86 Years Ago, Monday, 11 September 1939

US NAVY

            Germany announces counterblockade of Allies. Admiral William D. Leahy, USN (Ret.), former Chief of Naval Operations (1937-1939), takes office as Governor of Puerto Rico.

            Navy charters barkentine Bear of Oakland for operations in the U.S. Antarctic Service and commissions her as auxiliary Bear (AG-29). The U.S. Navy originally acquires Bear, built in Scotland for the sealing trade, to rescue the survivors of the ill-fated Greeley Arctic Expedition in 1884. The Navy transfers the ship to the U.S. Treasury Department in 1885 for deployment in the Revenue Cutter Service (later U.S. Coast Guard). In 1929, the Coast Guard transfers her to private ownership. Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, USN (Ret.) acquires Bear in 1932 for use in Antarctic exploration. (The expedition will be under the command of Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, USN (Ret.) (Byrd is appointed commanding officer of the expedition on 13 July 1939). Civilian sources provide scientific staff and dog drivers; sailors, marines and soldiers perform the supporting aviation, radio, 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.

            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.

            USAAC 21st Reconnaissance Squadron (B-18s) (Major Howard Craig, USAAC) reports to Commander Atlantic Squadron for duty in connection with the Neutrality Patrol. It is 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).