photography, commissary, carpentry, and mechanical duties, as well as operate tractors and light tanks and the Armour Institute of Technology’s Snow Cruiser, the unique vehicle developed for polar exploration (see 22 November).
U.S. tanker R. G. Stewart is stopped by shot fired across her bow by German submarine U 38 about 253 miles west of Ushant, France, 48°17′N, 11°16′W. Soon thereafter U 38 shells, torpedoes, and sinks British motor tanker Inverliffey; R. G. Stewart rescues the tanker’s crew and later transfers them to U.S. freighter City of Joliet for transportation to Antwerp, Belgium.
German armored ship Admiral Graf Spee provisions from tanker Altmark; security measure of launching the warship’s AR 196 pays dividends, as British heavy cruiser HMS Cumberland is spotted closing the area. Admiral Graf Spee and her consort alter course and are thus not sighted.
12 Tuesday
USAAC 21st Reconnaissance Squadron (B-18s) (Major Howard Craig, USAAC) reports to Commander Atlantic Squadron for duty in connection with the Neutrality Patrol, based at Miami, Florida.
Instructions to Neutrality Patrol are modified to include covering the approaches to the Gulf of Mexico through the Yucatan Channel and the Straits of Florida.
U.S. freighter Black Eagle is detained by British authorities at the Downs, the roadstead in the English Channel off the coast of Kent (see 19 September).
13 Wednesday
Submarine Squalus (SS 192), which had accidentally sunk off Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on 23 May during a scheduled test dive (of her 59-man crew, 26 men perish and 33 are rescued by McCann Rescue Chamber), arrives under tow at Portsmouth Navy Yard for extensive repairs.4
U.S. freighter Sea Arrow is launched at Oakland, California, the first major ocean-going vessel of that type completed on the west coast since World War I.5
U.S. freighter Black Osprey, detained at Weymouth, England, by British authorities since 5 September, is released (see 31 October).
Norwegian motor vessel Ronda strikes mine off Terschelling Island, Netherlands, 54°10′N, 04°34′E; two U.S. citizens perish. Survivors (including four Americans) are subsequently rescued by Italian freighter Providencia.6
14 Thursday
Atlantic Squadron Neutrality Patrol assets deployed: Destroyers Davis (DD 395), Jouett (DD 396), Benham (DD 397), and Ellet (DD 398) operate between Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Placentia Bay, Newfoundland (Grand Banks Patrol); destroyers Hamilton (DD 141) and Leary (DD 158) operate off Georges Shoals; destroyers Goff (DD 247) and Hopkins (DD 249) and patrol squadron VP 54 (PBY-2s), supported by minesweeper (small seaplane tender) Owl (AM 2), operate out of Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island; destroyers Decatur (DD 341), Barry (DD 248), and Reuben James (DD 245) and auxiliary (high-speed transport) Manley (AG 28), with shore-based squadrons VP 52 and VP 53 (P2Y-2s), operate out of Chesapeake Bay; destroyers Babbitt (DD 128) and Claxton (DD 140) patrol the Florida Straits; heavy cruisers San Francisco (CA 38) and Tuscaloosa (CA 37), destroyers Truxtun (DD 229), Simpson (DD 221), Broome (DD 210), and Borie (DD 215), and patrol squadrons VP 33 (PBY-3s) and VP 51 (PBY-1s), supported by small seaplane tenders Lapwing (AVP 1), Thrush (AVP 3), and Gannet (AVP 8), watch the Caribbean and the Atlantic side of the Lesser Antilles; and heavy cruisers Quincy (CA 39) and Vincennes (CA 44) operate off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Held in reserve in Hampton Roads, Virginia, is a striking force consisting of carrier Ranger (CV 4) (her embarked air group consisting of squadrons VB 4, VF 4, VS 41, and VS 42) and battleships New York (BB 34) and Texas (BB 35). Arkansas (BB 33) and gunnery training ship (ex-battleship) Wyoming (AG 17) are carrying out training cruise for USNR midshipmen.7
U.S. freighter City of Joliet is detained by French authorities and her cargo examined (see 5 October).
Acting Secretary of the Navy Charles Edison, meeting with the press, Washington, D.C., 14 September 1939, warns belligerents that they “would be taking a long chance” attacking U.S. ships. To Edison’s left are Lieutenant Bernard L. Austin (standing) and Commander Leland P. Lovette (seated), from the Public Relations section of the Office of Naval Intelligence. (NHC, NH 56939)
16 Saturday
Naval Attaché in Berlin reports that Grössadmiral Erich Raeder, Commander in Chief of the German Navy, has informed him that all submarine commanders had reported negatively concerning the sinking of British passenger liner Athenia (see 22 September and 7 November).
British Admiralty, reflecting the need to protect the Atlantic lifeline necessary to Britain’s survival, announces establishment of convoy system for its merchant shipping; first Halifax–United Kingdom convoy (HX 1) sails—eighteen ships escorted by Canadian destroyers HMCS St. Laurent and HMCS Saguenay.
German submarine U 31 inaugurates U-boat campaign against convoys when she attacks west-bound convoy OB 4, torpedoing and sinking British merchant steamer Aviemore in the North Atlantic, 49°11′N, 13°38′W.
U.S. freighter Shickshinny is detained at Glasgow, Scotland, by British authorities (see 18 September).
17 Sunday
USSR, its western border secure after its 23 August 1939 ceasefire with the Japanese along the Manchukuo-Mongolia frontier, invades eastern Poland.
British use of Home Fleet aircraft carriers to hunt German submarines, begun on 3 September, ends after U 29 torpedoes and sinks HMS Courageous southwest of the British Isles, 50°10′N, 14°45′W. Courageous is the first capital ship lost by any of the warring powers. “A wonderful success,” the German U-boat High Command War Diary exults, “and confirmation of the fact that the English defense forces are not as effective as they advertise themselves to be.”
U.S. freighter Black Condor is detained by British authorities (see 24 September).
18 Monday
President Roosevelt authorizes Coast Guard to enlist 2,000 additional men and to build two training stations.
Heavy cruiser San Francisco (CA 38) arrives at San Juan, Puerto Rico, and reports that Dominican authorities are exercising proper precautions to learn promptly of the entry of any belligerent warship into Semana Bay, Dominican Republic.
U.S. freighter Warrior, detained by British authorities since 7 September, is released after her cargo of phosphates is requisitioned. Freighter Shickshinny, detained since 16 September at Glasgow, Scotland, is permitted to sail without unloading cargo deemed by British authorities to be contraband. Shickshinny, however, is to unload those items at Mersey, England.
Destroyer Downes (DD 375) under way, 27 September 1939, painted as part of a Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) camouflage experiment. Ocean Gray replaces the standard navy gray overall scheme; hull numbers, usually white with black shadowing, are dark gray. (NHC, NH 63132)
U.S. freighter Eglantine is stopped by German submarine, ordered not to
