BOOK - Loss of Navy Cruiser USS Milwaukee - Shipwreck Samoa California Boat G77

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STRANDING OF USS H-3 and USS MILWAUKEE: Maritime tragedy is never so poignant as when those who attempt to rescue others become victims themselves. Such was the fate of the USS Milwaukee, a U.S. Navy cruiser that was beached in January 1917 after it attempted to rescue the U.S. Navy submarine H3. On the morning of 14 December 1916 four U.S. Navy vessels were en route to visit the northern California city of Eureka. The three submarines, H-1, H-2 and H-3, and their tender, the monitor Cheyenne, had come down the West Coast in frequently foggy weather, and now had to negotiate heavy waves to enter the shelter of Humboldt Bay. With visibility limited from her low conning tower, H-3 misjudged her position and found herself in the surf off Samoa Beach, near the bay's entrance. Her one functioning diesel engine was not powerful enough to escape the breakers, and the submarine was soon aground broadside to the beach, rolling heavily. With H-3's crew helpless in the pounding surf, and her companion ships unable to reach her from offshore, the local lifesaving crew began rescue operations. During the afternoon a Coast Guard surfboat was hauled overland and, after fighting its way out through the violent seas, was able carry a line to the stranded submarine. By early evening all of H-3's twenty-seven crewmen had been brought ashore by breeches buoy. The problem of salvaging the stranded submarine was now addressed. The Navy tug Iroquois and Coast Guard cutter McCulloch joined Cheyenne in this effort. With great difficulty a heavy cable was run from the submarine out to the monitor, but this broke when Cheyenne and Iroquois tried to pull H-3 free on 19 December. With that, private contractors were called in. A salvage firm offered to do the work for 0,000, but this was deemed too costly. The only other bid, for only ,000 from a local construction company which proposed to haul H-3 over Samoa Beach and relaunch her into Humboldt Bay, was dismissed as unrealistic. The Navy, though lacking salvage experience and specialized equipment, decided to pursue the task itself. By the evening of 12 January 1917 preparations were in place for the big cruiser Milwaukee's attempt to pull the stranded submarine H-3 free of the grip of Samoa Beach. Unfortunately, in the fog and darkness, things quickly went very wrong. One of the two restraining lines, running from the monitor Cheyenne to Milwaukee's starboard bow, parted. In the grip of the powerful Pacific coast currents, the cruiser began to swing southwards. Tug Iroquois, not powerful enough by herself to resist the movement, had to cut her self free of the other restraining line. The cruiser's crew tried to cut the steel cable between her stern and the H-3, but it was too heavy for the hacksaw work required. It formed an inescapable leash, at the outer end of which the current and waves moved Milwaukee inexorably southwards and toward shore. Her engines, some twenty-one-thousand horsepower, were helpless against the sideways force of the current and the cable's backwards pull. Anchors dropped from her bow were too close to the ship to have any meaningful effect. By about 4 a.m. on 13 January 1917 Milwaukee was hard aground, broadside to the beach. The pounding surf rolled her hull, which gradually opened, letting in the sea, extinguishing the fires under the ship's boilers and dismounting some of her machinery. Milwaukee was now beyond saving and seemingly in danger of breaking up. Her endangered crew, some 450 men, had to be rescued. Miraculously, only one life was lost in the incident, but the ship itself was a total loss and was left to salvagers and souvenir hunters. For decades, the decaying hull of the USS Milwaukee was a popular backdrop for beach parties, and even today her rusted bulkheads can be seen a short distance offshore Samoa during very low tides. Look for rock monument just off Hwy 255 south of Cookhouse Rd. The H-3 survived. During the last half of February and the first three weeks of March, Mercer-Fraser employees ran cables under the H-3, built wooden crib work by her sides, and raised her 350 ton hull free of the sand. Late in March she was moved inland to get her out of the surf zone, then turned toward Humboldt Bay, on the opposite side of the Samoa Beach sandspit from the Pacific shore. With two huge tree trunks lashed to her sides, and a timber supporting structure built underneath, during April the submarine was rolled along wooden tracks toward the bay, some three-quarters of a mile distant. She was relaunched on 20 April. After inspection showed that she was still seaworthy, she was towed by USS Iroquois to the Mare Island Navy Yard. Refurbished, USS H-3 served actively until 1922, and was not disposed of until 1931.