Loss of the ERIE
The ERIE was beached close to shore two miles north of Willemstad, Curacao, about an hour after it was torpedoed. Three minutes after grounding, she was abandoned, since firefighting efforts proved futile and the ship was nearly encircled by flaming fuel oil and gasoline. Fires continued to burn above and below the main deck. The ERIE was further damaged topside by the explosion of aircraft bombs (two 325 lb. depth bombs and two 100 lb. general purpose bombs) that were in ready stowage on the airplane deck, during the period 12 November to 14 November 1942. The fires above the second deck either burned out or were entirely extinguished by a fire fighting party and a local tug on 14 November.
The following day, a fire-fighting team (and specialized equipment), newly arrived from the Norfolk Navy Yard, entered the ship. Their efforts over the next two days extinguished all remaining fires on the second deck and below.
Naval officials were then able to examine the entire ship and concluded that the vessel would be salvaged and moved to the inner harbor at Willemstad for further inspection, in order to determine whether the ERIE would be rebuilt.
Salvage operations began on 19 November under the direction of the firm of Merritt, Chapman, Scott, with the assistance of about 40 ERIE crew members who were quartered within Willemstad’s inner harbor. Some 375 tons of debris and liquids were removed over the next week and a half. On November 28, the salvage vessel KELLERIG and two tugs eased the vessel off the sandbar, and she was then towed into the inner harbor at Willemstad.
There the ERIE was moored to special buoys in Macola Bay, just offshore of the Naval Section Base “Parera.” After additional inspections on December 3-4, U.S. Navy officials concluded that the reconditioning of the ERIE was feasible, if the following undocumented plan could be implemented. First, the ship’s list and trim would be improved by removing additional scrap and pumping out two port fuel tanks. Then, the Curacao Petroleum Industries Company would move the ERIE into a local dry dock and make repairs that would enable safe towing to a U.S. repair facility.
The emptying of the port fuel tanks (A-418-F and A-4-F) was completed during the evening of 4 December. Anchors and chain had also been replaced on the forecastle. This decreased the vessel’s list from 8½ degrees port to about 5 degrees to port. Overnight and in the early morning hours, ERIE's starboard reserve fresh water tank (D-1-W) flooded, probably due to the failure of a watertight door. The result of the gradual addition of this additional 43 tons of weight was the slow movement of the ship to an upright position and then to a 10 degree list to starboard, resting against the fuel oil barge that was used for lightering the ERIE. As the vessel heeled to starboard, additional flooding occurred in the engineers' washroom and from there into the engine room.
When Marine guards aboard ship reported this, orders were given to counter-flood the two port tanks which had been emptied the previous day. The impact of this action was fairly immediate and disastrous. Twelve minutes after the counter-flooding of tank A-4-F, the ERIE moved slowly upright and then quickly heeled to port. As one eyewitness reported, the ERIE "eased into the water with air whistling through her ports, hatches and open spaces, debris floating around her." She came to rest with only small sections of her forward keel and starboard shell visible above the water. Further efforts to raise and repair the vessel were deemed unwise, and the hulk was left in Willemstad harbor. On 28 July 1943, the ERIE was officially stricken from the Naval Register.
Provided below are the Commanding Officer's report of the salvage operations and eventual loss of the ERIE and photographs taken of the vessel as salvage efforts were underway in Willemstad harbor.
On 25 September 1943, the Navy's Bureau of Ships issued War Damage Report No. 31, the official findings concerning the torpedoing and loss of the ERIE. This report concludes that the Commanding Officer and other Navy personnel failed to obtain critical stability data (found in the ship's Inclining Experiment Data booklet) and to perform basic stability assessments, before removing or shifting weights. Further, the failure to comprehend the extremely low stability of the damaged vessel resulted in well intentioned but wrong actions to improve her list and trim, and was the primary cause of her sinking.
The full text and related photos found in War Damage Report No. 31 can be accessed below. Also available are files containing all of the sections of two of the three 24" x 12" color plates found in this report. Plates I and II diagram the extent of structural damage, fires and flooding aboard the vessel. (Plate III graphs the vessel's stability levels over the period 12 November through 5 December 1942.)
The ERIE (ex-PG 50) remained in the inner harbor at Willemstad for eight years, when (in 1950) the government of the Netherlands West Indies pressed for her removal, in order to further develop the harbor area. At the urging of the U.S. Department of State (and in part, because the Navy saw this as excellent opportunity to train salvage personnel), the Chief of Naval Operations authorized the removal of the sunken gunboat by salvage vessels of the Atlantic Fleet in 1951.
The removal operation commenced in February, 1952 and was directed by Captain J. E. Flynn who commanded the U.S.S. OPPORTUNE (ARS-41). In addition, personnel from the U.S.S. ESACAPE (ARS-6) and the U.S.S. RECOVERY (ARS-43) were involved in the 11-month training and removal efforts. A U.S. Navy sea-going barge, the YFND-17, also assisted.
As the Salvage Officer in Charge, Capt. Flynn regularly transmitted status reports to the Chief of Naval Operations and Commander of the Caribbean Sea Frontier. (Most of these were brief radio transmissions.) On December 9, 1952, the project concluded with the floating of the stripped hull (bottom-side-up) out of the inner harbor and the sinking of same at a depth of 300 fathoms (1,800 feet), some 2.6 miles to the southeast of the harbor entrance. Provided below is Capt. Flynn's report detailing the removal and sinking of the ERIE on December 9th, a Department of the Navy letter to the Department of State about the completion of the operation, and the U.S. Department of Defense press release announcing the removal of the gunboat.
Finally, I have posted here the last official order for ERIE crew members (the transport order for 134 of her sailors from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the Receiving Ship, New York City).
Report to the Secretary of the Navy from the Commanding Officer regarding the salvage operations and capsizing of the U.S.S. ERIE, dated 11 December 1942.
Photographs of the U.S.S. ERIE moored to buoys in the inner harbor, Willemstad Curacao, all taken 2 December 1942:
Aerial view of Willemstad, Curacao, in early 1950s. A black dot marks the spot where the ERIE was moved and moored to buoys on 28 November 1942. At the bottom left (at the harbor mouth) is Riffort. Approximately two miles north-northwest of this point, the ERIE was beached. Fort Nassau sits on the promontory just to the left of the black dot. When the ERIE was towed in to the inner harbor, it struck and damaged the Queen Emma pontoon bridge, the world’s longest floating pedestrian walkway, which is seen inland from the harbor entrance.
Aerial view of ERIE with bow positioned toward Naval Section Base Parera. Blackened area in starboard quarter is the hole ripped in the vessel by a torpedo on 12 November 1942.
Aerial view with Naval Section Base Parera more visible. (ERIE crewmembers who stayed on to help with salvage work were quartered here.) Note that stern section of the ERIE appears almost cut away.
Aerial view of ERIE with Naval Section Base at bottom, Fort Nassau at top left, and Curacao Petroleum Industries Company visible at top right.
Post side three-quarter view. Fort Nassau is at right center of photo. Note dramatic list of port quarter.
Full starboard side view with torpedo blast area clearly visible.
Full port side view. Note stern section awash at the torpedo impact area.
View toward stern, starboard side. Torpedo impact area and pronounced list to port are clearly evident. Barracks at Naval Section Base are visible on right side of photo.
Port side view. Note debris on superstructure and stern not yet removed.
View toward amidships, starboard side. Note depth charge racks on fantail.
Documents on the removal of the ERIE (ex-PG50) from Willemstad Harbor and sinking off the coast of Curacao.
Erie Progress Report #48 (Capt. J. E Flynn to CNO and ComCaribSeaFron, dated 10 December 1952)
Department of Defense press release on ERIE removal, dated 19 December 1952.
Last orders for bulk of Navy enlisted men who had been on board the ERIE, dated 1 December 1942.