The Corsair Fleet, America's Homebrew Navy

The perpetual taste of salt pervades your mouth and nostrils as the ocean spray constantly splashes you every couple of seconds, shivering as the water and high winds cut through your heavy coat and sap away any feeling of warmth. That and the constant up and down pitching of the boat causes you to continually be on the verge of sickness. However you have a job to do, no matter the weather. You have answered your countries call in its hour of need and as you peer through the binoculars you remember that. Scanning the choppy, whitecapped ocean something catches your eye. A dark object slowly moving just below the surface, calling to the captain you sail closer to what could be the first action of the day. 

A member of the Picket Patrol scanning for enemy activity. Courtesy of the United States Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard 

In January 1915 the United States Coast Guard was formed by the “Act to Create the Coast Guard”, combining the U.S. Life Saving Service and the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service into one military branch. During the First World War the Coast Guard would escort convoys crossing the Atlantic to protect them against enemy submarines. They would also patrol American ports, harbors and shipyards, looking for any strange activity that might be caused by German saboteurs. 

Several Coast Guard cutters during prohibition era. Courtesy of History.com.

During the interwar period the Coast Guard was on the frontlines of prohibition, chasing down rumrunners and inspecting merchant ships for any alcohol that may be smuggled into the country. Prohibition helped to expand the Coast Guard and made it more known to the general public. During this time greater funding was allocated to the new branch and it was given more judicial power to hunt down smugglers. It formed its own aviation units and created the Coast Guard Intelligence Office, both of which being used greatly in World War Two for patrolling the coasts and breaking enemy codes respectively. 

Coast Guardsmen manning Lewis Guns during World War Two. Courtesy of wwiiphotos on Ebay.

During World War Two the Coast Guard would receive  many more duties, but staying true to their motto of Semper Paratus, “always ready,” they would face these challenges head on. Before the United States even entered the war the Coast Guard was performing additional duties. In 1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared the country neutral and set up a zone around the U.S. that no foreign warships were permitted to enter. The Coast Guard was ordered to establish a “Neutrality Patrol” that would interdict any warship attempting to enter this neutral zone. In January 1940 the Coast Guard would receive an additional role by establishing the Atlantic Weather Observation Service and continually provided updates on weather conditions in the Atlantic. Further duties added would include the patrol and protection of all ports, piers, shipyards, and water approaches, making the Coast Guard responsible for the anchorage and movement of all shipping in U.S. waterways. Along with this they also searched any ships carrying dangerous cargo such as explosives. By 1941 the threat of war was growing ever closer so the Coast Guard was authorized to create reserve and auxiliary units to assist with their growing duties as needed. These auxiliary units were made up of men who were generally unfit for active service and handled the more mundane tasks, freeing up regular personnel to perform more strenuous duties. 

Members of the US Coast Guard’s Beach Patrol performing a landing, likely a training exercise. Courtesy of the United States Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard was even the first branch to make enemy contact during the war.  In September of 1941 a German fishing trawler was spotted in the North Atlantic and was believed to be spying on allied shipping routes and providing weather information for Axis warships. A party of armed Coast Guardsmen boarded the vessel and seized it when they discovered weapons and equipment used to relay information to German U-boats. However the branch would not see its first official combat until December 7, 1941 during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Coast Guard cutters stationed in the harbor put up a screen of anti aircraft fire to deter their attackers and it is likely that they shot down a few. As America was forced into the conflict the Coast Guard would go on to support the Army and Navy all over the Pacific and Atlantic, assisting troop landings in places like Guadalcanal, Italy, and North Africa. More than half of the Coast Guard’s wartime personnel were used outside of America's borders which stretched their forces thin, and unfortunately meant that they could no longer effectively protect shipping back home. In the first four months of 1942 German submarines were able to sink eighty seven American ships, equating to a loss of 515,000 tons of cargo. Commanders quickly realized they needed to find some way to both obtain more men and boats to patrol America’s waterways while also freeing up trained personnel for support missions overseas. 

Painting of Coast Guardsmen providing covering fire as Marines storm the beaches at Guadalcanal. Courtesy of the US Naval Institute.

Civilians to the Rescue 

Seeing the need for more men patrolling America's waters Alfred Stanford, commodore of the Cruising Club of America, approached the U.S. Navy in 1941 and tried to convince them to let civilian boats and their owners help with defending the coastline. He even went so far as to offer 30 yachts for the task. The Navy however, refused.. Stanford would not be deterred that easily and by April the offer grew to 70 ocean-going yachts along with 100 other smaller watercraft. Again the Navy denied the help, but it prompted many to write letters to naval commanders and write editorials on the situation to convince them that they needed the civilian force. 

In May of 1942 the Chief of Operations, Admiral Ernest King, asked the Coast Guard Reserve to organize a civilian unit that could supplement the coastal naval forces being used for antisubmarine and rescue duties. The Coast Guard Auxiliary was put in charge of forming the new Coastal Picket Patrol, the civilian fleets official name. Originally the idea was to just have these civilian boats form a wide screen around coastal waterways and shipping lanes to prevent enemy submarines from entering. However the auxiliary was not organized well enough to handle the thousands of volunteers and the Corsair Fleet, as they came to be known, was quickly put under direct control of the Coast Guard. The men who volunteered were now able to do what they originally wanted, hunt down enemy subs. 

Drawing of a depth charge. Courtesy of the Bureau of Ordnance.

When the civilian boats arrived at their base of operation they were stripped and repainted a battleship gray and given a Coast Guard designation number. They were then equipped with machine guns, a radio, and four depth charges that could sink a submarine. Some were also equipped with sonar equipment and the larger yachts were equipped with naval cannons. The owner of the boat usually maintained command of it, so long as they wanted to, and received the rank of Chief Boatswain's Mate. At first almost anyone that could sail or tie a knot, and sometimes even those who could not, was accepted into the new unit. College boys looking for adventure, Boy Scouts, beachcombers, ex-bootleggers, and former rum runners could all be found in the Picket Patrol’s ranks. With such a ragtag group the men quickly adopted the name “Hooligan Navy.” Even world famous author Ernest Hemingway partook in patrol duties. 

The “logo” of the Corsair Fleet made by Disney. Courtesy of War History Online.

The Corsair Fleet was organized into six groups with the names corresponding with the area they were to patrol; Northern, Narragansett, New York, Delaware, Chesapeake, and Southern. Running from the North Atlantic down to Florida, each patrol was in charge of a 15 square nautical mile stretch of ocean. These patrol squares were located on the 50-fathom line of the Atlantic seaboard, meaning that they would have to go over 150 miles off the coast. This was a bit of a shock to those inexperienced as they were not expecting to be in the jaring conditions of the deep Atlantic. However most men stayed cheerful and were proud to now be able to properly serve their nation. 

A member of the Corsair Fleet in cold weather gear, notice the ice formed on parts of the boat. Courtesy of Young’s Boat Yard.

Action 

When the Corsair Fleet first began it did hit a few speed bumps. Many German U-boat commanders did not understand the threat posed by the Hooligan Navy and became cocky. One time a sub surfaced right beside one of the picket vessels and the commander walked out onto the submarine’s deck, in perfect English he yelled at the American crew saying “Get the hell out of here you guys! Do you want to get hurt? Now, scram!” Another time a crew aboard a boat by the name Jay-Tee was searching for survivors of a merchant vessel that had been sunk by a German U-boat. In the distance they could see the sub but decided to stay and search the area. The Germans quickly dived and a few minutes later the men and their boat were lifted completely out of the water, the submarine had surfaced right below them! It quickly dove again and, despite having a broken bow, the boat was able to limp back to harbor. 

A Corsair Fleet yacht off the coast of Cape Hatteras. Courtesy of Young’s Boat Yard.

Another issue was the inexperience of the civilian crews. Many of the boats used were sailboats and they were quite effective, when a submarine is submerged it has very limited sight on the surface and has to rely on sonar. These sailing ships made little to no noise, especially when compared to their engine powered counterparts, making them almost undetectable by enemy sonar. This allowed the boats to come closer to enemy subs and utilize their own sonar to accurately mark their position. However this sometimes backfired as the boats were so quiet and the crews so inexperienced that they would sometimes accidentally call in a false report on a submarine. One time a ship named Valor called in an airstrike on a suspected sub, but it ended up just being the sound of their own refrigerator running that the sonarman misidentified. One would do well to not let these mishaps fool them, the Corsair Fleet was still effective at deterring attacks. 

A Picket Patrol member dressed in cold weather gear. Courtesy of Young’s Boat Yard.

John Kimball and his crew aboard the Actaea spotted an Axis submarine just after daybreak, however they now had a difficult choice to make. They could report the sub back to headquarters, but this would break radio silence and give their position away to the enemy below, or they could keep themselves safe and risk it attacking the American merchant fleet. They ultimately decided to radio in a report, each man gathering around the radio waiting for the German U-boat to launch an attack on their small craft. To their surprise however it did not attack but dove and fled the area. A psychological victory that showed the Germans they were being watched and it was no longer open season for them. Another instance showing the bravery of these civilian volunteers was on September 15, 1942 when the crew of Edlu II spotted a surfaced German submarine. The crew had not yet received their depth charges so they hastily charged the sub, hoping to jump aboard and overwhelm the German crew with machine gun fire. However it dived just before they could reach it. 

Several men searching for submarines with one man aiming his Thompson sub machinegun at the water. Courtesy of Sailfeed.

The Corsair Fleet also proved effective at communication and spotting when they chased a U-boat for an entire day. In the early morning a Picket Fleet yacht designated CGR-1923 spotted a German sub and reported its location. Later in the day picket craft CGR-2516 found it and reported the location, a few Civil Air Patrol and Navy planes along with a couple Navy vessels were scrambled to find its exact location. That evening it was seen by boat CGR-2503 and the Civil Air Patrol was able to successfully spot it, dropping a smoke bomb on top of it so any nearby boats could easily find it. Picket vessel CGR-4436 was close enough to see the smoke screen and quickly launched depth charges at the sub. It is unknown whether the U-boat was destroyed but there was an oil slick present after the charges exploded, so it was at least damaged and likely had to abandon its mission in order to make repairs. In all the sub had been followed by four boats from the Picket Fleet, two U.S. Navy ships, five Civil Air Patrol planes, four U.S. Navy planes, and a U.S. Navy blimp. However all this work likely saved countless lives and thousands, if not millions, of dollars in cargo and shipping. 

A depth charge exploding. Courtesy of Wikiwand.

Of course the Corsair Fleet was not just for hunting submarines, they also completed search and rescue missions and retrieved lost cargo. In 1942 picket ship Pioneer was able to save all the survivors from a tanker that had been torpedoed. Other boats were able to save thousands of dollars worth of cargo. They also proved to be effective in spotting aircraft. On one occasion the Navy ran a test to see how easily enemy planes could slip through American defenses unseen. A group of several Navy planes flew in from the ocean unannounced and made for the nearest military installation, the only ones to spot them before they reached the base was a boat from the Picket Patrol which radioed the planes location in to headquarters. 

By late 1943 the threat of enemy U-boats had significantly diminished and the Picket Patrol was downsized, many of the original civilians being replaced by Coast Guard recruits. The service seeing the somewhat low skill patrols as a good training tool. The Corsair Fleet would stay in service until the end of the war when it was disbanded. Despite not achieving any confirmed kills, there is little doubt as to whether the civilian fleet kept American merchant shipping safe from the German U-boat threat. 

A smaller picket craft patrolling the coastline. Courtesy of the United States Coast Guard.

Personal Thoughts 

When I first found out about the Corsair Fleet I knew I had to do an article on it. I love learning about times when civilians take part in defense of their nation, especially without being asked. It’s kind of a shame that they don’t get more credit for their work, hopefully this article can shed some light on the subject. I also really like that one of my favorite authors took part in it too, I didn’t know Hemingway was in it until I started researching it. It shouldn’t surprise me though since he was always looking for some sort of action. I do find it kind of sad that something like this would likely never happen today unless it was absolutely dire circumstances, the government wouldn’t trust citizens today with automatic weapons and high explosives.

Sources 

Cover Photo courtesy of War History Online

https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2016/october/coast-guards-world-war-ii-crucible

https://www.history.uscg.mil/Our-Collections/Commemorations/World-War-II/igphoto/2001759031/

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/when-a-ragtag-group-of-foolhardy-men-took-on-u-boats-with-sailing_ship-x.html

https://www.yachtsinternational.com/yachtlife/the-hooligan-navy-a-tribute-to-forgotten-heroes-of-wwii

https://www.hsdl.org/?abstract&did=19425