Strange Fate of the USS Escanaba

Blows Up While On Convoy Duty! The Coast Guard cutter Escanaba, shown here in Lake Michigan while she was on duty in those waters, sank after an explosion ripped her amidships while on convoy duty in the Atlantic, the navy announced in Washington Friday. 6/19/1943

I recently received the picture with the caption printed above about the Coast Guard Cutter Escanaba. After doing some research I found the story to be one of the lingering mysteries of World War II, the strange fate of the USS Escanaba.

There are countless stories of the bravery and daring of those in the U.S. Coast Guard. Their basic mission is to protect the boundary waters of the United States. Occasionally they get called away from that specific duty when the need presents itself. World War II was just such a time. The USS Escanaba was just such a ship.

Lake Michigan and World War II

The USS Escanaba spent most of its time patrolling the waters of Lake Michigan. It was built in Bay City by the Defoe Shipbuilding company. The Escanaba was intended for ice breaking, law enforcement, and maritime search and rescue. Its home port was Grand Haven, Michigan. At the time, Escanaba was one of the busiest ports on Lake Michigan and the ship was named in honor of that city. The Escanaba performed several rescues of ship’s crews in distress on Lake Michigan.

USS Escanaba ice breaking on Lake Michigan before WWII.

During World War II, convoys of ships carrying supplies and ammunition crossed the Atlantic regularly. Many ships were ordered to protect these convoys at all costs. The USS Escanaba was called out of the Great Lakes to accompany and protect the ships of the supply convoys.

During this time, the Germans were filling the waters of the Atlantic with what were known as the “Wolfpacks,” groups of submarines that were attacking and sinking most ships they came across that weren’t allied with the Nazis. They had no discretion whether they were civilian ships or military. They sank them both. The wolfpacks fed on convoys.

Greenland Patrol and the USS Dorchester

The USS Escanaba was assigned to what was known as the Greenland Patrol. They would escort convoy headed through the North Atlantic. The cutter had been refitted with weaponry in Boston, such as depth charges for combatting the U-2 submarines. The Escanaba claimed to have sunk 3 subs during its time on escort.

This painting by Robert Lavin depicts the Escanaba rescuing the survivors of the USS Dorchester.

Coast Guard ships are known for their daring rescues and the USS Escanaba did its part. In February of 1943, they rescued the survivors from the USS Dorchester. The Dorchester was the victim of a submarine torpedo and sank in the icy February water. Many of the survivors were so cold that they couldn’t hang onto ropes or pull themselves up a ladder. Members of the crew of the Escanaba became for the first time, rescue swimmers who went into the water themselves to pull survivors onboard! It is the first documented use of “rescue swimmers.” They wore special survival suits and tied debilitated victims to ropes to be pulled aboard. They rescued 133 people that day. Out of the 50 they initially thought were dead, only 12 died. The others revived when they got warm.

Many of them were awarded medals for their actions and the rubber suit retrieval method invented by one of the Escanaba’s crew members, Lt. Robert Prause Jr. gained praise and the method earned a permanent place in cold water rescues.

USS Escanaba Mystery

Unfortunately, on June 10th, that same year, the USS Escanaba was blown to pieces. The ship was escorting another convoy in the North Atlantic when it suddenly burst into a ball of fire. It happened so fast, that they bever got off a distress signal. In a moment, the ship and crew were gone. Other ships in the convoy that saw it said that there was no sound. First ships arrived on the scene within 10 minutes.  Only two survivors were found and one dead, the aforementioned Lt. Prause Jr. (It could be said that Lt. Prause posthumously went on to save countless lives with his cold-water suit invention.) The only reason the two survived is that their clothing had frozen to floating debris and prevented them from sinking to the bottom like the rest of their crew mates. 13 officers and 92 crewmen died that day.

Some of the crewmen from the USS Escanaba near the time of the explosion. Heroes all.

Theories

No one knows what caused the USS Escanaba to explode.  Naturally, the predominant theory is that it was a victim of a German submarine. But, none were found in the area and torpedo explosions make a lot of noise. Another theory is that it hit an underwater mine. Thousands of these were used in World War II. The last theory is that something went wrong with the ship itself. The possibility that something happened on board that caused an accident could have happened since they had different kinds of explosives aboard such as depth charges.

Whatever happened, it remains a mystery and probably always will. The 105 heroes that went down with the Escanaba will always be remembered for their valiant efforts to help people and save lives.

For more information on the USS Escanaba and a list of the crew members that were lost in the explosion click here.