Bonneville, 1919
WIX 375
ex-Islander; ex-Cook; ex-SC-438
Builder: Rocky River Dry Dock, Company, Rocky River, Ohio
Length: 110'
Beam: 14' 9"
Draft: 5' 8"
Displacement: 85 tons
Cost: $13,250 (acquisition); $8,898 (conversion)
Launched: ?
Commissioned:; 5 March 1943 (USCG 2nd time -- first was 1919, serving until 1935)
Decommissioned: 22 September 1945
Disposition:
Machinery: 3 Standard 6-cylinder gasoline engines; 660 HP; 3 propellers (1919); 1 diesel engine; 160 SHP; twin propellers (1943)
Performance:
Maximum Speed: 13 knots
Economic/Cruising Speed: 10 knots; 884 mile range
Complement: 27
Electronics: None
Armament: 1 x 1-pounder; 2 x 20mm/80; 2 mousetrap depth charge projectors; 2 depth charge tracks
Cutter History:
Bonneville started life as a wooden-hulled 110-foot submarine chaser, hull number SC-438, built during World War I. The Coast Guard acquired 22 of these mass-produced vessels although most were quickly decommissioned because they were uneconomical to run or maintain. The Coast Guard named the SC-438 Cook and she, unlike her sister patrol boats, remained in service until 1935.
She was originally taken over at Chicago and was stationed at Grand Marais, Michigan for a time before transferring to Duluth, Minnesota in 1926 and then to Base 4 at New London, Connecticut in 1929. She was taken out of service in 1935 and was sold on 28 May 1936. Her new owners replaced her gasoline engines with a diesel engine and removed one of her screws. She was renamed the Islander and saw service as a commercial vessel until the Coast Guard re-acquired her in 1943 when there was a pressing need for small anti-submarine vessel to patrol the coast.
She was once again commissioned as a Coast Guard cutter on 5 March 1943 and named Bonneville. She was assigned to the Third Naval District and was based out of New London, Connecticut where she was used for training. On 20 July 1945 she suffered hull damage after a collision. She was decommissioned on 22 September 1945.
Sources:
Cutter History File. USCG Historian's Office, USCG HQ, Washington, D.C.
Donald Canney. U.S. Coast Guard and Revenue Cutters, 1790-1935. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1995.
Robert Scheina. U.S. Coast Guard Cutters & Craft of World War II. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1982.
U.S. Coast Guard. Record of Movements: Vessels of the United States Coast Guard: 1790 - December 31, 1933. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1934; 1989 (reprint).