Northland (ship)
 The Northland still with full equipment before 1936
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The cutter Northland was a coast guard ship of the US Coast Guard . This results in the often used prefix “USCGC”. After the Second World War , the ship served as The Jewish State as a refugee ship and was the first warship of the Israeli Navy as the A-16 Eilat after the establishment of the state of Israel .
Coast Guard Ship Northland
The Northland was specially designed for service missions in arctic waters. Some sources therefore also refer to the cutter as an icebreaker . The Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Corp. The ship built had a diesel-electric drive with two six-cylinder diesel engines , two generators and a double-armature electric motor on one screw . The top speed was 11.7 knots . At a cruising speed of 11 knots, the range was 10,280 miles , at 10 knots 12,000 miles and at 8.2 knots 18,800 miles. Additional range could be achieved with the sails.
The ship, which cost $ 865,730, was launched on February 5, 1927, and commissioned on May 7 of the same year. From changing home ports of San Francisco , Oakland and Seattle , the Northland was mainly used in the Bering Sea . The duties of the coast guard ships in the area at that time included more than just patrols. Government duties, secret service assignments, mail delivery, transport of civil servants such as teachers and judges, medical care for remote towns, monitoring of the health system, forestry and hunting as well as the trade supervision were among the activities of the ships and their crews.
In 1936 sails and masts were removed from the Northland . The ship, which was only eleven years old, was decommissioned as early as 1938. In June 1939 she was put back into service and moved to Boston , where she was scheduled and prepared for the second Byrd Antarctic Expedition. With the outbreak of World War II, she was recalled from the expedition and sent to Alameda , California , for coast guard patrols on the west coast .
War effort
In May 1940 the Northland was moved back to the Atlantic . At the New York Navy Yard she was equipped for special missions in Greenland . In this context, the ship received its own on-board aircraft , initially a Curtiss SOC-4 and from 1942 a Grumman J2F-5 . During a first reconnaissance voyage starting on August 20, Greenland ports were assessed for their suitability for the stationing of patrol units. With the result, existing ports as well as suitable locations for new ports were selected. It was agreed between the US government and the Danish government in exile that Greenland will be included in the protection and defense area of the US.
In April 1941, the Northland was used to support the South Greenland exploration expedition. During the expedition, the Northland also searched the North Atlantic for survivors of sunken ships. As a result of the expedition, the South Greenland patrol with the cutters Comanche , Modoc and Raritan , as well as the research vessel Bowdoin, was set up. A month later, the Northeast Greenland patrol was set up with the ships Northland , Bear and North Star . The command of the Greenland patrols was Captain Edward H. Smith .
On September 12, 1941, the Northland stopped the Norwegian sailor Buskoe , which had been occupied by the Germans , and sent an inspection team on board. The Buskoe was suspected of transmitting weather data and information about Allied ships to Germany, so the sailor was arrested and taken to Mackenzie Bay. It was the first ship captured by the USA in the American pre-war phase. The confiscation of the Buskoe uncovered German actions with which secret radio stations were set up in Greenland. With a nightly commando company from Northland , such a radio station was captured, including operating personnel, devices, codes and operational plans for other radio stations.
On October 25, 1941, both Greenland patrols were merged under Captain Smith, who was promoted to Rear Admiral. From the beginning, the Northland served as the flagship of the patrol, which grew to 37 ships by 1943. On June 18, 1942, while on patrol in Davis Street , the Northland sighted a submarine that it attacked with depth charges. Oil stains and air bubbles after the attack indicated a sinking, but German documents have so far not found any evidence of a lost submarine in this area or time frame. In July 1944, the Northland sighted a German steamer, which was probably the Coburg . But before a command could be sent on board, the German ship was destroyed by its own crew. Presumably the ship belonged to one of three German Greenland expeditions. Another German expedition ship was placed in September, but this too was withdrawn from access by sinking itself.
After the end of the war and the termination of the Greenland patrol, Northland was transferred to the Ministry of Finance on January 1, 1946 and was used for tax investigations until it was withdrawn on March 27, 1946. After the decommissioning, the ship was put out to tender.
For the missions in World War II, the Northland was awarded two Battle Stars .
Refugee ship
In the spring of 1947 Northland was up for scrapping and was taken over by Weston Trading Co. for $ 50,000. However, Weston was not a ship recycler, but a front company of the Mossad le Alija Bet . On May 1, the Northland left Baltimore with destination Port-de-Bouc near Marseille . In order to reduce costs, the Atlantic crossing was a contract service freight transport. During the crossing, both drive motors failed one day apart due to seal damage. No SOS emergency call was made from the non-powered Northland , the machinists managed to make makeshift repairs after hours of work. In Port-de-Bouc the freight was unloaded, fuel was bunkered, the engines properly repaired and generators replaced. Then the Northland left Port-de-Bouc again and drove to Bayonne , where it was converted into a refugee ship by Palyamniks in three months . In the immediate vicinity of Northland , the Paducah was also converted into a refugee ship, but the smaller Paducah was finished earlier and was able to leave the port again. Under the impression of the Exodus affair, the Northland was arrested immediately after the departure of the Paducah and was only allowed to leave the dock after all bills had been paid. Northland left Bayonne on August 28, 1947 .
The Northland was originally intended to accommodate passengers in Gdansk . Due to the Exodus affair, this plan was dropped and it was decided to go to the Black Sea , where the Northland should take in refugees from Romania and Bulgaria . However, she could not escape the attention of the British. From September 3rd, when the Northland and the Paducah passed Gibraltar , until their Dardanelles Passage on September 12th, the two ships were permanently monitored by British warships.
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Both ships were given Hagana code names for their upcoming use as refugee ships. The Northland was to The Jewish State ( Medinat haJehudim ), based on the book The Jewish State by Theodor Herzl ; the Paducah was named Geula . On September 23, the two ships reached Burgas and began taking passengers on board. As of September 26, the Jewish State had received 2,664 refugees. Every single Jewish refugee had to be approved by the communist leaderships of the countries, and the Mossad le Aliyah Bet paid a fixed amount of money for each Jewish refugee. Nevertheless, the Romanian Foreign Office exerted influence on the Bulgarian authorities in order to refuse the Jewish State 's permission to leave. However, with the approval of the Bulgarian authorities and confirmed by the Soviet Union , Jewish State and Geula were able to cast off on September 26th.
Two days later, on September 28, the Jewish State and the Geula passed the Dardanelles again. Soon after, they were spotted and followed by HMS Chaplet and HMS Cheviot . The two British warships were later replaced by HMS Haydon and HMS Charity . The plan was to use the Geula as an escort ship for the Jewish State , which would then take over the Geula passengers abeam of Rhodes . If this project was impractical from the start due to the threatened overloading of the Jewish State , it has now been completely abandoned because of the permanent surveillance by the British. Both ships continued towards Palestine , but from Rhodes on separate routes: The Geula set course for Haifa , the Jewish State headed for Tel Aviv . In order to escape the surveillance of the charity , the Jewish State carried out evasive maneuvers. However, the desired effect did not materialize. For this reason, all entrances to the ship on the Jewish State were secured by wire fences and other barricades in order to avoid or at least make it very difficult for the British to board. Although the Mossad le Alija Bet only ordered passive resistance as a result of the deaths of the Exodus affair , objects such as stones, screws and cans, as well as batons, were laid out. The British ordered three destroyers and a frigate to support the charity , and the access was made on October 2, five miles from Tel Aviv. Fierce resistance resulted in one wounded on the British side and three on the Jewish side. After the resistance was broken, the Jewish State was dragged to Haifa.
In Haifa, the Jewish State passengers were not disembarked, but kept on the ship for three days. The British now used the wire barriers on the ship as escape protection. On October 5th, the passengers were transferred to the deportation ships Empire Rest , Empire Comfort and Snowden Smith , and taken to Cyprus as part of Operation Igloo to the Dekelia internment camp. Two palyamniks, four passengers and several foreign crew members were able to hide on board the Jewish State and were later disguised as cleaning personnel.
The Jewish State was anchored at the breakwaters in front of the port of Haifa. The collection of confiscated refugee ships off Haifa known as the "Shadow Fleet" had already grown to 45 ships. As early as April 1948, and thus before the end of the mandate period and the release of the ships, the Jewish State was prepared by Jewish mechanics for use as a military ship.
Israeli Navy
On May 21, 1948, the Jewish State left Haifa under the name Zefonit as the first ship of the "Shadow Fleet" under the Turkish flag. On the crossing to Tel Aviv, the Turkish flag was lowered, the Israeli flag was hoisted and the ship was renamed the A-16 Eilat . It was the first warship of the State of Israel. The ship's command was led by Josef Almog , who was already in command on the voyage from Burgas to Tel Aviv. Once in Tel Aviv, the Eilat was armed with Beza machine guns , Oerlikon Hispano-Suiza anti-aircraft cannons caliber 20 mm and Sten machine guns. The Eilat then patrolled the coast to repel attacks by Egyptian ships and planes on Tel Aviv, as well as to provide escort for incoming refugee ships .
On June 4, 1948, the Eilat came across three Egyptian ships that were about to bombard Tel Aviv. The Egyptian association consisted of a frigate, a converted cargo ship and a landing ship with numerous Egyptian soldiers. The Egyptian frigate opened fire on the Eilat , which was hit several times in the course of the battle. However, the damage to the Israeli ship was minor and no one was injured on board. The clearly inferior Eilat requested air support , which could be provided by the Israeli air force , which was still small and weak at the time : A Beechcraft Bonanza with wing bombs and a Fairchild 24 with manually dropped grenades were able to fend off the Egyptian attack on Tel Aviv together with the Eilat . After the British had left Haifa, the Eilat (with the Westwood) ran into the Haifa naval base on July 1, 1948 . The main mast was removed there. Shortly afterwards, the ship left Haifa with a crew of 89.
After surviving the War of Independence , the Eilat was used as a training ship for naval officers , navigators and machinists in the early 1950s . In 1955 the Eilat was renamed Matzpen , the prefix A-16 was retained. As Matzpen , the ship was used as a mother ship for motor torpedo boats and was used as such in the Sinai campaign in 1956 for coastal security between Tel Aviv and Port Said , as well as for secret service operations. In February 1962, the Matzpen was struck from the shipping register and sold to an Italian scrapping company for $ 50,000.
Web links
- USCGC Northland (English, PDF; 55 kB)
- Jewish State at palmach.org (engl.)
- Voyage of Medinat Ha'Yehudim (English, PDF)