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USCGC Alexander Hamilton in 1941
History
United States
Namesake	Alexander Hamilton
Operator	United States Coast Guard
Builder	New York Navy Yard
Laid down	September 11, 1935
Launched	January 6, 1937
Commissioned	March 4, 1937
Stricken	January 29, 1942
Fate	Torpedoed and sunk at 64°22′N 23°02′W / 64.36°N 23.04°W / 64.36; -23.04 on 29 January 1942
General characteristics
Class and type	Treasury-class cutter
Displacement	2,350 tons
Length	327 ft (100 m)
Beam	41 ft (12 m)
Draft	12 ft 6 in (3.81 m)
Propulsion	2 Babcock & Wilcox sectional express boilers and 2 Westinghouse double reduction geared steam turbine engines; 5,250 shp (3,910 kW)
Speed	19.5 knots (36.1 km/h; 22.4 mph) max
Range	7,000 nautical miles (13,000 km)
Complement	1937: 12 officers, 4 warrants, 107 ratings 1941: 16 officers, 5 warrants, 200 ratings
Armament	1-5"/51 caliber gun (single mount) 3-3 in (76 mm) (single mounts) 2 depth charge racks 1 "Y" gun depth charge projector
Aircraft carried	1938: JF-2 Grumman, V-143

USCGC Alexander Hamilton (WPG-34) was a Treasury-class cutter. She was named after Founding Father and the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton. Sunk after an attack by a German U-boat in January 1942, the Hamilton was the U.S. Coast Guard's first loss of World War II.

Design

The design of the Alexander Hamilton was based on the U.S. Navy's Erie class of gunboats. This Treasury class of U.S. Coast Guard cutters was sometimes referred to as the Secretary class.

History

The Alexander Hamilton was built at the New York Navy Yard for the U.S. Coast Guard. Her keel was laid on September 11, 1935 and she was launched on January 6, 1937. The U.S. Coast Guard had truncated her name to Hamilton that year, but resumed using the full name in January 1942 after a request by the U.S. Navy to avoid confusion with the destroyer USS Hamilton.

Sinking

On January 29, 1942, the Alexander Hamilton was torpedoed on the starboard side by the German submarine U-132, which had been patrolling the Icelandic coast near Reykjavík. The explosion killed twenty men instantly and the total death toll was 26. After she capsized on January 30, salvage attempts were abandoned and the American destroyer USS Ericsson fired upon the wreck three times to send her to the bottom of the sea, 28 miles (45 km) from the coast.

Discovery of shipwreck

On August 19, 2009, the Icelandic Coast Guard discovered a shipwreck believed to be the Alexander Hamilton in Faxaflói. After she was positively identified using the technology of a Gavia AUV (autonomous underwater vehicle), Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen flew to Iceland in August 2010 with an entourage to visit the wreck in a mini-submarine. His luxury yacht, the Octopus, arrived separately at Reykjavík Harbor for the trip.

On June 26, 2011, a team of divers left Reykjavik at 5 am departing for Alexander Hamilton wreck. At 30 miles (48 km) out and 95 meters (312 ft) down, the wreck lies upside down. This is the first dive team that ever dived this wreck.

The dive went without any problems and the conditions were better than expected. The sea at the surface was pretty rough and most (including Icelandic Coast Guard) warned not to take the boat out, saying the dive was impossible to conduct under current conditions. Visibility at the wreck was around 4 metres (13 ft). Temperature was 45 °F (7 °C) at 90 m (300 ft), which was warmer than divers prepared for. During the deep dive the divers set three Icelandic diving records: Deepest wreck dive in Iceland, deepest sea dive in Iceland, and deepest dive ever made in Iceland.

Attaching memorial plaque on Alexander Hamilton

Team Blue Immersion in partnership with the diving company OceanReef returned to Alexander Hamilton in August 2013. On the assignment from the families related to the men that served on the cutter during World War II the team dived down and attached a memorial plaque on the ship. The plaque listed all men that served and died during the attack by the German Type VII submarine on 29 January 1942, just seven and a half weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

On August 10, just two days before the Team Blue Immersions reached the 1937 Alexander Hamilton, a new USCGC Hamilton was launched in the water for the first time. This ship is the sixth cutter named after Alexander Hamilton.

Awards

• American Defense Service Medal
• American Campaign Medal
• European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with one battle star
• World War II Victory Medal

References

1. ^ "Alexander Hamilton: WPG-34" (PDF). U.S. Coast Guard. October 20, 2009. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 30, 2017. Retrieved February 1, 2011.
2. ^ Browning Jr., Robert M. (September 2, 2009). "The First Loss: The Sinking of the Alexander Hamilton". U.S. Coast Guard. Archived from the original on May 27, 2012. Retrieved February 1, 2011.
3. "A Historic Image Gallery: The "Secretary Class" 327-foot Cutters". U.S. Coast Guard. April 12, 2010. Archived from the original on December 10, 2010. Retrieved February 1, 2011.
4. ^ Helgason, Guðmundur. "USCGC Alexander Hamilton (WPG 34)". German U-boats of WWII. Archived from the original on June 19, 2010. Retrieved February 1, 2011.
5. "Lekinn var frá Hamilton" [The leak was from Hamilton]. Morgunblaðið (in Icelandic). October 31, 2009. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved December 9, 2011.
6. "Paul Allen the First to Dive to Wreckage of US Battleship". Iceland Review. August 6, 2010. Archived from the original on September 28, 2011. Retrieved February 1, 2011.
7. "Kafað að flaki bandarísks herskips" [Dived into the wreck of a US warship]. RÚV (in Icelandic). June 27, 2011. Archived from the original on March 20, 2012. Retrieved June 29, 2011.

• This article includes text from the public domain website of the Office of the Historian, United States Coast Guard. The entry can be found here.

Further reading

• Ostrom, Thomas P. (2009). The United States Coast Guard in World War II: A History of Domestic and Overseas Actions. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. p. 6. ISBN 978-0-7864-4256-0. OCLC 261400318.
• U.S. Coast Guard (1994). Coast Guard Combat Veterans: Semper Paratus. Paducah, Kentucky: Turner Publishing Company. ISBN 978-1-56311-104-4. OCLC 34202225.

External links

• Alexander Hamilton at the Naval Historical Center
• USCGC Hamilton at history.uscg.mil
• USS Alexander Hamilton at HistoryCentral.com
• Loss of USCGC Alexander Hamilton (WPG 34) at the Destroyer History Foundation
• Wreck of USCGC Alexander Hamilton (WPG 34) at Wikimapia
• A video of the expedition can be found here

v t e Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in January 1942
Shipwrecks	1 Jan: Malama 2 Jan: Mercedes, Ruth Alexander 3 Jan: USS Iona 8 Jan: Tornator 9 Jan: HMS Vimiera 11 Jan: USAT Liberty 12 Jan: Cyclops, HNLMS Prins van Oranje, U-374 14 Jan: Chepo 15 Jan: Empire Bay, U-93, U-577 17 Jan: HMS Gurkha, I-60, HMS Matabele 18 Jan: Bantam, Hai-Kan No. 6 19 Jan: Lady Hawkins 20 Jan: Eidsvold, I-124, Banshu Maru No. 52, USS S-36, Westralia 23 Jan: Navemar, USS Neches 24 Jan: Empire Wildebeeste, Nana Maru, USS S-26 25 Jan: Z8 Bruno Heinemann 26 Jan: Refast, HMAS Sirocco 27 Jan: Harpa, I-73, HMS Thanet 30 Jan: USCGC Alexander Hamilton, USC&GS Research 31 Jan: HMS Belmont, HMS Culver, Spreewald Unknown date: HMS Triumph
Other incidents	3 Jan: I-58, Krasny Kavkaz 6 Jan Sinkyo Maru 7 Jan: V 5104 Orkan 10 Jan: U-374 16 Jan: Empire Chief 21 Jan: Enrico Cosenz 22 Jan: Boyky, Molotov, Shch-214
1941 1942 1943 December 1941 February 1942

• Ships built in Brooklyn
• Ships of the United States Coast Guard
• Shipwrecks of Iceland
• Treasury-class cutters
• World War II patrol vessels of the United States
• World War II shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean
• 1937 ships
• Maritime incidents in January 1942
• Ships sunk by German submarines in World War II