USS Muskeget
Brooklyn, New York , on 30 March 1942.
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History | |
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United States | |
Name | SS Cornish |
Builder | Baltimore, Maryland |
Launched | 10 February 1923 |
Completed | 1923 |
Fate | Chartered to U.S. Navy 29 December 1941 |
United States Navy | |
Name | USS YAG-9 |
Acquired | 29 December 1941 |
Refit | Sullivan Drydock and Repair Corporation, New York, New York |
Commissioned | 3 January 1942 |
Renamed | USS Muskeget (AG-48), 30 May 1942 |
Namesake | Muskeget Island, off Massachusetts |
Reclassified | From "miscellaneous district auxiliary" (YAG) to "miscellaneous auxiliary" (AG), 30 May 1942 |
Decommissioned | 30 June 1942 |
Stricken | 26 October 1943 |
Fate | Loaned to U.S. Coast Guard 30 June 1942 |
United States Coast Guard | |
Name | USCGC Muskeget (WAG-48) |
Namesake | Previous name retained |
Acquired | 30 June 1942 |
Commissioned | 1 July 1942 |
Fate | Sunk 9 September 1942 |
General characteristics | |
Type | Patrol vessel and weather ship |
Tonnage | 370 gross register tons |
Displacement | 1,827 tons |
Length | 233 ft 6 in (71.2 m) overall |
Beam | 40 ft 2 in (12.2 m) |
Draft | 24 ft 3 in (7.4 m) |
Propulsion | one Hooven, Owens, Rentschler Company triple-expansion kw ) |
Speed | 11 knots |
Complement | 116 officers and enlisted |
Sensors and processing systems | QCL-8 sonar; no radar |
Armament | one single Y-guns; two Mousetraps |
USS Muskeget (AG-48) – originally USS YAG-9 – was a former commercial
Construction, commercial career, acquisition, and commissioning
Muskeget was built as the commercial
The U.S. Navy acquired Cornish under charter
World War II service
Assigned to the
U.S. Coast Guard service
On 30 June 1942, the Navy transferred Muskeget to the
Muskeget departed Boston on 6 July 1942 for her first weather patrol, which took place at Weather Station No. 2 in the
On 24 August 1942, Muskeget departed Boston for her second weather patrol,[3] again at Weather Station No. 2. She issued the first weather report of her patrol on 28 August and arrived on station on 31 August. After she issued a weather report on 9 September 1942, Allied forces did not see or hear from her again.[1][2]
Loss
At 14:54 hours on 9 September 1942, the
Muskeget was due to be relieved on station by the Coast Guard weather ship
When Muskeget was overdue in returning to Boston later in September 1942, she was presumed lost with her entire complement of nine officers, 107 enlisted men, one
No bodies were ever recovered, and Muskeget's wreck was never found.[2] On 10 September 1943, the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard officially declared all on board Muskeget to have been killed in action, and on 26 October 1943 she was struck from the Navy List.[1] Only later did it become known that U-755 had sunk her.
Muskeget was the only U.S. weather ship lost during World War II.[2]
Belated Purple Heart for meteorologists
Although the other personnel lost with Muskeget all received a posthumous award of the Purple Heart, the four civilian Weather Bureau meteorologists – Luther H. Brady, Lester S. Fodor, George F. Kubach, and Edward Weber – did not. In ca. 2012, researchers from the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – which oversees the U.S. National Weather Service, the successor organization to the Weather Bureau – detected the oversight and the circumstances of their deaths, which occurred at a time when civilians killed in action qualified for the Purple Heart. The four men received the Purple Heart posthumously in a ceremony at the Naval Heritage Center auditorium at the United States Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C., on 19 November 2015.[2]
Commemoration
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m uscg.mil USS Muskeget, 1942; YAG-9; AG-48; WAG-48, ex-Cornish
- ^ a b c d e f g Ruane, Michael E., "Lost at sea during WWII, weathermen to get their Purple Hearts at last," washingtonpost.com, November 18, 2015, 8:07 p.m. EST.
- ^ Associated Press, "Coast Guard Cutter Believed Lost", The San Bernardino Sun, San Bernardino, California, Saturday 10 October 1942, Volume 49, page 1.
- This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
- NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive - USCGC Muskeget (WAG-48) – ex - USS Muskeget (AG-48) (1942) - USS YAG-9 (1942)