On The Week of 1-7 October 1939

US NAVY

Sunday, 1 October 1939

            As of this date, the U.S. Navy consists of 396 commissioned ships divided amongst the major U.S. Fleet commands afloat:

            Battle Force (Battleships, Cruisers, Destroyers, and Aircraft),

            Submarine Force,

            Base Force;

            Scouting Force (Cruisers and Aircraft);

            Atlantic Squadron; 

            Asiatic Fleet;

            Special Service Squadron and

            Squadron 40‑T.

There are 175 district craft in service in the following naval districts:

            First (headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts),

            Third (New York),

            Fourth (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania),

            Fifth (Norfolk, Virginia),

            Sixth, Seventh and Eighth(Charleston, South Carolina),

            Ninth (Great Lakes, Illinois),

            Eleventh (San Diego, California),

            Twelfth (San Francisco, California),

            Thirteenth (Seattle, Washington),

            Fourteenth (Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii),

            Fifteenth (Balboa, Canal Zone) and

            Sixteenth (Cavite, Philippine Islands);

Vessels not in commission (but includes those ordered recommissioned incident to the expansion of the fleet) number 151; 5 district craft are carried as not in service. Vessels listed as "in service" include some used for USNR or Naval Militia training. Vessels not in commission include those loaned to the states of Pennsylvania, California, New York and Massachusetts for use as maritime school ships, the Maritime Commission and the Sea Scouts; as well as "relics" like the Civil War vintage Hartford, the Spanish‑American War prize Reina Mercedes, and Spanish‑American War veterans Olympia and Oregon. Interestingly, the 1 October 1939 list contains the gunboat Panay (PR‑5), bombed and sunk by Japanese naval aircraft in the Yangtze River on 12 December 1937.

            Word of German armored ship Admiral Graf Spee's sinking of British freighter Clement reaches British Admiralty, which begins disposition of ships to meet the threat posed by the surface raider in the South Atlantic (see 5 October).

Monday, 2 October 1939

            Act of Panama is approved by Conference of Foreign Ministers of American Republics meeting in Panama City, establishing a Pan‑American neutrality zone 300 miles wide off the coasts of the United States and Latin America.

            German government notifies the United States that merchant vessels must submit to visit and search, and that neutral merchant vessels refrain from suspicious actions when sighting German men‑of‑war and that they stop when summoned to do so. Maritime Commission, and State and Navy Department representatives who meet to contemplate the request consider it proper and should be complied with.

            Chief of Naval Operations instructs all planning agencies within the naval establishment to accord precedence to the preparation of ORANGE (Japan) war plans.

            River gunboat Tutuila (PR‑4) is damaged when she is accidentally rammed by Chungking Ferry Boat Co. Ferry No. 2 at Chungking, China.

            Norwegian motor vessel Hoegh Transporter is sunk by mine off St. John Island, entrance to Singapore harbor; the two Americans among the passengers survive, one is uninjured.

Wednesday, 4 October 1939

            U.S. Naval Attaché in Berlin reports that Grossadmiral Erich Raeder, Commander in Chief of the German Navy, has informed him of a plot wherein U.S. passenger liner Iroquois, that had sailed from Cobh, Ireland, with 566 American passengers on 3 October, would be sunk (ostensibly by the British) as she neared the east coast of the United States under "Athenia circumstances" for the apparent purpose of arousing anti‑German feeling. Admiral Raeder gives credence to his source in neutral Ireland as being "very reliable" (see 5, 8 and 11 October).

            U.S. freighter Black Hawk, detained by British authorities since 19 September, is released.

Thursday, 5 October 1939

            Hawaiian Detachment is formed and sent to its new operating base, Pearl Harbor, T.H.; carrier Enterprise (CV‑6) (flagship), two heavy cruiser divisions, two destroyer squadrons and a light cruiser flagship, a destroyer tender and a proportionate number of small auxiliaries make up the force.

            Navy Department informs U.S. passenger liner Iroquois of word received late the previous day concerning the plot to sink the ship as she nears the east coast. "As a purely precautionary measure," President Roosevelt announces this day, “a Coast Guard vessel and several navy ships from the [neutrality] patrol will meet the Iroquois at sea and will accompany her to an American port" (see 8 and 11 October).

            British Admiralty and French Ministry of Marine form eight "hunting groups" in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans to counter the threat posed by German armored ship Admiral Graf Spee. That same day, the object of that attention, Admiral Graf Spee, captures British freighter Newton Beech in the South Atlantic at 09°35'S, 06°30'W.

            U.S. freighter Exeter is detained by French authorities at Marseilles, France (see 6 October); freighter City of Joliet, detained by the French since 14 September, is released.

            Secretary of State Cordell Hull requests Chargé d'Affaires ad interim in Germany Alexander C. Kirk, to ascertain why German authorities have detained Swedish motorship Korsholm (at Swinemünde), Estonian steamship Minna (at Kiel), and Norwegian steamship Brott (at Sivinemünde). All of the neutral merchantmen carry cargoes of wood pulp or wood pulp products consigned to various American firms. These are the first instances of cargoes bound for the United States held up for investigation by German authorities. While no U.S. ships are detained, cargoes bound for American concerns in neutral (Finnish, Estonian, Latvian, and Norwegian) merchant ships come under scrutiny by the Germans (see 10 October and 8 and 27 December).

Friday, 6 October 1939

            Last organized Polish resistance ceases at Kock.

            U.S. freighters Black Gull and Black Falcon are detained by British authorities (see 10‑11 and 17 October, respectively).

            U.S. freighter Exeter, detained at Marseilles, France, the previous day, is released. She subsequently reports having been examined several times by French naval authorities.

Saturday, 7 October 1939

            German armored ship Admiral Graf Spee stops and boards British freighter Ashlea in the South Atlantic at 09°00'S,03°00'W, and after transferring her crew to Newton Beech, sinks Ashlea with demolition charges.

            U.S. freighter Black Heron is detained by British authorities at Weymouth, England (see 16 October).