Pearl Harbor WHEC 37: an old ship with lots of memories attached



Don Martin and Hank Manriquez served on the Taney together.

When the Japanese attacked the naval base in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the Coast Guard cutter Taney was the first ship to return fire. It is the only ship that was at Pearl that day that is still afloat and is now a museum in Baltimore Maryland in the Inner Harbor. 

The ship was a Secretary-class cutter that was built during the Great Depression and was launched on June 3, 1936. At 327 feet long, she was not a big ship at all, was powered by two steam turbines and had no stabilizing capabilities to which I can attest to during my service on board. 

There were times when we were skirting typhoons and the ship would roll 45 degrees to one side and then 45 degrees to the other side which was really hard on the cooks. My job was sonar and radar watch in the combat information center which unfortunately was on the top level of the ship. So, when the ship would roll it was like being on the end of a stick that someone was waving in the air. In order to stay in the chair to monitor the radar one would use the seat belt cinched really tight.

Part of the Taney’s many varied assignments was helping in the search for Amelia Earhart, the American aviatrix who vanished in the Pacific in 1937 and narcotic smuggling. 

In 1937 a four legged crew member reported aboard, Soogie, a rat terrier, who turned out to be the longest serving crew member until 1948. After the attack at Pearl Harbor the Taney was sent to resupply Midway Island and search for survivors from the recent battles there. 

After that she was sent to be the convoy flag ship for crossings of the Atlantic and encountered German torpedo planes. This was in support of the Italian campaign in the Mediterranean. Next was a shift back to duty in the Pacific and the lead up to the Okinawa invasion where she shot down five Kamikaze planes that were attacking the Pacific fleet.

Don Martin’s old bunk about the Taney.

After the war the Taney returned to Coast Guard command and was painted white after being navy gray and reconfigured for search and rescue operations as well as weather station patrols in both the Eastern Pacific and Western Pacific—think half way between Midway Island and Japan. During this period, she was stationed in Alameda, California at the Coast Guard station, also the location of the West Coast boot camp and that is a whole bunch of other stories. While back in Alameda the Taney served a tour in Viet Nam, participating in Market Time patrols, providing naval gunfire support and searching for enemy shipping.

Making the trip back to Baltimore to see the old ship had been something I had always wanted to do but kept putting off for one reason or another, none of which were really valid. Then I called a friend who had been on the Taney at the same time and said we should go pay a visit and tell of our experiences to the historian recording all of the history of all the ships in Baltimore. 

Arriving on the ship brought back many thoughts and remembrances. Gone was the wood deck that was meticulously maintained in the past, white paint not quite so pristine, and compartments that were so much smaller than those in the memory bank. 

The old girl could use a little TLC to bring her back to the way she used to be, shiny and proud. I did find the bunk I occupied, but it had been replaced with a “new” version, a very thin mattress on a steel platform. The old one was a steel pipe frame with a canvas piece laced to it like a modified hammock. With rough seas it was easy to jam a foot in each corner on one end and a hand in each corner on the other end and not fall out. I have no idea how one could stay in the new configuration as there is nothing to hang onto. 

The Taney, the only ship to survive the Pearl Harbor attack that is still intact. At its permanet berth in Baltimore.

Maybe a solution to the maintenance issue is to take it up the coast to where the Coast Guard boot camp is located and have the boots spend a week aboard learning how to maintain steel ships.

For many who have served, there are feelings and emotions that run very deep and will never go away. It is the lucky ones that can have a positive reflection of their service.

If you Google Taney musem, there are a number of you tube videos on the ship for those interested in learning more.

Taney crewmembers in 1966. See if you can figure out which one in the photo is Don Martin. Hint, he’s the one on the far right with the pipe.

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