USCGC Dione (WPC-107) was a Thetis-class patrol boat of the United States Coast Guard operated between 1934 and 1963. She was designated a United States Coast Guard Cutter. The cutter was laid down in November 1933 in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, launched in June 1934, and commissioned in October that same year. Dione was built to enforce prohibition and stop alcohol smuggling in the United States. Prohibition was repealed in 1933, a year before the cutter was completed, so she never served in Prohibition enforcement. She instead primarily served in search and rescue out of her station in Norfolk, Virginia.
Dione was heavily involved with anti-submarine warfare off the East Coast of the United States during World War II; she was the only vessel that, at the onset of the Second Happy Time in January 1942, patrolled the waters off the Outer Banks of North Carolina—which were nicknamed "Torpedo Alley"—and that was capable of opposing German submarines, called U-boats. Throughout the duration of the Second Happy Time, she rescued the survivors of ships attacked by U-boats, 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 had no success in the last capacity. 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 with U-1228 to Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Dione was decommissioned in 1947 after operating out of Norfolk in law enforcement and search and rescue roles. She was recommissioned in 1951 and stationed in Freeport, Texas, becoming the first cutter to be stationed there. She operated in a search and rescue capacity in the Gulf of Mexico, briefly undergoing repairs in 1960 before being decommissioned in February 1963 and being transferred to the Atlantic Reserve Fleet in Orange, Texas. The cutter was sold as a supply ship in March 1964.
As a merchant ship, she was operated out of the Gulf Coast region by several companies after 1964 and she would be known by three subsequent names aside from Dione: Big Trouble, Delta I, and Al Rashid. Her first owner, the Palmer Decker Boat Company, went bankrupt and she was put up for auction by a US Marshal in December 1967. Her second owner, Big Trouble Inc., underwent a name change to Delta Boats, Inc. in February 1969. The ship was sold to her third owner, Sabik Inc., in March that same year but caught fire the next month in the Caribbean while bound for the Persian Gulf; only her hull was salvageable when the fire was extinguished. She was rebuilt as a "jack-of-all-trades ship" and underway again by March 1970. Still owned by Sabik, the former Dione was last seen in service in 1992.
Development
USCGC Jackson in 1927. She was a member of the 125-foot Active class patrol boats that preceded the Thetis class.
On 17 January 1920, the Volsted Act went into force in the United States. The law enforced the Eighteenth Amendment, which banned the "manufacture, sale, or transportation" of most alcohol and began the period of Prohibition.[3][4]:11 The Volsted Act, in turn, was enforced by police departments, the Bureau of Prohibition, the Customs Service, the Department of the Treasury, and the Coast Guard.[4]:11 The Coast Guard's role was to prevent seaborn alcohol smuggling, a role initially deemed small and manageable. By 1924, the service was overwhelmed by the volume of smugglers and struggled to intercept 5% of violators. Aside from normal duties, it shifted to impose a blockade along 5,000 miles (8,000km) of American coastline. For the new role, new cutters, patrol boats, and destroyers formerly part of the United States Navy joined the fleet to patrol at sea as Prohibition enforcement became the first priority for the Coast Guard.[4]:161-164 While the cutters helped fill gaps off the coast, they were expensive to operate and performed poorly. In the 1930s, the Coast Guard began to build purpose-build patrol boats to take over enforcement.[5]:382–383 These new ships varied in size and capability, and 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 that then brought the drinks ashore.[6]:108 The Coast Guard built the 125ft (38m)-long Active class cutters 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 "B"-class,[2][7]:166[b] named for the cutters' overall length[2] and primarily known as the Thetis-class, was created from the results of the Active class' experiences.[7]:166 The design was intended to balance and exceed in 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
The Eighteenth Amendment was repealed in 1933 with the Twenty-first Amendment[9]—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,[10]:30 listed as patrol boat 13,[11]:318 was built by the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Corporation in Manitowoc, Wisconsin.[2] Her keel was laid on 10 November 1933,[12]:37–38 and her contract was entered the same day for a price of US$242,800.[11]:318 The launch of the cutter and her two sister ships, Electra and Pandora, was originally to occur on 23 June 1934; the launch was postponed one week for per an announcement by the chief government inspector and shipyard officials.[13]:2 The cutter was launched alongside her sister ships Electra and Pandora[14]:9 on 30 June.[2]Dione was christened by Unita Risch, president of Wisconsin Department of the American Legion Auxiliary.[15]:1 She was delivered on 28 September[16]:434 and was commissioned on 5 October.[2][12]:37–38
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 for 38 men.[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[12]: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—one of which was reportedly capable of throwing a beam of light a distance of about 3 miles (4.8km)[20]:5—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 sat two funnels. On both sides of the aft funnel was the cutter' 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) 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.[21]:29 During the trip from Manitowoc, the cutter's oil purifier broke. She docked in Ogdensburg, New York for repairs on 15 October.[20]:5Dione stopped in Philadelphia on 30 October to be outfitted with her weaponry,[22]:22 and docked at the Coast Guard base on the Elizabeth River on 1 November in order to take on food and provisions.[23]:16
Dione was stationed in Norfolk, Virginia.[2][24]:102 The cutter primarily operated in a search and rescue capacity, responding to vessels that had signaled that they were in distress,[25]:6[26]:6 carrying injured seamen to Norfolk,[27]:1[28]:6 and locating the wreckage of downed planes.[29]:1,7 She also operated in miscellaneous capacities, such as breaking through ice to allow ships access to the Smith and Tangier Islands in February 1936[30]:6 and accompanying vessels participating in a Hampton One-Design race in August 1941.[31]: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.[32]:1[33]
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[38]:24) due to the high number of U-boats patrolling off the Outer Banks. 397 Allied ships were sunk by U-boats between January and June 1942,[34] during the time period that was referred to as the "Second Happy Time" by Kriegsmarine officers as well as Karl Dönitz—Admiral of the Kriegsmarine.[39]Andolphus Andrews, the Admiral 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 cruiser submarines, three Eagle-class subchasers, two gunboats from 1905, and four large yachts that had been converted for military service.[40]:176[41]:461–462 In addition to being the fastest vessel of the fleet,[40]:176Dione was the only one that was large and capable enough of opposing the U-boats that operated in Torpedo Alley.[24]:102[1]:25
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 tended to be too far away from vessels when they issued distress signals, so he ordered 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[42]:28 these would utilize a World War I-era sonar system[38]:24 and other types of sound-detection gear.[1]:27[42]:28
Sometime at the end of January, Dione dropped six depth charges after her sonar man 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, and when brought aboard were found to have been from the oil tanker Francis E. Powell. The tanker had been sunk by U-130 on 27 January.[1]:27 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 echos; 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 same 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[43]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 with shell holes dotted across her hull. 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. 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[36]:18[e]Dione was designated WPC-107.[36]:18 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.[44]:79–80
Crewmembers aboard Dione rescuing the crew of a torpedoed ship, 1942
On 17 March, Dione rescued the crew of the storage tanker Acme,[45]:170 which had been torpedoed by U-124one nautical mile (1.9km; 1.2mi) west of the Diamond Shoals Light Buoy.[46] That same day, she picked up the crew of a Greek freighter, Kassandra Louloudis,[45]:170 and took her survivors on as well and delivered those of both ships to Norfolk.[47] On 20 March, Dione made contact with a U-boat. A Coast Guard airplane from the Elizabeth City Air Station dropped two depth charges with unknown results.[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[48] 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. The cutter then headed south to the waters off Hatteras, North Carolina.[1]:102 On 5 April, Dione 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.[49] The cutter dropped depth charges on the submarine which reportedly nearly hit,[50]:7[51]:129 it managed to escape.[51]: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, though McCormick remained aboard. 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 echos 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 that she escorted were nicknamed "bucket brigades" after the old-fashioned method of transporting buckets during a fire. No ships were lost to U-boats near Cape Hatteras or Cape Lookout after the establishment of the convoys.[1]:167 On 18 April, Dione was observed dropping depth charges on an unknown U-boat, with no visible results.[2]
On 19 April, Dione led a convoy of nine civilian vessels alongside another by an 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] the repairs 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
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.[24]: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 mine. 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.[52] On 24 June, at 1900 hours, the cutter made an underwater contact[2] while escorting a northbound eleven-ship[41]:607 convoy. Five minutes later, Dione dropped one depth charge with no results. At 1910 hours[2] and after sunset,[41]:607 two other ships in the convoy, Nordland and Manuela, were torpedoed[2] by U-404.[41]: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 by Dione and an anti-submarine warfare aircraft.[41]:607
Dione made another contact with a U-boat the next day, 25 June, dropping five depth charges. As a result, 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 time period as the "Battle of Torpedo Junction."[1]:19
1945
Dione (center) escorts U-1228 to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on 17 May 1945
Sometime 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 a second Y-gun. Her wireless system was replaced with an SF radar system and a QCN-1 sonar system.[2][12]: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.[53][54]:18 On 17 May, Dione rendezvoused with U-1228, a U-boat that had fled to Allied waters following the German surrender.[55] It had received its surrender orders on 9 May and was instructed to head to St. John's, Newfoundland. The U-boat bypassed the port due to poor conditions and made for a new surrender point at Casco Bay. U-1228 was escorted to Portsmouth, New Hampshire by USS Neal A. Scott. They arrived at 0600 hours on 17 May.[56]Dione escorted the U-boat into Portsmouth later that day.[55] In June, Dione was sent back to the Fifth Naval District, 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.[36]:21[57] 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,[58]:185 where she spent several years laid up[59]:261 in storage due to a lack of personnel.[2] The cutter was recommissioned on 4 February 1951, in Curtis Bay, Maryland,[60]:9–10 after a shakedown cruise in the Caribbean.[61]:150Dione was stationed in Freeport, Texas, starting in 1952,[61]:150 and was the first cutter to be based in the city.[58]:185 Reportedly, Freeport competed with the city of Corpus Christi to be the location where Dione was stationed.[62]:2 The cutter originally scheduled to arrive on 13 March 1952, but was delayed until 19 March due to rough weather on her shakedown cruise.[63]: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.[58]:185[60]:9–10 The day was officially proclaimed "Coast Guard Day" by the cities of Freeport, Velasco, Clute, and Lake Jackson.[58]:185Dione was based at the Freeport Lifeboat Station.[58]:185[62]:2
Dione operated in a similar capacity as she had in Norfolk, that being search and rescue. Among many other incidents, the cutter responded to the distress signal of a Mexican motor vessel in 1956,[64]:5 towed the disabled USCGC Iris in 1957,[2][65]:4 helped put out a fire that had started aboard the Freeport sulfur bargeFS-20 in 1959,[66]:6 and towed a fishing vessel after a false emergency signal in 1962.[67]: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).[68]:16 She was also the first of five 165 feet (50m)-long[f] 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[g] 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. [70]:17
Dione remained in Freeport until the end of her service in 1963.[2] A farewell party was held for the crew on 31 January.[71]:11Dione left Freeport on 2 February.[72]:12–13 She reached Geneva, an unincorporated community in Sabine County, on 3 February,[72]:18–19 and arrived in Levingston Shipyard in Orange, Texas, on 4 February.[72]: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.[72]:29Dione was sold as a supply ship on 24 February 1964.[2][12]:37–38
Commercial service
Delta I[h][i] 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.[79]:99 Big Trouble Inc. was renamed to Delta Boats Inc. in February 1969,[80][81]:15 and Big Trouble was conveyed to Delta Boats Inc.[82]:16 In March 1969, under the name Delta I,[i] she was sold from Delta Boats Inc. to Sabik Inc.,[83]:165 still registered in New Orleans.[73]: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 Navy 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.[84]: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.[85]:9
The ship was overhauled for almost a year,[85]:9 briefly seized by a US Marshal in February 1970 in pursuant of an arrest warrant filed by the Crownwell Corporation[86]:34—an oil well servicing company whose majority interest had been acquired by private investors in Dubai in January[87]: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 and was chartered to the Mideast Trading Company.[85]:9[h] In late 1969, her name was changed to Al Rashid.[88]:155
The exact year that the former Dione concluded her service is unknown, though she was last seen in service in 1992 as Al Rashid.[59]: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.
↑WPC referred to a "Coast Guard patrol craft."[19]
↑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.[69]
12The name change from Delta I to Al Rashid, which took place in late 1996, 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.
↑"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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