HISTORICAL - NAUTICAL NOTES FROM THE GOLD SIDE
By RADM Ray Wood, USCG (Ret)
(Interview by Matt McDonald, SO-PB & John McDonald, ADSO-PB)
Author's note: Flotilla 38 member, the late, RADM Raymond Wood USCG (RET) had a varied career in the Coast Guard and this account barely scratches the surface. However, for now allow us to say that Ray came into the Coast Guard as one of its most junior members in 1945 and left as the most senior officer in the district in July, 1981 when he retired as Commander of the First Coast Guard District. He joined us in the Auxiliary in 1982 and went into Auxiliary-retired status in December 2000. Admiral Wood passed away in 2006.
Ray Wood enlisted in the Coast Guard in June of 1945, fresh out of high school, as a seaman recruit and was promptly discharged in June of 1946. World War II ended with Japan's surrender on 14 August 1945 and within a few days Coast Guard Headquarters promulgated a detailed demobilization plan. Separation centers in the districts were to process some 800 officers and 13,000 enlisted men for release from the service each month, beginning in September, and by 30 June 1946, the Coast Guard would reach its tentatively approved peacetime strength of 3,500 officers, 1,400 warrant officers, and 30,000 enlisted men. However, while Ray was a seaman recruit he had taken the test for the Coast Guard Academy, which he had passed. So, shortly after being discharged from service in June, Ray found himself entering the Academy in July of 1946. He graduated with the class of 1950 and was commissioned as an ensign. His first duty was to remain at the Academy for the summer to participate in the indoctrination of the next class of freshmen.
Ray's first sea duty was aboard the 213-foot cutter ACUSHNET, based in Portland Maine, which was a former navy salvage vessel. His next duty was aboard the 311-foot cutter BARATARIA where he wore are variety of "hats," that is to say he worked at a wide variety of jobs while aboard and stated that it was a great learning experience. From there he went to serve aboard buoy tenders or the "black hulls" which have been long credited with providing the Coast Guard with some of its finest seamen. Cutter sailors have long since learned that retrieving a buoy is no task for a novice. Buoys frequently mark shoals, rocks, and other dangers that prudent mariners avoid. Tenders have to brave these to "work" the buoys periodically, maintaining position despite wind, current, and sea condition while the new or overhauled buoy, together with its sinker and chain, is carefully lowered in the proper location. In addition, servicing the buoy means hauling it onboard and securing it together with its chain and mooring. Robert Johnson, writing in Guardians of the Sea, (an excellent history of the Coast Guard) notes "The large lighted buoys are heavy, cumbersome, and fragile- very difficult to handle on the buoy deck of a tender except under ideal conditions, which rarely prevailed in coastal waters." And of course the larger the buoy the more massive its sinker and chain. Johnson goes on to state "Buoy-tending might be described as combining the more hazardous forms of piloting and stevedoring; it is not surprising that experience was almost the only school in which to learn the special type of seamanship that their work required." While serving on the buoy tenders LAUREL and COWSLIP, Ray patrolled the coast of New England from Hampton harbor in New Hampshire to the Canadian border and gleaned invaluable skills that would serve him well throughout his career.
A portion of the duty for those serving on buoy tenders at this time was to re-supply light stations with coal which was used as the main fuel for the keepers' houses. Trucks would deliver the coal in 60 pound bags to the pier where it would be placed in cargo nets and taken aboard the buoy tender where it was sorted by type and secured. Good weather was needed for the re-supply and most of the time this was done from late September until early November when the weather on the New England coast was at its most cooperative. Once the light station was reached the buoy tender would set its anchor and the coal would be transferred one ton at a time to a cargo boat for the final trip to the station. The cargo boat would run up on the boat slip at the station where a cable would be attached and a donkey engine would be put to work hauling the cargo boat up the slip. This was an all hands evolution and everyone, excepting the captain of the buoy tender, one engineer, and the cook, would participate in hauling the 60 pound bags of coal one at a time to the keeper's house. Ray noted that in a typical season they would deliver 700 tons of coal to the light stations on the coast. He also noted that it was hard, dirty, and backbreaking work.
Admiral Wood related one "sea story" which we'll share with you. In January of 1956 Ray was serving as the operations officer aboard the buoy tender LAUREL which was homeported in Portland Maine. The weather was freezing cold and operations were very difficult to say the least. Late on a Sunday afternoon they received an urgent message from the keeper of Wood Island Light stating that he and his family were without water and needed a delivery post-haste. LAUREL secured the proper stores and set out for the station forthwith fearing for the safety of the family, being without water on an isolated light station in the dead of winter could be life threatening. LAUREL steamed through the night and was able to reach the station at approximately 0900 on Monday. The tender set its anchor, a hose was carried over to the island and the water began to flow shortly after arrival. The skipper of LAUREL was pleased that he and his crew had come to the "rescue" of the light station within such a short time and was on the bridge supervising the re-supply. After approximately one half-hour the captain noticed that freshly washed laundry was exiting from the keeper's house on a line that stretched to the front yard. The LAUREL had steamed through the night to save the light station's family from wearing dirty clothes. Ray said, "The skipper was so mad I thought he was going to jump ashore."
The following account is drawn from Ray's memories and a copy of "Navy Times" dated 14 June 1967 and describes his first shore command. In September of 1953 Ray was assigned to the Loran station on Tern Island, which is a part of French Frigate Shoals. French Frigate Shoals is 457 miles from Hawaii and was discovered, by accident, when the French explorer Jean Francois de Galup nearly ran his two frigates, Brouesole and Astrolabe, aground there in 1786. He named his near miss Basse de Fregates Francais, or Shoal of the French Frigates. For the next century the archipelago was all but forgotten. In 1895 it was made a part of Hawaii and when the United States annexed Hawaii as a territory and later when it became a state the shoals were included. The chain was uninhabited until WWII when the Japanese used Tern Island as a submarine rendezvous point and a refueling stop for seaplanes.
When the U. S. fleet, under Admiral Nimitz, steamed out to defend Midway, two destroyers were dispatched which surprised and drove off three Japanese submarines. Because of its strategic location halfway between Midway and Hawaii, Tern Island became a landing strip. Ray said that it looks something like a giant aircraft carrier when viewed from the air. It is in fact something like a carrier since its largely man-made having been built up from a sandbar with coral dredged up from the reef. In 1944 the Coast Guard established a Loran station on East Island, which helped ships navigate the central pacific. Then in 1952 the station was moved to Tern Island, where Ray became the second commander in 1953. There are three large buildings and eight smaller ones on the coral islet, which is 3100 feet long and only 410 feet wide; Ray was commanding a regular tropical paradise. The station is supplied by weekly logistics flights from Coast Guard Air Station Oahu. The flights carried everything but the heavy equipment and fuel, which were brought by the cutter KUKUI or buoy tenders working in the area. A normal tour lasted for a year and Ray was relieved in September 1954.
