Figure 1: USS Sacramento (PG-19) on 4 July 1924 off Shanghai, China. Courtesy Robert M. Cieri. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 2: USS Sacramento (PG-19) off Tsingtao, China, during the 1920s or 1930s. Several U.S. Navy submarines are in the foreground, among them USS S-39 (SS-144), the outboard boat in the nest. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 3: USS Sacramento (PG-19) and Lieutenant (Junior Grade) John D. Bulkeley, USN, (seated, center) with the men of the ship's "E" Division, at Shanghai, China, 15 February 1938. Photographed by Skvirsky, Shanghai. Seated to the right of LtJG Bulkeley is Chief Machinist's Mate Herman W. Koch, USN. In the left background is USS Bridge (AF-1). Note the life ring, pair of captstans and Sacramento's forward 4-inch gun. In April of 1941, Bulkeley was promoted to full Lieutenant and given command of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three in the Philippines. While in command of this PT Boat squadron in March 1942, Bulkeley and his men successfully evacuated General Douglas MacArthur and Philippine President Quezon from Manila Bay to the southern Philippines. For his extraordinary heroism, distinguished service, and conspicuous gallantry above and beyond the call of duty as Commander of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three during the first four months of the war, Lieutenant Bulkeley was awarded the Medal of Honor. Bulkeley remained in the Navy after the war and eventually retired a Vice Admiral in 1988. Courtesy of Mr. R.W. Koch, 1976. U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 4: USS Sacramento (PG-19) circa 1919. Courtesy Robert Hurst. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 5: USS Sacramento (PG-19) serving in northern Russia in 1919. Imperial War Museum photo, Courtesy U.S. Warships of World War I. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 6: USS Sacramento (PG-19) off Archangel, Russia, 1919. She served in northern Russia under the command of Commander C. C. Dowling, USN. Courtesy of Todd Woofenden. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 7: USS Sacramento (PG-19) circa 1920 in dry dock at Charleston, South Carolina. Courtesy Vance A. Adams. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 8: USS Sacramento (PG-19) circa 1920 in dry dock at Charleston, South Carolina. Courtesy Vance A. Adams. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 9: USS Sacramento (PG-19) circa 1920 in dry dock at Charleston, South Carolina. Courtesy Vance A. Adams. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 10: USS Sacramento (PG-19) circa 1939 leaving Manila Bay for the United States. Note the ornamental Chinese “junk” sails rigged on her small masts, an affectionate tribute to her duty as part of the US Asiatic Fleet. Photo taken by the USS Augusta's ship's photographer. Courtesy Jim McGrew. Click on photograph for larger image.
Figure 11: USS Sacramento (PG-19) circa 1939 leaving Manila Bay for the United States. Note the ornamental Chinese “junk” sails rigged on her small masts, an affectionate tribute to her duty as part of the US Asiatic Fleet. Photo taken by the USS Augusta's ship's photographer. Courtesy Jim McGrew. Click on photograph for larger image.
Named after a city in California, the 1,425-ton steel gunboat USS Sacramento (Gunboat No. 19) was built by William Cramp & Sons Shipbuilding Company at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was commissioned on 26 April 1914. The ship was approximately 226 feet long and 40 feet wide, had a top speed of 12 knots, and had a crew of 171 officers and men. Sacramento was armed with three 4-inch guns, two 3-pounder guns, and two 1-pounders.
After a brief shakedown cruise, Sacramento was sent into Mexican waters, arriving off the coast of Vera Cruz on 14 May 1914. She went on to visit Dominican, Nicaraguan, Honduran, as well as Mexican ports for the next two years, protecting American lives and property in these politically troubled nations. After arriving in New Orleans on 17 March 1917, Sacramento’s crew assisted US Customs authorities in interning five German merchant ships after the United States officially entered World War I. Sacramento left New Orleans on 15 April and steamed to Newport, Rhode Island, where she was assigned to patrol and escort duties off the New England coast. While based at Newport, Sacramento rescued the crew of the burning British merchant ship Sebastian on 8 May and in late June she assisted the grounded cruiser USS Olympia.
Sacramento then was sent to Europe. She left New York on 22 July 1917 and assisted in escorting a British convoy to Gibraltar. The convoy reached Gibraltar on 6 August and, once there, Sacramento was attached to the US Patrol Force that was based at that island fortress. She was assigned to convoy escort duties and made numerous trips to Britain, Italy, and North Africa. These duties continued well into 1918 and, after peace was declared on 11 November, Sacramento was sent back to the United States, leaving Gibraltar for New Orleans on 11 December. After a major overhaul was completed in New Orleans, Sacramento stopped briefly in New York. Her next assignment took her to northern Russia as part of the US Naval Forces there and she arrived at Murmansk on 22 May 1919. This ill-conceived mission was created by some of the wartime Allies to support the non-communist forces that were fighting in Russia and several British and American warships were sent there to support the land operations. While in northern Russia, Sacramento acted as a dispatch ship, distributed food and clothing to the troops fighting on shore, provided medical help when needed, and eventually assisted in the evacuation of American forces from the Russian coastline along the White Sea. While sailing southward, she stopped at Norwegian, British, and French ports before reaching Gibraltar on 20 September 1919. Sacramento returned to the United States and arrived on 15 February 1920 at Hampton Roads, Virginia, where she was assigned to the Atlantic Patrol Force and to the Special Service Squadron.
Sacramento was re-designated PG-19 on 17 July 1920 and was sent to patrol the waters off Honduras, which was undergoing severe political turmoil at that time. She remained in that area until being assigned to the Asiatic Fleet in 1922. Sacramento initially was sent to Manila in the Philippines, but from 11 September to 24 November 1922 she visited numerous Chinese and Japanese ports, as well as Vladivostok, Russia. The gunboat remained with the Asiatic Fleet until 21 December 1928, when she left the Philippines for the Caribbean. Sacramento stayed in the Caribbean as part of the Special Service Squadron until 1932, when she was sent back to the West Coast. After reaching San Francisco, Sacramento was notified that she would re-join the US Asiatic Fleet and she arrived at Shanghai, China, on 1 April 1932. Sacramento continued patrolling Chinese and Philippine waters throughout the 1930s. The gunboat left Cavite in the Philippines on 12 January 1939 and was sent back to New York.
Sacramento served briefly as a training ship for the 9th Naval District Reservists on the Great Lakes from 20 November 1939 until well into 1940. After an overhaul at the Boston Navy Yard, Sacramento was sent back to the Pacific, bound this time for Hawaii. She reached Pearl Harbor on 15 August 1941 and was assigned to the local defense of the Navy Yard there. On 7 December 1941, Sacramento was moored just south of “Battleship Row.” Shortly after the attack began, the gunboat’s crew quickly manned their battle stations and her gunners managed to shoot down two of the attacking Japanese aircraft. Once the attack was over, Sacramento’s boat crews assisted in rescue and salvage operations.
Sacramento remained based at Pearl Harbor after the attack and continued patrolling Hawaiian waters until 27 September 1942, when she was given the new task of functioning as a tender for Torpedo Boat Unit 6, Division 2, of MTBRon 1, based at Palmyra Island just south of Hawaii. She was assigned air-sea rescue duties as well. Sacramento left Palmyra on 25 November 1942 for San Diego, where she became a training ship for gun crews from December 1942 to March 1945. After that, Sacramento was based at San Francisco and served on weather patrol and plane guard station for the rest of the war.
Sacramento was decommissioned on 6 February 1946 and was transferred to the War Shipping Administration for disposal. The ship was sold on 23 August 1947 and ended up under Italian registry as the merchant ship Fermina. Her ultimate fate is unknown.
Sacramento had an amazing career that literally took her all over the world. She was assigned to normal gunboat duties that took her to places like China, the Philippines, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean and she also took part in the little-known Allied invasion of northern Russia in 1919. Although she was right in the middle of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Sacramento was woefully outdated by the start of World War II. However, she still made a significant contribution during the war as a patrol boat, a tender, and ultimately as a training ship. Not bad for a gunboat that was already almost 30 years old by the time the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
11 comments:
My name is Alexander Clayton and my great grandfather was on this ship during the 20's and 30's here's some info on him. I am very curious if anyone knows any more about him.
Lieutenant Colonel Howard Reid Huff was born September 5, 1899 in Round Oak, Jones County, Georgia. He graduated 12th in the Class of 1922 at the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, and entered the United States Marine Corps as a Second Lieutenant.
He served during the late 1920’s and early 1930’s in both Haiti and Nicaragua before joining the 4th Marines in Shanghai, China where he served 2 tours of duty during the early and late 1930’s. He was stationed aboard the USS Sacramento during China patrols.
He returned to the United States in 1940 and was stationed in San Diego finally retiring in 1947 after serving 30 years in the service.
Colonel Huff passed away on October 23, 1969 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Alexander, thanks so much for the great comment! I'm always very, very, interested in hearing about people who served on board the ships that I post on this blog. It certainly sounds like your great grandfather had a very interesting career. To be a Marine officer in Shanghai in the 1930s must have been a phenomenal experience. Would love to hear more about his time on the "China Station" if you have a chance. Many Thanks.
These are excellent photos, especially the dry dock shots and the photo showing USS Sacramento in the ice in northern Russia.
I would take issue with the characterization of the northern Russia expedition as "ill conceived." In hindisght I suppose that's an understandable notion. But during the war, while anti-Bolshevik sentiment among the Allies indeed seems to have been a strong factor, there was at least a reasonable military purpose for being in northern Russia, which was to secure ports and arms/supplies so that they wouldn't fall into the hands of the Germans.
In any event, when USS Sacramento arrived, the purpose was not to support anti-Bolshevik military operations, but to assist with the withdrawal of U.S. troops from northern Russia. That is, the decision had already been made to withdraw, and the U.S. ships sent to the White Sea at this time (USS Des Moines, USS Sacramento, USS Yankton, three Ford Eagle boats and subchasers SC 354, SC 256 and SC 95) were there for the purpose of discouraging Bolshevik attacks on U.S. troops during a withdrawal from the region.
Todd Woofenden, The Subchaser Archives. www.subchaser.org
Todd, thanks so much for the comments. Although it is true that it may have been a reasonable idea to send Allied troops into northern Russia to secure Allied-supplied arms after the Bolsheviks signed the Brest-Litovsk treaty with Germany in March 1918, there was no real reason for Allied troops to stay in Russia after the war ended on November 11, 1918. Yet Allied troops remained in northern Russia for almost a year after the end of the war with no real idea of what they were doing there or what their ultimate objective was going to be. The Allied troops eventually left and the Bolsheviks remained in power. That is why I called the mission ill conceived and I still believe that to be the case since there was no clear idea what the Allied troops were going to do with the captured munitions once they got to northern Russia, whether or not they would take an active role in the Russian Civil War by fighting the Bolsheviks, and there certainly wasn't any clear mission for these troops (let alone an exit strategy) once the war ended in 1918.
As for the USS Sacramento being sent to northern Russia only to assist in the evacuation of US troops, that doesn't seem to be the case. Sacramento's mission eventually did include assisting in the withdrawal of troops, but according to the "Dictionary of American Fighting Ships," Sacramento's original tasks included "acting as a dispatch ship, distributing food and clothing to the troops fighting on shore, and providing medical help when needed." I have also checked Robert W. Love's "History of the US Navy, Volume 1, 1775-1941," Paul G. Halpern's "A Naval History of World War I," and Richard Hough's "The Great War at Sea 1914-1918," and none of them mention anything about these American ships going in for the sole purpose of evacuating American or Allied troops.
In William N. Still Jr.'s "Crisis at Sea: The United States Navy in European Waters in World War I," the author states on p.90, "American naval and military forces lingered in North Russia for another year in what has been described as the 'Forgotten War.' The Navy Department deployed additional naval vessels there to support the ground forces, but they and their crews did not engage in combat." Eventually the ships did help evacuate the troops, but only after they provided support for the ground forces (primarily in the supply and logistics/communications role). In addition, even though the ships didn't do any shooting, their guns were available to provide artillery support for the troops on shore in case it was needed. So the American warships did, in a sense, support the anti-Bolshevik operations on land in that they supported the Allied troops that were there fighting the Bolsheviks. But it is true that the naval presence was not ment to expand the war or to make the Allies go on the offensive against the Bolsheviks. The ships were used in purely defensive and logistical roles.
An interesting perspective. I am uncomfortable with the assertion that the expedition was ill conceived on the basis of the final outcome. Surely the question has to be, was there a justified military objective -- not was the outcome the intended one.
But no matter how you might view the rationale for being there in the first place, the defensible reasons for remaining in Northern Russia after 11 November are at least two. First, it wouldn't be reasonable to expect an immediate withdrawal from there or anywhere else, even if the commanders of the military force in questions wanted to. Aside from practical matters, in many areas the military presence remained for months or even years after the official end of hostilities, either (ostensibly) to maintain order, or to help the local populations, or for other reasons.
For example, along the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea, U.S. military forces remained present right into 1922. (Another interesting and complex bit of post-WWI history, involving Italy's designs on the territory, Wilson's aspirations for self-rule by small nations in the region, etc.)
In this context, I would assert that the plans for evacuation from northern Russia were in fact rather speedily considered. As early as January 1919 -- just over two months after the signing of the Armistice -- the subject was under consideration. See, for example, this telegram from Adm. McCully to Adm. Sims (not a great example, but one I found quickly):
"Telegram military attaché Archangel indicates possibility evacuation Archangel. Military authorities here have no information and early necessity of doing this or of critical condition at Archangel at present. Am sailing for Archangel Feb. 1st by ice breaker Alexander."
Second, and almost certainly more relevant in the case of soldiers in Northern Russia, was the winter. It was extremely difficult to move troops in the Russian Winter. The rivers were frozen. Everything was frozen. Winter ice melting in these areas would tend to free up the waterways possibly sometime in May, but not before.
This latter point is also not as simple as it might look, for not only was troop movement difficult, but there was the prospect for Bolshevik attacks when the ice melted in the spring. That the WWI Armistice had been signed is a relevant strategic and political fact, but the military reality was that that they were in the middle of active hostilities under difficult circumstances.
In this context, Admiral McCully requested additional USN vessels -- including USS Sacramento -- to be sent to the region. An initial characterization of the mission was for "patrol duties" -- but clearly there were at least three related objectives: (a) Assist with the withdrawal of U.S. troops, (b) dissuade the Bolsheviks from attacking during the withdrawal and (c) make an effort to appear cooperative rather than combative with respect to local populations.
Here is a clip from a cablegram dated 25 February 1919 (Sims to Benson, describing report from McCully):
"In view of probable emergency two more vessels are required for this station, one to be always at Archangel, one at Murmansk and one cruising ... One vessel should be capable of acting as flagship as facilities on USS Yankton are totally inadequate ..."
This was part of the lead-in to USS Des Moines and USS Sacramento being sent.
Adm. McCully writes, further, on 11 April 1919: "Submarine chasers will be of value only for operations in Dvina River and they can not get there on account of ice for another month. If policies should include active operations in this river vessels would have great value. If only to assist in evacuations of troops they probably will not be needed but think best to hold them in readiness if special emergency should arrive ..."
At any rate, my point was not that USS Sacramento was sent "only to assist in the evacuation of U.S. troops." That would be an over-simplification. My point is that the purpose at this time was not to fight the Bolsheviks, except as part of the withdrawal efforts; and to take issue with the characterization of the northern Russia expedition as an "...ill-conceived mission ... created by some of the wartime Allies to support the non-communist forces that were fighting in Russia and several British and American warships were sent there to support the land operations".
As for Love, Halpern and Still, I would respectfully suggest that perhaps they weren't making a particularly great effort to look deeply at the primary source materials. If this period is a "forgotten war," it is in part because writers of history sometimes tend to simplify and gloss over it with a quick sentence or two about failed anti-Bolshevik aspirations and a lengthy period of indecision. This sounds plausible, but it misses the complex set of military conditions.
[Note: I posted the documents referenced on this page: http://www.subchaser.org/russia-cablegrams]
I've just read of a small roll played by USS Sacramento in the salvage of the USS Squalus. She served as a sort of hotel for divers and salvage staff.
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