Mohawk Farewell

For want of a $400,000 refurbishment as mentioned previously on this blog, the last of the Atlantic Convoy USCG cutters of World War Two is to be towed away and ignominiously sunk in the silty waters off Sanibel Island.


Already the CGC Mohawk has been stripped of all welcoming signs for visitors, the awning above the quarter deck is gone and the boat is shuttered and sad.


It seems such a cruel waste that this remarkable survivor has to be destroyed to make way for an up market marina and shopping complex.


I am glad I got to take the tour and thoroughly enjoyed the superbly preserved story of this elderly ship.


For those that didn't take the time to visit, here are the few photos I took, not realizing at the time that the Mohawk would one day soon be destined for deliberate destruction. Click the link below for the full essay of the tour:

CGC Mohawk

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Sinking The Mohawk

I originally ran this essay in January 2009 and now, nearly three years later I read the sad news that the Mohawk is to be sent to southwest Florida and sunk as an artificial reef. The Key West Citizen says the other floating museum, the Ingham will remain but the Mohawk needs a $400,000 overhaul to stay afloat and the money isn't there. So it is to be scuttled off Sanibel Island for divers to visit. Of course this sudden announcement will also benefit the grandiose plans for a high end marina in this area which have been blocked in part by concern about what to do with these ships... Considering the artifacts and the preservation of the record of life aboard this, the last of the Atlantic Convoy escorts of World War Two, I think scuttling this ship is criminal. But we live in a world where money for what we value is no longer available if it doesnt go to benefit the one percent. Horrid news.

There is a military looking ship tied up at the Truman Waterfront docks, it's actually a floating museum and it's open to the public for a modest fee:The US Coastguard cutter Mohawk was built in 1934 as a light ice breaker (!) for use in the Hudson River and it was designated as a Coastguard Power Gunboat (WPG). The Mohawk saw years of active service helping convoys across the freezing waters of the North Atlantic:After the war the Mohawk served in the Coastguard for years until its engines literally gave out and it was towed to a scrap yard. By some miracle this ship, the last of its kind, was saved by a bunch of devoted former shipmates and it is still undergoing the process of restoration in it's berth:The ship served with distinction during the Atlantic convoys, facing off against German submarines, a fact proudly recorded in paint:The ship's crew saved 500 sailors from drowning and lost one's ship's dog overboard. The captain refused to turn back to save the frantically paddling dog and suffered the hatred of the crew for the rest of his time on board; such is the force of sentiment even in the middle of a war... and the story is still told by the devoted restorers working on the ship today.The Mohawk attracts loyalty not only from former crew members but from the people who currently operate and maintain the ship at the dock. They have amassed a huge quantity of artifacts from the period and they talk avidly to former crew who come back to visit the old ship. The visit starts with a meet and greet with the man taking the money. He showed us pictures of the ship in action and pictures of the ice that covered the superstructure during winter convoys: The visit is self guided with the entire ship pretty much open to inspection and quite fascinating it is too, as the shop is filled with artifacts from the time it served in the war. First the galley (kitchen) where they made all meals for the 100 sailors and 14 officers on board. The stove operated on engine oil and apparently that same fuel seasoned the food according to some of those artifacts I mentioned earlier:Then there was the radio room with it's type writers and it's radio equipment. And a photograph. I was told the operator photographed still comes back to the ship every year to keep an eye on it's restoration progress:From the radio room there are steep steps to descend to lower levels:To the wardroom, the communal area of the ship where people hung out together. The silver barrel in the foreground is a coffee urn, and the literature advises the tables in the background were well illuminated so they could double as operating tables...The men shared modest quarters, all 100 of them, the petty officers shared smaller cabins but used the same primitive bunks to sleep on:The officers in the rear of the ship (abaft) got greater comfort with more privacy and more luxurious bunks. However the whole proposition of putting to sea in a narrow beamed 165-foot ship was likely to be pretty rough. The ship rolled like crazy, something that was illustrated in a video made from an 8 millimeter film shot in Greenland in 1942. The video showed the successor to the drowned dog, called "Ricky Bow Wow" playing on the ship (his id card is on display next to the television):Then we saw crew members trying to stay upright as the ship plowed through relatively small waves in the North Atlantic. I got seasick just watching the video:The modern crew member and restorer we met in this area, Chip the ship's engineer, had tons of stories to tell about life on board the ship and encounters with crew including a former enemy. One notable U-Boat Captain came to visit the Mohawk told of seeing the Mohawk through his periscope while cruising for convoys to blow up. Chip kept Bruce and Celia entertained and I listened with one ear while I meandered with my camera: It was a great place to wander, check out the old pin ups (Mae West) and newspaper clippings of one sort or another, including the ship's newsletter:And an original poster:And there was the depth charge itself ready for launch on deck:It was a cold windy day when Bruce, Celia and I visited the Mohawk, so they huddled and listened to the stories below decks out of the cold north wind while I wandered the corridors:Then I poked my head into the steering compartment which housed the spare wheel:Before heading on deck to brave the breeze and check out the topsides, working my way forward, starting at the fantail:The Truman Waterfront seawall is a good place for the old ship to be tied up. It puts Mohawk right in the middle of the action, across from the cruise ships and in the same basin as the National Marine Sanctuary patrol boats, not to mention the current crop of race boats in town for the annual Southern Ocean Racing Conference sailing regatta. And the seawall is also part of the old navy base which is still visible in parts:Indeed when this was an active Navy port this very seawall was where submarines, similar to Mohawk's old nemesis, were tied up. Happily those were friendly submarines, but not nearly as friendly and as welcoming as Mohawk is today.

USS Spruance

A brand new Navy ship has sailed in to Key West amid much fanfare. In the arcane language of Navy numbering the guided missile destroyer is labeled DDG 111.


I spent a confused twenty minutes trying to unravel the druidical mysteries of the Navy numbering system in Wikipedia and all I did find was that the first two letters are repeated as though to give the class emphasis.


Thus DD is a destroyer and G presumably because it is armed with guided missiles. And this one point two billion dollar machine is come to Key West to celebrate it's birth, or 'commissioning.'


Saturday evening I and four thousand of my closest strangers will be gathered somewhere on the Navy Pier while they go through the ritual and pomp of the start of the new ship's career. In so much of daily life I find people mix up routine and ritual in the order of their day. A ritual is more than the routine of making coffee first thing, a ritual is following a script and imbuing an occasion with importance.


Key West is all atwitter with the ritual of commissioning and on a weekend when the city mercifully has no public money-making activity scheduled the commissioning will make a pleasant ritualistic variation. The community will pause and contemplate en masse, before getting back to the important business of business.


The ship is named for a man who has been described as one of the greatest Admirals in American naval history. His name was not DDG111, but Raymond Spruance, born in Baltimore in 1886 and dying in California in 1969. He commanded the US side in the Battle of Midway in June 1942. He beat the superior Japanese forces and was roundly criticized for not chasing their Navy after the battle, though historians studying the tactics came to agree with Spruance's thoughtful prudence.


Those days seem far away when one considers how huge were the battleships and cruisers of the time and how lithe is this modest little destroyer that packs a disproportionate missile punch.


The Outer Mole is now home, temporarily to the Navy's newest ship yet the inner basin is still home to yesterdays heroes, coastguard cutters of another era now relegated to museum status tied up at the former Navy waterfront.


The little gray Mohawk served in World War Two escorting Atlantic convoys.


The white Ingham cutter newer and bigger is still miles behind the Spruance in size and sophistication.


They've got the bunting ready for Saturday and then who knows what they will do with this miracle of modern technology.


Out on patrol no doubt. We hear Cuba is preparing to drill for oil in the Straits of Florida using a Spanish company and amazingly enough the embargo is still uppermost in the minds of the maniacs who write policy for this country. So instead of talking to Cuba and preparing to deal with a spill the US Congress is proposing legislation to penalize any oil company doing business with Cuba. The Monroe Doctrine in 21st century guise.


We look back and the world appears to have been a simpler place. It's not true of course but we admire the modest little ships of yesteryear and what conclusions are we supposed to draw? That ships like these that ruled the waves could only have ruled waves more easily dominated than the seas of today.


The miracle perhaps is that they chose to commission the ship in Key West thus giving us cause to celebrate this new symbol of old power in a rapidly changing world.


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Rainy Truman Waterfront

I knew the rain was coming- it was as obvious as the inky black cloud overhead, but Cheyenne and I were in key west and I was determined that my Labrador should enjoy one of her favorite walks and the temperatures were dropping ...and obviously this was not a good idea in the grand scheme of things.A family visiting the decommissioned US Coastguard Cutter Ingham saw the weather coming and made a run for the parking lot. They ran for the doors as the rain swept down in a curtain of cold water. I think they kind of made it...I have been planning to check out the Ingham but winter crowds kept me out of Key West. the website for the museum is here: http://www.uscgcingham.org/index.html and I plan on taking a tour soon enough myself. I thoroughly enjoyed the tour of the neighboring boat, the first arrival at Truman Waterfront, the World War Two survivor called the Mohawk. Everyone should pay them a visit in my opinion. http://conchscooter.blogspot.com/2009/01/cgc-mohawk.html The rain kept slashing down even as the visiting cruise ship pulled away to head out to sunnier climes. I had on a plastic jacket, what they call water resistant because it isn't entirely waterproof despite my best ministrations with silicon spray. Cheyenne is no great fan of the rain and she raced me to the shelter of an old abandoned hut on the waterfront. She laid herself down while I watched the rain and took some pictures to try to illustrate the beauty of a tropical summer thunderstorm in Key West.

I used to hate the cold winter rains when I lived in temperate climates Up North (Out West, really) but summer rain in Key West is delightful. It chills the air momentarily and then moves on leaving warmth in it's wake.