United States Navy Loop Receiving Stations
If you can help us identify any of the Pequot
sailors on this website please contact Dr. Richard Walding or Chip Calamaio.
The 1st USCG Pequot Cable Ship
In 1916, when the first World War in Europe became America’s business, it
was recommended that the various means of communication being used along the
coast be coordinated and that the Coast Guard, then being the existing
telephone system of coastal communications, be brought up to a high state of
efficiency. It was necessary to lay submarine communication cables to
achieve this. However, in WW1, the Coast Guard had no cable ship and what
little cable laying was done was accomplished by the Western Union cable
ship Robert C. Clowry and the converted 282 gross ton menhaden
fishing trawler, John A. Palmer Jr. (SP-319), which was operated by
the US Navy. In 1919 the Palmer was turned over to the Coast Guard and
renamed Pequot in honor of the North American Indian tribe of
Southern Connecticut. The Pequots are members of the Algonquian language
grouping who believe that every living thing in the earth has a spirit and
that One Great Spirit oversees everything. By 1990 there were only 680
Pequot remaining in the United States. The USCG Pequot laid cables for over two years until a replacement
became available.
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| 2. The only known photo of
the Robert C. Clowry. Courtesy Bill Burns - from
Kenneth Haigh's "Cableships & Submarine Cables". |
3. The USS Margaret
(WP-328), a converted fishing trawler of the same period,
was very similar to the John A. Palmer which in 1917
became the cable ship Pequot. We are yet to locate a
photo of the John A. Palmer. |
The 2nd USCG Pequot Cable
Ship
In April 1922, the Army minelayer General Samuel M. Mills (see
photo below) was decommissioned and acquired by the Coast Guard. She was
converted to a cable laying ship by the American Brown Boveri Electrical
Corporation of Camden, New Jersey and renamed Pequot (WARC-58).
The fact that an "electrical" company did the conversion indicates the
addition of the motorized winches and other specialty equipment required
to modify the ship to conduct general cable laying and repair work. The
second Pequot was commissioned as a special craft on April 29th
1922. She was assigned permanent
operations as a US Coast Guard cable ship out of Boston, Mass. On November
1st 1941 the Pequot was transferred from the Coast Guard to the Navy,
and assigned as a cable laying and repair ship out of New London,
Connecticut. From
her home port of Boston she was responsible for laying and repairing
indicator loop and communications cables for the remainder of World War II.
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4A. The General Samuel M. Mills
(March 11, 1927) - later the Pequot. Note the absence of the
cable wheel on the bow of the ship. Photo supplied Jim Flynn. |
4B. A later photo
of the Pequot shows
the cable wheel on the bow.
Called a “sheave” this pulley was used when laying
and salvaging cable.
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5A. Flag from the US Mine
Planter General Samuel M.
Mills.
In 1909 the term "Submarine" on the
flag meant "underwater" defense as in sea
mines and not the anti U-boat submarine defense which came
decades later.
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5B. A close-up of the note
written on the flag |
For a detailed
look at the design plans, cabin details, and construction photos of the
General Samuel M. Mills and her sister ships in 1908-09
click here
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The original construction drawing reveal how the ship's crew and
the Army troops involved in mine laying operations were provided with
completely separate quarters, galleys, and bathrooms.
It is also clear that accommodations for the ship's officers were
much nicer than the quarters for sailors and soldiers when the Mills
first put to sea in 1909.
Click image to enlarge. |
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 knew the purpose of the cables;
most thought they were underwater communications cables. The words
indicator loop were not used - just cable.
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| 6A. This diagram shows the
arrangement of the cables in the loop ("3-legged") and the
tail cable connecting them to the shore station. The
Pequot crew laid the loop cable in the
correct position and joined it to the tail cable using
waterproof splices and junction boxes. |
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| 6B. Longitudinal drawing of indicator
loop cable. It had a diameter of 30 mm (1¼"). After the
war this valuable lead lined cable was pulled back up
and salvaged by the Pequot and other ships. To
date no sample of actual harbor defense loop cable has
been located. |
6C. Cross section of indicator loop
"tail" cable recovered from Australian waters. |
USCG Pequot - Mission
Accomplished and a Job Well Done
Beginning less than four months after
the attack on Pearl Harbor the Pequot joined the intense efforts
of the Army, Navy, and civilian agencies to get a viable harbor defense
system installed and operational. This was during the period when U-boat
attacks where at their peak and the overall situation along the entire
Atlantic seaboard was very grim. The Pequot and its crew
responded and played a vital role in establishing the initial indicator
loop defenses at entrances to major US ports. Her outstanding efforts
did not go unnoticed. On March 24th 1942 the Chief of Naval Operations
provided the following formal Commendation to The Commandant of the US
Coast Guard and the Pequot’s Commanding Officer:
During the past ten months the
Pequot has laid over fifty miles of armored cable for
establishing magnetic indicator loop systems in four widely
separated areas of the Atlantic Coast. This special work has
been accomplished in addition to many varied demands for her
normal service and has been done often under the most
adverse conditions of weather. It is considered that the
Commanding Officer of the Pequot, her other officers,
and her crew deserve special commendation for their manifest
efficiency in performance of duty. |
In addition to this major
push at the outbreak of hostilities, the Pequot would continue to
install indicator loop cables at ports and harbors along the Atlantic
coast as far North as Argentia, Newfoundland, as well as service and
repair damaged cables throughout the war. When not working on indicator
loop cables, the Pequot was kept very busy laying and servicing coastal
communication and teletype cables along the Atlantic seaboard between
Coast Guard lifesaving stations and lighthouses. She also pulled up
and salvaged cable no longer in use and ran electrical power cable to
isolated light stations. A sailing list of officers and
men is at the end of this webpage. Also included is a section from the USN Harbor
Defense Manual dealing with
laying and repair of indicator loops.
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7. USCG Pequot
fully underway in the North Atlantic - circa 1940 (Courtesy
the John McCormack family). |
Decommissioning of the
Pequot
Just before the end of hostilities,
the Pequot was reassigned to Norfolk, Va and she officially
returned to the Coast Guard on 1 January 1946 to help salvage miles of
undersea cable which was re-used for telephone and telegraph purposes.
After more than 35 years at sea, the Pequot was decommissioned on
8 December 1946 and sold for scrap 5 September 1947 to Potomac
Shipwrecking Co., Inc. of Popes Creek, Md.
The Pequot’s Replacement
As early as 1944, based upon engineering reports of the Pequot’s
deteriorating mechanical condition, the Coast Guard started looking
around for a replacement ship. The US Navy’s Walnut (YN-31) was
considered but she was stationed in Honolulu and would require a long
transfer. Based upon recommendations from the Pequot’s Captain Lars
Sande, and the office of Coast Guard Admiral Park, “that an Army Mine
Planter would be suited seems to have considerable merit.” But the
decision on a good replacement for Pequot didn’t happen until
after the war when in June of 1946 the Navy’s Chimo Class mine layer,
Trapper (ACM-9), was obtained by the Coast Guard, converted for
cable work, and renamed the Yamacraw (WARC-333). She was originally built to
plant and tend controlled defensive minefields for the Army's Coast
Artillery Corps. After more than 10 years of Coast Guard service she was
returned to the Navy in 1959 who operated her as the cable repair and
research ship Yamacraw (ARC-5) until she was decommissioned in
July 1965 and sold for scrap in 1969.
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8. The USS Trapper
(ACM-9) in 1945. The raised 40mm gun position on the
foredeck superstructure, the two 20mm gun positions above
the bridge, and the side and fantail mounted 20mm gun tubs,
were all removed during conversion to a cable ship.
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9. The Pequot’s
replacement USCG Yamacraw (WARC-333). Notice the cable
wheels now built into the ship’s bow. |
9B. By 1964 Yamacraw’s bow
had three large cable pulley sheaves. (Photo Victor G. Edens). |
The Other Pequots
In honor of the Native America tribe
two other United States ships were named the Pequot:
The Civil War Pequot.
The first USS Pequot was a Nipsic Class US Civil War
wooden screw gunboat built in 1862 by Woodruff of Portsmouth, New
Hampshire. She was launched in June 1863 at the Boston Navy Yard and
commissioned in 1864 when she joined the North Atlantic Blockading
Squadron under the command of Rear Admiral Stephen Platt Quackenbush.
Ordered by the Navy Department as an emergency measure, and built
rapidly of unseasoned timber Pequot and her sister ships were
known as "90-day Gunboats." Designed by S. M. and S. H. Pook with
engines by Isherwood these two-masted schooners did poorly under sail,
but performed well while steaming. With a deadweight of 836 tons she was
armed with one 150-pounder Parrott Rifle, one 30-pounder Parrott Rifle,
two 9" Dahlgren smooth bore cannons, two 24-pounder Howitzers, and one
smooth bore 12-pounder cannon. Under Quackenbush she captured the
British blockade runner, Don, off Beaufort, North Carolina and
helped the Army beat back a Confederate attack on Wilson’s Wharf at
James River, Virginia. Later she also engaged during the bombardment of
Fort Fisher, North Carolina and helped capture Fort Anderson.
Decommissioned after the Civil War in June 1865 she was sold in 1869.
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| 10A. In August of 1864 after the
battle of Mobile Bay Rear Admiral Bancroft Gherardi was
given command of the U.S.S. Pequot |
10B.
The bombardment of Fort Fischer January 15th, 1865.
Engraving by J.O. Davidson. |
10C.
Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter, Commander of the Pequot's
North Atlantic Blockading Squadron |
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10D. A Nipsic Class gunboat at the Washington Navy Yard,
District of Columbia, circa late 1860s. |
10E. Navy Rear Admiral Stephen Platt Quackenbush who was the
Pequot’s first captain. |
10F. The Pequot’s sister ship - the 1864 Nipsic class gunboat USS
Yantic. |
The World War I Pequot.
The second Pequot (ID-2998) was a German built freighter which
displaced 12,500 tons, and was operated as the Ockenfels for the
German Navy. When World War I broke out and the high seas were unsafe
for German shipping, she took refuge at New York where she was seized in
April 1917 by the Shipping Board of the US Government and became part of
the American merchant marine. When the US entered the war she was
refurbished and taken over by the US Navy on October 28th 1918 and
commissioned as the USS Pequot on the same day. She was assigned
to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service and was used to carry
general cargo on both the Army and Shipping Board accounts during the
war. She was struck from the Navy List in July 1919 and returned to the
Shipping Board.
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11A. Gun crew bore sighting
the forward deck gun on the S.S Ockenfelds 1917. |
11B. The officers and crew of the
freighter USS Pequot taken in Rotterdam, Holland on
February 23rd, 1919. Click image to enlarge; click again
to zoom in. |
11C.
The Second
Pequot: SS Ockenfels - 28 June 1917 |
Semper Paratus
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| 12. World War II Era Coast Guard
Patch. In the best tradition of the service’s Latin Motto Semper
Paratus the Pequot crew was “Always Ready”. |
13. Old Glory
waving proudly up in the rigging. For the American men and women of
World War II the Stars and Stripes symbolized everything they were
sacrificing and fighting for. |
George Simmons - Pequot Photographer
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14. George G. Simmons Pequot Quartermaster &
Photographer |
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A native of Rhode Island, George Simmons served
as a Quartermaster on the Pequot from late 1942 to the spring of
1945. George’s photographs appear throughout this website, most of
them donated by other crew members or their families. In a 1988 letter to Chief Yeoman Jim Hudow George explained, “I
was the guy that had the camera. Getting the materials to develop
pictures during war time was difficult for civilians, but I had a
friend back home, who enjoyed doing it. He felt he was helping the
war effort somehow, and that’s how I was able to get so many
pictures made.” George got married while he was still aboard ship on
April 22, 1944. George and his wife Edna settled back in Warwick,
Rhode Island and raised 6 children and had 16 grandchildren.
Roger “Guns” Calamaio’s Photos
One of the crew members
aboard the Pequot during the war was Gunners Mate Roger Calamaio -
then about 22 years old. These are his photos supplied by his son
Chip who wrote, “My family thought Dad’s habit of writing all over
photographs was very annoying. Now I’m so glad he did! It’s enabled
us to identify so many Pequot sailors.”
A short memorial page to Roger's life and Coast Guard career is at:
Sailor Roger Calamaio.
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15. Roger Calamaio aboard USCG Pequot in
Boston Harbor - May 1944 |
16. Pequot Gun Crew,
Boston Harbor - May 1944: Moore, McElmoyl, Jusek, Quin, McConnell, Fleming |
17. In Boston Harbor - May 1944:
sailors Livingston, Cidoni and Simmons. |
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18. In Boston
Harbor - May 1944: sailors Cidoni,
Jenkins and Livingston. |
19. Pequot in
Boston Harbor - May 1944 |
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20. Sailor Jenkins - May '44,
Boston Harbor |
21. Sailors
McCormack and Cidoni practicing Hand-to-Hand,
Boston Harbor, May 1944: |
22. Roger Calamaio - "ready for
anything" - May '44 Boston |
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23. Sailors Coppo, Jenkins,
Livingston, Cidoni and Carhart of the Pequot - May
1944 |
24. Crew on spar - May 1944:
Sailors Cidoni, Jenkins, Coppo, Livingston, Fleming and
Weber. |
25. Gun crew (L to R):
Theodore Cline, Steven Cedoni on the 20mm deck gun, George
Simmons, John McCormack. See note below about the Pequot's deck gun. |
The Pequot’s Deck Guns
The Pequot’s two fantail mounted deck guns were
manually operated 20mm anti-aircraft weapons originally designed in Switzerland by the Oerlikon
Corporation. It was mounted on a pedestal and could be trained
through 360° and elevated from minus 5° to plus 87°. Considered a
close range, high angle weapon, it was a recoiling, air cooled
automatic AA gun which fired an explosive shell, including a
"tracer" which glowed as it traveled towards its target and
indicated the direction of fire. Manned generally by a three or four
man crew it was capable of firing 450 rounds per minute, at 36° of
elevation. Each magazine carried 60 rounds. Deck mounted ammunition
lockers or “ready boxes” stored pre-loaded 20mm magazines and were
located next to both gun positions for fast reloading. The 20mm AA gun had a
maximum range of 5,500 yards.
The Irony
The historical irony is that the
Oerlikon Corporation almost went bankrupt in 1935 when the US Navy
rejected one of their guns in 1934 due to its low rate of fire.
However, the Japanese Navy’s purchase of that weapon saved the
company, which allowed them further development work in conjunction
with the British, resulting in the more successful model used
extensively by the US military during WWII - and this 20mm auto-fire
cannon was based upon an original design for Oerlikon by Reinhold
Becker - a German!
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26. 20mm anti-aircraft Oerlikon |
The Pequot Connection
The fascinating Pequot
connection is that Steuart Mitchell (later
Sir Steuart), the son of Professor
Alexander Crichton Mitchell, the scientist who first invented the indicator
loop in WWI, is the one who sold Oerlikon’s design to the US. In 1939 he
was the Inspector of Naval Ordnance, in charge of British Admiralty Ordnance
contracts in Switzerland, mostly at the Oerlikon works in Zurich. He quickly
made himself familiar with all aspects of the gun and made various improvements.
By June of 1940, when France fell and Italy entered the war, Oerlikons could no
longer be supplied from the Swiss, so Mitchell grabbed all the gun drawings and
parts he could lay his hands on and escaped, with the Nazis hot on his tail.
He went through the Balkans to Istanbul and finally down through Palestine to
Egypt, where he caught a plane back to London. Soon manufacture of the 20mm
began in England based on his Oerlikon drawings. In late 1940 Mitchell went to
the states and sold the gun to the Americans. It should be noted that
Sir Charles Goodeve,
who also developed magnetic deperming techniques used on the Pequot
and other allied ships to reduce the threat of sea mines, worked with Mitchell
on the manufacture of the Oerlikon in England. Through determination, cunning
and sheer trickery he was able to acquire some railway sheds and machine tools
to get an operational Oerlikon factory up and running in the town of Ruislip. His bulldog efforts had 20mms coming off the assembly line within 7 months, instead of the two years
originally projected by the complacent Admiralty. The rest is history.
So the men of the Pequot were equipped to defend their indicator loop mission
with a gun made possible by the son of the man who invented the indicator
loops!"
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27. Gun Crew - May 1944
Sailors Clive, Jenkins, Cidoni, McCormack and Bob Livingston on
the
20 mm anti-aircraft deck gun. |
28. Patrol Boat protecting the USCG
Pequot off the coast of Maine - August 1944. The
Patrol
Boat would circle the Pequot to protect it while out
at sea laying and repairing cable. When the convoys were
forming up for the supply runs to England and Murmask
(Russia), anchors from the Liberty Ships would often snag
the cables and break them. The Pequot would have to
retrieve both ends and it was very tense because they would
be sitting there dead in the water for a long time while the
sailors spliced and
water-sealed the cables. |
Note from Lawrence Levine
<onsrdmch@comcast.net>
about the boat in the above photo:
The Patrol Boat in the above photo is of the type used by the USGC (under the
control of the USN in WW2) known as "83 foot patrol boat" and designated as
'CG-83xxx'. About 100 were built and all saw service during the Normandy
invasions. They are sometimes confused with PT boats. While these boats resembled PT [patrol torpedo] boats in profile,
there were smaller [83 ft long vs 100+ for PT], hulls were constructed of smooth
heavy wooden strakes vs light plywood skin for PTs, were propelled by two
gasoline engines and screws whereas the PTs had three, had top speeds of 20+
knots [about half of a PT], and carried anti-submarine depth changes whereas the
PTs did not. Similarly, the 83s did not carry torpedoes. The two boats were
intended for very different missions. A great (unofficial) weblog for the USCG is
at http://www.cgblog.org/. Their "Link
List" includes a dozen or more other Coast Guard ships.
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29. Boston Harbor - May 1944.
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30.
Sailors Livingston and Simmons -
Boston Harbor - May 1944 |
31. Sailors McConnell, McElmoyl, Jenkins, Luongo, Campbell and Barnett on deck - Sept 1944 |
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32. Sailors Mike Luongo
and Roger Calamaio - off the coast of Maine - August 1944.
Notice the quick release lashing on the tarp next to them
which covered the 20mm guns and protected them from the
elements. In front of them we see two of the weather sealed
ready-boxes which held the pre-loaded magazines for the deck
guns. |
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33. Officers of the USCG
Pequot - March 1945 The Pequot’s skipper during WWII was
Captain Lars Anton Sande (2nd from the right). According to
Quartermaster Lou Carhart, the scuttlebutt among the Pequot
crew was that Sande had served his entire Coast Guard career
aboard the Pequot having first come aboard as a young
seaman. That couldn’t be further from the truth. We’ve
learned from the skipper’s son, Ted Sande, that his father
had a very long and colorful career on a variety of Coast
Guard and merchant ships. |
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Ted Sande, who was able to see his dad Lars Sande (shown above) several times during the war, actually stayed
aboard the Pequot as a 10 year old boy. See our webpage
“The
Captain’s Corner”
for his recollections of life below decks during WWII, how his father chased Rum
Runners during Prohibition, and the story of Sande’s life at sea. |
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34. Officers, dogs and crew -
March 1945. Click on photo to see names. |
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35. Crew on deck with officers
and dogs - March 1945.
Click on photo to see names. |
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| 36. Storekeeper 1st
Class Bill Moore in front of a 20mm, September 1944.
According to George Simmons, Moore conducted church
services aboard the Pequot every Sunday morning. |
37.Pequot
Yeoman Norman Zinner on shore leave Neetham,
Massachusetts April 10th 1944
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38. Roger in April 1943
on guard duty at the Coast Guard station at Buzzard’s Bay,
MA. |
39. After their discharge from
the Coast Guard Roger Calamaio (right) and friend
had a train-station-booth photo taken in
Detroit Michigan - in Oct 1945 ... "and that is why they are so damned happy".
Well, a few beers may have helped.
Note:
You can see the "ruptured duck" insignia on
his uniform that was given when
sailors were discharged. |
Many of the photos from Roger Calamaio's album were removed
and destroyed. His son sums up what is a rather poignant reminder of the lasting
effect of war:
"There used to be other great pictures in that old photo album including some
shots of the crew repairing and splicing cable, but it appears that after
Alzheimer's started to take its toll, my Dad must have torn them all out.
Perhaps what was going on in his befuddled mind was he thought it was all still
Top Secret so he had to destroy those pictures. We will never know. There were
two pages cut out of the album entirely. But I distinctly remember a number of
pictures that were just not there any longer." Chip.
COMMUNICATIONS
In today’s military, communication between ships,
and from ships to shore, is sent by satellite in quick encrypted
digital bursts of data from computers in a matter of seconds, a far
different world than how the Pequot had to operate. Even with
the two-way radios of the time, signals were often garbled or lost
due to weather or equipment failures. During periods of radio
silence, signal flags and pennants were run up the mast to
communicate between ships, sailors on deck used semaphore flags, and
especially at night, signal blinker lights using the “dash dot”
language of Morse Code got the job done. The images below show
sailors using semaphore and Morse. As well, thumbnail images of
pages from the 1940 Bluejacket's Manual are shown. Click these
"Bluejacket" images to see an enlarged view. Note: In the
enlarged view of the Communication Training
chart below, you will see handwritten notes by Sailor Roger Calamaio.
We can speculate that his updates to the code alphabet, from
bootcamp in 1942, may have been made, by the military, to confuse
the enemy. Although
still in use, in the 65 years since the Pequot sailed, the
Military Code Alphabet has changed. For example, today A is Alpha
and Z is Zulu.
The Pequot's Visual Call Sign was W-58 which meant that the W,
5, and 8 flags would be flown from the mast to identify her to other
ships.
The Radio War
Although primitive by today’s standards radio communications of many
types played an intense role during WWII especially in the Battle of
The Atlantic. Like all Coast Guard ships, the Pequot was equipped
with a variety of high and low frequency radio receivers and
transmitters. Most radio traffic was enciphered. The messages came
in 5-character groups of numbers and letters mixed together.
Radiomen had no idea what they were receiving. Transcriptions would
be passed to an officer on the bridge who would do the decoding.
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45A. Pequot Radioman 1st Class
John J. McCormack with Lester Jenkins in the Pequot’s Radio
Room”
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45B. In Boston Harbor
Wallace Hoganson tests the intercom system by one of the tarp
covered 20mm cannons. A large ammunition ready-box is on the
right.. |
The Mill. All communication had to be accurately documented and logged
and a custom communications typewriter called a “mill” was used by most
Radiomen. It had special keys to distinguish between similar characters such
as the numeral 0 and the letter O. The mill had a slashed zero "Ø" so there
was no confusion with a capital O, It also had a #1 key, which other
typewriters of the era didn’t, a small “l” was normally used. The mill was
designed to eliminate having to use the shift key as much as possible for
speedy radio transcription.
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As evidenced by the slashed zeros, this 1944 radio log entry of
the Pequot’s movements was typed with a mill. It notates that on
August 11th at 1310 hours (1:10 pm) the Pequot arrived at
the District Coast Guard Office of the 1st Naval District in
Boston escorted by the CG-94001. |
For much of the time radio silence was the rule so ships
like the Pequot relied extensively on coded inbound communication from shore
stations. There were also codes inside codes; for example “Z-codes” were used
as abbreviations for longer routine messages. For example;
ZEQ = How is my note?
ZET = Your transmitter is not keying properly.
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| 46. Radioman Don Paxton in a
shore station radio room (possibly at Eastern Point Light
Station). |
47. A Shipboard Radio Room (possibly
the Pequot's). Note the “mill” typewriter on the lower left used
for recording coded messages. Photo courtesy of the McCormack
family. |
When at sea short range two-way voice radio was permitted
using a the Talk Between Ships, or TBS system. This was only permitted when
ships were in very close proximity to each other. At night, when visibility
was greatly reduced, and when submarines or other enemy vessels might be
within range, use of very high Frequency or VHF radio was strongly
discouraged. There were many cases where the German U-boats and surface
ships would try to bait Coast Guard and Navy convoy escorts by sending out
false distress calls. Other basic communication was also completed by the
dash and dot alphabet of Morse Code by tapping hand transmitters. Coast
Guard Radiomen had to be expert at notating incoming Morse Code
transmissions quickly and accurately. Lives often depended on correctly
receiving the distress calls from cargo ships after U-boat torpedo attacks
on the Eastbound and Westbound convoys. The Pequot’s Radio Call sign NRFQ
was designated by the Office of Naval Operations for all US Navy and Coast
Guard ships. In addition the Pequot was equipped with its own intercom
communication system that was used between the bridge and the ship’s main
operational areas such as the engine room, the radio room, and the two rear
mounted gun positions.
Radio Direction Finding. Shortly after the Army mine layer General
Samuel M. Mills was converted to the cable laying ship Pequot she was
equipped with a first generation radio direction finding (RDF) system. This
can be seen on the photo below (right) as the distinctive diamond shaped
rotating antenna on top of the wheelhouse. It is not evident on the earlier
photo to the left. This
technology, which was first deployed by the Coast Guard in the early 1920s,
enabled the ship’s radio operator to get a compass bearing fix on the source
of a ship or shore radio transmission. Not only was this an aid to
navigation, but it enabled ships to locate each other at sea and during the
war determine friend from foe.
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48. This close up of the
General Samuel M. Mills shows that no RDF system was
installed before the Coast Guard obtained the ship. |
49. From the early 1920s until midway through WWII the
Pequot was equipped with the diamond shaped antenna of early
RDF systems.
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HD/DF or Huff-Duff. We see that by 1944 the diamond shaped RDF antenna was replaced by a circular loop antenna
(see left-most photo below). This indicates that
Pequot was equipped with the newly developed High Frequency Direction Finder
(HF/DF) system or Huff-Duff as crews liked to call it. This new system was
vastly superior and more accurate than earlier systems and enabled Pequot to
not only obtain bearings from shore stations and more accurately navigate
the rocky North Atlantic coast, but also to locate other Coast Guard and
allied ships, as well help keep a keen ear out for transmissions from
U-boats. Radio direction finders and Huff Duff technology were used
extensively by both the German U-boat commanders and the ships of Allied
convoys during the battle of the Atlantic. Each side did all they could to
locate the position of their adversaries radio transmissions. The Germans
used RDF to locate convoys and moved U-boats into position for torpedo
attacks, and Allied escort ships used Huff Duff readings to set course
bearings to chase down and depth charge wolf pack submarines.
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50.
This photo from May of 1944 clearly shows the installation
of the circular loop antenna of the improved “Huff-Duff” radio
direction finding system.
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SO-1 Detection Radar. At the beginning of
World War II radar was an emerging technology. In the late 1930s the
first generation of ship borne CXAM radar was deployed on US and British
battleships and aircraft carriers. In 1940, a group of British
researchers stumbled upon a new electronic component, the "cavity
magnetron," a type of transmitter tube that permitted the development of
effective microwave radar. In America, Bell Labs, RCA, and Westinghouse
explored and developed a wide range of radar technologies before Pearl
Harbor, and a primary research and development center, the Radiation Lab
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was created in 1940. With
the outbreak of war the MIT “RadLab” greatly stepped up research work as
did a large number of British efforts including those led by Reginald V.
Jones in what was dubbed “The Wizard War”. By 1942, new radars were
coming into service on both sides of the Atlantic and being deployed on
ships, planes, and land based stations. Half of the radar deployed
during World War II were designed at the MIT RadLab, including over 100
different radar systems costing $1.5 billion.
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50B. A 1945 Radar Plan
Position Indicator or "PPI" Scope. |
50C. SO-1
Operator Controls. From the April 1945 Radar Operator's
Manual |
In 1945 the Pequot was equipped with SO-1 microwave
search radar which had a range of approximately 8 miles with an accuracy
of +/- 500 yards. It enabled Pequot to see ships, planes and coastlines
in all types of weather and at night through the use of a Plan Position
Indicator (or PPI) scope. Contacts picked up on the PPI scope would
immediately provide officers on the Pequot’s bridge the range and
bearing of aircraft and ships in the area, as well as verify Pequot’s
location along the rocky shores of New England, Nova Scotia and
Newfoundland. Although a short range device, the addition of SO-1 helped
Pequot see in the dark and greatly increased the ship's safety.
John J. McCormack’s Story
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51A. John J.
McCormack Pequot Radioman 1st Class |
John McCormack grew up in Nyack, New York on the Hudson river just north
of New York City. He was in the sea scouts as a boy and studied radio
after high school. When the war broke out he was a perfect for the Coast
Guard, and after basic training he went to radio school.
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51B. John on
Radio Duty in a Coast Guard PBY |
51C. USCGC Storis (WAGL-38) |
As a member of the original crew, he was a "plank owner" on the CG
cutter Storis (WAGL-38) where he served as a radioman on his first
shipboard assignment. At 5 am on the morning of June 10th 1943 John was
jolted out of bed and into the grim realities of war. While the Storis
was escorting a convoy South near Greenland, the Coast Guard Cutter
Escanaba (WPG-77), which was in front of the Storis, was hit by a
torpedo or struck a sea mine and vanished completely in a matter of
seconds. The Storis crew searched for survivors but only two of
Escanba’s sailors survived.
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51D.
John behind John Jusek and other sailors on the forward
gunwale |
51E. USCGC Escanaba (WPG-77) |
51F. John in
1944 with a Springfield M1903 .30 caliber rifle |
After his time on the Storis he was re-assigned to the Pequot when they
needed a top notch radioman. Even though John was involved as the
Pequot’s radio operator and heard all ship to shore radio traffic he had
no idea that the cables the Pequot put down and repaired were part of a
top secret submarine detection system.
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51G. One of
John McCormack’s Liberty Cards (left) and his ID Card
(right). |
To pass his time aboard ship, John played guitar with some other Pequot
sailors who joined in on the accordion, clarinet and a homemade wash tub
broom stick bass.
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51H. The
Pequot Band. John takes a turn playing wash-tub string bass
while Henry Hathaway plays John’s guitar along with John Jusek on clarinet and another sailor on the
accordion.) |
51I. John and
Frances
- Wedding Photo |
Before he left the Coast Guard he married Frances Vedeges in Dover-Foxcroft,
Maine where he later maintained a summer home on Sebec Lake where
Frances grew up. John was discharged after World War II but but
continued his love for radio communications the rest of his life. He
was a Ham operator for years (KA1BX) and got his son, Mike, interested
in Ham radio (NQ1O). John and Frances had four children and seven
grandchildren.
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51J. The
McCormack Radiomen - John and son Mike in 2002. |
51K. John
McCormack's note of commendation
embossed with the Pequot's seal. |
In civilian life he worked for the phone company then as a supervisor
for the Federal Aviation Administration overseeing Instrument Landing
Systems for airports throughout New England before retiring in 1980.
John passed away in 2004.
Throughout his life he played guitar, and had a special relationship
with the sea. He bought a sailboat and taught his kids to sail during
weekend trips on Long Island Sound.
Other photos from the John J. McCormack Photo Album
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51L. Four
Pequot Crewmembers in Port. During the 1940s the
Coast Guard and crew referred to blue jeans as “dungarees” |
51M. A group
of Pequot crewmen around the ladder to the bridge. |
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51N. Nine
Pequot sailors with an unidentified officer. |
51O. Three Pequot
sailors with a cat from the Boston docks that tried to
stowaway. |
USCG Pequot - Between the
Wars
These rare photos below show the Pequot before the onset of
World War II. During this period the ship installed and maintained
telephone, telegraph, and other communication cables along the
entire Eastern seaboard of the United States. These underwater
cables linked lifeboat stations and coastal navigation aids that
received poor service from commercial telephone and telegraph
companies. Note the absence of
the two 20mm guns on the ship’s fantail which were installed after
the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the beginning of U-boat
attacks. (All photos courtesy US Coast Guard History Office).
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| 52.
We do not know the location or date when this formal photo of
the Pequot’s 49 member crew was taken. It is interesting to see
how many officers were assigned to the ship then, compared to
the small onboard command during WWII. Here we can clearly see
evidence of the era in which the Pequot was built. The exterior
wooden 5-panel doors and screen doors are more reminiscent of a
beach cottage than a military ship. The use of water
tight and sealable exterior doors became standard on all ships well after
the Pequot was built. Click the image above to see an enlargement. |
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53. The Pequot in port, probably on a Sunday. If you Click the
Image to see it enlarged, you can clearly see the full complement of air
cowls that were used to direct outside air below decks. If you Click Again
and zoom in, you can find the Union Jack flying off the bow. That flag of 48
stars against a blue field was only flown when the ship was not underway and
only on Sundays or holidays.
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54. On a blustery day the Pequot
crew is seen off-loading telephone poles from the fantail with the American Flag
and the US Coast Guard Ensign snapping proudly in the wind up on the ship’s
masts.
Click the image above to see an enlargement. |
Below: The following front page newspaper article from the March 4, 1931 St.
Petersburg, Florida
Evening Independent provides some insight into the mission of the Pequot
before World War II.
Note: a common early problem encountered when
laying cables in certain waters was a species
of marine borer, the teredo worm. These tiny creatures found their
way through the cable armor
and dined on the jute insulation, exposing the conductor and causing earth
faults.
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55. The Pequot tied up in front of
an early Coast Guard Cutter. Seeing the forest of masts and rigging behind the
ship we realize that the Pequot was first in service during the maritime
era when ships were still transitioning from sails to steam.
Click the image above to see an enlargement. |
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56. The Pequot in Dry Dock - November
9th 1922.
Her twin screws were able to run forward or reverse
independently. This made it possible to position the Pequot
exactly where need to accurately place loop cables on the
seafloor. Top speed was 12 knots with a maximum cruising radius
of 1670 nautical miles. Details on the tricky business of
spacing the loop cables can be found in the Harbor Defense
Manual at the bottom of this website on Pages 53 & 54. |
LOU CARHART'S STORY
A native of New England, Lou Carhart joined the Coast Guard yet
before he finished basic training he was sent to Quartermaster
school on Long Island. “They really needed Quartermasters, so
several of us were pulled out of basic when we were only about half
way through.” The Pequot was his first ship assignment in the fall
of 1943. The following group of photos was donated by Lou,
including all of the action shots of the “Ducks” and the Coast Guard
crew wrestling the loop cables on the beach. Lou tells of how very
heavy those cables were and that for many operations, like when the
Pequot would load on new spools of cable, all hands, including the
cook, would pitch in to help. He said that often during cable
laying operations other Coast Guard electricians, who were not part
of the permanent crew, would come aboard the Pequot, especially for
cable repair work which he said could take several hours per splice.
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57. Lou Carhart in his dress blues on liberty in 1943.
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58. Lou
enjoying Liberty in Virginia, after he left the Pequot,
with his friend Miss Ray. |
59. Lou in 1944 on the Hudson River Day Line Ferry going
from Manhattan to Bear
Mountain State Park. |
He served most of his time
on the ship’s bridge as Quartermaster, and actually manned the
Pequot’s helm. While getting cables ashore he said, “Sometimes I’d be at
the wheel and we’d put the ship’s bow in so close to the shore that
there was land all around us and I could hardly see the ocean at all,
especially behind me. We’d bring the bow in so close it was almost stuck
in the sand.” Lou said the
Pequot worked very far up the North Atlantic coast.
“We would put in at Southwest Harbor, Maine, near Acadia National
Park and we got up into Newfoundland many times and would be so far
North we could see the coast of Greenland."
A Day to
Remember. He recalled how in October of 1944 two Coast Guard cutters, the
Eastwind and the Storis raided a weather station the Germans had
established on the coast of Greenland and took 12 soldiers prisoner.
They then captured the German weather ship Exernsteine which was
stuck in the pack ice. Since the Pequot was in the area they were
radioed to help escort the Exernsteine down the coast to Boston
Harbor. “They asked us along to help out,” Lou recalls, ‘I think
there were more Germans than Americans on board during that trip
south.”
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60. German weather
ship Exernsteine stuck in the pack ice at Greenland -
Oct 1944 |
61. Exernsteine
was taken to Boston harbor after being captured by USGC
Cutters Eastwind and Storis |
Lou vividly remembers the experience of bringing the
Exernsteine
into Boston: “As we came into the harbor there was about a two to three
mile stretch where we were very close to shore. The Pequot was
following right behind the German ship. Somehow the word got out that we
were bringing in a captured ship and hundreds of people came running out
and were lined up along the shore waving and yelling. They were so
thrilled to see the Coast Guard had captured a German ship. The big flag
with the swastika was up on the ship’s mast with the American flag
flowing in the breeze above it. That was a very exciting day. It’s hard
to believe that was more than 60 years ago. That German ship was tied up
next to us at Constitution wharf for about three months and the Pequot
crew got to go all through it. It had just been built and was very
modern for the times. Everything was push buttons. They even had
motorized winches for the life boats. The word was the Coast Guard
offered that ship to our skipper, but Sande turned it down. He said it
wouldn’t suit our mission.”
You can read the details about that colorful chapter of Coast
Guard history and see more photos at:
http://www.uscg.mil/History/articles/Externsteine.asp
We were out there for a reason. We didn’t know
why. Even though as
Quartermaster Lou was on the Pequot’s bridge and right in the center of
the action with the ship’s officers, he had no idea that the cables they
were laying were part of a top secret submarine detection system: “We
were out there for a reason. We didn’t know why. We just did what we
were told.” In June of 1945 Lou left the Pequot for a
position with the 5th Naval District Coast Guard Receiving Station,
where he was in charge of assigning sailors to duty aboard other ships.
Lou also recalled that after he left the Pequot a sailor lost his
life onboard, “He got tangled up in the anchor chain when it was being
lowered and was killed instantly.” Lou didn’t have a name.
Later he also served as a Yeoman and Storekeeper
aboard the buoy tender the USCGC Mistletoe (WAGL-237), and
two short hitches as Yeoman aboard two other buoy tenders before he
was discharged out of the service in Virginia 1946. After the war he
moved to California where he built sub-divisions around San
Bernadino and Riverside and was in the mortgage business. In 1989
Lou moved to Northern Arizona where he is still very active today
buying and selling land. Lou’s son Ralph, and daughter Glenda, both
live in California.
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62. Some of the Pequot crew on the main
mast rigging.
Click on the photo to see an enlarged view with their
names. Click again to enlarge more. |
63. Pequot crew members below decks in the
engine room. The below decks crew was called “The Black Gang” by the
other sailors because of how dirty they got from shoveling coal into
the Pequot’s boilers. |
64. Seaman 1st Class Lester Jenkins with
the Pequot dogs. Sailor Mike Luongo
said the black dog's name was Midnight but he couldn't
remember the other dog's name. "The dogs would hang around the docks
and one of the crew would bring them on board." |
PEQUOT AND CABLE LAYING - PHOTOS FROM LOU CARHART
The indicator loop 'tail' cable was towed from the shore by the Pequot crew using a DUKW
amphibious vehicle. The DUKW (popularly pronounced "duck") is a
six-wheel-drive truck that was designed by General Motors Corporation during
World War II for transporting goods and troops over land and water and for
use approaching and crossing beaches in amphibious attacks. There are some
good Dukw websites, even
the USCG
has a good one. The loop 'tail'
cable was very heavy - weighing something like 3 tons per mile in air.
The photos of the Pequot crew in the DUKW were taken during cable laying at
the Peaked Hill Bar at the northern tip of Cape Cod near Provincetown, Mass.
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| 65. The Pequot crew aboard the DUKW heading for shore to collect the
indicator loop tail cable for joining aboard the Pequot. |
66. The heavy, armoured tail cable is being
dragged from the beach by the crew. |
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| 67. The indicator
loop tail cable being dragged out to sea. It has 4 cores of 7 strand copper wire insulated
with a rubber sheath and armoured with 20 galvanised steel wires,
braided with hemp yarns and compounded with a tar preservative.
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68. In the name DUKW, the D indicates a vehicle
designed in 1942, the U meant "utility (amphibious)", the K
indicated all-wheel drive and the W indicated two powered rear
axles. General Motors devised the acronym. |
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| 69. The DUKW
was powered by a GMC Straight-6 engine of 270 cu. in. (4.416 L). It weighed 7.5 tons and operated at 6.4 mph (10
km/h) on water and 50-55 mph (80 km/h) on land. The propeller can
clearly be seen. |
70. The indicator loop 'tail' cable has been
tied to the DUKW by the Pequot crew and will be dragged out to the
Pequot ready for joining to the loop cables and sealed in a
waterproof junction box. The shore-end of the tail cable is
connected to the instruments in the shore "loop receiving station"
higher up the beach.
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| 71. The DUKW's
tire pressure could be varied from inside the cab. On beach sand the
pressure was reduced. |
72. The building in the background may be the
"Loop Receiving Station" (LRS) where the indicator loop is
monitored. |
THE MIKE LUONGO STORY
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73, 74, 75. Seaman 1st Class Mike Luongo in his dress blue uniform. |
Michael “Mike” Luongo was born on July 10, 1922 in Newark,
New Jersey. He was raised in the neighboring town of
Belleville and before the war he worked for a company that
made fuel lines for heavy construction equipment.
In
1942 after World War II broke out, he enlisted in the Coast
Guard to serve his country when he was 20 years old. After
6 months of boot camp and other basic training, he was
assigned to port security and other duties along the docks
of at the Coast Guard Station in Portland, Maine where he
served under the "Captain of the Port" command (COPT). This
was during the height of the Battle of the Atlantic when
many Coast Guard Cutters and Navy escort ships were based
out of Portland during convoy escort duty and battles with
German U-boats.
In the spring of 1943 Mike received
orders to ship aboard the Pequot where he served as
a Seaman 1st class until his discharge after the war.
Mike remembers the Pequot had one large galley
that ran across the ship. "The galley also served as the
crew's meeting place," he recalls. We had coffee available
24/7 and a radio was on all the time. In the evenings we
would write letters, talk, & play cards."
He said
the main crew sleeping quarters was in the forward part of
the ship, in the fo'castle. "It had bunks four high with
four rows on one side and four on the other. This area slept
32 men. The “Black Gang” the engine crew, had their own
sleeping quarters in the aft part of the ship. The Captain's
quarters had it’s own head. The crew’s head was located away
from our sleeping quarters and we had to go outside to get
the to head," Mike remembers. When in port and on
shore leave the Pequot crew had their favorite
taverns around the Boston yards where they would get
together, socialize, and let off some steam.
Mike was
discharged in March 1946 from the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Shortly after getting out of the service he married Angelina
"Lee" Gengaro on May 5, 1946. After the war he worked as a
supervisor for a number of companies, including many years
with a firm that manufactured disposable vacuum cleaner
bags.
In addition to supporting his family, Mike
always found time to play cards with his friends, he stayed
active in several bowling leagues, and just loved to play
golf. He fully retired in 1985. Mike and Lee raised three
sons and have five grandchildren and one great grandchild.
Seaman Mike Luongo currently resides in Toms River,
New Jersey.
The
following photographs were donated by Pequot Seaman 1st
Class Mike Luongo. Mike provided many of the images seen
throughout this website and has helped us identify many of
his shipmates.
1. Cable Operations
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| 76. Through a hatch we see
crew members with thousands of yards of indicator loop cable
in the forward hold. |
77. Seaman
Mike Luongo operating the Pequot's cable winch. |
78. Two seaman in the
wooden launch during cable operations with the Pequot in the
background |
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| 79. The Pequot's deck
was a very busy place during cable laying operations. |
80. From left to right three
of the Pequot's Quartermasters up on the flying bridge; Frontel, Simmons &
Livingston. Simmons is taking a bearing
with a sextant. Note the deck compass in the foreground. |
81. A Pequot sailor up
front with the cable winch gear |
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| 82. During cable laying
operations crewmembers in the ship's launch. The Pequot is
in the background. |
83. The Pequot during
cable operations. Note all the crew up front playing cable
over the ship's bow wheel. (if you look at this full screen
you can faintly see the cable coming off the bow wheel).
Click image to enlarge. |
That Dangerous Dangerous Smoke! Although the thick column of dense black coal
smoke coming out of the Pequot’s stack looks almost picturesque
to us today, that was actually very dangerous at the time.
U-boats could spot smoke like that from miles away, even well
beyond the horizon. Older coal burning ships like the Pequot
were at a disadvantage when trying to avoid detection. There
were instances where smoke from a single aging transport reveled
the location of a convoy of more than 50 ships. The U-boat which
spotted the smoke would radio nearby submarines resulting a
coordinated 8-12 submarine ‘wolf pack’ torpedo attack on the
convoy, with the loss of many ships and hundreds of lives. So
the Pequot’s coal smoke and slow moving, at times stationary,
cable laying and repair mission made her extremely vulnerable.
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| 84. Two sailors in the
launch shove off to set cable positions with round marker
buoys. Note two of the Pequot's life rafts lashed up on the
right. For details on how the crew placed buoys to mark the
loop cable positions see Page 54 of the Harbor Defense
Manual at the bottom of the page. |
85. In the ship's
launch a sailor with his hand firmly on the rudder looks
back towards the Pequot to position the launch crew during
cable operations. |
"Working out in the launch could be
dangerous." Gunners Mate Roger Calamaio spoke of how
hairy it was
when
they were “at a dead stop...like sitting ducks” while a small crew was out away
from the Pequot doing cable work and the fear of U Boat attack wasn't the
only risk. He said once a crew was out in the launch and a squall came up and
the seas started to get really rough. Everyone aboard was watching the cable
crew and they were worried that the launch was going to swamp as the storm blew
in. That small boat was trying to go up and down with the waves but both ends of
the heavy cable were holding it down and not allowing it to rise with the
growing swells. He said it was "nip and tuck there for a while", but they
finally got the repair finished and those guys back aboard before the storm
really kicked in. "That was a close one," he said.”
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86. In
1944 the Pequot’s seaman on deck during cable
laying operations. Notice the indicator loop
cable in the foreground being spooled out of the
hold and up to the bow wheel. Photo courtesy of the McCormack
family. |
87. A launch crew
with an indicator loop marker buoy in 1944. We
can see them retrieving the end of a cable that
has been tied off on the buoy. Photo courtesy of
the McCormack family. |
Installing many of the indicator
loops involved very long cable runs. It appears that
the Pequot’s cable hold was enlarged early in the war
and probably widened to increase the capacity of cable
she could carry. The bump out seen here, which is
directly in line with the forward hatch to the cable
hold, is evidence of a modification to the Pequot’s
hull, since we do not see this protrusion in earlier
images of the ship. Photos show this change on both the
port and starboard sides. Even for a small ship the
Pequot could carry a great deal of cable. In a
Confidential Report dated October 23rd 1944 the Pequot’s
Captain Lars Sande writes of taking aboard “4,498 feet
type 15-strand, 18-conductor submarine cable". The tail cable had a
weight of 3 tons per mile in air, and the lead lined (or "lead loaded")
loop cable itself - just over 6 tons per mile.
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88.
Modification to Pequot's hull |
89. Boston
Harbor 1944 |
The
Pequot’s Magnetic Camouflage
Before he joined the crew of the
Pequot, Radioman John McCormack was jolted out of
his bunk on the USCG Storis (WAGL-38) near
Greenland when the Coast Guard cutter Escanaba
(WPG-77) exploded and sank in a matter of minutes
directly in front of Storis. At the time it was assumed
Escanaba was the victim of a U-Boat torpedo, but
German records indicate that no U-boat commander ever
claimed victory for the sinking. Speculation has
increased that a magnetic German mine was responsible
for the Escanaba’s icy fate.
The Germans planted several types of surface and
sub-surface sea mines in the shipping lanes commonly
used by the allied convoys and along routes that the
Pequot routinely steamed. These mines were
detonated not only by physical contact, but by the use
of magnetic sensors. As a ship passed above it, the
mine's detector sensed a change in the magnetic field
emanating from the steel hull. They were designed to
trigger and explode against the mid-point of a hull,
usually breaking the ship in half and sinking it.
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90. The first type
of German magnetic mine used in the war. Recovered
unexploded from Shoeburyness, England on November
23rd, 1939. |
All ships have a permanent magnetic field or “magnetic
signature” which is created during shipbuilding as a
result of the hammering, riveting, and movements of the
hull’s steel plates during construction in the shipyard
while in the presence of the Earth’s magnetic field (see
photo below, left). Changes to the strength of the
magnetic field in the hull also occur at sea mainly due
to the vibrations while in the Earth's magnetic field.
Any steel ship is like a huge floating magnet and the
Germans knew it. In November of 1939 alone more than
200,000 tons of shipping was lost off the coast of
England to German mines. To protect warships and
merchant vessels, the Allies needed a way to render
their ships “magnetically silent” and they needed it
fast.
In Britain Commander
Charles
F. Goodeve of the Royal Canadian Navy (later Sir
Charles) worked with the Royal Navy in 1939-40 to
develop ways to neutralize the inherent magnetism of
steel ships. A series of experiments and sea trials was
conducted at the H.M.S. Vernon naval research shore
station. Work at Vernon determined that the magnetism in
a hull can be read by having a ship pass over a loop of
cable on the bottom of a harbor, like a miniature
indicator loop. The research team developed two methods
to trick the German sea mines. Since the Germans used
the term “gauss” as the unit for magnetic strength when
developing the triggers for mines, Goodeve named the
first hull treatment “degaussing” - that is - removing
the "gauss" (magnetism).
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| 91. A ship such as the
Pequot built and sailing at northern
latitudes similar to Boston would have a
"North-down" magnetisation due to the direction of
the Earth's magnetic field there. The Pequot
would behave like a magnet with the north pole
underwater. |
92. To eliminate the
Pequot's magnetisation an electric current would be
passed through a coil orientated like the one drawn
above. The direction of the current is shown by the
yellow arrow and this would produce a "North-up"
magnetisation to cancel that of the ship's.
|
Degaussing involves the permanent installation of large
copper cables around the perimeter of a ship’s hull just above
the water line through which a large continuous electrical
current is passed which creates a magnetic field in opposition
to the field of the ship - and neutralizing it (see above
right). This system was hooked up to the ship’s electrical
system to easily permit degaussing at sea.
Deperming or wiping consisted of having a ship slowly
move past stationary electric coils while in port, or by having
large copper cables pulled across the hull through which a
current of up to 2000 amps DC would be passed, to “wipe or
flash” the ship to eliminate it’s magnetic signature. For most
small ships deperming normally had to be repeated every 3-4
months.
Both of these countermeasures proved to be successful and
permanent degaussing equipment was installed first on the
largest ships in the British and American fleets. Once these
techniques using large copper cables were widely adopted, the
demand for copper in the US, which was already in short supply,
soared, resulting in the minting of steel pennies by the US
Treasury for the remainder of the war.
Research indicates that the Pequot’s home port had the largest
degaussing operation on the Atlantic coast first at the Boston
Navy Yard, and beginning in 1943 at Castle Island in Boston
harbor. Between 1943 and 1945 more than 500 ships were degaussed
at Castle Island. A note in the Pequot’s file at the US Coast
Guard History Office shows that between May 26th and June 26th
1942 the Pequot was at the Boston Navy Yard for
“conversion and installation of permanent degaussing” equipment,
although none of the photographs of Pequot after 1942 show the
addition of an exterior degaussing coil around her hull common
with permanent systems of the time. So although speculation
remains about that permanent solution, it is safe to assume that
Pequot had periodic deperming treatments at the navy yard
or Castle Island to camouflage her magnetic signature and
greatly reduce the threat from sub-surface mines.
MIKE LUONGO'S PHOTOS
2. Life aboard the Pequot
Even though in many of these photos the crew is obviously
horsing around for the camera, the grim reality was that the
officers and men of the Pequot had to be ready for a fight in
case they ended up in a surface battle with a U-boat and it’s
crew. Pequot’s Gunners Mate Roger Calamaio believed that was a
very real possibility, “We thought that a U-boat might not want
to waste a torpedo on us since we were so small, compared to the
big cargo ships and tankers all around us, but they might
surface and try to take us out with their deck gun and small
arms fire. I had some sleepless nights about all of that when I
first came aboard and would look down at that icy water. Once I
realized there was no way I could change what might happen, I
put myself in God’s hands and slept like a baby."
Standard Issue. In addition to Colt .45
caliber automatic pistols, the Pequot’s small armory was stocked with
Springfield M1903 .30 caliber bolt-action rifles. This World War I era gun with
it’s long 16-inch M1905 bayonet was standard issue in the Coast Guard during
World War II and was the primary rifle available aboard ships and used by
sailors during beach patrols.
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| 96. Radioman John J.
McCormack. |
97.
Sailor Simmons is armed and ready. |
98.
Sailor Lester Jenkins - Remember Sailor,
pull that trigger just once and it'll cost you 50 bucks! |
Hold Your Fire! The Pequot's officers didn’t want crew
members randomly discharging their weapons. Lou Carhart
explains, 'Roger "Guns” Calamaio would checkout 45 caliber
hand guns to the crew when they went on duty but they were
warned not to fire. Unless it was an emergency it would cost
you $50 for every bullet you fired. As our Gunner’s Mate he
would pick them up from us, exchange them, and keep them
clean and loaded.'
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| 99. Two crewmembers
below the bridge. Notice the .45 caliber side arm issued
while on watch. |
100. Seaman 1st Class
Steve Cidoni with rifle and helmet up by the bow. |
101.
Lester Jenkins and another sailor in the wheelhouse. |
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| 102. An axe helps
relieve the tension. Sailors Luongo,
Cline & Livingston. |
103. Helmets on and
smiles: Cidoni, Livingston & Luongo |
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| 104. In their GI Issue
wool sweaters sailors Simmons, Jenkins and Frontle |
105.
Sailors Quinn, Cline & Livingston
on work detail. |
106.
A Pequot Soundman First Class in his "undress blues."
The hash mark on his sleeve indicates he already has served
at least 4 years of active duty. |
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| 107. Two Pequot Sailors
in Port |
108. Looking sharp in those
dress blue uniforms for shore leave. It must be Sunday since
behind them we see the Union Jack waving in the breeze up on
the bow. |
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| 109. In this newspaper
clipping we see that Pequot's Mike Luongo was an award
winning bowler at the Fleet Club. |
110. Machinist Mate
Theodore Cline, Seaman Mike Luongo, and Quatermaster
Livingston. |
The John J. Jusek Story
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110B. Seaman 1st Class John J. Jusek |
The son of Czechoslovakian immigrants, John J. Juzek
was born on October 8th 1921 in Cleveland, Ohio as the youngest of
four children. John’s family spoke Czech at home when he was growing
up. His father, Frank, was a violin maker and related to the famous
master luthier John Juzek of Prague, Czechoslovakia. Today vintage Juzek violins and other Juzek string instruments are highly sought
by collectors and musicians.
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110C. Violin maker John Juzek in Prague, Czechoslovakia 1935
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His family’s musical heritage must have been in his
DNA because at a very young age John became an accomplished violin
player and versatile musician. By the time he attended Cleveland’s
James Adams High School he was Concert Master of the orchestra.
After high school graduation he went to Ohio State University and
played saxophone, clarinet, and trumpet in several big bands. Once
World War II broke out he left OSU after only one year and
joined the Coast Guard. After basic training he first joined
the Coast Guard crew of the USCGC Sea Cloud (WPG-284) which was a
specialized weather observation ship which served Atlantic weather
patrol stations assigned to the Eastern Sea Frontier from her home
port of Boston. Next he found himself aboard the Pequot as a Seaman
1st class where he was involved in cable laying work and the endless
other duties to keep the ship running in top shape.
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110D. USCGC weather patrol ship Sea
Cloud (WPG-284)
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110E. John is third from left with shipmates under the
Pequot’s flying bridge. |
Even though John was going off to war, he brought
his music with him. He must have had a clarinet stashed in his
seabag all along since we’ve discovered photos of him playing with
Radioman John McCormack on guitar, Chief Commissary Steward Henry
Hathaway on washtub string bass, and another sailor on the
accordion, all jamming away next to the lifeboats on the upper deck
of the Pequot. Supposedly the Pequot Band even went into Boston and
recorded a record.
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110F.
John Jusek sitting on the Pequot’s gunwale with his
shipmates. |
110G. The Pequot Band. Photo courtesy the John
McCormack family. |
After the war John went back to Ohio State around
1946. Around this time he, like many others, decided to Americanize
his last name and changed it to Jusek. Shortly after arriving back
on campus he met OSU student Barbara Jean Hurley, from Xenia, Ohio.
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110H & I. John and Barbara Jusek
- 1947 |
When not attending classes he played with a number of swing bands as
well as with the Columbus Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor
Izler Solomon where he played a violin made by this father. But
before he finished his degree he jumped at the opportunity to go on
tour as a musician. He and Barb traveled around the country with the
Gene Eyeman Band, and while playing at the French Lick Springs
resort hotel in Indiana they got married on April 11th, 1948.
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110J. John Jusek with the Gene Eyeman Band |
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110K. French Lick
Springs Hotel |
110K2. John Jusek playing with the Gene Eyeman
Band at the French Lick Springs Hotel in Indiana |
After being on the road for several years playing around the country
with Henry Busse’s “sweet dance band” Orchestra, Don Ragon's band,
and the Jimmy Frank Band, including tours of Colorado and Texas, the
Juseks found themselves back in Columbus, Ohio.
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110L. Henry Busse |
110M. Jimmy Frank band |
110N. Close-up of John Jusek with the Jimmy Frank band |
Once they put the suitcases away, Barb went to Ohio State and
finished her degree. She then worked for American Education
Publications, later bought by Xerox. John sold pianos for a while
and opened a violin studio adjacent to the piano store. Like many
musicians John needed a real “day job” so throughout the 1950s and
60s he worked as Sales Manager for the Krema Nut Company of Columbus
which made natural peanut butter.
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110 O. Columbus Star
newspaper May 15th 1954 |
110P.
Columbus Dispatch August 10th 1964 |
After 16 years of marriage and being told that they
couldn’t have children, John at 42 and Barb at 38 were quite
surprised to learn that a baby was on the way! Daughter Jean Marie
was born in 1964.
Then in 1974 Barb was promoted to Personnel Manager for Xerox and
the Juseks moved to Middletown, Connecticut. In the 1970s it was
almost unheard of for a family to move because the wife got
promoted, but John loved the arrangement. He took over as a house
husband raising Jean and doing the shopping and cooking. This gave
him the freedom to pursue his music and let the rich tones of his
father's violin join the crescendos of the Hartford and New Haven
Symphonies, but as daughter Jean claims, “He mostly fished and
played tennis!” Around 1980 the Juseks bought a second home in Lake
Wales, Florida and went there every year to escape Connecticut’s
winters. John and Barb had their favorite fishing
hot spots from Canada to Florida where they used to love to wet a
line. In 1992 Jean gave them grandson Matthew Jack.
John J. Jusek died from complications of leukemia in
1995 and never got to know his second grandson John Michael
Monahan - born in June 2000, but Barbara had lots of fun
with the next generation “John” in the Jusek line before she passed
away in 2008. Daughter Jean says, “I know they are together
somehow...and I bet he is fishing.”
Photos from the John Jusek family album
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110Q. John Jusek (right) aboard the Pequot. |
110R. John (right) ashore with some of his friends. |
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110S.
John with his good friend Norman Zinner in the dory. |
110T. Zinner and Jusek on shore leave. |
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110U. John standing in the back while his pals clown
around for the camera. |
110V. Hitting the road on liberty - somebody had a
car!
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MIKE LUONGO'S PHOTOS
3. More Life aboard the Pequot
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| 111. The best of pals -
Sailors Cline, Luongo and Quinn |
112. 14 crew members on
the Pequot's starboard side
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| 113. Sailor Luongo
(right) and
friends in port. |
114.
Roger Calamaio and
Norman Zinner
ashore in their regulation Pea Coats 1943.
Roger loved that thick wool coat. He said it made him feel
"snug as a bug in a rug." |
115. Boston's historic
Constitution Wharf was the Pequot's home berth. Sailors
Livingston, Luongo & Cidoni against a warehouse wall. |
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| 116. Officers & crew up
at the bow. Notice the buoys in the foreground that were
used to mark loop cable positions. |
117. Time ashore on a
winter's day. Mike Luongo (bottom) and two Pequot pals. |
118. A sailor at the
Coast Guard base sawing lumber for use on the Pequot. |
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| 119. Mike Luongo with
intercom system. One of the Pequot's 20mm guns is under the
tarp. |
120. An unidentified
Pequot sailor by the forward winch equipment. |
121. Sailor Mike Luongo has a 'Corn on the Cob'
break on the Starboard Gunwale. |
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| 122. Mike Luongo on top of
Paul Quinn who is on top of Bob Livingston |
123. For centuries
sailors have passed time aboard ship making intricate rope
weavings. Here George Simmons shows off his rope mat down in
the crew quarters in 1944. Notice how tightly spaced the
bunks are stacked behind him. With more than 60 men aboard
space was at a premium. |
124. Seaman 1st Class
Mike Luongo ashore |
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| 125. With Livingston, Frontel and Luongo
we see Lester Jenkins on duty and armed with a regulation 45 caliber sidearm. |
126.
Sailor Hoganson - Maintenance work on
the Pequot was hard dirty work. |
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| 127. Sailor
Hoganson by the forward winch gear. |
128. Pequot Sailors
against the port gunwale off the coast of New England. |
Ozzie Frontel’s Story
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| 129. Ozzie Frontel on leave in his dress
blues. |
130A, B. Ozzie - aboard
the Pequot, 1944. |
Adolph H.“Ozzie” Frontel was born in Moodus, Connecticut and grew-up in
the town of East Hampton. During his high school years he worked in his
father’s fish net factory. After joining the Coast Guard during World
War II he went through basic training at the Manhattan Beach Training
Station, New York then attended Quartermaster School before coming
aboard the
Pequot.
Ozzie loved the challenge of being at the Pequot’s helm during cable
operations and when piloting the small ship through storms. Like many
of his shipmates he enjoyed the camaraderie of life aboard ship and made
lifelong friends.
After his time aboard the
Pequot he was ordered to report to the 11th
Coast Guard District at the Alameda Training Station in San Francisco
Bay California. Once on the West coast he served as a Quartermaster on
the Army supply ship FS-258. Coast Guard sailors crewed 288 of these
“Freight and Supply (FS)” Army ships which played a critical logistics
support role throughout the Pacific theater during WWII. In fact by the
end of the war there were more Coast Guardsmen serving aboard Army and
Navy vessels than Coast Guard ships. Ozzie and the FS-258 were involved
in the Okinawa campaign and after the war escorted a hospital ship to
China to bring back US troops.
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131. All of the Army Camano Class Light Cargo Ships were
built by Wheeler Shipbuilding of Whitestone, Long Island,
New York
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The USS Hewel (FS-391), which was like the FS-258 that Ozzie served on,
played the role of the fictitious USS Reluctant in the 1955 John Ford
movie Mr. Roberts staring James Cagney and Jack Lemmon. The USS
Pueblo, which was captured as a spy ship by the North Koreans, was also a
ship of this class converted for research that found itself in the midst
of a major international incident in 1968.
After the war Ossie kept in touch with another Pequot Quartermaster, Bob
Livingston and his wife Norma. Ozzie and his wife Violet, who he
married in 1947, made a point of visiting the Livingston family in Ohio
at least once a year.
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| 132. Enjoying a night out and each other's
company in 1945. Ozzie and Violet Frontel (left) with Norma
and Bob Livingston (right). |
After Ozzie put away his seabag in November of 1945, he and Violet
settled back in Ohio and built their family home on farmland that
had been owned by Violet’s father. They raised two daughters, Claudia
and Marcia who gave him three grandchildren. Ozzie worked as a salesman
and service technician for a company in Portland, Connecticut that made
custom machines for packaging. Ozzie traveled all over the world
setting up packaging systems and training factory workers. He also
worked as a machinist and in the 1950s he was co-owner of a tavern in
East Hampton called “The Purple Cow.” He played on baseball leagues for
years and later took up golf.
In a 1988 letter to Pequot sailor Jim Hudlow, Quartermaster Bob
Livingston wrote, “Ozzie was a lot of fun and certainly enjoyed life
more than anyone I know.”
Ozzie made several attempts to organize a Pequot crew reunion but it
never came to be. He passed away at 62 years of age in February of 1984.
His daughter Claudia remembers that he was a funny, smart, and kind
father. “One of my fondest memories is putting together a plastic model
of a Navy ship, and my Dad would point out how it was similar to, and
different from, the Pequot!”
SOME MORE PHOTOS FROM THE LUONGO ALBUM
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133. Mike Luongo ashore, armed
and ready. |
134. Quartermaster Bob
Livingston, Carpenter’s Mate Wallace Hoganson, and Seaman
Mike Luongo |
135. Luongo and Hoganson in
their dress white uniforms. |
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136, 137, 138. The Pequot’s
Mike Luongo with other sailors and friends. Can you help
us identify them? |
BOB LIVINGSTON'S STORY
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139. Robert L.
Livingston
Pequot Quartermaster 2nd Class
1942 - 1946 |
Robert Lucian Livingston was born and raised on the family farm in
Columbus, Ohio on land originally given the family by Thomas Jefferson.
After graduating from the city’s South High School in 1939, he attended
Ohio State University. While pursing his degree he continued to help out
on the family farm and worked part time for the F. W. Woolworth Co.
where he met the love of his life Norma Zavitz.
Once World War II broke out he enlisted in the Coast Guard to serve
his country in 1942. After completing basic training Bob went to
Quartermasters School and was then immediately given orders to ship out
on the Pequot.
He spent his entire Coast Guard career aboard the
Pequot and for four
years served on the bridge where his strong hands guided the helm of the
ship during the delicate maneuvering needed for cable laying operations
and when battling through the heavy seas of North Atlantic winter
storms. After Japan surrendered Bob stayed with the Pequot until he was
discharged in Boston as a Quartermaster 2nd Class in January of 1946.
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| 140. Quartermaster Bob Livingston by one of the
Pequot's 20mm cannons. |
141. Bob
- up by the bow. Notice the Pequot's main cable pulley or
sheave to the right. |
142. Bob using the intercom.
Notice the deck mounted ammunition ready-boxes behind him. |
With the war over, he settled back in Columbus, Ohio where he and
Norma were married in 1947. He went to work for the Battelle Memorial
Institute in Columbus where took a position as a research chemist until
he retired in 1985. In his spare time he was an avid outdoorsman and
loved to break away to hunt in the woods of Ohio, and fish the state’s
rivers and lakes. Bob and Norma had one son, Robert who gave them three grandchildren.
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Bob Livingston, daughter-in-law
Marilyn, son Robert, and Norma 1983 |
Bob was a dedicated and loving family man and father. His son Robert,
who lives in Orient, Ohio recalls, “My Dad was more than a father, he
was my best friend, and after he retired there is no doubt that is favorite thing to do was to play with his three grand kids.” Bob Livingston passed away in January 1999.
Although he’d lost track of many Pequot sailors, Bob stayed close
friends with some of the crew the rest of his life. His son, Robert
remembers, “My Dad’s shipmates always held a special place in his heart,
and the memories of those men always brought a smile to his face.”
James H. Hudlow
-
CHIEF YEOMAN
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143. Jim Hudlow served in the Coast Guard for 6 years and spent 9
months aboard the Pequot. |
The next set of photos
were provided by Jim Hudlow.
The last of nine children, Jim graduated from high school in 1940. With
no money for college he hitch-hiked to St. Louis, Missouri where he
joined the Coast Guard before the war on August 3rd 1940. After basic
training, he first served aboard the 250-foot ‘Lake Class” cutter Sebago
(CGC-51) before it was transferred to England by President Roosevelt as
part of the 1941 Lend-Lease agreement. He was then given shore duty in
Florida before receiving orders for the 165-foot patrol craft “Class B”
cutter Pandora (WPC-113) which did convoy escort and rescue duty from
New York down to Key West, Florida.
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143B. The USCG Cutter
Sebago (CGC-51) before she was transferred to the
British.
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143C. The Class B Coast
Guard Cutter Pandora
(WPC-113)
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He served as Chief Yeoman on the
Pequot from May 9th 1944 to January 24th 1945 when he was
transferred to the Coast Guard station on Nantucket Island. Even though
he was only on the Pequot for about nine months he become very good friends
with sailors Moore, Zinner and Weber. Like many of his shipmates he thought
the Pequot was laying and repairing standard telecommunications
cable. He had no idea many of the cables they worked with were part of
the top secret indicator loop detection system. Jim was discharged out
of Miami, Florida on August 2nd 1946. He held a variety of jobs after
the war and then, at the age of 45, he went to work for the Internal
Revenue Service. He retired from federal service in 1982 at the age of
60. He now lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
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| 144.
Crewmen in the launch. Since some are out of uniform they
could be heading ashore for liberty. |
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145. L to R: Unidentified
Sailor, Seaman Lester Jenkins, Sailor 'Gillian'
(perhaps Elmer Gillenwater), Quartermaster Ozzie Frontle,
Storekeeper William Moore. |
146.
Dowling, McGrath, Hudlow and McFarland on their way to the
Knights of Columbus Serviceman’s Club |
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| 147.
Here it looks like Chief Commissary Steward Henry
Hathaway is fishing from the launch. |
148.
Seaman Roland Benoit catching a few winks during a break
in the action. |
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149. Back (L to R):
Steven Cidoni and Mike Luongo. Front: Paul Quinn and Bob
Livingston. |
150. Sailors Bob
Livingston (left) and Mike Luongo. |
151. Back row (L to R): Bob
Livingston, Lester
Jenkins and unidentified sailor. Front:
George Simmons, Adolph (Ozzie) Frontel. |
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152. From the top down:
an unidentified sailor with Quartermasters Simmons, Frontel,
Jenkins and Livingston below. |
153. In the wheelhouse
Seaman Lester Jenkins looks on as Ozzie Frontel keeps a
steady hand on the helm of the Pequot. |
154. Pequot
sailor on
the ladder while in port |
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155. Chief Machinist, Roger
W. Schaus in his new uniform right after his promotion to warrant
officer. Schaus supervised the engine room “black gang”
below decks and kept all mechanical systems functioning. |
156. At Boston's Constitution
Wharf two Pequot sailors -
Clyde J. McFarland and
Kenneth M. Dowling - in their dress blue
uniforms getting ready for shore leave. |
157. James F. Ryan Boatswain's Mate Mate 2nd
Class, Boston, Massachusetts 1943. After the war Paul
settled near Gary, Indiana. (Photo courtesy the Coppo
family).
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158. Sailor Weber, Jim Hudlow, and Norman Zinner at the Jewish Servicemen's Centre.
Jim writes "Only Zinner was Jewish. I usually went on
Liberty to the Knights of Columbus Servicemen's Centre, even
though I'm not Catholic". |
159.
Photo day in the launch on what looks like a cool windy day. |
Martin Coppo's Story
Martin A. Coppo was born the on the 1st of August in 1915 in the rough and tumble
copper mining town of Calument on the Keweenaw Peninsula of North Michigan. The
son of Italian immigrants Martin was the 5th of 8 children. When he was only
nine
years old his father was killed in a copper mine fire and accident. His mother
raised the family on her own amidst the many hardships of the time. The year
Martin graduated from High School, 1933, was one of the worst years of the Great
Depression. So with work scarce and the mines closed, he left his family and
joined the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in Skandia, Michigan. Martin was
one of 90,000 young men in what was dubbed "Roosevelt’s Tree Army." The 80 CCC
camps in the state planted millions of trees, fought forest fires, built roads
and bridges and spearheaded early conservation efforts.
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160. Martin Coppo at Charles River
Bridge Cambridge MA
1944 |
161. Martin & Lee Coppo 1944 |
During the summer of 1937 Martin, who was responsible for his company’s mail,
made daily trips into Skandia where high school student Lee Hanson had taken a
job running the post office in her uncle’s grocery store.
As Lee remembers, "I would see him almost every day, then in February of 1938
Martin was offered a job in Cleveland with a large wholesale hardware company.
He left and we both went our separate ways for a few years. One day in 1941 I
was very surprised and happy to receive a letter from him. It had been mailed
from Halifax, Nova Scotia where the Pequot had put in. We started writing
regularly and he came to see me when he was home on leave. On Dec 17, 1943 we
were married in Ypsilanti, Michigan where I was working as a civilian for the
Army Air Corps at Willow Run, where they made the B-24 aircraft."
In March of 1944 Lee obtained a release from the Army Air Corp and moved to
Boston, where she and Martin rented near Harvard University. She was able to see
Martin whenever the Pequot was in port. “I know the Pequot spent a lot of time
in the North Atlantic and Martin said they were only laying telephone and
telegraph cable, but I always worried about those German U-boats!”
As a Boatswains Mate 1st Class aboard the Pequot, Martin supervised the work of
other seamen during cable work and the many other duties required to keep the
Pequot running in top shape. At one point in January of 1944 a cable got hung
up, or there was some other problem, and rather than asking one of the men under
him to take care of it, he jumped into the frigid waters of the North Atlantic
himself and took care of things. His daughter Carol writes, "I’d love to know
what was so important that he had to spend even a minute in that icy water!
Growing up with Lake Superior as his swimming hole might have prepared him a
little!"
Lee also vividly remembers a Boston summer day in 1944. "The Pequot was in Port
and that night Martin came home in agony. He had been working near a large,
heavy chain aboard ship and it had somehow struck him in the lower back. That
day changed his life forever. He had back trouble for the rest of his life."
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| 162. Lee and Martin having Christmas dinner in
1945 with their landlords, the Carters, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. |
When the Pequot was out at sea, Lee and Roger Calamaio's wife Catherine spent a
lot of time together and both worked as switchboard operators for a candy
company in Boston. When the ship was in port the two couples socialized and
enjoyed each others company. The two families kept in touch for more than 50
years. After the war Martin stayed in the Coast Guard for a while, then after
serving exactly 5 years and 5 days he was discharged in Cleveland, Ohio on June
4th, 1946 and obtained work with a large hardware company.
He was transferred to Hornell, New York, then later to Cambridge, Ohio. In 1961
after putting in 23 years with the company he received a phone call on Memorial
Day saying that they were closing their doors forever. “Needless to say, we felt
like the “sky had fallen” Lee recalls, “but, Martin was offered a job in Lansing
so we moved again and settled in Flint, Michigan. After a few years on the job
Martin feared that history would repeat itself, so he quit his job in Lansing
and enrolled in Barber School. After two years of school and an apprenticeship,
he received his barber’s license and started a whole new profession at 50 years
of age. He really enjoyed cutting hair along with the jokes, and stories around
the barbershop.”
Lee and Martin made many trips to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. They loved
the North country and both had many relatives there. The Coppos had one
daughter, Carol who gave them a granddaughter Erica, and grandson Aaron.
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163A. Up in the air on the Pequot |
When asked about his Pequot days Carol recalls, “I do know he was "up in the
air" a lot and didn't mind heights. Once we were painting the house and neither
my husband, Jack, nor I could quite bring ourselves to lean over the steep drop
off up on top of the roof, but guess who did it for us?...yep, my dear old Dad.
He grabbed a paint brush and was grinning from ear to ear as he told us it was
nothing at all compared to what he used to do on the Pequot!”
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| 163B. Lee and Martin
Coppo - 1985 |
Martin worked until 3 months before he passed away on November 29th, 1991. He
was laid to rest in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the land that he loved.
Lee remembers, “We were happily married for 48 years and he was an exceptional
man. Martin and I always considered ourselves fortunate to have been part of the
Pequot experience. He enjoyed being with the crew, he had good friends, and the
sea always held a fascination for him.”
The Pequot - Other Duties
AS ASSIGNED
During the first year of
the war when all resources were stretched to the limit, Coast Guard commanders
had to use every asset at their disposal to solve logistical problems, and the
Pequot was no exception. In June of 1941 while laying loop cable near Norfolk
Virginia the Pequot received orders to distribute depth charges to Coast Guard
cutters who were actively engaged in convoy escort duty and battles against
U-boats.
The Commander of the Norfolk
District ordered Pequot to:
|
Proceed to Boston Massachusetts, via the Naval Mine
Dept, Yorktown, Virginia. Obtain 4 Y-gun depth charges for delivery to the
Icarus at Stapleton, 3.I. N.Y., 6 Y-gun depth charges and 10 release track depth
charges for delivery to the Algonquin at Boston, Massachusetts, from the Naval
Mine Depot. This office will obtain and deliver 18 Y-gun propellant charges from
the Naval Ammunition Depot, St. Juliens Creek, Portsmouth, Virginia, to the
Pequot prior to her departure for Boston, also for delivery to the Algonquin.
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| 164. British
sailors loading a
Mk VII depth charge on to a Mk IV depth charge thrower with a
block and tackle, 14 August 1942. Depth charges of the era could
hold as much as 600 pounds of high explosives. |
165. USCGC Icaraus
(WPC-110) in Charleston Navy Yard May 10th 1942 unloading German
prisoners from the U- 352 which she had just sunk off the coast
of Florida. |
166. Coast Guardsmen on
the deck of the cutter Spencer
(WPG-36) watch the explosion of a depth
charge during the attack which sunk the U-175 on April 17, 1943. |
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| 167. USCGC Algonquin (WPG-75)
provided escort duty to numerous North Atlantic convoys and distinguished herself
by picking up survivors from torpedoed ships in rough seas while placing herself
in danger. |
168. Y-Gun Depth charges
were a WWI technology. They were shot into the air from both sides
of a ship to propel them away from the launching ship to lay down a
“pattern” of underwater explosions. |
169. A release track depth
charge exploding behind a Coast Guard cutter hunting U-boats. These
charges were rolled off the stern or side of a cutter by gravity and
exploded at a pre-determined depth. |
Next Time Call Somebody Else!
Pequot Gunner's Mate Roger Calamaio
told of one harrowing experience he had with a depth charge. “We were in port
and since I was a Gunners Mate I was called over to deal with a problem on a PT
boat tied up nearby. The protective cap had come off the end of one of their
depth charges and they were worried. When I opened it up I saw that the bladder
had filled up with rain and sea water and the firing pin was less than ¼ inch
from making contact. Well, everybody else cleared way the hell off that dock and
there I was by my lonesome on my hands and knees. I carefully put a little piece
of wood in front of the firing pin and very slowly got the firing mechanism out.
I was sweating like a son-of-bitch and I told them next time to call somebody
else!”
