LETTERS Dahlgren 's Flagship Ad miral John Dahlgren, commander of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron after 24 June 1863, was a believer in torpedoes, the mines the Confederacy h ad used from the beginning of the C ivil War. He reaso ned that if torpedoes could be effectively employed to impede Union Navy access to key southern ports, they could also be used to effectively bottle up Confederate blockade runners in those same ports, thus rendering them useless to the South. r~
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SS Harvest Moon
Omitted from the article (Sea H istory 156) was the fact that Ad miral Dahlgren's own fl agship durin g the las t part of the war, the sidewheel steam er H arvest Moon, struck a Confederate torpedo on 1 March 1865 in Winyah Bay near Georgetown, South Carolina, and sank in fifteen feet of water in less than five minutes. According to Admiral Dahlgren's diary, "S uddenly, without warn ing came a crashing sound, a heavy shock, the partition between the cabin and wardroom was shattered and driven in towards m e, while all loose articles in the cabin flew in different directions. The admiral was not injured and he was transferred to another shi p. However, the Harvest Moon was the only flagsh ip that the Union lost during the entire war. The U nion Navy stripped the 193foot steamshi p of its armament a nd other
We Welcome Your Letters! Please send correspondence to: seahistory@gmail.com or Editor, Sea History, 7 Timberknoll Rd., Pocasset, MA 02559 equipment soon after she sank, but whar is left of the remains of rhe vessel is located close to the ship cha nnel leading from Georgetow n to the ocean. Her metal stack protrudes above the surface at each low tide, while the deteriorated woode n hull is now buried deep in the mud of Wi nyah Bay. ROBERT M. MCALISTER, DIRECTOR
South Carolina Maritime M useum Georgetown, South Carolina U-boats 505 - 506 - 507 I was an oi ler in the US Navy during World War II and saw a lo t of convoys at sea in the Atlantic, for our primary duty was fueling destroyers and destroyer escorts underway in the Atlantic. When I read about the activi ties of U506 and U507 in the Gulf of Mex ico, in the summer issue (Sea H istory 155, "So C lose to H ome" by M ichael To ugias), I felt I must wri te and tell you abo ut the capture ofU505. In June 1944, our ship, USS Kennebec (A0-36), a fleet oiler, was called away from a co nvoy ro meet up with T. G. 22.3 [US Navy Task Gro up 22.3], which was on a mission to search for U- boats off rhe coast of West Africa, in the vicinity of the Cape Verde Islands. On 4 June, just two days before the invasion of France (incidenta lly, it was o ne year to the day since I graduated from high school), the task force ships-escort carrier Guadalcanal (CVE 60) and five
USS Kennebec, July 1944 destroyer escorts-and aircraft had spotted the U-boat and were in pursui t. The carrier was low on fuel , a nd we were sent in to replenish her. We arrived alongs ide and began our job transferring fuel. I a m quite sure your readers have read about this event already, but one part that hasn't been talked about often is the m a neuvers of that operation. Guadalcanal was in the middle of refueling, with our ship sti ll along its starboard side, when we go t word that it wo uld have to retrieve the two planes that h ad sighted the U- boar. The birds were runn ing low on fuel a nd had to come in. The flight-deck crew first lau nched two other planes bur, to do so, had to make a 90-degree turn into the wi nd with the Kennebec still alongside. I was a gunners mate 2/c at the time and was assigned to a fueling-at-sea station on deck, which provided me with a ringside seat for the greater part of the d ay. Most of what happened on that day is etched in my memory. I am hoping to see a future article in Sea H istory on this event in history and would be happy to add my recollections of that day. I'm fas t approaching 92 , so do not tarry!
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Sidewheel paddle steamer Harvest Moon's stack as it looks today, at low tide.
SEA HISTORY 157, WINTER 20 16- 17
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