USS Auk (AM-38)

The minesweeper, rolling and pitching heavily as the winds and seas rose, was proceeding on her coastwise voyage when, in the predawn darkness of the 0000-0400 watch on 8 March, men in the crews' compartment detected water entering their space at an alarming rate. While some of the crew bailed doggedly, others rigged a "handy billy", and, later, a wrecking pump, in an effort to cope with the flooding. With water coming on board faster than it could be removed the ship sought refuge.[2]

Auk accordingly altered course at 0905 and plunged through the rough seas and a curtain of fog, while her foghorn blared its warning. She anchored that afternoon, but waves breaking over the after deck foiled attempts to rig the heavy-duty wrecking pumps into the after hold (into which the water was coming, through the rudder stock) since it was impossible to remove the hatch without allowing more water to get below in the process. Then just as the fog began to lift to the northward and the ship prepared to weigh anchor and get underway, the anchor engine jammed. Quick repairs enabled Auk's men to begin the process of hoisting up the hook, and the minesweeper got underway and eventually reached safe haven in the lee of Montauk Point.[2]

She reached the Boston Navy Yard at 1115 on the 11th and moored alongside sister ship USS Oriole (AM-7) (Minesweeper No. 7). Auk remained there for over a month, undergoing repairs and fitting out for her pending duty sweeping the North Sea Mine Barrage. During this time, paravanes ("Burney Gear") were installed in the ship and she underwent necessary upkeep. She departed the yard late on the afternoon of 14 April, standing out of President Roads to anchor for the night off Provincetown, Massachusetts.[2]

On the morning of 15 April, after calibrating her compasses Auk got underway for the Orkney Islands, joining three of her sister ships: USS Heron (AM-10) (Minesweeper No. 10), USS Sanderling (AM-37) (Minesweeper No. 37), and Oriole. All went well until two days from their destination, when steering gear problems briefly disabled first Heron, and then Auk; each time Oriole's took them under tow. Ultimately, the four minesweepers reached Kirkwall, Orkney Islands, on 29 April 1919, shortly after the Minesweeping Detachment flagship, the destroyer tender USS Black Hawk (AD-9) (Destroyer Tender No. 9), had arrived to establish headquarters there for the ensuing operations.[2]

Among the last of the minesweepers to reach the Orkney Islands Auk missed the first, experimental, mine clearance (29 April to 2 May). However, Auk suffered the first fatality of the operation on 3 May when a crewman was fatally crushed while unreeling sweep wire from the drum of the anchor engine. A Naval Board of Inquiry which met to ascertain the particulars of the death of the boatswain's mate recommended that safety guards be installed on that equipment in all sweepers to prevent similar accidents.[2]

Over the next five months, Auk and her sister ships - together with a group of 110-foot subchasers ((SC's)) supported by an Allied flotilla of British and American logistics and repair ships and loaned British Admiralty naval trawlers - carried out the dangerous task of sweeping some 55,000 mines sown in 1918 between the coasts of Scotland and Norway to contain the German U-boats in the North Sea. Auk spent over 95 days on the minefields in the often "dirty" weather associated with the North Sea as they carried out their unprecedented mission of clearing the sea lanes to permit a resumption of civilian commerce in the wake of World War I.[2]

Underway from Kirkwall at 0600 on 10 May, Auk took SC-46 in tow and proceeded to the minefields in company with Oriole, Heron, and Sanderling, each in turn towing a chaser. While she was passing sweep wire to Oriole, the line snagged in Auk''s propeller. Oriole took her sister ship in tow, but soon turned over the towing to USS Robin (AM-3) (Minesweeper No. 3), which took Auk to Lerwick, in the Shetland Islands. There, British divers from the tender Edna removed the sweep wire on 13 May.[2]

Auk returned to the minefields and teamed with Oriole to conduct a sweep on the afternoon of the 14th. During her first pass she cut loose three mines, one fouling the "kite" astern and the other two fouling the line itself. Over the next few days, Auk carried out the repetitious task of sweeping, again in company with Oriole. Auk had a near miss on the 15th when a mine exploded nearby.[2]

The minesweeper varied her daily routine in the minefields - which lasted into late May by escorting SC-356 to Lerwick and back on 17 and 18 May. During the latter half of the month, Auk teamed with, on different occasions, Oriole, USS Swan (AM-34) (Minesweeper No. 34), or USS Kingfisher (AM-25) (Minesweeper No. 25). Returning to Kirkwall on 29 May, Auk refueled there from the British tanker Aspenleaf.[2]

During June, Auk participated in the third clearance operation on the barrage, getting underway from Kirkwall for the minefields on 5 June and returning to port on the 27th. She broke up the routine with brief visits to Kirkwall and Otterswick (9 and 12 June, respectively), but spent most of the month on the barrage. This time around, her sweeping partners included the familiar Oriole, Robin, and USS Swallow (AM-4) (Minesweeper No. 4). On 21 June. a mine exploded 50 yards astern tripped the generators (plunging the engine and fire rooms into darkness) and knocked down part of the brick walls in her two boilers. but she resumed sweeping operations the next day.[2]

During the next two minesweeping operations that followed Auk served as the flagship for the detachment commander, Capt. Roscoe C. Bulmer, a highly regarded man, revered by the men he commanded.[2] Capt. Bulmer embarked for the first time at Kirkwall on 7 July 1919 when he broke his broad pennant in Auk shortly before she proceeded to sea. That day, she teamed with Oriole in sweeping a portion of the field that had been laid on 13 October of the previous year and, on the following day, swept in company with USS Eider (AM-17) (Minesweeper No. 17).[2]

A chronicler of the North Sea Mine Barrage clearance wrote about 9 July: "...misfortune did not rain; it poured". Mines damaged three minesweepers, the tug, USS Patuxent (AT-11), and a subchaser. Again sweeping in company with Eider, Auk hit a mine at 0925 that detonated another mine 25 yards (23 m) off her starboard bow in a chain reaction; there was also a third explosion (probably caused by the second) 30 yards astern, carrying away the sweep and resulting in the loss of a "kite" and 70 fathoms (130 m) of wire.[2]

At 1000, an upper level mine exploded beneath USS Pelican (AM-27) (Minesweeper No. 27), which in turn triggered five simultaneous countermines around her. Pelican heavily hit, battered, and holed, assumed a list before beginning to settle. Auk, with Capt. Bulmer directing the rescue operations, immediately altered course to close with her sister ship.[2]

Passing a line at 1008, within 10 minutes of the explosions, she drew alongside Pelican. After one hose line parted, Auk passed another to aid Pelican in pumping out the rapidly rising water below-decks. However, the rough seas repeatedly slammed the ships together, damaging lines and hoses and forcing their replacement. At 1054, USS Teal (AM-23) (Minesweeper No. 23) passed a towline and began moving ahead with the crippled Pelican, in turn tethered to Auk, astern.[2]

Eider fell in with the group as it labored ahead, securing to Pelican's starboard side, Eider and Auk acting much in the fashion of waterwings, keeping their sister ship afloat between them. Difficulties soon arose, however, as the ships struggled toward Orkney. A head sea sprang up, tossing the minecraft about and straining moorings and hose lines. Pump lines were carried away and Pelican began to settle further by the bow. The pressure of the water in the flooded forward compartments in the damaged ship now buckled and distorted the forward fireroom bulkhead, the only barrier that could save Pelican from sinking.[2]

At 2300, Capt. Bulmer ordered most of Pelican''s crew transferred to Eider. A dozen volunteers chosen from the crew remained on board Pelican. Gradually, however, the pumps of Auk and Eider, working full capacity after the lines had been repaired and again placed in operation, succeeded in lowering Pelican''s waterline. The battle to keep Pelican afloat continued on into the night and into the predawn darkness, men standing by with axes to chop through the mooring lines should Pelican give any indication of imminent sinking.[2]

Finally, on the morning of 10 July, the valiant little flotilla limped into Tresness Bay where Auk's pumps continued to help lower her sister ship's waterline even further.[2]

Underway to return to Kirkwall at 1726, Auk reached her destination a little over four hours later and Capt. Bulmer (whose seamanship many credited with having saved Pelican) disembarked. The next day Auk took Rear Admiral Elliott Strauss, Commander, Mine Force, from Kirkwall to Inverness, Scotland, before she returned to Kirkwall, ready to resume operations.[2]

Shortly after midnight on 22 July, Capt. Bulmer transferred his command pennant from Black Hawk to Auk and wore it in the ship as she teamed with Oriole during the detachment's fifth mine clearance operation. Capt. Bulmer disembarked for the last time at 0017 on 1 August and, tragically, just three days later suffered severe injuries in an automobile accident. He died on 5 August, and his loss was felt tremendously throughout the detachment, since his intrepid personality had stamped itself on the force and inspired it during his time in command.[2]

Auk subsequently took part in two additional minesweeping operations that lasted through late September, drawing her participation in this epic venture to a close when she anchored at Kirkwall on 26 September 1919. During the first of these missions (mid-to-late August), Auk ranged as far as the coast of Norway, touching at the ports of Stavanger and Hangeand, and Bommel Fjord. During this operation, Auk suffered her second fatality: at 0715 on 31 August a kite wire, jumping out of a chock, knocked Boatswain's Mate 1st Class Lee A. Singleton over the side. Auk immediately commenced maneuvering to pick him up, cutting the sweep wire, throwing over a life buoy, and hoisting the man overboard signal, but a one-hour search failed to find the missing man.[2]

Drydocked at Invergordon on 2 and 3 September to repair damage suffered when mines exploded close aboard on 30 August, Auk performed local tug and towing duties at Kirkwall in mid-September before resuming operations in the minefields later that month.[2]