thedrifter
12-13-07, 01:15 PM
Zuni surfaced at notable sea events
Thursday, Dec 13, 2007 - 12:08 AM
NEWPORT NEWS
The Zuni "was built to tow anything that floats," said Harry A. Jaeger, director of operations for the Zuni Maritime Foundation Inc., which owns the Zuni-Tamaroa.
Jaeger, 71, a retired engineer who lives in Henrico County, served as a diesel engineman on two of the Zuni-Tamaroa's sister ships, the Quapaw and the Takilma.
Of the 67 ships built in that class, four were sunk in military action and fewer than 10 remain operational -- none in the U.S. except for the Zuni-Tamaroa, he said.
One of the tugs, the USS Seminole, was the first ship sunk in a Japanese attack on Marines at Guadalcanal in World War II. The Zuni took part in the invasion of Iwo Jima, led by the Marines, in early 1945. The ship was beached intentionally to protect a landing craft during the battle. Later, the ship suffered the only two casualties in its history when two sailors were killed by a snapped tow line. The line snarled the propeller and the ship washed onto the beach at Iwo Jima.
The Zuni finished the war in a repair dock, but it had nearly a half-century of sometimes dramatic service in the Coast Guard as the Cutter Tamaroa. It helped rescue the survivors of the collision that sank that Italian liner Andrea Doria off Long Island Sound in 1956, and the crews of a sailboat and National Guard helicopter during what became known as "the perfect storm" in 1991. -- Michael Martz
Ellie
Thursday, Dec 13, 2007 - 12:08 AM
NEWPORT NEWS
The Zuni "was built to tow anything that floats," said Harry A. Jaeger, director of operations for the Zuni Maritime Foundation Inc., which owns the Zuni-Tamaroa.
Jaeger, 71, a retired engineer who lives in Henrico County, served as a diesel engineman on two of the Zuni-Tamaroa's sister ships, the Quapaw and the Takilma.
Of the 67 ships built in that class, four were sunk in military action and fewer than 10 remain operational -- none in the U.S. except for the Zuni-Tamaroa, he said.
One of the tugs, the USS Seminole, was the first ship sunk in a Japanese attack on Marines at Guadalcanal in World War II. The Zuni took part in the invasion of Iwo Jima, led by the Marines, in early 1945. The ship was beached intentionally to protect a landing craft during the battle. Later, the ship suffered the only two casualties in its history when two sailors were killed by a snapped tow line. The line snarled the propeller and the ship washed onto the beach at Iwo Jima.
The Zuni finished the war in a repair dock, but it had nearly a half-century of sometimes dramatic service in the Coast Guard as the Cutter Tamaroa. It helped rescue the survivors of the collision that sank that Italian liner Andrea Doria off Long Island Sound in 1956, and the crews of a sailboat and National Guard helicopter during what became known as "the perfect storm" in 1991. -- Michael Martz
Ellie