Saving Seafood

A disaster turns 79. USS Indianapolis sinking leads to world’s worst shark attack

July 30, 2024 — It was 79 years ago when a Japanese submarine torpedoed the USS Indianapolis, a heavy cruiser carrying nearly 1,200 sailors and Marines. The ship was sailing back to the Philippines after delivering components for “Little Boy,” the atomic bomb that helped end World War II. It sank in 12 minutes.

What followed next resulted in the greatest single loss of life at sea, on a single ship, in the history of the U.S. Navy.

Read IndyStar’s prior coverage about the doomed heavy cruiser and the men who survived its tragedy.

When did the USS Indianapolis sink?

The USS Indianapolis sank shortly after midnight on July 30, 1945. The heavy cruiser was struck by two Japanese torpedoes. The first torpedo blew the bow off the ship, according to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. A second torpedo blasted into its midsection near the powder magazine, creating an explosion that literally split the ship in two.

How big was the USS Indianapolis?

The USS Indianapolis was 610 feet 3 inches (186 meters) long, according to Britannica. Roughly 900 men survived the ship sinking, of which only a little more than a third would be pulled from the water.

Read the full article at the IndyStar

How the Fishing Fleet Served the U.S. Coast Guard in WWII

July 26, 2021 — In the early days of World War II, demand skyrocketed for vessels to fill the needs of the U.S. sea services. The Coast Guard was no exception as they competed with the U.S. Navy and U.S. Army for new construction as well as privately owned ships. Facing a high demand for vessels, the service turned to the U.S. fishing industry as a source for its cutters. These emergency acquisitions included East Coast trawlers, whalers from both coasts, and East Coast menhaden fishing vessels, such as the Emergency Manning vessel Dow (WYP 353).

During World War I and World War II, the menhaden fishing fleet became a ready reserve for the Navy and Coast Guard. Both services needed small, shallow draft vessels for coastal convoy escort, mine planting, minesweeping, and anti-submarine net tending duty. Many of these vessels were purchased or leased, while others were loaned to naval forces by fishing businesses as their contribution to the war effort.

Menhaden fishing vessels were designed to harvest schools of small fish in coastal waters, primarily in the Chesapeake Bay. Their very long and narrow design sported a distinctive plumb bow, elevated pilot house to spot large fish schools, a center hold to store the catch and low freeboard to haul full fishing nets on board the vessel. The ungainly design of these vessels was well suited to harvesting large quantities of fish in sheltered waters, but not high seas combat operations.

The Coast Guard patrol vessel EM Dow, formerly the Menhaden-type fishing vessel Annie Dow, was a wartime acquisition under charter (lease) by the Coast Guard. Vessels like the Dow were given the prefix “EM” for “Emergency Manning.” In preparation for military service, these fishing vessels were armed with one or two one-pound cannons fore and aft. This addition usually required sections of iron plating on the deck, which added to the pilothouse and parts of the superstructure for crew protection. Additional communications gear and combat equipment contributed to making the cutter top heavy. These additions had a negative impact on the stability and sea-keeping qualities of these would be fighting vessels. In World War I, the USS James, a menhaden fisherman converted to Navy minesweeper, capsized in a gale off the French Coast.

Read the full story at The Maritime Executive

Massachusetts: Region’s emergency responders drill for danger on the seas

May 4, 2018 — The Coast Guard cutter Key Largo was anchored out past Ten Pound Island on Thursday, near the section of Gloucester’s Outer Harbor known as the Pancake Ground.

But for the purposes of Thursday’s mission, the Key Largo wasn’t the Key Largo and it wasn’t a Coast Guard cutter. On this day, as part of an expansive hazardous materials response drill, the Key Largo played the starring role of a rusting old fishing vessel that had hauled up a load of World War II ordinance — talk about bycatch — along with its fish.

The replicated hazmat incident, which closely mirrored a true event that occurred in New Bedford in 2010, was the springboard to a coordinated marine response involving specially trained first responders, harbormaster personnel and about a dozen vessels from the Coast Guard, Gloucester and several other nearby coastal communities such as Marblehead, Beverly, Newburyport and Salisbury.

The drill, organized by the state Department of Fire Services’ Hazardous Material Response Program, helped team members practice their response to an offshore incident possibly involving hazardous materials. It was an exercise designed to test established response protocols, as well as the levels of cooperation among the array of participating agencies.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times