USCGC ''Cobb'' (WPG-181) was a

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mult ...

cutter commissioned during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. A conversion of the 1906 coastal

steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...

, USCGC ''Cobb'' in the hands of the Coast Guard became the first US helicopter carrier.

Background

The U.S. government became interested in the potential of the

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

during the 1930s. In 1938, the government allocated two million dollars toward development of the machine, and an inter-agency board—which included a representative from the U.S. Coast Guard, Commander William J. Kossler—was established to oversee the program. Kossler had difficulty persuading the U.S. Navy of the utility of the helicopter and eventually enlisted the aid of Executive Officer Lieutenant Commander Frank Erickson of Coast Guard Air Station Brooklyn.Conwell, pp. 3-8. Erickson, who had helplessly watched sailors burn to death in oil slicks with no hope of rescue during the Japanese

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...

, immediately saw the utility of the helicopter in a

search-and-rescue Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search ...

role. However, as the Navy showed little interest at this time in development of improved search-and-rescue methods, Erickson promoted the helicopter's usefulness as an

anti-submarine warfare Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in older form A/S) is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations are t ...

(ASW) weapon instead. This proposal met with the approval of the Navy, and on 19 February 1943, the Coast Guard was formally assigned the task of developing the helicopter for the ASW role.

Acquisition and refit

As part of its ASW program, the Coast Guard began experimenting with ship-based helicopter operations. Initially, a series of flights was conducted from the deck of a ship at anchor, ''Bunker Hill''. When these trials proved successful, the Coast Guard moved to open sea trials. For the sea trials, the Coast Guard acquired an ageing passenger steamer, , from the

War Shipping Administration The War Shipping Administration (WSA) was a World War II emergency war agency of the US government, tasked to purchase and operate the civilian shipping tonnage the United States needed for fighting the war. Both shipbuilding under the Maritime Co ...

. The Coast Guard carried out major modifications to the ship, including removal of much of the ship's superstructure for the installation of a 38 × 63 foot flight deck for the use of helicopters, plus the addition of armor and weaponry. Following these modifications, the ship was commissioned on 20 July 1943 as USCGC ''Cobb'' (WPG-181)—the first US helicopter carrier.

Service history

In January 1944, the ship was ordered to

Groton, Connecticut Groton is a town in New London County, Connecticut located on the Thames River. It is the home of General Dynamics Electric Boat, which is the major contractor for submarine work for the United States Navy. The Naval Submarine Base New London is ...

for sound and

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...

training. In April, the ship was assigned to

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to train for helicopter landings on board its flight deck.''Cobb'', 1944 WPG-181 (ex-''Governor Cobb'')
United States Coast Guard website. The first such landing occurred on 15 June.
U.S. Coast Guard website. On 29 July 1944, the first take-off took place in

Long Island Sound Long Island Sound is a marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York to the south. From west to east, the sound stretches from the Eas ...

from ''Cobb'' flight deck. With the threat from

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

s greatly diminished by early 1945, the Coast Guard turned its attention to development of the helicopter in the search-and-rescue role. USCGC ''Cobb'' also played a role in this program when helicopters from its flight deck performed some of the earliest air-sea rescues. In spite of her historic achievements, USCGC ''Cobb'' proved an unsatisfactory acquisition. Originally America's first turbine-powered steamship, the aging 37-year-old vessel proved a liability to the Coast Guard with her excessive maintenance costs. During the first 115 days of the ship's service, ''Cobb'' was absent from the repair yard for a total of only nine days. Thereafter she managed operational duties an average of only one week out of four. USCGC ''Cobb'' was decommissioned by the Coast Guard on 31 January 1946. She was sold on 6 March 1947, and scrapped a short time later.

Footnotes

References

* Conwell, First Lieutenant Andrew, USAF (2008)
"History of Coast Guard Rotary-Wing Aviation: From Inception to the Modern Day"
United States Coast Guard website.
''Cobb'', 1944 WPG-181 (ex-''Governor Cobb'')
United States Coast Guard website. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cobb WPG-181 Ships built by the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works Ships of the United States Coast Guard 1906 ships