the shore station. The "HDA"
device shown is known in the USA as a HERALD (Harbor Echo
Receiving and Location Device) - a form of underwater sonar. The
Pequot crew laid the four loop cables at Boston in the
correct position and joined it to the tail cable from East
Point or Strawberry Point using
waterproof splices and junction boxes. |
Naval hydrographers were
despatched to find a suitable location for the planned loops. The
loops had to cross the shipping channels but could not be in water
too deep as the sensitivity would be impaired. The Navy chose Lodge's
Beach beside Bennett's Head at East Point for positioning the tail
cables ashore. Note: Lodge's Beach was named after Henry Cabot Lodge
(1850 – 1924) who owned a summer house nearby, and where Henry Cabot
Lodge Jnr was born. It is commonly known as Dive Beach by the
scientists at the Northeastern University Marine Science Centre on
Nahant Road near to the beach. The cableship Pequot laid all the cables and
buried the two tail cables in a shallow trench all around the bluff
area to the loop hut. The loop cables were laid in the traditional
3-legged pattern with leg spacing of about 200 yards. In the diagram
below the loops are shown as a solid yellow line. However, they are
really three parallel lengths of cable but it is too difficult to
show at this scale. Loops 3 and 4, known respectively as Loop C
("Charlie" or "Cast") and Loop D ("Dog"). Loop 3 was 3 miles long
with a 4.5 mile tail; Loop 4 was 4.5 mile loop but a short (500
yard) tail as it was close to shore. The cable was supplied by the
Simplex Wire & Cable Co., Portsmouth. During World War II Simplex
produced over 3000 miles of cable for the US Army Signals Corps
communications as well as cable for harbor and coastal defence work.
LOOP CABLE
The USN used two types of cable for indicator
loops: Type 111 cables was used for the Legs and Type 113 was for the Tails.
These differed somewhat to the British cables which had "lead loaded" Leg (or
"loop") cable. This meant that lead metal in the form of wire 3.2 mm (1/8")
diameter was wrapped around the core to give it extra density. This helped the
cable better conform to the seafloor and resist shifting back-and-forth in
the currents. The British and US Tail Cables are almost identical. More details
can be found on my Cablemakers website.
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| This cable was recovered in
August 2011 from a harbour on the East Coast of the USA (possibly Boston
but the salvage operators do not want to disclose the location). It looks
like Type 111 Leg Cable. Its diameter is 1 inch (25mm). The cable consists of a single core of seven
strands of tinned copper wire enclosed in a single layer of rubber
insulation and 32 strands of jute yarn. Protecting this core is a winding
of 16 steel armour wires each about 1.6 mm diameter (10 AWG). The armour
wire are protected and waterproofed by a braiding of 36 strands of dressed
jute yarn over hot pitch and resin. The cable is finished with a
bituminous preservative coating. |
A cross-section of the Type 111 Leg Cable.
The final diameter is 1.00" (25.1 mm). My thanks to Jerry Butler for procuring the sample and to Chip Calamaio
for posting it to me in Australia. |
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| A longitudinal section of Type 113 Tail Cable
from Casco Bay. This cable is a piece recovered by Chris Whalen who
operates a salvage business along the coast of Maine. His company, Coastal
Reclaim, LLC salvages abandoned utility wires that riddle the mid-East
Coast ocean floor, as well as lighthouse cables that are obsolete due to
solar technology. The outer armour wires are badly corroded from 60 years
in a salty environment, and are now covered in coral.
Chris sent me the
Boston cables to Australia where I examined them more
closely. The six cores and the copper conductors can be seen
clearly, as can the remains of the steel armour wires. |
Type 113 Tail Cable.
The original diameter was about 40mm (1.6").
The steel armour wires are 2.5 mm diameter and protect two layers of jute.
Under these is a waterproof linen tape which surrounds the six cores of
the cable. Each core consists of a tinned copper conductor of 1.3 mm
diameter insulated with a rubber sheath of 5 mm diameter. |
NAVAL OPERATIONS BUILDING
The new structure, now more to seaward than originally planned, was to lie near
“Roaring Cavern,” facing the rock and ledge area on East Point proper. Loose
ledge was removed by blasting and foundation footings were set. A raised
foundation shoulder held the structure while the instrumentation (fluxmeters)
sat on a separate vibration-free concrete block. The reinforced-concrete station
that emerged consisted of a low-level, 14-foot rectangle, 10 feet, 3 inches
high, with one angular, three-sided face, strategically set into rock outcrops.
A wooden door located on the left or southern side of the building provided the
only access. Both loop tail ends entered the station’s foundation and connected
to their respective instruments. Inside, supplementary equipment included a
radiotelephone transmitter, radio receivers, shortwave transmitter and receiver,
converter, test equipment, heater, water cooler, tables and chairs. Between the
fluxmeters was a powerful tracking telescope.
Communication with the tactical headquarters of Boston Harbor, the Harbor
Entrance Control Post (HECP) at Fort Dawes, was by semaphore signal flags or a
12-inch signal searchlight. The signal light was of the standard navy blinker
type and mounted on a semicircular concrete platform next to and above the
roofline of the Operations Building. Messages could be sent thus to warships in
the harbor and other naval interests nearby. Short-wave radio units and a
25-foot folding radio mast were a second means of communication. The HECP was
singularly the most important tactical facility within the Boston Harbor Defense
Command. The tactical control of Boston’s surveillance, illumination, detection
and all weaponry were directed from this reinforced-concrete structure. Located
at the highest point at Fort Dawes on Deer Island, Winthrop, the facility was in
constant communication with all Army and Navy elements in the harbor defense.
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| HECP - Fort Dawes, Deer
Island. Army and Navy crew, short-range radar blister atop. |
The HECP in Boston Harbor was manned by Army and Navy personnel and was in
operation after the war. Later used by the United States Naval Reserve, the
facility, abandoned in the 1970s, was demolished as part of the Deer Island
Treatment Plant. Finalization and construction of the Nahant Operations Building
were approved on May 16, but the Navy effected formal completion and transfer
only on June 20th, 1942. After final testing and calibration, tactical operation
began at 7:00 P.M. on June 22nd. In addition to the task of being a Magnetic
Indicator Loop Station, the building also served as a Sono-Radio-Buoy Receiving
Station working in conjunction with Naval Unit 1-C at Strawberry Point in North
Scituate. The Nahant’s naval unit’s primary responsibility “was to detect the
approach and give the location of enemy sea craft, surface or submerged.” Finalization and construction of the Nahant Operations Building
were approved on May 16, but the Navy effected formal completion and transfer
only on June 20th, 1942. After final testing and calibration, tactical operation
began at 7:00 P.M. on June 22nd.
The photos below are of the "Naval Operations Building"
[or Loop Receiving Station - LRS] at East Point which housed the indicator loop equipment, including the GE OS fluxmeter and paper chart recorder. The building is 14 foot square and 10 feet 3 inches high with one angular three-sided face. It faces east and entrance is through a door on the southern side. The small hole at the rear of the northern side was for a chimney. It was completed on June 20th 1942. All photos were taken by
Dave Pierson,
some in June 2000, and again in October 2008. The diagram below is taken from
Gerry Butler's "Military Annals of Nahant, Massachusetts" 1996.
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| June 2000 -
The naval operations building at East Point - taken from the path at the
rear.
The hut faces east.
East
Point more or less consists of angular rock ledge 10-15 feet above mean
high water, with narrow, and rarely, wider 'crevices'. Above this is
another 10-ish foot rise, variously angled, variously grassy/brushy.
The 'top' is relatively level/grassy, the top is 'man made' as part of
the defense installations. |
June 2000 -
A view of the southern side. |
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| A view from the north-eastern side. On a
bench under the front window were the resistance balance boxes used to
ensure the resistance of both halves of each loop was the same. Underneath them were the fluxmeters
(galvanometer/amplifier). |
Our intrepid photographer Dave
Pierson - at East Point. Dave is a professional pyrotechnician. |
Later Photos
In October 2008, Dave Pierson took another set of photos (below). No further
weathering seems to have taken place. Graffiti - well that's another thing!
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| 2008 - the southern side |
2008 - Leo
Wanker has left his mark |
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|
2008 - the northeastern side. In the middle of the front window was the telescope. The window facing us had the arms rack underneath. Behind the window on the side was the water cooler and radio transmitter. The small hole to the far right was for the flue and chimney stack. |
2008 -
unsheathed cables, just to the north. Most likely 'dedicated ground',
for signal integrity, and or lightning protection. |
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 |
| Lodge's Beach with Bennett's Head in the
centre of the photo. To
the left there is a trail that leads more or less out Bennett's
Head, thence to level patch above Lodge's Beach. This scene
looks westish across the beach. |
If you descend on to
Lodge's Beach at the Eastern End and wander about you'll see a
couple of oddities, notably, the concrete lump shown above; a bit under a meter,
longest. Might be a cap over/embedding tail cables. |
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|
This is indicator loop tail cable and was found just to
the SE on the track above Lodge's Beach. It consists of three
insulated cables inside the usual sort of iron armour. |
Trek along the top ledge
to the Admin/power hut. One puzzling observation is that
there is no sign on the rocks, etc, of cables connecting
the two. The photo above shows what appears to be a power
transformer embedded in and filled with gravel, insulator at
'top'. (Picture is 'straight down'). Remnants of power feed from
rest of fortification. |
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|
The three rubber-insulated conductors of the loop tail cable are clearly visible in the
rusted shroud of steel armor wire. |
The coin helps envisage the
size of the loop tail cable. It is a US 'quarter' (25 c) which has a
diameter of 1" or 25 mm. |
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|
On along the ledge top above Lodge's Beach, there is one crevice
with some remnants of gun positions tipped in, and in the next
is the two brown ropy-looking armored cables (loop tails) about
12" apart, hanging in mid air as erosion has removed the soil.
From a bit past here, the ledge top trail becomes eroded but you
can scramble to the top, where public paved trail is. The cables
are JUST barely visible from top, but out of line of sight. |
If you walk along the top, public area to Loop
Hut access you will see the scene above which shows the loop
cable leading to 'access port' on top of ledge. The picture
shows rock texture, is about 7' up, near vertical. Right hand
area of 'access port' has broken end of 'another' cable,
matching the two at the erosion site. There are 4 access holes
cast into the hut wall. |
Carole McCauley from Northeastern University
holds a piece of tail cable behind the Operations Building
during a visit in February 2012. Photo by Ken White, grandson of
Richard White (builder of the naval station). Jerry
later told Carole she should have put her tongue on the wires to see if they were
live: ZZZZTTTTTTTT!!!!!
Good one Jerry! |
Later photos still...
On Thursday 6th October 2011 in the early
afternoon, Jerry Butler and colleague Carole McCauley from the
Northeastern University - Nahant Marine Science Centre visited the Naval Operations
Building to see if the building had deteriorated any further. Of prime
concern to Jerry was the concrete block used for the fluxmeters and the
condition of the station due to some vandalism and much sea abrasion and
element erosion. The 13 photos below were taken by Carole McCauley.
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|
Our intrepid investigator - Jerry
"Hot Wheels" Butler - revisits the Operations Building. Flash car Jerry! |
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| The last military use of the
structure was in the late 1950s and up to August of 1961 when Army
personnel from the Nike-Ajax launcher area utilised the little
building to sneak a cigarette break. |
The holes for the ingress and
egress of the loop and power cables are clearly visible in the
base. |
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| What's with the blue and aqua
stripes? What sort of vandal would do that? |
Leo's tag is fading fast. |
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| Lens flare...pure art! |
The metal window frame has badly
deteriorated. |
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| The fluxmeter pillar (note the
huge rock beside it). You would
wonder how such a big rock would get inside the building. It was
due to extreme wave and storm action. |
Notice the lip that runs around
the lower segment underlying the door aperture, etc. That was for
the flooring, which consisted of wooden beams placed across. |
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|
The presence of that big rock
makes you think that there were many frightening days in the
Operation Building during WW II because of waves and weather (not
to mention U-Boats). |
At each end of the
fluxmeter pillar there are two bolts
that were used to mount a wooden beam to install and secure the fluxmeters. The wooden beam disappeared many, many years ago. |
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| Note the wooden
battens mounted on the ceiling to carry electrical wires. Rusting
of the reinforcing mesh has cause the concrete to spall. |
It would seem that
corrosion is greatest at the weld points where the galvanising is
less effective. |
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| The rocks of East Point are mostly
the layered sedimentary rocks limestone and shale. Some younger
igneous rock (gabbro) is also present. The igneous intrusion of the gabbro has recrystallised the
shale and limestone to form white sugar marble, tough hornfels,
bubbles and knots of dark green chlorite and pistachio-green
epidote. |
At the same time, water,
heated by the magma, steamed the stone, resulting in the formation
of red-brown rust, green serpentine, epidote, and chlorite, and
white calcite and quartz. Erosion at East Point has exposed all of
these on the seaward cliffs. You can see the waves at the bottom
of the cliff. |
NAVAL ADMINISTRATION AND POWER BUILDING
Having finished the operations building on
June 20th, 1942, the civilian
contractor used all means available to complete the second, larger structure at
the site, the administration and power building. Sited a short distance to the
rear of the operations building, the administration and power building was a
reinforced-concrete structure set into the ledge near Cauldron Cliff. Concrete
steps, platforms, and steel safety rails led from the bluff to a walkway that
completely enclosed the station. A wooden door opened in the northerly face of
the administration building, and wooden double doors in the southern face led
into the power room. The building was to be 22 feet long by 14 feet wide by 9
feet, 7 inches high. Construction design and materials exactly matched those of
the Operations building.
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|
Administration and Power Building showing
remnants of seaward-facing camouflage. |
The administration room was 12 feet square, and had
two windows, all equipment and appliances that the naval unit at Nahant
required, including chairs, tables, cabinets, desks, telephone, military style
typewriter, small electric range and refrigerator, coffee urn, electric toaster,
and double-bunk arrangement fitted with privacy curtains. The power room was 12
feet long, 7 feet, 8 inches wide, and unlike the operations building or
administration room, had a solid concrete floor. A double door served personnel,
a louvered window ventilated the engine and generator, and one window was set
into the eastern wall.
The power plant was a gasoline powered engine and
alternator rated at 110 volts with a 12.5 to 15 k-va capacity. All switching,
controlling, and cable systems were incorporated into the power plant, including
an automatic transfer switch to shift from commercial power to emergency power
in an emergency. A small oil-burning furnace in the power room provided heat for
the main building. Four cast radiators were secured to the floor, three
installed in the administration room and one in the power room.
The administrative and power building was completed
and transferred July 17, 1942.
The Naval Administration and Power Building is located
about 240 feet to the southwest of the Operations Building and is set into the
rocks of Cauldron Cliff. It has two rooms. On the southeastern side (to the left
in the diagram below) is the power
room with the door clearly visible. It contained the storage batteries, gasoline
engine and alternator (110V at 12.5 to 15 kVA) as well as an oil furnace to heat the building. The other room - the administration room
(on the right in the diagram) - contained desks, cupboards, a refrigerator, stove, table etc. A doorway lead
out to a walkway and then to steps at the rear.
 |
|
Looking out of the
Administration & Power Hut window over the war-time indicator loop
field. The shipping channel into Boston is obvious. |
The diagram above is taken from Gerry Butler's "Military Annals of Nahant,
Massachusetts" 1996.
| 1. Battery |
9. Tool and equipment storage |
18, 22, 29. Chair |
| 2. Petrol (gasoline) engine |
10. Oil furnace |
19. Flue and chimney |
| 3. Alternator |
11, 13, 25, 30. Shelving |
20 Desk |
| 4. Radiator |
12. Radiator (heater) |
21, 28. Table & typewriter |
| 5. Louvered window |
14. Coat rack |
23. Bunk curtain |
| 6. Main junction box |
15. Fire extinguisher |
24. Bunk |
| 7. Main switch box |
16. Arms rack |
26. Electric range |
| 8. Main fuse box |
17. File and safe |
27. Electric refrigerator |
 |
|
During WWII a cartoon was mounted outside the
Administration and Power Building at Nahant on the entrance walkway
rails. It was of Popeye with a
telescope and megaphone (to represent a listening device) as not to
divulge the secret systems in place. Redrawn by Gerry Butler. |
The Naval Administration and Power Building
photographed in December 2008 by Dave Pierson.
 |
 |
| The rear wall of the
building. Note that the thin internal concrete wall has been
demolished. |
The hut back in June 2000.
Graffiti is periodically removed. |
 |
|
Further decay by August 2011
(photo supplied by Jerry Butler) |
MANNING
To staff the East Point naval station, the Navy
advertised to residents of Boston, South Boston, Chelsea and Lynn for volunteers
to undertake "special radio training". They were keen to have seamen who could
live at home. Upon acceptance, volunteers were given a rigorous security
clearance followed by special training at the Boston Naval Shipyard. After
completing the technical training they were sent to the US Naval Sound School at
Fort H. G. Wright in New York. The first group of seven enlisted naval personnel
arrived at East Point (Nahant Naval Station) on 9th June 1942. Staff who could
not live at home were quartered at the Lynn Young Men's Christian Association
rooms on Market Street. On 1st August 1942, the complement of the station was
increased to 12 men. The following text has been extracted, with permission,
from The Liquid Battlefield (Nahant Historical Society, 2012).
|
Ensign Perry, USNR, and six enlisted naval personnel reported to the
Nahant Naval Station June 9th, 1942. One of the original crew
manning the Nahant station was Seaman First Class Alfred LeBlanc, who
provided this information about selection and training of personnel for
loop-station duty.
Like many others, Seaman LeBlanc volunteered for the “special radio
training” that the First Naval District in Boston offered to qualified and
selected personnel. Upon acceptance, candidates were engaged in rigorous
security investigation, followed by special training school at the Boston
Naval Shipyard. After completing the required classes all successful
personnel were transferred to the U.S. Navy Sound School at Fort H.G.
Wright in New York.
Following a three-week intensive course on theory, operation and
maintenance of the magnetic-indicator loop and sono-radio-buoy systems,
the personnel were returned to Boston for reassignment.
Most of the personnel assigned to the Nahant station resided in Boston,
South Boston, Chelsea, and Lynn. Beyond normal duty hours and drills, most
elected to live at home when transportation could be arranged. Quarters
were provided for the naval personnel at the Lynn Young Men’s Christian
Association (YMCA), at that time situated on Market Street, in nearby
Lynn.
Upon arrival at the Nahant station, the new naval personnel assisted the
civilian labor force as much as practical to finish the operations
building and establish the magnetic indicator loop. Much of the work that
the small garrison performed included trenching the landline of the loop
tail-end cable. After completion, an armed guard patrolled the landline
and building areas day and night.
In a very short time, the naval station was operating smoothly but the
detection apparatus had yet been completely installed or tested.
Passive-defense measures, including building camouflage, were now added.
The operations building was spray-painted with varying tones of sand and
rock colors, the administration and power building too was camouflaged
with color and the rear segment was blended into the adjacent rock strata.
The forward, exposed segment was disguised with a cleverly constructed
imitation rock and ledge stratum made of concrete and mortar, which
remains at present.
On the seaward side of the buildings, holes were drilled in ledge and
fissures used for metal rods to string barbed wire. At present only the
rusted bases of the rods remain.
Provisions to include eyelets drilled and fastened into adjacent ledge
were made to stretch netting to cover both building areas. The netting was
not installed, however, due to the complete effectiveness of the
camouflage measures in place.
Drills and unannounced inspections were common at the naval site. Coast
Guard and Navy warcraft and submarines constantly tested the cables and
loops at the shore station. Constant practice enabled the watchstanders to
identify specific warships or commercial vessels, including fishing craft,
around the Port of Boston by their signatures.
|
The staffing arrangements didn't change over the next two years of operations.
Ensign Perry USNR, who was the first commander of the station, relinquished
command on 1st February 1943 to Lt J. C. Gamble USNR, but Lt Gamble was
transferred on 26th May and Ensign Perry resumed command until 21st March 1944
when Lt M. Preston USNR took over command. The staff included six officers in
April 1944 but by June 1944 only two remained. In May 1944 the total complement
was 22 enlisted men but this dropped to 11 by June. The station closed at 8:00 AM
on 29th May 1945 and was decommissioned soon after.
SOME INCIDENTS
For the eastern seaboard, June was an exceptionally tense month. Numerous
sightings of enemy submarines and saboteur landings were reported, and a
submarine crossed over a loop cable in Casco Bay, Maine, but it escaped owing to
the fact that the cable failed to record it on the way out. Extract from The
Liquid Battlefield:
|
On June 11th, 1942, ten mines were
sown off Boston (U-87) and Delaware Bay (U-373); on the following day
mines were placed off Cape Henry, Virginia (U-701); on June 13th, four
enemy agents landed at Amagansette, Long Island, New York (U-202). Four
days later, four enemy saboteurs were landed by German U-boat U-584 at
Ponte Verde Beach, south of Jacksonville, Florida. Agents of the Federal
Bureau of Investigation captured all shortly thereafter. On June 16th, two
ships in Convoy XB-25 were sunk northeast of Cape Cod in a raging gale
within four minutes of each other by the German submarine U-87. The
Cherokee, of United States registration and the Port Nicholson, of British
registration, sank off Chatham and have become a most controversial
matter. The Nicholson purportedly was secretly carrying an immense amount
of precious metals and other valuable goods from the Russian Government
for payment of lend-lease aircraft and other war materiel. To date the
mysterious circumstances involving the Port Nicholson remain unanswered.
Newly discovered information indicates that there may have been more than
one submarine involved in the premeditated sinking of the Nicholson. |
Despite the new submarine detection systems in place at both Nahant and
Scituate, an incident took place within the Port of Boston on June 25th, 1942
involving the Nahant, Strawberry Point Magnetic Loop Station and the HECP that
remains classified to this date. Gerry Butler has investigated this in detail.
In an unpublished document, “Letters to my Grandson,” and by interview with
Colonel Gilroy F. Linehan, the former commanding officer of Nahant and Boston’s
tactical north shore defenses, the following incident is described:
|
A signal was reported by the loop station. The watch officer alerted the
Coast Guard inshore patrol, which soon reported no surface vessels in the
area. It was late at night and searchlights swept the area. Nothing could
be seen. Shortly afterward a strange pickup with the mine hydrophones
(from the Fort Warren Mine Casemate on George’s Island.) The watch
officers on duty quickly checked with the Eastern Sea Frontier to see if
any of our submarines were operating in the area. The answer was negative.
The mine casemate at Fort Warren then reported the arming of a mine. The
cautious watch officers delayed firing the mine, not wishing to blow some
friendly fishing vessel to Kingdom Come. A short time later, a signal
appeared on the mine casemate panel indicating that the mine which had
armed had grounded. By that I mean that sea water had entered the case and
electrically grounded out the firing circuit. A tense alert condition
continued throughout the night, but no further signals were noted. In the
early morning, a mine battery L boat raised the mine and replaced it with
another. When it was examined on shore by our people and Army
Intelligence, the spherical case was found to have two curved gashes in
it. Adhering to the cuts were particles of brass, and all concerned
believed that an underwater craft had struck it and caused the grounding.
We missed what was probably our only chance during the war to take action
against the enemy. This incident was never made public. Except for the
HECP personnel and very few others no one knew the full story of that
alert. |
Gerry Butler reports that the incident locked down Boston Harbor for three days
and nights. In a 1968 telephone conversation with Colonel Albert Crawford, the
Army officer on duty at the HECP, Gerry had the incident verified, including the
mines to be placed on “Set 1” which registered on the mine panel board but did
not activate the mine. A letter dated 1979 from the Gerry to the U.S. Navy
Historical Office was answered denying the incident emphasizing that no enemy
craft ever gained access to the Port of Boston. None-the-less - the Navy’s
secret WAR DIARY, states: 25 June, 1942: “PC-487 investigated loop signatures,
Nahant, Deer Island and Strawberry Point. Submarine was believed to have gone
down N. Channel and out Nantasket Roads. No contact of any kind was made. The
Port was closed when the signatures were reported.” The incident remains
classified to this date.
Return to our US Navy Loop Receiving Station web page
Technical details of the loop: How an indicator loop works
An extensive website on US New England Coastal Defences by Paul Grigorieff: Coast Defence Home Page
Paul Grigorieff's East Point webpage (part of his US Coastal Defences
website): Coast Defence - East Point
