Answering the call in World war IL Sea Cloud was leased to the Navy for $1, stripped ofher sailing rig, painted battleship gray, and turned into a seagoing weather observation vessel in the North Atlantic. Under the command ofLt. Carlton Skinner, she became the first naval ship to sail with a fully integrated crew.
CGC Sea Cloud (WPG-284) on 4 April 1942 and assigned to the Eastern Sea Fronri er command with her homeport in Boston. The ship's wartime complem ent was 175 men and 12 officers. W eather observation ships were required to remain within fifty miles of a des ignated latitude and longitude for 3 to 4 weeks at a time. They were manned by the Coast G uard, but the weather observers were civilians employed by the US Weather Service. As weather repo rts were broadcast by radio every four hours from a relati vely constant position, the ships wo uld have been easy targets for enemy submarines. In June 1944 Sea Cloud obtained sonar conract with an enemy submarine. She began tracking, radioed for ass istance, and dropped a string of depth charges. She was later relieved by a flotilla made up of a destroyer, destroyer escorts, and aircraft, which successfully located and destroyed the U-boat. Sea Cloud was credited in the official Navy accounts with an "assist." The fac t that only one weather observation ship was lost during the war hints that the enemy was perhaps able to decode and utilize the weather reports for their own advantage. 1he US Navy assumed administrative control and commissioned the ship on 9April1943 as USS Sea Cloud( IX- 99 ), although she wo uld retain her Coas t Guard crew. Later that year LT Carlton Skinner ass umed command of Sea Cloud, just a few months after he had submitted a proposal to the Coast Guard Commandant, Admiral Russell R. Waesche, that they fully integrate their ships' crews. At the time, African-Ameri cans were only allowed to serve at sea in the steward's mate rating. Skinner argued that the Coas t G uard and N avy co uld not afford to continue wasting manpower because of racial segregation, especially in wartime. Within a month of ass uming command of Sea Cloud, LT Skinner had ove r fifty
African-Americans, including two offi cers, assigned to his command. Skinner had reques ted no publi city or special treatment, and Sea Cloud qui etly fulfilled her mission without incident. During this period the ship passed two Atlantic Fleet inspections with no deficiencies, and at the end of his command, Skinner repo rted that racial integration had no t caused any significant problems, and that the experiment should be considered a resounding success . Sea Cloud had the distinction of being the first fully-integrated US warship sin ce the Civil War. Amo ng Skinner's African-American crew was a talented artist, Jaco b Lawrence. Lawrence had been drafted into the Coast G uard in O ctober 1943 with a steward's m ate rating. Under Skinner's command in Sea Cloud, Lawrence was given the rating of Publi c Relations (PR) P0 3/c. Skinner allocated money to pay for art supplies, and Lawrence was assigned to ship duties for half a
Jacob Lawrence (right) and Lt. Carlton Skinner (2nd ftom right), commanding officer of the Sea C loud, just before the ship's decommissioning in 1944.
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SEA HISTORY 131 , SUMMER 20 I 0