At the outbreak of the Second Happy Time in January 1942, Dione became the only large ship in the Fifth Naval District capable of opposing German U-boats. The cutter patrolled the waters off North Carolina, which were nicknamed "Torpedo Alley" due to the high capacity of U-boats operating there. From January to June 1942, she rescued the survivors of torpedoed ships, escorted Allied convoys passing through Torpedo Alley, and hunted sonar pings suspected to have come from U-boats with the goal of sinking one—though the cutter never sank one. In 1945, she was transferred to New England with two of her sister ships to help escort surrendered U-boats to American ports, which she did in May when she escorted U-1228 to Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Dione served out of Norfolk until she was decommissioned in July 1947 due to a lack of personnel. She was recommissioned in February 1951 and became the first Coast Guard Cutter to be stationed in Freeport, Texas. She operated in the Gulf of Mexico, serving in a search and rescue capacity until she was once more decommissioned in February 1963. The cutter was placed in reserves for about a year before being sold as a supply ship in March 1964.
She was operated as a merchant ship in the Gulf Coast region by three companies and under four different names. She was first known as Dione and was operated by the Palmer Decker Boat Company until it was dissolved in September 1967; Dione was seized by a US Marshal and auctioned off in December. She was known as Big Trouble and owned by Big Trouble Inc. until the company changed its name to Delta Boats Inc. in February 1968, and the ship's name was changed to Delta I. She was sold to Sabik Inc. in March. Delta I caught fire the next month while underway in the Caribbean Sea, and only her hull was salvageable from the fire. The ship was rebuilt, temporarily seized by a US Marshal, and was underway again by March 1970; her name had been changed to Al Rashid by that time. She operated under Sabik until 1992, when the former Dione was last seen in service as Al Rashid.
Development
USCGCJackson in 1927. She was a member of the 125-foot (38m)Active-class patrol boats that preceded the Thetis class.
On 17 January 1920, the Volstead Act went into force in the United States. The law executed the Eighteenth Amendment, which had been ratified on 16 January 1919. The amendment banned the "manufacture, sale, or transportation" of most alcohol and began the period of Prohibition in the United States.[3][4]:11 The Volstead Act was enforced by local police departments, the Bureau of Prohibition, the US Customs Service, the Department of the Treasury, and the Coast Guard.[4]:11 The Coast Guard's role was to prevent seaborne alcohol smuggling, a job that was initially deemed small and manageable. However, by 1924, the Coast Guard was overwhelmed by the volume of smugglers and struggled to intercept more than five percent of the flow of alcohol.[4]:161-164
Alongside its normal duties, the Coast Guard shifted to impose a blockade along 5,000 miles (8,000km) of American coastline. For the role, new patrol boats and destroyers—which had formerly been operated by the United States Navy—joined the fleet to patrol at sea; Prohibition enforcement had become the first priority for the Coast Guard.[4]:161-164 While the vessels helped fill gaps off the coast, they were expensive to operate and performed poorly. In the 1920s, the Coast Guard began to build purpose-built patrol boats to take over the role of Prohibition enforcement.[5]:382–383 These new cutters varied in size and capability but were used to create a continuous buffer of Prohibition enforcement that stretched from the open ocean to inner harbors.[6]:89,95,99,105
A common tactic by smugglers was to use large, seagoing, mother ships that loitered off the coast and supplied alcohol to smaller boats; the smaller boats then brought the drinks ashore.[6]:108 The Coast Guard ordered the construction of the 125ft (38m)-long Active class cutters in the 1920s to trail and intercept mother ships, and the experience was used to develop the next class of sea-going cutters.[7]:166 The 165-foot (50m) "B"-class,[2][7]:166[b] named for the cutters' overall length[2] and primarily known as the Thetis class, was ordered in the 1930s and designed based on results of the Active class' experiences.[7]:166 The design was intended to balance speed, seaworthiness, range, radio equipment, and armament.[8]:100 Eighteen Thetis-class cutters were built, and they were large and fast enough to intercept the mother ships.[6]:108 A newspaper article in the Oshkosh Northwestern praised the class the day before the launching of Dione and two of her sisters, describing the cutters as having "the latest developments in marine and electrical engineering together with a large cruising radius and extreme seaworthiness."[9]:4
The Eighteenth Amendment was repealed on 5 December 1933 with the Twenty-first Amendment[10]—a little under a year before Dione was commissioned.[2] The cutter never operated in the capacity that she and her sister ships were constructed for: enforcing Prohibition in the United States.[7]:166
Construction
Dione (left) on the ways, alongside her sister ships Electra and Pandora
A close-up of Dione
Hull number 277,[11]:30 listed as patrol boat 13,[12]:318 was built by the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Corporation in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.[2]Dione's keel was laid on 10 November 1933,[13]:37–38 and her contract was entered the same day for a price of US$242,800.[12]:318 The launch of the cutters and her two sister ships, Electra and Pandora, was originally to occur on 23 June 1934; it was postponed one week for per an announcement by the chief government inspector and shipyard officials.[14]:2Dione was finally launched alongside her sister ships[15]:9 on 30 June,[2] each cutter leaving the ways in intervals of twenty minutes[16]:2 beginning at 1100. Dione was christened by Unita Risch, president of Wisconsin Department of the American Legion Auxiliary.[17]:1Champagne, rather than sparkling water, was used to christen the cutter for the first time in a ship's launching in Manitowoc since Prohibition; it was also the first time that three vessels of that size had been launched broadside at one time.[9]:4 Around 10,000 people attended the triple launching.[16]:2[17]:1
The 3"/23-caliber gun aboard one of Dione's other sisters, Icarus. The gun was mounted on the bow on both cutters
The Thetis-class patrol boats had two decks: the main deck and berth deck. The latter was subdivided into compartments by six transverse watertight bulkheads. The forwardmost spaces were the chain locker and bosun's store,[d] which were situated in front of the shared enlisted quarters.[5]:382–383 Directly behind that were four staterooms for the cutter's five officers, followed by the fuel tanks with a fuel capacity of 7,700 U.S. gallons (29,000L) of diesel fuel, that were subdivided by two bulkheads.[5]:382–383[13]:37–38 Behind the tanks was the engine room, followed by separate enlisted and officer messrooms in the aft. On the main deck was a two-layered superstructure, which consisted of the deckhouse and pilot house. The deckhouse—the bottom layer of the superstructure—held the cutter's heads, the radio room, and the captain's quarters. Atop the deckhouse was the pilot house, an auxiliary diesel generator,[5]:382–383 three 18in (46cm)searchlights, and two 1lb (0.45kg) guns on either side of the pilot house. Mounted on the bow was a 3-inch/23-caliber gun supplied by a magazine located in the keel. Behind the superstructure were two funnels. On both sides of the aft funnel was the cutter's boats, which consisted of 19ft (5.8m)dories.[5]:382–383
The cutters were propelled by two Winton6-cylinder, 4-strokediesel engines. Each piston had a 14in (36cm)bore and 16in (41cm)stroke that could produce 450 rotations per minute and 670 brake horsepower (500kW),[5]:382–383 for a total of 1,340 brake horsepower (1,000kW). The engines turned two three-bladed propellers. The cutter had a maximum speed of 16 knots (30km/h; 18mph), a maximum sustained speed of 14 knots (26km/h; 16mph), a cruising speed of 11 knots (20km/h; 13mph), and an economic speed of 6 knots (11km/h; 6.9mph). She had a range of 1,750 statute miles (2,820km)[e] while traveling at her maximum sustained speed, a range of 3,000 statute miles (4,800km) while traveling at her cruising speed, and a range of 6,417 statute miles (10,327km) while traveling at her economic speed.[2]
Coast Guard service
Pre-war
Dione departed Manitowoc the same day she was commissioned—5 October 1934.[24]:29 She passed through the Great Lakes and docked in Ogdensburg, New York for repairs to her oil purifier on 15 October.[25]:5 The cutter traveled up through the remainder of the river and through the gulf of the same name.[26]:2Dione stopped in Philadelphia on 30 October to be outfitted with her weaponry,[27]:22[f] and docked at the Coast Guard base on the Elizabeth River on 1 November in order to take on fuel and provisions.[28]:16
Dione was stationed in Norfolk, Virginia.[2][29]:102 The cutter primarily operated in a search and rescue capacity, responding to vessels that had signaled that they were in distress,[30]:6[31]:6 taking injured seamen to Norfolk,[32]:1[33]:6 and locating the wreckage of downed planes.[34]:1,7 She also operated in various miscellaneous capacities, such as breaking through ice to allow ships access to the Smith and Tangier Islands in February 1936[35]:6 and accompanying vessels participating in a Hampton One-Design race in August 1941.[36]:18 In November 1937, Dione joined the search for survivors of the sunken cargo ship Tzenny Chandris, which had sunk in a storm off Hatteras, North Carolina, on the night of 12–13 November. Multiple lifeboats were found empty, but 15 survivors were eventually found clinging to wreckage by the cutter Mendota and were subsequently taken to Norfolk.[37]:1[38]
This map shows the waters of the Fifth Naval District off North Carolina and Virginia which Dione patrolled during the Second Happy Time
The waters off the Outer Banks of North Carolina are nicknamed the "Graveyard of the Atlantic" due to the high amount of ships lost at sea off the coast. The sandbars shift due to rough waves and unpredictable weather.[1]:25 During World War II, this region also earned the additional nickname "Torpedo Alley" (alternatively Torpedo Junction[43]:24) due to the high number of U-boats patrolling off the Outer Banks. During the time period that lasted from January to June 1942 and was referred to as the "Second Happy Time" by Kriegsmarine officers as well as Karl Dönitz—Admiral of the Kriegsmarine and in charge of U-boats,[44] 397 Allied ships were sunk by U-boats.[39]Adolphus Andrews, the rear admiral[45] in charge of the Eastern Sea Frontier, compiled a group of twenty ships to help defend the East Coast of the United States. This consisted of Dione, six Active-class patrol boats, four 110-foot (34m)cruiser submarines built before World War I, three Eagle-class subchasers, two gunboats from 1905, and four large yachts that had been converted for military service.[46]:176[47]:461–462 In addition to being the fastest vessel of the fleet,[46]:176Dione was the only one that was large and capable enough of opposing the U-boats that operated in Torpedo Alley.[1]:25[29]:102
Dione was under the command of Lieutenant Nelson McCormick at the start of the Second Happy Time in January 1942. McCormick came to the conclusion that Dione was too far away from ships, when they issued distress signals, to be able to assist them. Thus, he ordered his crew to conduct more aggressive and offensive patrols. After determining that U-boats generally attacked at night, McCormick decided to abandon his usual routine in favor of grid-searching the waters off the Outer Banks for U-boats;[1]:27[48]:28 these would utilize a World War I-era sonar system[43]:24 and other types of sound-detection gear.[1]:27[48]:28
Dione deploying depth charges, 1942
Sometime at the end of January, Dione dropped six depth charges after her sonar operator reported an "underwater object" 20 miles (32km) off Oregon Inlet. Two airplanes made several runs on a rapidly spreading patch of oil. They reported to McCormick that they saw something long and narrow. An oar and a boat hook eventually surfaced from the object, and when brought aboard were found to have been from the shipwreck of the oil tankerFrancis E. Powell; the tanker had been sunk by U-130 on 27 January.[1]:27–28 In early February, Dione was ordered to Little Creek Section Base to pick up a new master, Lieutenant James Alger. McCormick was kept aboard Dione as an executive officer, and to command the cutter when intricate maneuvers were required. On Alger's first day, Dione's sonar operator called out two echoes; the second resulted in Alger giving an order to drop depth charges. Two life rafts were dispatched to collect samples of oil that bubbled to the surface. It was then discovered that Dione had dropped depth charges on a sunken oil tanker.[1]:28,33 On 12 February, the cutter's sonar operator reported a periscope off Dione's port side. Alger ordered general quarters and had depth charges dropped from both the Y-gun and the racks; some went off at 100 feet (30m) while others went off at 50 feet (15m). Dione's lights and equipment abruptly went dead after her propellers came out of the water. The cutter's engines were stopped, and her electrical power was later restored. No U-boat was ever spotted.[1]:41
Later that month, on 19 February, the cutter towed the minesweeperUSSParamount to Morehead City after she had been grounded at the entrance to Ocracoke Inlet.[1]:46[49]Dione set off for Cape Henry late at night on 27 February to assist the torpedoed freighterNorth Sea. The freighter was found by Dione early the next morning. Reportedly, a U-boat's attack on North Sea had been halted due to a storm that had tossed the U-boat about, preventing it from accurately aiming its deck gun and shelling the freighter. Dione towed the damaged freighter to Little Creek, as North Sea had lost her steering capabilities in the attack, and arrived by the end of the day.[1]:50 Sometime in February 1942, the Thetis class patrol boats were issued alpha-numeric designations, that began with WPC[7]:166[41]:18—PC stood for patrol craft, and the W marked that it was part of the Coast Guard.[23]Dione was issued the designation WPC-107.[41]:18
March–April
Dione's crew rescuing that of a torpedoed ship, 1942
On 15 March, Dione received a distress signal from the oil tanker Australia. The tanker had been torpedoed by U-332 about 20 miles (32km) away from the cutter. Dione spotted Australia a little after an hour, and the cutter's sonar operator had picked up an echo from the U-boat within two. Dione launched depth charges but had no success.[50]:79–80Dione rescued the crew of the storage tanker Acme early in the morning of 18 March.[51]:170 The tanker had been torpedoed by U-124one nautical mile (1.9km; 1.2mi) west of the Diamond Shoals Light Buoy just before midnight the previous day.[52] The cutter also picked up the survivors of the Greek freighter Kassandra Louloudis, which had been torpedoed by the same U-boat that attacked Acme just after midnight on 18 March.[51]:170 The cutter took the survivors of both ships to Norfolk.[53] On 20 March, Dione made contact with a U-boat. A Coast Guard airplane from the Elizabeth City Air Station dropped two depth charges.[2] On 23 March, she responded to the distress signals of the oil tanker Naeco, torpedoed by U-124. The cutter rescued at least ten survivors from a lifeboat and two more from the water, all of whom were taken to Norfolk.[1]:96–98[54] Three days later, on 26 March, the crew of Dione spotted flames from the oil tanker Dixie Arrow and traveled several miles to investigate. The tanker's survivors had already been rescued by the destroyer USSTarbell, and the cutter encountered nothing but debris. Dione then headed south to the waters off Hatteras, North Carolina.[1]:102 On 5 April, the cutter responded to the torpedoed oil tanker Byron D. Benson, and pulled one survivor from the water.[1]:123[2] On 7 April, U-552 torpedoed the oil tanker British Splendour.[55]Dione dropped depth charges on the U-boat which reportedly almost hit,[56]:7[57]:129 though U-552 managed to escape.[57]:129
Dione escorting a convoy, 1942; her Y-gun can be seen behind the sailor in the foreground
Dione rendezvoused with the destroyer USSDickerson on 14 April, near the Diamond Shoals Light Buoy, to escort a convoy. Lieutenant Dick Bacchus had taken over as the cutter's navigator and executive officer, arriving on 11 April from USCGCModoc; Alger remained aboard as the commander. The convoy was later joined by another cutter, and escorted two freighters north past North Carolina. After Dickerson relieved both cutters of duty, Dione headed back south for a nightly patrol. At morning on 15 April, the cutter met up with Dickerson once more to escort a convoy, this time consisting of two British trawlers, two American tankers, and an American freighter. The tankers were quicker than the cutter, and she had issues keeping up. Alger chose to be aggressive despite the fact that the cutter was supposed to remain close by the convoy, ranging out and dropping depth charges on any suspected echoes to "keep the U-boat[s] off balance."[1]:164–166 For the next few days, Dione escorted convoys during the day and patrolled the waters for U-boats during the night. The convoys were nicknamed "bucket brigades" after the old-fashioned method of transporting buckets during a fire.[1]:167 These convoys traveled during the day and then docked in ports overnight; this was possible on the East Coast due to its abundance of good harbors.[58]:132–133,254–256 No ships were lost to U-boats near Cape Hatteras or Cape Lookout after the establishment of the "bucket brigade" convoy system.[1]:167 On 18 April, Dione was observed dropping depth charges on a U-boat, with no visible results.[2]
On 19 April, Dione led a convoy of nine civilian vessels alongside another 88-foot cutter. The convoy passed Cape Hatteras without incident. A Navy aircraft spotted an incoming torpedo; Alger ordered evasive maneuvers. The torpedo missed Dione by about 20 yards but struck the oil tanker Axtell J. Byles at 2000 hours, which sank some time thereafter. Dione dropped eight depth charges over the course of two runs in response to the attack.[1]:167–170 The convoys began to run at night following the loss of Axtell J. Byles.[1]:178Dione began patrolling around the Wimble Shoals Buoy after her escort missions were finished, beginning demolition exercises on the wreck of Axtell J. Byles on April 25. She would continue dropping depth charges for the next few days.[1]:178 On 29 April, Dione was ordered back to Little Creek for repairs and rearmament.[a]
May–June
The repairs to Dione were finished on 13 May.[1]:178,231 Leaving Little Creek, she was accompanied by a writer and photographer from The Saturday Evening Post. The cutter escorted two ships and afterwards dropped depth charges on an unknown sonar ping that the writer from The Saturday Evening Post had called "Wimble Willy."[1]:231–232 The photographs were published in a 1942 article.[2]
A convoy off the coast of North Carolina sometime during World War II. Dione escorted similar convoys during the latter half of the Second Happy Time
On 18 May, Dione left Norfolk to join a convoy heading to Key West, Florida. On 20 May, it was discovered that the cutter's port engine was "acting up". It was decided that she would continue on the convoy running on one engine while her other one was repaired. Dione traveled in the starboard quarter of the convoy and occasionally traveled further away from the convoy to listen for sonar pings. The cutter was eventually forced to fall to the rear position after a ship began lagging behind. The convoy reached Florida on 23 May.[1]:233–235 Sometime in May, Dione met up with the destroyer USSEllis. The two vessels completed support missions and responded to Coast Guard aircraft reports, steaming to the location of two allegedly damaged and submerged U-boats roughly 50 miles (80km) off the coast of New Jersey and dropping depth charges on them.[29]:102
On 15 June, a convoy Dione was escorting formed a single-file line in preparation to enter the Chesapeake Bay. The fifth oil tanker in line, Robert C. Tuttle, struck a mine and began to sink within view of vacationers in Virginia Beach.[1]:254–255 The oil tanker Esso Augusta broke the formation as her crew believed that Robert C. Tuttle had been torpedoed by a U-boat, and Esso Augusta ended up striking a second mine as a result. Dione dropped a spread of eight depth charges, and her ninth caused another explosion to occur. Eyewitnesses claimed to have seen a U-boat, but naval officials concluded that the incident was due to mines laid in the Thimble Shoal Channel between Virginia Beach and Virginia's eastern shore.[59] On 24 June, at 1900 hours, the cutter made an underwater contact[2] while escorting a northbound convoy of eleven ships.[47]:607 Five minutes later, Dione dropped one depth charge with no results. After sunset,[47]:607 at 1910 hours,[2] two other ships in the convoy, Nordland and Manuela, were torpedoed[2] by U-404.[47]:607Dione made a sweeping search for the U-boat, which seemed to be on the starboard side of the convoy. Nordland caught fire and sink, and her survivors were rescued by Norwich City.[2]U-404 attempted a second attack, but was stopped before it could do so by Dione and an aircraft.[47]:607
Dione made an underwater contact the next day, 25 June, dropping five depth charges. Large amounts of oil bubbled to the surface. A doubtful contact was made just two days later, on 27 June, at 1054 hours. The cutter dropped four depth charges but yielded no results.[2]Dione was taken to Norfolk for repairs to her starboard engine at the end of the month. They lasted a week, and the cutter was back into action at the beginning of July.[1]:313,321 She continued her convoy escort duties into July and August,[1]:322 though the U-boat threat off the Outer Banks had become non-existent by then.[1]:322–325 Following the end of the Second Happy Time, the crew of Dione began to refer to the period as the "Battle of Torpedo Junction."[1]:19
September 1942–1944
Dione was listed as a convoy escort unit[60]:119 and conducted escort duty in the North Atlantic Ocean,[61]:3 escorting HK convoys going from New York to Key West[62]:122 and KN convoys heading from Key West to New York. She was based out of Tompkinsville, Staten Island from December 1943[60]:49 to December 1944;[63]:53 Thompkinsville was the site of an Eastern Sea Frontier Base.[64]
1945
Dione (center) escorts U-1228 to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on 17 May 1945
In 1945, Dione underwent a major refit. Her 3-inch/23-caliber gun was removed. In addition to her Y-gun and two depth charge racks, the cutter was fitted with two single-mount 3-inch/50-caliber guns, two single-mount 20 mm/80 cannons, two "Mousetrap" anti-submarine rocket launchers, and an additional Y-gun. Her wireless set and World War I-era sonar system was replaced with an SF radar system and a QCN-1 sonar system.[2][13]:37–38Dione's displacement was increased to 350 long tons (360t) and her draft was increased to 10 feet (3m). Her complement was also increased to 7 officers and 68 men.[2]
The cutter was selected as one of six patrol vessels to serve as the Navy's "Surrender Group" for the First Naval District off New England, and served alongside her sister ships Argo and Nemesis. The role of the Surrender Group was to help escort surrendered Axis vessels to American ports, where they would then be acquired by the United States government. Dönitz, now serving as President of Germany following the death of Adolf Hitler, had broadcast an order for all U-boats to surrender to Allied ports in early May.[65][66]:18 On 17 May, Dione rendezvoused with U-1228, a U-boat that had fled to Allied waters following the German surrender.[67] It had received its surrender orders on 9 May and was instructed to head to St. John's, Newfoundland. The U-boat bypassed St. John's due to poor conditions and headed to a new surrender point at Casco Bay. U-1228 was escorted to Portsmouth, New Hampshire by USSNeal A. Scott, arriving at 0600 hours on 17 May.[68]Dione escorted the U-boat into Portsmouth later that day.[67]Dione was sent back to the Fifth Naval District in June, where she was assigned to air-sea rescue duty.[2]
Post-war
On 1 January 1946, jurisdiction of the Coast Guard was given back to the Department of the Treasury via Executive Order 9666, signed by President Harry S. Truman.[41]:21[69] From 1945 to 1947, Dione was used by the Coast Guard for law enforcement and search and rescue.[2] She was eventually decommissioned on 23 July 1947, in Cape May, New Jersey,[70]:185 where she spent several years laid up[71]:261 in storage due to a lack of personnel.[2] The cutter was recommissioned on 4 February 1951, in Curtis Bay, Maryland,[72]:9–10 after a shakedown cruise in the Caribbean. Starting in 1952, Dione was assigned to the Eighth Coast Guard District and based in Freeport, Texas;[73]:150 she was the first cutter to be based in the city.[70]:185 Reportedly, Freeport competed with the city of Corpus Christi to be the location where Dione was stationed.[74]:2 The cutter was originally scheduled to arrive on 13 March 1952 but was delayed until 19 March due to rough weather on her shakedown cruise.[75]:1 She was met with a yacht escort upon her arrival in Freeport that day. Local schools were closed so students could visit Dione, and an enlisted men's dance and officer's dinner was held.[70]:185[72]:9–10 The day was officially proclaimed "Coast Guard Day" by the cities of Freeport, Velasco, Clute, and Lake Jackson.[70]:185Dione was located at the Freeport Lifeboat Station.[70]:185[74]:2
Dione operated in a similar capacity as she had in Norfolk, that being search and rescue and law enforcement.[76]:212 Among many other incidents, the cutter responded to the distress signal of a Mexican motor vessel in 1956,[77]:5 towed the disabled USCGCIris in 1957,[2][78]:4 helped put out a fire that had started aboard the Freeport sulfur bargeFS-20 in 1959,[79]:6 and towed a fishing vessel after a false emergency signal in 1962.[80]:5 In 1953, per international rules, the cutter was required to install a forward masthead light 16 feet (4.9m) above the hull, and install an after range light—the horizontal distance had to be 18 feet (5.5m).[81]:16 She was also the first of five 165 feet (50m)-long[h] cutters to undergo repairs to her hull in 1960. It was discovered that her insides had corroded and were hidden by insulation and furniture and her C strake[i] had several leaks; attempts to use welding arcs to fix the latter ended up "burning through the basic plate" and resulted in Dione's entire strake needing to be replaced. As a result of the experience with Dione, a routine was established to inspect the hulls of the remainder of the cutters.[83]:17
Dione remained in Freeport until 1963, when she was set to be decommissioned.[2] A farewell party was held for the crew on 31 January.[84]:11Dione left Freeport on 2 February.[85]:12–13 She arrived in Levingston Shipyard in Orange, Texas, on 4 February.[85]:20–21 The cutter was decommissioned on 8 February,[2] and her custody was transferred to the Texas Group of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet—the Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Orange—that same day.[85]:29Dione was sold as a supply ship on 24 February 1964.[2][13]:37
Commercial service
Delta I[j][k] underway on 27 March 1970, following the completion of her rebuild in Tampa, Florida
In the 1969 edition of Merchant Vessels of the United States, created during 1968, the ship is listed under the name Big Trouble, the ownership of Big Trouble Inc., and is registered in New Orleans.[92]:99 Big Trouble was renamed to Delta Boats Inc. in February 1969,[93][94]:15 and Big Trouble was conveyed to Delta Boats.[95]:16 In March 1969, under the name Delta I,[k] she was sold from Delta Boats to Sabik Inc.,[96]:165 still registered in New Orleans.[86]:233
On 5 April 1969, listed as a geophysical exploration ship, Delta I caught fire while going from Kingston, Jamaica, to Port of Spain, the capital city of Trinidad and Tobago; she was bound for the Persian Gulf. She had left the United States on 25 March. The crew of Delta I had failed to extinguish an engine fire and abandoned the ship in her lifeboats. An SOS was received by the American Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, which subsequently dispatched search planes. After locating the ship, the planes messaged Kingston for a Jamaican Defense Force Coast Guard patrol boat. The crew were rescued by the Jamaican Defense Force Coast Guard and a salvage vessel was sent to put out the blaze and recover the ship.[97]:19Delta I was almost completely gutted by the time the fire was extinguished, with only her hull salvageable when she was towed to Tampa, Florida.[98]:9
The ship was overhauled for almost a year,[98]:9 briefly seized by a US Marshal in February 1970 in pursuant of an arrest warrant filed by the Crownwell Corporation[99]:34—an oil well servicing company whose majority interest had been acquired by private investors in Dubai in January[100]:161—and Delta I was refitted by March that year as a "jack-of-all trades" ship. She was capable of serving as "an oil rig tender, a crew boat, buoy tender, repair ship with sand blast capacity, and a line-handling vessel for super tankers." The ship was still owned by Sabik despite the seizure, and she was chartered to the Mideast Trading Company.[98]:9 In late 1969, the name of the ship was changed to Al Rashid.[101]:155[j]
The fate of the former Dione is unknown, though she was last seen in service in 1992 as Al Rashid.[71]:261
Notes
123Homer Hickam's Torpedo Junction states that the rearmament took place in May 1942,.[1]:178,231 but the Coast Guard entry for Dione says it took place sometime in 1941.[2]
↑The Thetis class was referred to as the 165-foot "B" class to differentiate it from the 165-foot "A" class, which referred to the Algonquin-class patrol boat.[7]:166
↑The bosun's store was a room used to store paints and oils.
↑A statute mile is the same as a regular mile; it is referred to as such to differentiate it from the nautical mile.
↑Dione could not be fitted with her weapons in Manitowoc due to a treaty with Canada that forbade the construction of warships on the Great Lakes.[17]:1
↑World War II began in September 1939, though the U.S. only entered in December 1941.
↑The Coast Guard designates their cutters by length and not name. This applies to both the Algonquin and Thetis classes.
↑A ship's strake is a longitudinal course of plating that stretches from her bow to her stern.[82]
12The name change from Delta I to Al Rashid, which took place in late 1969, was not reflected in the March 1970 article in the Tampa Times that covered the completion of the ship's rebuild.
123The ship's name is sometimes listed as Delta 1, Delta No. I, or Delta No. 1.
↑"Appendix C. – Tables of Availability; 2. – Surface Craft". War Diary Eastern Sea Frontier; November 1944. Eastern Sea Frontier. Retrieved 29 November 2025– via National Archives Catalog.
↑Cressman, Robert J. (8 June 2022). "Conemaugh II (AOG-62)". Naval History and Heritage Command. Retrieved 29 November 2025.
↑"Mexican Ship Sinks 50 Aboard". Sherbrooke Daily Record. 29 March 1956. Retrieved 29 September 2025– via Bibliothèque et Archives Nationales du Québec [National Library and Archives of Quebec].
↑Oxford English Dictionary -"Strake" (from Old English "streccan", stretch), nautical: each of the several continuous lines of planking or plates, of uniform breadth, in the side of a vessel, extending from stem to stern. Hence, the breadth of a plank used as a unit of vertical measurement of a ship's side,(late Middle English).
123"List of Vessels". Merchant Vessels of the United States 1979 (Including Yachts). Vol.1. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1979. Retrieved 14 October 2025– via Google Books.
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