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| History | |
|---|---|
| Name | Buskø[Note 1] |
| Launched | 1926 |
| General characteristics | |
| Length | 105 ft (32.0 m)[1] |
| Propulsion | Steam |
Buskø was a small Norwegian sealer, seized by theU.S. Coast Guard in EastGreenland in September 1941, before U.S. entry into the war, while bringing supplies and rotating personnel for Norwegian hunting stations. This caused an uproar in the American press when she was towed toBoston as a prize, frequently but incorrectly called the first American capture of an enemy surface vessel in the war.[2] PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt had frequently asserted thatGermany would try to gain a foothold in Greenland, and the way this was presented seems to bear him out. It was a notable early initiative in theNorth Atlantic weather war.
By agreement withDenmark,Norway maintained several hunting, weather, and radio stations along the East Greenland coast,Myggbukta andTorgilsbu being the most important. After the German conquest of Norway, resupply of these stations became problematic because theRoyal Navy treated all ships arriving from Norway as hostile. In 1940 season, Norway managed to send two relief vessels,Veslekari andRingsel, to Greenland. Veslekari was seized by Britain. A Danish weather expedition brought byFurenak toCape Biot was also seized.[3] German intelligence (Abwehr) took an interest in these expeditions (Furenak) because of a need to obtain weather reports from Greenland forU-boat and bombing missions.[4]
In 1941, seven Norwegians remained on the coast, and Arctic-expansion proponents in Norway eager to reverse the 1933Permanent Court of International Justice award of the area to Denmark seized on the hunters’ plight as an opportunity to outfit a new expedition. With the permission ofVidkun Quisling's government loyal to Germany, the 100-foot, 60-ton sealing vesselBuskø ofÅlesund with a crew of ten was leased, and ten hunters and technicians hired. The expedition was led byHallvard Devoll, an Arctic expert who had earlier led the Norwegian occupation ofEast Greenland, in 1931.[1][5]
Just beforeBuskø's departure on 29 August, German officers demanded that a Norwegian weather observer and telegraphist with German ties, Jacob Bradley, be taken aboard. This was allowed under protest. Bradley was deposited with his equipment at 7510N 2025W (Peters Bay,Ardencaple Fjord) onHochstetter Foreland on 2 September 1941. He lodged with two other hunters in a hunting cabin and did not begin observations or radio broadcasts.[5][6]
The U.S. Coast Guard, per request of the Danish colonial government seeking a neutral sponsor, assumed responsibility for supplying the Danish settlements in Greenland now cut off from their homeland by the British. In April 1941 theRoosevelt Administration signed an agreement with the Danish minister in Washington,Henrik Kauffmann, who refused to take orders from (now German occupied) Copenhagen. It allowed full American military use of Greenland. On that authority, the icebreakerUSCGC Northland patrolled Greenland in the fall of 1941. On 12 September, alerted by a Danish observer onElla Island weather station, found and seized theBuskø and her crew of 26 men and one woman (wife and medic).[7] The sealer was in the process of visiting several Norwegian stations. Informed about Bradley,Northwind stood into Peters Bay, found the agent, who had not yet unpacked his equipment, seized him and destroyed his radio.Buskø was then towed to Boston byUSS Bear. The crew ofBuskø along with the shore station personnel were sent to Boston and charged with illegal immigration rather than as prisoners of war because the United States was not at war at the time of capture.[7]
An account of the episode appeared in theU.S. Coast Guard in WWII (pp 98–100):
“Twelve men, led by Lt. Leroy McCluskey, were assigned to attack and capture the station. About midnight the landing party proceeded in a small boat to within a mile of the station. Lt. McCluskey surrounded the shack with his commandos and, gun in hand, kicked in the door of the building and rushed in upon three men who were resting in their bunks. The German radiomen quickly surrendered and told all they knew. Their radio equipment and code were also taken. Under pretense of building a fire to make coffee for the Americans, the radiomen tried to burn some papers, but the Coast Guard party was too quick for the Nazis and the papers were seized. They turned out to be confidential instructions – Hitler’s plans for radio stations in the far north – and of considerable value to the Coast Guard.”[8]
Much of this is contradicted in FBI-papers and Norwegian sources,[1] but the account illustrates how Americans perceived and reacted to the incident. Thus, the official history of the U.S. Navy in World War II states: “The capture of the BUSKOE expedition by Commander Smith marks the first blow struck by the United States Navy against Germany, and as such was the first violation of the United States Neutrality policy.”[2]
The arrival ofBuskø with 21 Norwegian captives on 14 October was extensively covered in the American press. On 12 October, theNew York Times held that a Nazi spy ship with a “Gestapo agent” had been caught in the Western Hemisphere, and reported rumors about extensive German activities in the island. The paper wrote: “The seized vessel, so sea-worn that little of her paint remained, wasketch rigged and equipped with an auxiliary steam engine. Norwegian colors flew at her masthead and were painted on her sides. She was extremely filthy, according to members of the prize crew. Piled on the deckhouse were skis and dog sleds, and a husky and a huge black Newfoundland dog wandered about the decks.”[9]
Buskø′s crew, initially held for lacking “proper traveling documents,” was set free, except for Bradley who was detained until the end of the war.[1] With the German declaration of war on theUnited States two months later, the affair disappeared from public memory except as a footnote.
Buskø eventually returned to Norway. She remained in service after the Second World War but sank with the loss of 20 men in 1952.[1]
The episode came on the heels of an engagement involving thedestroyerUSS Greer (DD-145), revealed by President Roosevelt to the nation on the same dayBuskø was seized, and thus played a role in the formation of American opinion in the last months of neutrality.
Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 1952 | |
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| Other incidents |
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