Friday, August 15, 2025 continued…After we exited the Lightship, we headed to the Coast Guard ship, which was docked on Pier 5. It was a relatively short walk west. We walked past the aquarium and crossed a footbridge.
Looking north on the bridge.
Looking south, it appeared the aquarium occupied two buildings connected by a skybridge.
The USCG Taney was visible once we passed the brick buildings.
This was the building south of the ship.
We crossed another footbridge. It appeared the building next to the Taney was being renovated, and the white tent was covering the renovation work.
Commissioned in 1936, US Coast Guard Cutter Taney served for 50 continuous years. She earned four battle stars in World War II and was the last remaining warship that saw action in the Pearl Harbor attack. She also did a tour in Vietnam during the Vietnam war. During peacetime, she conducted search and rescue missions, ocean weather patrol, and law enforcement.
We boarded the ship. The person who took our ticket explained that we not free to roam around — it was a one way tour, and there were arrows on the ground to follow. It started down a hallway on the starboard side, where we peered into a door and saw the doctor’s office.
At the end of the hall, we were outside on deck, where the arrows pointed us to walk to the aft of the boat.
Looking forward from the aft of the deck.
The arrows took us back inside, where we found ourselves in a hallway that led to multiple officer staterooms. The sign said that in peacetime, there were 12 commissioned officers and four warrant officers, and they usually each had private quarters. In times of war, there were more officers onboard and the rooms were shared. The captain’s quarters were not here; it was under the Bridge.
The rooms were gigantic compared to the Chesapeake, and the Chesapeake’s rooms had been gigantic compared to the USS Torsk.
Beyond the staterooms was a fairly large room with a big display about the history of the ship.
The brochure said she was a “Treasury” Class vessel, but the sign in this room said Taney was one of six “Secretary” class vessel. At the time she was commissioned in 1936, the Secretary vessels were the largest and most capable in the Coast Guard. Her first duty station was in Honolulu, Hawaii, where she interdicted opium smugglers and helped set up seaplane bases in the Line Islands, which were 1700 about miles southwest of Hawaii. Once the bases were established, once a month, the Taney would bring supplies to the few people manning those bases.
In 1940 – 1941, she was outfitted with more armament, and in 1941, began operating with the US Navy in Hawaii. On December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the Taney had been tied up at Pier 6. In four minutes, all battle stations were manned and the Taney began firing on the attack planes. In 1942 – 1943, the Taney patrolled for enemy submarines, escorted supply ships, and carried out combat missions in Hawaii and the South Pacific.
In 1944, her guns were upgraded again and she was sent to the east coast, where she was the flagship leading the escort of convoys of supply and transport ships to and from North Africa. On April 20, the convoy was attacked by German torpedo planes off the coast of Algeria under the cover of darkness. The battle lasted 25-minutes. Taney narrowly dodged two torpedoes in the fierce battle and several of her crew were wounded. Three of the other ships in the convoy were sunk and over 550 men were lost. In the autumn of 1944, after escorting a total of six convoys, she was ordered to Boston where she was refit again. In early 1945, she was sent back to the Pacific, where she took part in the invasion of Okinawa. It was considered the costliest campaign in history for the US Navy. After the Japanese surrendered in 1945, the Taney helped evacuate prisoners of war (POW) from the Japanese camps, then was sent to San Francisco.
She was reconfigured back to her peacetime lines and was stationed in Alameda (which is in the San Francisco Bay). She did ocean weather patrol (providing weather and navigation information), fishery patrol and search and rescue missions in the Pacific and Bering Sea. During the Korean War, she was again upgraded with weapons and served as a support ship doing search and rescue duties along the air routes to Korea. During the Vietnam War, she was sent to the South China Sea, where she was part of Operation Market Time. Taney crew boarded and searched Vietnamese vessels, conducted shore bombardment of enemy troops, and transported troops. In addition, in a program to “win the hearts and minds” of the locals, there were three US Public Health Service crew aboard who would regularly go to villages to provide medical care. Over 5,000 Vietnamese civilians were treated.